Heather-Claire Nortey
September 28, 2007

Bringing It All Together

The students from the University of Ottawa have now been in rehearsal with The Man from the Capital cast for some time now. It is remarkable to see how the show has progressed. Last Thursday, September 20, I returned to rehearsal around 4:30pm to work on the scene in which I have some dialogue (when I am not performing this will be Anthony or David). After blocking the scene and going for my costume fitting, I ran the first part of Act 2 with the cast. Remember, the main cast has been in rehearsal for about two weeks now every day, but this was my first run with them. It felt good to be able to jump in and be part of the activity. Every day we come to rehearsal, we can see just how much has been accomplished in our absence.

Last Sunday, September 23rd, we performed a full run-through for the designers. It was an opportunity to see how much we have accomplished and how much more we have to do to improve the show. Designers took notes on lighting changes and costume requirements. The costumes for this show are amazing. In one fitting I tried on many different outfits, shoes, hats… I now have a visual in my head of what the townsfolk in the show will look like. I have seen pictures of how people dressed in the 1930s and I have been working on characters in rehearsal, but when trying on the different costumes I felt like I was actually one of them.

Yesterday morning, Thursday, September 27^th, we worked on two choreographies. The first one was for a song called “Dear Citizens”. It was such a joy to be able to dance and sing on stage with the whole cast. I felt the spark that comes from performing and now I just can’t wait to get on the actual stage in the new theatre and start to do full runs of the show with costume changes. This is the kind of show that has many technical requirements. There are many costume changes, large props, and many other things. I am glad that I am involved in the process and I am learning so much from the director, musical director, choreographer, and the other performers. We will be starting tech week soon and things may get intense, but it’s all part of the wonderful learning experience.