The week after every NDW show I feel lost. I have to get back to my regular day to day life after a week of spending several hours with the coolest kids around. In the fall I can look ahead less than two months to the start of the next show, but in the spring I have to wait more than 5 months before Natick Drama Workshop starts back up.

Sure, there are pluses to the program ending for the year: sleeping in on Saturdays, more free time to hang out with friends, do homework, run errands and do laundry, but my excuse to get up and go to the gym before rehearsal has disappeared.

There’s something so magical about NDW that makes this transition to normalcy that much harder. It’s the same magic that brings alumni back at 9am on Saturday mornings and it’s the same magic that makes NDW one big (usually) happy family. You could say it’s the magic of theater, because that exists, too, but our magic is different – it’s special. And I’m going to miss that. This weekend, I’m playing a role in a murder mystery and I have to start seriously thinking about the play I’m directing this summer, but none of that will be the same as the magically energy I find at NDW each week.

In community theater people come and go. Sure, there are always those hard-core members that stick around and pop up in every show or can always be found backstage or selling concessions, but it’s rare to find a program like Natick Drama Workshop where people want to come back and help. And it’s not just the kids – it’s the parents, too. Not to mention all the other volunteers that we’ve had over the years. And even more than that, it’s the way everyone works together, almost seamlessly at this point, to make the show happen and the program run.

So, in an attempt to keep the magic going a little longer, here are my Top 10 Robin Hood moments:

10) Pegasus with the 8^th graders (lots of little moments here, some are tied to #3)
9) Giving Jacob Clerico and Connor their quarterstaff fight blocking – they rocked it!
8) Deciding that Robin Hood would definitely be the next show (I may have jumped for joy and/or squealed)
7) Salome laughs like a hyena for the first time(last show we made Maggie cry, this show we made her laugh)
6) Connor makes Friar Tuck funny (Act 2, 1 – ‘nuff said)
5) Jacob Rosen hams it up as the Sheriff of Nottingham (there was a moment when you just knew that he wasn’t going to hold back at all)
4) The first time I saw the set on stage with all the 3-dimensional trees and the window that no one has to hold
3) Legally Blonde (that’s actually several moments wrapped into one…)
2) Saturday Night’s performance (thank you Walnut Hill and alumni)
1) Opening Night

There were so many great things that happened during rehearsals and the shows and backstage that 10 probably isn’t enough, so maybe everyone can leave a comment – what was your favorite Robin Hood moment? I would love to know.

To all the 8^th graders – You are all awesome and amazing and I count myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work with you, and hopefully, to teach you something. You will all be missed, and it’s going to be weird, come September, to do a show without you. Please come back and help, or at least visit! Good luck with the rest of your school year and I wish you all the best of luck in high school. Say hi to Ms. Hag and Miss Billett for me and don’t let Mrs. Hopewell stop your singing. Oh yeah, and if you ever need help with Shakespeare or Algebra, I’m here for you.

To the rest of the cast – I can’t wait to see you next year. These next few months without you will be sad, but I look forward to seeing all your sunny faces at auditions for our next show in September. (And no, even if I knew what the show was I wouldn’t tell you.) Have a wonderful summer!

To the parents – Thank you for all your help. I’d like to think that we could do a show without you, but I think I’d go slightly more insane as a result of trying. Your kids are awesome, as are you.

To the Friends of NDW Board – Thank you for your support and organization. At this point I’d like to ditto my statement to the parents.

And finally, to the rest of the professional staff – I love our team! Thank you and I’m sure I’ll talk to you soon.

Before I go for the summer I just wanted to make sure you all know that Sam, our musical director, will not be returning next year. I don’t know how many people got this message and I hate to announce it like this, but I do think it’s important that you all know. So a big thank you to Sam for helping our cast sound great on all their songs – you will be missed.

