Life in the Wings – An actor’s view from offstage

Hey there fans of Metropolis. My name is Kent, I play Cinderella’s Father and I am sitting backstage during spacing rehearsal for Into the Woods.

A spacing rehearsal is quite a tiring, trying, labor intense, but very necessary, part of the rehearsal process. For the past month our huge cast and production team have been squeezed into a rehearsal room (with stairs, ramps, and platforms labeled with colored tape on the floor), while the mainstage has been used for other amazing productions here at MPAC. Now we move Into the Woods into the theater, which has not only more space to move about in, but also levels. Lots and lots of levels. Soon Rapunzel’s tower, several trees and other stage decorations will be added. It’s quite an exciting week, both onstage and off!

Now 9 times out of 10 the staging done in the rehearsal room works on the stage as planned, with a minimal amount of “tweaking” needed. It’s that 10th time however that challenges us all (especially our production team); having to restage the actors onstage, run it, run it, run it again, making additional changes if necessary before moving on. Those of us not onstage at the time, in turn, have to wait…

and wait…

and wait…

Got to run! It’s my scene coming up…

(Drops iPad, picks up a prop, and gallops onto the stage)