My most recent Milford Cabinet Article

The Rehearsal Process
By Janine Leffler





Now comes the grueling part… the rehearsals. It’s time to develop each character and blend them together with other characters in the production while intertwining the props and costumes. The rehearsal process definitely has its challenges, but the biggest reward for any group of actors is putting on an entertaining performance for an audience.

Rehearsals begin the minute the play is cast and go until the final week before the production. The actors spend the first week of rehearsals getting to know their characters and seeing how their characters relate to other characters in the production. Early on, they have their scripts in hand and have a prompter there to assist when they forget their lines. A lot of time is spent by the actors perfecting their characters; part of this process involves memorizing their lines.

Most of the actors I talked to in the Milford Area Players fall main stage production of Larry Schue’s The Foreigner usually practice their lines at home on their own time. One method that Dave Kulvette who plays Charlie Baker finds it to be helpful is to make cds of his lines so he can study them in the car on his commute to work. Kristen Lawson who plays Catherine Simms finds it helpful when her husband goes over her lines with her so that way she knows at what point in the script to come in. When it comes to character development one common challenge seems to be development of an accent. Once the character is more developed and the actor is more used to the character’s mannerisms, the accent almost becomes second nature.
A rehearsal typically lasts about three hours and usually consists of fine tuning a particular scene in a play and working on blocking. Blocking is a term which refers to the movement and positioning of actors on a stage during a play. When asked about blocking Tom Partridge said “It is important to see how everything fits together and where people fit on the stage. You want to make things look. natural.” After certain about of time the actors have to be off book which means they have to have their lines memorized and are not allowed to refer to their script during the course of a rehearsal. Throughout various parts of the process props are integrated into the rehearsal and costumes are usually integrated close to the end of the process. Director Tom Partridge said ““Props come in at various times, depending on when needed or available; costumes usually do not come into use until the last couple of weeks before the play depending on the play itself.”

The members of the cast and director Tom Partridge are in agreement that the show is coming along well. All members of the cast are looking forward to entertaining audiences.
Be sure to mark your calendars for October 16th-25th at the Amato Center for the Performing Arts at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Souhegan Valley in Milford. Showtimes are 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 2pm on Sundays. Tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for students and seniors. Stay tuned next time for a review of The Foreigner.