by Danny Harvey | Director
Summer Theatre Season 2011 | Rose Theatre Brampton
The first day of rehearsal is an interesting time. I always liken it to the first day of school. There are some actors you know, and who know each other and they catch up on what they have done since they last saw each other. Many actors discuss mutual friends and old friends tend to pick up where they left off. Then there are the actors who are new to the company or haven’t worked with anyone else in the room, they are usually more quiet and mostly observe. Its an interesting thing to watch someone whose job it is to be an extrovert be introverted and shy. If I want to push my school metaphor as a director I should fit in as the theatrical equivalent of the role of teacher, but I was always more comfortable as a class clown. As everyone arrives its generally very social and boisterous these creative people are very excited. I’m always a little nervous, a little anxiety keeps the work fresh and interesting. I like it.

As a cast and crew we all settle around the table and then do a design presentation where our resident set designer Vaughn Davis comes in and talks through the set design to give everyone an idea of the space we work in. Design presentation is followed by introductions where the actors say their names and who they are playing. We discuss concept for the show, working styles, do a little paper work then the excitement really begins...

Directing a musical is an incredible job. All the steps leading up the first day, reading scripts, ordering the performance rights, hiring our music director (Rosalind Mills) and choreographer(M.J. Shaw) hundreds of auditions, callbacks, endless negotiating with agents, budgeting etc… The first read… well the first read is where I finally get to hear what this show is going to become. I must say; I am ridiculously excited. Cabaret is in my opinion a perfect show, for those who love a good story with a lot of emotion and highs and lows…we have you covered, for those of you who love big production numbers and song and dance… we have that too.

Cabaret is a masterpiece of theatre. The coolest part of my job is just beginning. Creating this world and telling this story is overwhelming at times, How do I correctly convey the emotion to our audience, how do I keep the patrons engaged? how do we get all these set pieces on and off? How do I push the envelope of risqué and not end up appearing crass? These plus a thousand more questions are what I will be asked by my cast, artistic team crew and myself.

The weight of responsibility is shared by all of us, a group of strangers becoming a creative family for the next 5 weeks or so. We get to take some words off a page and breathe life into it. We create music, visual poetry that exists only for an instant on the stage. Live theatre has that magic to it. A unique experience that only a few of us get to have. Even in long runs of shows, night after night no two moments are completely identical… that is what keeps bringing me back .

As the first day of rehearsal closes as usual my mantra is…”I hope I don’t screw this up”