Last Person - Being a Student Director

Hi there everyone,

This week has been a significantly slower week with respect to rehearsals. I had to cancel/adjust Wednesday's rehearsal because of a work opportunity that came up. When looking at the schedule to plan for the following week, I realized that I needed to make further adjustments in order to finish blocking, section working, and have our first run-through with stops. The plan that I came up with made me feel significantly more comfortable with where we are in this process.

This week we only have two rehearsals, then next week we have a minimum of three before tech weekend. This was incredibly helpful for me because I am still a student at OSU - as are most of the actors. I have two midterms this week and only four weeks left of my undergraduate degree - which meant I needed to prioritize studying a bit this week to help me finish strong. It was/is also the opening weekend for Sense & Sensibility, the Spring Main-Stage Show where I play Elinor Dashwood (Follow this link for TICKETS). So, prioritizing is what I did! But I made sure the schedule reflected what still needed to be done in the following week. 

Today, I will introduce section 9 to two of my actors. This is a strategically placed moment filled with a lot of specific movements that I planned out to help tell Rachel's story to the best of my ability as the director. Phew. Because this is such a pivotal and complicated moment, I am glad that I am taking today to work through it with only two actors, then I will add the remaining actors need week and clean it up a bit - hopefully. 

Thankfully, the actors I am working with have made these adjustments seamless so far. They have pushed themselves every day to try new things which continues to surprise me in the best ways. They make choices that force me to cock my head to the side and layer three more ideas on top of theirs to make the play the best it can be. They are prioritizing this play even though they have other things on their minds, which inspires me even more.

I want this play to be one of my only priorities, but sometimes other things get in the way. Having people around me attempt to meet me halfway, makes a huge difference, and inspires me to keep pushing as we get deeper into the process, and continue to make my way to graduation.

Stay tuned,

- Lindsey Esch