[Black Dog costume rendering by Brennan West.]

Saturday's vocal rehearsal was a lot of fun. As I told the cast, ALL backstage conversations will be spoken in a Standard British dialect beginning with our first round of working rehearsals February 22. This will insure that our cast will speak as authentically as possible from the stage.

Oh yeah...cast and crew...let's go see THE SHAPE OF THINGS at Furman February 13. It sounds like it will be really great:

"How far would you go for love? For art? What concessions would you make? What price would you be willing to pay? Such are the painful questions explored by Neil LaBute in ... THE SHAPE OF THINGS - a modern day retelling of the fall of man. After a chance meeting in a museum, Evelyn, a sexy, aggressive artist, and Adam, a shy, insecure student, become embroiled in an intense affair. Before long, it veers into the kind of dangerous, seductive territory that LaBute does best, as Adam, under Evelyn's steady influence, goes to unimaginable lengths to improve his appearance and character. Only in the final and shocking exhibition, which challenges our most deeply entrenched ideas about art and love, does Evelyn reveal her true intentions."

What do you think?

Rehearsal today was a blast.

We blocked the scene where Black Dog (KELLIE WARTH) shows up at the Admiral Benbow Inn and gets in a fight with Billy Bones (ALLISON TURZA).

I'm not a big fan of blocking...the working out of where actors go on the stage. I like working rehearsals, polishing rehearsals, even technical rehearsals more. But this afternoon/evening it was fun--especially working out the knife fight with Kellie and Allison.

Both women understand the big idea...believe. If our entire cast believes that these things are really happening, this play is really going to be good.

And tonight, it was.

[There's a real Hispaniola docked in the theatre district of London.]

Our cast is working out because theatre is a primarily physical endeavor--not unlike a sport.

Somewhere, along the way, the theatre turned into something lazy, something lifeless, something still.

TREASURE ISLAND will be the fastest paced play ever performed at J.L. Mann. It simply will not be boring or slow or dull. At all.

So we run. And stretch. And play.

[Robert Louis Stevenson sketch at right]

So it's JAY BRIDGEMAN filling the pre-teen shoes of TREASURE ISLAND's Jim Hawkins. I've enjoyed Jay in my Advanced Drama class since the beginning of the year. I love his offbeat sense of humor--always respectful--and respect his skills as an actor. I'm concerned that he will seem too old for Jim, but that's why we have rehearsals (and costumes!). I want people to leave the play having believed that Jay was much younger than he actually is.

TOMMY GREER as Long John Silver. A terrific role to walk away from high school having played. Long John is not your average, blood-and-guts pirate. He's complicated...you're drawn to him and repelled. That's hard to do, but Tommy has proven again and again that he has the chops for "big boy" roles. He's going to be terrific.

MICHAEL REALMUTO as Doctor Livesay. Michael is one the very best actors at J.L. Mann. He's subtle, thoughtful, totally believable...not to mention an amazingly creative visual artist. We're lucky to have him (and his talented sister Casey, who will be in the light/sound booth during the show).

SEBASTIAN GRIER as Squire Trelawney. Thank you, Sebastian...for coming in at the very last minute and stealing a prize part in the play. This was the toughest part in the play to cast. You made it easy.

TORY LECLAIR as Captain Smollett. I'm just going to have to shut up about Tory, OK? How many of you don't know that she's my favorite actor...ever. Well, one of them. Seriously though, Tory is the kind of actor Drama teachers hope for every year.

MS. TURZA (our lone J.L. Mann staff member in the show) as Billy Bones. Allison...you had us at "gnawed on their bones."

KNOX WHITE as Supervisor Dance and Ben Gunn. Leave the comic relief to the professionals, I always say. Anyone who saw Knox's callback reading of Gunn knows that it will be a highlight of the show.

Oh, Silver's rough and ready pirate gang--NICOLE SCHMIDT as Tom Morgan, TIMOTHY ALBRITTON, KEVIN GILLESPIE as Harry George Martin, CASEY WILSON as Ben Thompson, SID HALTIWANGER as Dick Jones, JOHN AWADALLA as Job Anderson, and SHANNON LUTTRELL as Israel Hands...they're going to scare the crap out of small children and little old ladies.

Look, I'm excited about everyone in our cast--six freshmen, by the way. Can't wait for the first read-through Saturday morning at ten. We're a long way from the kind of show I want us to create, but...we're off to a great start!

Two things that occur to me during auditions and our initial set building phase.

1. One of the keys to making TREASURE ISLAND work is truthful acting. This means actors must not only look the part, memorize and speak their lines clearly...each actor must believe that what is happening is truly happening, and that the consequences (re: stakes) for each is great...desperate...life and death. Even now, within the audition process, actors who bring a sense of truth to their readings stop me cold. (Thusfar, standouts in this respect include Tommy Greer, Shannon Luttrell, Catherine Martin, Michael Realmuto, and Nicole Schmidt.)

2. Our set will be remarkable. Seriously guys...they've never seen a set like this at J.L. Mann. They key, I think, is the way we will bridge that chasm between stage and audience by constructing a massive thrust addition...a ship's hull and deck. There is a considerable architectural problem with our stage (and most other proscenium-style school auditorium stages). There is a fifteen to twenty foot gap between stage and front row of audience seating. This is an daunting expanse for actors to overcome. It has hampered any production that has ever taken plan in this auditorium. But it will not hamper ours.

Incredible to think that by this Thursday our play will be cast and the stage addition will be completed. Wow. Can't wait!