-Debbi

Well, I took the boys and our Deputy and Constable into one of the back rooms and went over the new fight. I told the Sheriff to do what he does in the other fight and just go around the stage. Then I started placing everyone else (except for Friar Tuck). Then I looked at my notes and I realized that I totally told them all the wrong thing! This was definitely an “adults make mistakes, too” moment. So then I started over and got back on track. Phew!

So, as if I’m not making it complicated enough already, everyone switches fighting partners at some point during the sequence. Well, we get through that and then we had to work the dialogue in. Thank goodness for Connor (Friar Tuck). He may have been standing around watching the fight, rather than participating, but he sure came to my rescue! So Connor read all the dialogue while I monitored the 3-6 fights going on in front of me. Zounds! (In case you’re wondering, “Zounds” means “By God’s wounds” – it is the short version, like “Wassup” and Shakespeare favored this word over the phrase.)

So we all went back to the gym after running the sequence a few times, and wouldn’t you know it? We got there just in time for Friar Tuck’s entrance, which is right before Robin, Will and Little John enter. So then, we went right into the fight scene and tried to catch up the girls quickly. This part took a few more minutes. Luckily, Connor told Megan (Maid Marian) when to say her line, which starts all the dialogue, because I forgot to convey that extremely important piece of information. (I was clearly on a roll.)

Well, despite my mistakes, they all did a great job. While going over the fight with the girls and cleaning a couple things up, Jacob C. (Robin Hood) asked if he could change the first part of the fight a bit. So, right before the fight, Robin, Will and Little John climb through the window on a rope that’s tied to Friar Tuck. The first part of the fight is Robin pulling the rope up to trip up the bad guys. Jacob asked if he could pull Friar Tuck since the rope is still attached to him. I figured, what’s the worst that can happen? So we changed it, Cindy laughed and the fight is now a success. And only slightly because of me.

Next week we still have lots to get done, but we are definitely on our way. And I can hardly contain my excitement over tech week next week. This week is going to be soooo long!

The only thing that I’m worried about is the dialogue. We had to do a lot of line throughs with the kids this week. A play without words is like a mime act, or a bunch of people standing around looking at each other. I don’t do mime acts, nor do I want our actors standing around on stage looking at each other – so learn your lines. No excuses!

We also performed at Parents Night Out this weekend. Although I was unable to be there, I’m sure our actors did a wonderful job promoting the show for us!

Our kids also got to spend more time in their mentor groups this week. Normally, we’re too busy to formally have everyone sit down and chat with their groups, but this week we gave the kids a significant amount of time in which to do this. These mentor groups are great. They really help to foster a sense of family and community – something that has made this particular program so wonderful over the years. Each group is led by 2 eighth graders and includes kids from each grade. Ideally, this helps the new kids make friends and get comfortable with the program, while providing all the kids with a safe place to turn if there is a problem. We actually asked the kids to discuss, in their groups, if they were having any problems with anything at NDW and if there were any problems, they were taken care of by the other kids because no one came to Cindy or me when we asked.

We also had the groups talk about their inspirations. Not all the groups spent a great deal of time on this topic, but it’s important that we remind each other of the people and things in our lives that are important and start us on the path we are on. For me, this was very personal this week, as one quarter of my first inspiration for doing theater passed away. I’m glad that good conversation and positive motivation was able to come out of something that, for me, was extremely sad and painful.

Hopefully, the older kids in our mentor groups have become inspirations throughout the show and the years. I’m sure the 8^th graders have fond memories of the kids that were 8^th graders when they were 5^th graders. For some of our 8^th graders, it is entirely possible that Kay, our assistant stage manager, was their mentor and inspiration. And, in fact, Kay’s 8^th grade year was so big that there were many kids that could have served as inspiration. And in turn, hopefully our current 8^th graders will continue to inspire our current 5^th graders as they move on and up with our program.

