Maverick

Last I check we had exactly 14 days before we were going to have to perform these things—which likely means that there are less than 14 days now—wait for it—ah yes, 12 days. Sweet.

Right. So if you haven’t connected the tangential writing style to a face or name, I’m Sarah McKenney, writer of “Maverick,” which is to be directed by the talented, funny, and freakishly tall Andrew Atkinson. This play has gone through quite a bit since its dark (and comedic!) conception in my comedic (and dark!) grey brain matter. But I have to say, I’m quite delighted at the point to which it has come.

I may even go as far to say that I’m super stoked. Yes, yes that’s about where it is. Super stoked.

I believe my exact words to Andy during auditions were “I’d be the happiest writer in the world if you choose X-cast!” And lo and behold! X-cast we have! Of course there are some drawbacks to having our very talented, delightfully hilarious, and darkly dramatic cast. Mainly in the fact that four out of eight of them had their talents also recognized by other one-act directors leading to interesting conflicts in shared rehearsal time. But we have thus far been able to work around it scheduling wise. The directors are all good at sharing. And in an impressive feat by said actors, they have managed to juggle their own schedules to account for the back to back rehearsals, characterization trials, and memorization of lines. Good show to you all on that, by the way.

So some of the things we’ve been working on during rehearsals (besides lines and blocking and styles—oh my!) are some special fight sequences that take place during a particularly tense part of the play. Thankfully, Andy and Alex Johnston (director of “Behind Bars”) worked all last summer beating each other up with tire irons on hot concrete—so they had a lot of wisdom and experience to bestow on our actors.

Now, without further ado, here’s a short clip to whet your pallet on how those fight rehearsals are going. This is a clip of the first day of fight lessons, which thankfully took place on the soft soft grass.