First Day of Rehearsals!!!!

So today was big and exciting. I started rehearsal for Katrina: The K Word today! For the next 5 days I'll be in rehearsal from 10-5! Whew grueling work, eh? Actually its really fun. We did a read through of the play with the entire cast in the morning and went over the stage, music, and costume designs with all of the designers for the show. I can't wait for everything to come together because as amazing as it all looks and sounds on paper, I bet it'll be phenomenal on the stage. Some of the images Lee Keenan, our lighting designer put up to show us were stunning. There was an image of a refrigerator in a tree! There were so many sad photographs but they had power to them. Apparently there is going to be a jazz band set up at the back of the stage in the beginning of the show, and the instruments are going to fly out. The design concept is pretty extraordinary. The music samples Misha, played for us were great. He wants to have instruments sort of disappear as people disappear in the show. He even played a track for us that was the sound of water being used to create a beat. We get to design our own costumes which is surprisingly quite the challenge. We had to bring anything from home that we think would work for our characters and what we didn't mind having distressed. I have quite the attachment to most of my clothes, so it'll be hard to choose what to use. Luckily we each will be given $20 dollars to go to thrift stores and find things. My character is a teacher with a Jewish mother so it will be interesting to see what I end up with.

Most of the cast went to Subway for lunch and we had a good time talking about "Glee" (best show ever!), Kate Winslet (my all time favorite actress), and some other shows. It was a good bonding experience. After lunch we worked on our General Southern Dialect with the Audra, the dialect coach. A Southern dialect isn't as easy as it sounds. Yeah, there are a bunch of things that are simple to say with a Southern twang, but there are a few things that are surprisingly difficult. We worked on it together and it was pretty hilarious at times. After a short break, we started watching some of the 5 hour long Spike Lee documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. It was so powerfully moving, I almost cried several times. Saying certain things in character is one thing, but a lot of the images we describe were hard to imagine because they were so horrible. This documentary made everything real for me. Now I can own what I say as my character in way. Watching that documentary made me so angry! I cannot believe America allowed this tragedy to happen. So many people died unnecessarily. I'm really glad I get to be in this show so that I can spread the word about the truth of Katrina to people.

Everyone in the cast seems really nice. There are 12 of us, 6 girls and 6 guys. I already knew most of the people who are involved but there are a few new faces who are only theatre minors or not even in the department. I think this week of work is going to bring us together. This performance is an ensemble piece so I think its important for all of us to have a strong connection. There is no main character. We are all very important to the story. I can't wait to see what happens as the show progresses. Tonight, Lia, one of my fellow cast mates, hung out with me and we watched Bride and Prejudice. She loved it! We had a good time and we talked a bunch. She lives in the apartment building right next to my dorm, so I have someone to walk to and from rehearsals with! Tomorrow I think we are going to have a cast bonding night of some sort. I'll keep you posted. I'm going to try to post everyday if not every other day, but we'll see what happens. Now I must be off to bed. I need my rest so I can get up bright and early for rehearsal tomorrow. We are going to work on movement and dialect and watch some more of the documentary! Good night!