Who were my NDW inspirations? Marc Terenzi was definitely one. If you haven’t heard about him yet you should ask any of the kids who have done more than one show with me. There were some older kids whose names have vanished from my memory, but Rachel Hayes may have been one, as well as one of Harvey Leonard’s daughters (yes, the channel 5 weather man). I was also inspired by people my own age in NDW. Cathie Libby, who played Dorothy while suffering from Laryngitis, Debbie Simms, who had the coolest first name ever (despite the spelling), Courtney Jackson, whose younger brothers went through the program after her and Teigan Kelley, who ended up being my class president in high school. And of course, the directors I had were big inspirations, especially Carol Fisher. Our choreographer for a few years was also important because she was only a few years older than us. I was actually in an NDW show with her. I think her name was Merry Carey.

And those are just my NDW inspirations. If I listed everyone that inspired me as an actor and director this blog would be incredibly long. I will say though, that working with Cindy has been an inspiration. Even though NDW was not my first directing job, I still consider this a learning experience and I learn a lot from Cindy every week. Kay is also a current inspiration – she reminds me how important theater can be. It’s like watching NDW through the eyes of someone with a fresh perspective, which is rare and amazing.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also sight our actors as inspiration. Especially the ones who have been with NDW for a while now – watching them grow and come into their own has been a wonderful experience and our kids are the gift (and inspiration) that keeps on giving.

So, with that in mind, don’t disappoint me next week – learn your lines and keep on rocking!

-Debbi

Well, we’re near the end of our rehearsal period. Which means that we are inching towards tech week! There’s still so much to do: scenes to be blocked, dances to be learned… hopefully everyone is holding up their end of the bargain and memorizing all lines and lyrics and everything that’s already been taught.

My favorite part of this week’s rehearsal, which I’m sure will not be a surprise to anyone, was blocking the second fight scene. Last week I got to work the quarterstaff fight with Friar Tuck and Robin Hood. That one is always a lot of fun. This fight, between Robin’s men and the soldiers in Sherwood, is always more difficult because there is so much going on at once. So this fight makes me nervous. It is very hard to time out if 4 different fights can all end at around the same time from your bedroom when it’s just you and some imaginary swords. (If there were a hidden camera in my room I’m sure that me blocking these fights would be the latest video to go viral – “Crazy schizophrenic fights off imaginary foes.”) So anyways… actually teaching the actors the fights is its own challenge because everything has to come out of your head and still make sense. Luckily, this worked out and I am particularly proud of the fight between Little John and Kaspar. Garrett (LJ) is either the tallest or second tallest actor in our cast and Ben S. (Kaspar) is one of the shortest! I make Ben crawl between Garrett’s legs – it’s my favorite moment of the show already! And if that’s not the highlight, the Sheriff running around the stage and fighting air will be. I told Jacob R. (the Sheriff) to wander all around the stage and just not get in the way of any of the blocked fights. He does his own thing and he does it brilliantly.

However, the more we do this scene, the more I think that Robin Hood is a jerk. I mean, he has all his men fighting his battles for him and doesn’t appear until it’s all over – yet he’s the hero. Huh? How does that make any sense? I mean, really – so not cool Robin! But, of course, if I started looking logically at the play, I’d probably find a bunch of things that don’t make sense, so I will stop now.

This week we also taped our last Pegasus segment of the spring. For those that aren’t aware, I go with the 8^th graders to Pegasus, our local public access station, 3 times during the course of our show and they create 2 episodes of television to promote NDW. This group has been particularly fantastic. Some wrote scripts for our show, and all got really into the whole behind-the-scenes process of making a tv show. It’s a lot of fun and we all learn a lot. I can’t wait to see the final product!

NDW is such an awesome program, with so many awesome kids – even though I cannot wait for tech week, I’m also wishing it were further away. The summer is such a long time to go without any NDW!

