Tears at rehearsal

We begin our third week of rehearsals this afternoon, and everything is going swimmingly. The play is blocked, all of the roles are filled, and the work is coming along apace. The actors are making interesting choices, taking risks, and diving into creating indelible characters. So far, we’ve had both laughter and tears during rehearsal – portents of future excellence. Working out the nunnery scene with Hamlet and Ophelia last week had both me and DeeDee, the production coordinator, in tears, but then the actors broke off in the middle of the scene because, they said, they “weren’t feeling it.” We said, who cares if you’re not feeling it? We’re feeling it. DeeDee and I believe that they stopped because they were too close to something rippingly painful. It was beautiful and terrible. That’s the thing with Hamlet, I think. In order to do it justice, the actors have to go to some dark and painful places. It was the same with Macbeth two years ago. Luckily, there's plenty of humor in the play to offset the more intense scenes. Good on you, Shakespeare.