Off we go.

So we started rehearsals for Shrew last night. All in all, it went pretty well. I was rather dreading the whole meet and greet part of it, and sure enough, it was AWKWARD. I have welcomed and introduced 17 productions at ASP, and to just sit there while others did it was a bum out. Plus, all the higher ups in the company, staff and board, who are responsible for my current situation, were sheepish and weird, and I was not about to make it easier for them.

Once we got started, things improved, thank god. The reading was fun and exciting. But, it's a strange play. Reading aloud those later scenes where Petruchio keeps saying, "Say what I tell you to say, or you don't get fed", it's hard to see how we are going to find that larger theme of the value of compromise in civilized life and not the "oh my god this play is so mean to women" feeling.

But, Melia has great idea for the frame - we're doing the induction, and there's going to be a crazy, CRAZY meta-theatrical twist to the whole evening - with actors playing characters playing actors playing characters playing characters! And Jason has done a great job on the space. It's a new and really organic use of the Basement, and will make for a very dynamic evening. And with Sarah Hickler and Rob Najarian both there working on movement, we have high hopes for the physical comedy and slapstick to be intense.

As long as I can steer clear of most of the stuff that comes in from outside the rehearsal hall, I should be okay.