So I will put in a personal plug about the theater I do outside of NDW. I have been lucky enough to work with a community theater group in Medfield, the Gazebo Players. Our big thing is Shakespeare in the Park every summer and I am thrilled to be directing Antony & Cleopatra this summer. The shows will be July 28&29 in Medfield at the Gazebo (duh), which is right next to the Library and Aug 4&5 in Walpole at Bird Park (not far from the Walpole Mall). Two years ago I was in the summer Shakespeare and 4 NDW alumni came to see the show. A couple were really confused about the plot (it is Shakespeare after all), but all 4 had a good time watching the show. So, when you are going through NDW withdrawal come see me! And if you can’t wait that long (I know I can’t) we’re also having a fundraiser at the Medfield Library on March 31^st (one week after our show). It’s a murder mystery and I will be playing Anne Shirley (as in Green Gables). I’d love to see you all there!

And, if you don’t want to trek out to Medfield, which Kay refers to as the middle of nowhere, there are plenty of opportunities right here in Natick. And I know many of our kids do plays with Weston Drama Workshop over the summer (they claim to be older than NDW – they’re not).

Before I get too ahead of myself though – go over your lines – RIGHT NOW!!!!

See you all Saturday!

-Debbi

Robin Hood has some long scenes and the lines are a bit more involved than our typical fairy-tale type show, but we were all still a little shocked that we just barely made it through the first scene before break. What happened? Well, for one, we were all having a little too much fun. We have some 8^th graders that are really good at hamming it up, which is great, except when that prevents those actors from remembering their lines. And when they distract others so much that laughing takes precedence over the play. Arg!

Well, we somehow made it through and gave the actors some new blocking. We also went over some of their songs (which is not easy to do when all you have is me and a boom box).

Cindy and I remembered, after watching that first scene before break, that the last time we did this play, we had to create a whole tech week rehearsal, just for a line through. A few years ago, we were dark on tech week Thursdays (or in non-theater speak, gave Thursdays off), and then our actors kept messing up! So, we had all the 8^th graders (and maybe the 7^th graders?) come to Cole and go through their lines. We sat in a circle and they said all their lines in order, basically speaking the show. We had fun, but more importantly, we saw who really knew their stuff and who still had work to do before opening night, 24 hours in the future. One other similarity? Our Robin Hood was a ham then, too.

I remember a couple years ago when I was in Love’s Labour’s Lost. I didn’t have too many lines (maybe 20?), but I was onstage a lot and had a lot of stuff to do (mostly making fun of the boys who were trying to court me and my friends). I memorized my lines (and some were kinda long) without any problems. And then, during our 5^th (out of 6) show, I forgot a line. I was actually distracted by other things going on on the other side of the stage (making fun of boys takes a lot of energy). I was so distracted I didn’t even realize that I had forgotten a line until my friend said it for me after what was surely a scary pause (had I been aware of what was going on). Let me tell you, the next day, I went over my lines doubly and I was totally aware of what was going on even more than usual because I did not want to forget that line again.

Now, imagine that we’re in the middle of a NDW show and someone forgets a line. It happens. And it shouldn’t be a big deal. That, of course, is assuming that everyone on stage knows what’s going on, whose line is expected and what that line is. That way, if an actor can’t say the forgotten line, it can be cued more easily. This is not what happened at our Saturday rehearsal. And that’s okay, because it was only a rehearsal. But if what happened at rehearsal continues to happen, boy are we going to be in trouble.

In case you’re wondering, I memorize my lines two ways. The first is to memorize just my lines, in order, and nothing else. Then, after I have the actual lines down, I memorize them a second way, with cues. Which also means that my cues lines (delivered by other actors) better be correct, or as close to the actual lines as possible, or I might not know when to say my lines. To go along with this, I say my lines to myself in order whenever I have down time. On my way to work in the morning. On my way to rehearsal. In the shower. I usually don’t have a person to help me or go over lines with me, so when it comes to going over my cues I just have to look at the script, make a lot of mental notes and work with my fellow actors. It can be done.

