Starting last month I joined Sorsha Anderson by helping with her production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the afterschool program with Main Street Middle School. My title is assistant director. So far I have been sitting in on Sunday rehearsals, learning from watching Sorsha direct. I’ve stepped in to read if a kid isn’t there, I’ve stepped in to take blocking notes when Noah can’t, and I’ve coached and helped block a bit. On Sunday I choreographed a scene myself, the lovers fight scene. Going into it I knew that I could try my best to plan the movement ahead of time, but because I am not the four actors I cannot know how they naturally move and what they will be comfortable with. This scene is very physical and requires dynamic movement to help tell the story. So I wanted to do my best to help the kids figure out the movement that fits their characters in the moment. This is not my first time directing but I am still very new to it. I was worried before that the movement I came up with would not feel natural for the kids and wouldn’t look good. It turned out that they had fun with it. It’s hard to tell how well it will work because they are still heavily reliant on their scripts but I’m happy with how the rehearsal went. I will also be collaborating with Zak who is making music for the fairies. I will be choreographing for that music. This project is still underway. The performance is in December. So, right now it’s working out, I think this is because the people I am working with makes the environment easy and comfortable to work in. However, I do not have much more to reflect on because I haven’t done too much doing yet. I plan to talk to Sorsha more about the craft of directing. And will see how running the scene I staged goes next week, hopefully getting feedback from Sorsha. As far as directing goes, I will be assistant director for Stage 16 this winter and I have a gig to be assistant choreographer at Northern Stage with Eric Love in February (choreography is not the same as directing, but in a situation where I’m choreographing for others, it involves more directing skills so I consider it, in this context, to be both).
Notes from my script for the Lover's fight scene
My brother, Matthew, practicing his lines for the character Flute