I don’t have any dream roles, but I have dream shows, and The Light in the Piazza is one of them. It has a beautiful score written by Adam Guettel. If you come across a copy of the performance at the Beaumont at the Lincoln Center Theater (I think CBS produced it), watch it.

(Trivia: Adam Guettel is the son of Mary Rodgers, and is the grandson of Richard Rodgers of Rodgers & Hammerstein. His mentor was family friend Stephen Sondheim.)

I’m through accepting limits
‘cause someone says they’re so.
Some things I cannot change,
but ‘til I try, I’ll never know.

Ketsana/Ondoy, September 30th. In the wake of having one of our shows cancelled because of typhoon Ketsana/Ondoy, some of us volunteered for a couple days at La Salle Zobel to help pack stuff they were gonna send out to the victims. Look at these gems of photos I found!

Who knew puzzles needed to be sharpened?

And a box of women’s toes??? I gotta get me some of that!

As soon as we finished watching Pirate-related movies and reading through the script for weeks, we started free-blocking the show in a rehearsal hall.

Free blocking means that the actors determine how and when they’re going to move (block) themselves throughout the entire show. Unless the director (Michael, in this case) specifically states where the characters should start or end up in a scene, these movements remain the character’s/actor’s prerogative, taking the cue from progressions in events or emotions in a scene. For a script like Treasure Island, which had specific movements in it, we took direction from written directives, employed some free blocking, and followed Michael’s vision of the scenes.

The pictures below were taken on July 30th, a couple weeks into the rehearsal process. We were going through the scene in the Admiral Benbow Inn, where Billy Bones hands Jim Hawkins the map and Black Dog, Pew, and their henchmen storm in shortly after.

(Top: Preliminary blocking. Billy Bones hands Jim Hawkins the map of Skeleton Island. John, who plays Pew, waits in the background with Paolo (Black Dog) for their cue. Middle: Our director, Michael, gives Joey (Billy Bones) some tips for his character’s death scene. Bottom: Final blocking. The people in the inn talk about Skeleton Island, while the actors who play Pew, Black Dog, and their henchmen lurk outside.)