So, what do I recommend for the following weeks’ rehearsals? Go over your lines constantly. Everyone has homework and extracurricular activities, but there’s always time for some line work. When you’re getting ready in the morning. At lunch with your friends. In your head walking to and from class. For blocking, I recommend miming at home without your script and then double checking after with the script. For songs and choreography you can go through things in your head, but if you put aside at least ½ an hour every couple of nights to put on your CDs and go through the music, you should have it down pat by Saturday. And just because you have everything down perfectly one week doesn’t mean that you’ll have everything down by tech week. This is an ongoing process that needs to be repeated constantly until after our Sunday show. It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun and will save you a lot of pain and embarrassment later on – trust me, I know.

So good luck and see you all on Saturday.

-Debbi

How lucky were we to get the opportunity to rehearse at Wilson before tech week this year? Awesome. Every time we’re there for a show it’s great, but there’s always some confusion: Which loge? Wait, I enter from the aisle? I don’t come on from the loge? Oh – this is the pit! It’s amazing how even our veteran actors have trouble with spacing and blocking when we do a show at Wilson. At Kennedy, there are always similar issues, but there aren’t really loges and the theater is a little more straight-forward. At Wilson – confusion. So hopefully, now that we’ve gone through the first half of Act I in our actual space, there will be less of that come tech week.

Now I went to Wilson from 6^th to 8^th grade and we did not have an auditorium. We had a cafetorium. Yep, that’s right – I’m that old! We had a cafeteria that was separated by a curtain from a space that had a stage and a whole bunch of fold-up chairs. And every time we had a school dance those chairs were folded up and put away. So how great is it that there is an actual auditorium at Wilson now? And that we get to use it? How perfect!

Of course, every auditorium has its fair share of problems, and as we will all see come tech week, Wilson has the somewhat unique problem of not having a stage left. That’s right. If you enter or exit from stage left all you have is a closet that goes nowhere. Our fearless crew builds a tunnel for our kids to use to cross from stage right to left without the audience seeing. This has worked pretty well for all our shows at Wilson, but wouldn’t it be nice if it weren’t an issue? Then, maybe Wilson would be perfect.

The very first show NDW ever did at Wilson was Wonderland. It was my first spring as a professional staff member and my first time stepping foot into the new Wilson. It was an awful experience – as in full of awe. What a beautiful space! Now, our 8^th graders were not too happy with this change of venue. They wanted their 8^th grade show to be at Kennedy, as it always had been (for them, for me it was always at Natick High). They complained and I listened, telling them that Wilson was better, but if it really mattered to them, they should start a petition. Well they did start a petition, and some parents signed it and it got to the staff at the Rec Center and that did not go over so well. This year, I was afraid that our current 8^th graders would do something similar because we didn’t get to be at Kennedy at all. They don’t seem to care. Perhaps it’s because they realize that Wilson is the better space?

Another thing about our first time at Wilson? The projection screen came down – in the middle of our show. In the middle of a musical number. Oy vey! That was not fun. The kids kept going and ever since then there is a little tupperware container that goes over the button as a warning. No repeats! This is definitely one of the funnier stories though, and if you haven’t heard it yet, I suggest you ask Cindy or me. We may have different versions of the story, too.

Wilson also gives me the opportunity to design lights, which is easy enough on the light board we’re provided with, but seems to get harder each year as I want to try something new. But I love a challenge and I love that light board. And the disco ball.

So, after getting to use our actual space this weekend, we have to go back to Cole and hope that the things we did at this rehearsal don’t get lost. I have to say though, Cole is our home and as great as it is rehearsing at Wilson, I’m glad that we get to go back to Cole. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

See you all on Saturday and don’t forget that we’re off-book for Act I this week (so make sure all your lines, lyrics, blocking and dancing is committed to memory).

