The Beginning: The Two Minds of Mr. Coffan

This week entailed one of my favorite parts of the rehearsal - the first glance at the script. Often times, the designers, stage manager or actor has a chance to look through their script prior to the first meeting but there is something special about when we all come together for the very first read-through. 

Personally, I am a lover of food and what it does to bring people together and so when I experienced my first read-through with Liz, our professor for the course, I understood how you can begin the process with a sense of friendship and community before the "hard" part begins. After tasting (figuratively in this sense but also literally, Liz is a wonderful cook) what this does for a cast, I decided to copy the practice. We met in the green room snacks in one hand and scripts in the other to get the first encounter with the script as a whole. Naturally, the process started with a few introductions, brief presentations of the concepts, and an overview of expectations. Then, after filling our plates with more snacks, we got into the script. It is so refreshing after reading the script countless times to hear firmly the voices of the people portraying the characters that have been in your head for so long. I feel as though I finally have a foundation to build upon and I love the sense of possibility that comes from this first rehearsal because it's true, anything can happen from this point on. 

In this instance in particular, I loved the reactions to the script. Although some had read it, it's always different hearing it out loud. Once, we condluded the reading it was all praise for dear Hannah (which she completely deserved). It's refreshing to be able to thank your playwright for giving you a world to play in and this normally doesn't happen. After this experience, I hope to be apart of more moments like this. 

Now, for blocking! 

Sedona