{"id":8983,"date":"2021-04-28T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8983"},"modified":"2021-06-23T08:11:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T12:11:59","slug":"page-to-stage-the-table-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8983","title":{"rendered":"Page to Stage: The Table Read"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Washington DC\u2019s Theatre J<\/a> has a new Zoom course on the play rehearsal process, led by the theater\u2019s artistic director Adam Immerwahr (pictured). If you, like me, have wondered how a creative team goes from black type on white paper to vibrant, full-color theater\u2014full of action, song, and emotion\u2014in just three to four weeks, this class is a brilliant idea. Helping Immerwahr are popular husband-wife actors Cody Nickell and Kate Eastwood Norris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The class began with a session on the table read, when the director and all the actors get together to go through the script\u2014\u201cthe first time the words are shared,\u201d as Norris described it. If you were cast in a play, at the table read you might find you know some of the actors well, and some\u2014say, the person playing your mother, or your lover\u2014may be complete strangers. At the table read, you also may have a chance to see mockups of the set and the costumer\u2019s ideas, a sort of tangible creation of a new reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table read also suggests how the other actors work, their process. A few may come to the table with all their lines learned, \u201coff book,\u201d as they say; others will still rely on the printed text. Norris said she may have ideas about how a character should present herself, but since each character should be shaped by what the other actors do, she tries \u201cto be respectful of other people\u2019s choices\u201d or, as Nickell said,  \u201cto stay as open as possible to the room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this course, the play we\u2019re walking through is Neil Simon\u2019s 1969 comedy, Last of the Red Hot Lovers<\/em>. If you\u2019ve seen this play (or movie), you\u2019ll recall it involves a nebbishy middle-aged husband who decides to spice up his life with an affair. Trying out his powers of seduction with three different women (in three acts) proves disastrous in each case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immerwahr\u2019s pre-rehearsal pep talk gently guided the actors toward his ultimate vision. If you remember this play, you won\u2019t be surprised that Immerwahr admitted up front that the play has challenges. Not only is there some racist language in act two, but it\u2019s misogynistic and might have trouble being appreciated by \u201cMe, too\u201d audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immerwahr\u2019s strategy for lessening the negative stereotypes of the women characters\u2014the sexpot, the crazy lady, the moralist\u2014is to have one actor play all three. This not only suggests different sides of the same person, but opens the possibility there are many others. In other words, \u201cwomen have many sides; we\u2019re showing you three.\u201d Like a sphere, a well-rounded person may have an infinite number of \u201csides.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further held open the possibility that at the end of this fictional production, in the scene with the man\u2019s wife, she too be might played by the same actress, as if \u201che was looking for his wife all along.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finessing the racism also will be tricky, and Immerwahr advises staying in the era of the play, avoiding intonations and mannerisms of 2021. Evoking the world of fifty years ago \u201cwill be our friend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington DC\u2019s Theatre J has a new Zoom course on the play rehearsal process, led by the theater\u2019s artistic director Adam Immerwahr (pictured). If you, like me, have wondered how a creative team goes from black type on white paper … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Page to Stage: The Table Read - How theater magic starts. (Or, \"how sausage is made: theater edition\")","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[269,104,147],"tags":[747,1853],"class_list":["post-8983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actor","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-adam-immerwahr","tag-theatre-j"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2kT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8985,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8983\/revisions\/8985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}