-Debbi

So what did we do? Somehow we still managed to get quite a lot done. We blocked parts of the first scene (I think everyone was upset that they didn’t get to do the fights), the kids learned most of their remaining music and Lisa was choreographing a song from the first scene.

For some of the time I got to play games with the kids, but then Kay turned into me so I could leave early. As a result, I can’t really write that much about rehearsal this week, so instead, I’m going to talk about where I went after NDW.

I went to see American Idiot in Boston. This is not a musical NDW can do, but I’d still like to talk about this as a piece of musical theater and what our kids could learn from it. First and foremost, these actors push themselves to the limit. I’ve seen enough professionally done musicals to see that many actors have to sing and dance hard at the same time, but this show seemed to go above and beyond that. There was one number where the two actors were flying and singing at the same time. And the flying was really amazing dancing. It was beautiful (and a dream sequence). It was extremely well done and probably took weeks, if not months, of training.

In another number, an actor was on top of some scaffolding that came down to stage to go from vertical scaffolding to horizontal bus. I was so afraid that the actor was going to fall. And he was singing and holding on to the rails at the same time! Could you imagine if we did things like that at NDW? We’d have to rehearse for a year just to get our actors comfortable doing such things. Not to mention that we’d need to have a fly bay.

Something else to take away from this is commitment. This may seem obvious. Every actor has to commit to his or her role in order for it to be believable. But that’s probably much easier to do when you’re playing Sleeping Beauty or Robin Hood, then when you’re playing a punk, emo, anti-establishment young adult. These actors had to pretend to do a number of things that I should not mention on this blog that would make an average actor second guess themselves, but these guys just went for it. And that’s what got me choked up at the end – it was so well done and the characters (even without a full-fledged story) were completely believable.

Another important thing to take away from American Idiot is the professionalism. Again, you’re probably thinking, “duh,” but if these actors messed up, I couldn’t tell. Every show we try to hammer improv skills into our actors. Every show we try to prepare them for the fact that they have to learn how to cover themselves and their fellow actors, but this is not easy to do. The show must go on, but if everyone forgets their lines and just stands there on stage it’s just as painful for the audience as it is for the actors. It probably feels longer for the actors, but just as painful. The only difference is that it takes the audience longer to figure out what’s going on and they can’t do anything. The actors (and stage crew, etc) spend the whole 30 seconds, or however long, thinking. What’s my line? Who messed up? How can I fix this? Is so-and-so going to say something? Can anyone save us from this horrible silence? And the list goes on and on.

Now, imagine a world where the audience never had to go through that pain because our actors knew the play, their characters, dances and music well enough to hide their mistakes? I might not even notice. And I have to watch every show (it’s most painful for me sitting in the back of the auditorium only having my headset to use in failed attempts to help the kids).

So, next time you go to a professional show, musical or not, pay attention to these thing and don’t take them for granted. These actors work their bums off to put on the best show they can 8 times a week. Sometimes for 3 weeks at a time, sometimes longer. Sometimes they do 8 shows, pack up and go to another city. Wash, rinse, repeat.

We have it so easy at NDW, but wouldn’t it be great if every time our kids saw a show they committed to trying just a little harder to be more like the actors they so admire? For those who watch Glee, while they get to make mistakes because of the medium they’re in, they still have to put hours upon hours of rehearsals in each week for each song and dance number. And I bet anyone who saw their live show couldn’t tell if Lea Michelle or Darren Criss messed up at all.

For professionals, a lot of sweat and blood goes into all they do. We’re not asking for that, but what we do ask for is the maturity to realize that to put on a good show you have to do more than show up and memorize your lines. Having said all that, I want you to know that I am always proud of our kids and they don’t need to be chastised for not trying hard enough (not yet anyways). The message I want to get across is that we try to teach certain skills in NDW that can help them be more professional on stage (and can carry across to just about any career in their futures, from the classroom to the boardroom). I just hope they are all trying to learn in return.

We are on our way! Music is being learned, dancing is being taught and the actors are really starting to get into character.

At the beginning of rehearsal I handed out some research on Robin Hood that I had done 6 years ago – the last time we did this play. (Did I mention that I love history?) I don’t know if any of the kids are planning on reading all of these notes, but if they do, hopefully this will help to inform some of their characters a little more.

Then, the cast sang with Sam. She started teaching them harmonies for one song and it sounded AMAZING. How awesome! Hopefully, everyone will remember their parts and everyone in Natick will get to hear how amazing our cast sounds!

After that we split up. Some kids went to costumes, some to learn more music and some to learn dance moves. Funny story: Lisa was going over basic dance moves with all of our actors as an introduction to dancing before she begins teaching choreography next week. At one point, Kay and I walked into the gym to see how it was going. Kay then began to follow along. She was doing some jazz squares and was so intent on doing them just right, that when Lisa called out, “Pivot on your left,” Kay did a jazz square starting on her left. Maybe you had to be there, but both Lisa and I teased her about it later.

Anyways, before that happened, Kay and I were in one of the back rooms doing character work with some of the kids. This was our second round of character work that day and we were busy working with the Sheriff’s Wife, her daughters, Lady Merle and Lady M’s ladies. These girls did an excellent job and were much easier to handle then the big group we had earlier! Each of Lady M’s ladies has a different back story and personality that the girls all worked together to figure out with Isabel, who plays Lady Merle. As for the other girls, their characters are already easy to decipher, so we worked on bringing those characters to life. Maggie needs to find an annoying laugh she’s willing to do onstage, Marlee needs to be clutzier and Olivia and Elyssa are already doing great things with their dialogue.

The group we worked with earlier included the Merry Men (and Women), the Stranger, the Sheriff, Deputy and Constable, Lady Merle and Maid Marian and her ladies.  With them I did that annoying thing where I ask questions about their characters and don’t just tell them how I think their characters should be. My first victim was Meghan, who plays Maid Marian. One of the challenges with this character is making her multi-dimensional. Looking at the script she’s basically a damsel in distress and we want her to be more than that. So our discussion took a little while, because I wanted to make sure that Meghan and the rest of the cast understood how important it is to make all the characters come alive.

After that we moved on to the “evil” people in our play. I enjoyed asking the Sheriff, Deputy and Constable why they work together, how they feel about each other, Lady Merle and Robin Hood and how they ended up with those jobs. They have a really good handle on their characters and how their characters interact in our Robin Hood world.

Later in the day, I had the kids get up on their feet and read through the first scene while putting their own blocking in. The fight scenes were interesting. First, they had imaginary weapons and second, they didn’t know what they were doing! I had to get up and explain to them how a quarterstaff fight would work without giving them actually moves to do. It was not easy for me. But the kids did great and hopefully they’ll be able to feel good about what they did this week.

Before ending this blog I just want to thank everyone for getting up early on a Saturday morning in the snow. I drove from Waltham and it was not the most fun thing to do (although RT 9 in Natick was the best road I was on all day). So thank you.

I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday!

-Debbi

Did you know that read throughs are just as important to television and movies as they are to theater? Many times these are called table reads instead because the actors, director and some crew sit around a table and read through the script together. When this happens, not only is all dialogue read, but also all the scene notes. If we did that it would take a very large table and a lot more time!

What else did we do at rehearsal this week? Well, we told everyone which mentor group they were in. These groups are led by 2 or 3 eighth-graders and contain actors from each grade. We always hope that our eighth-graders are a good influence and that these groups make it easier for our new actors to join the NDW family. Each mentor group has to come up with a name for their group. I decided that the production staff is Team Awesome – so don’t use that name! (Okay, if you really want it…)

When I was in NDW we didn’t have mentor groups. NDW was also very cliquey, which is a little odd because for most of the plays I was in there were no more than 30 actors! It’s so nice to see that everyone at NDW is so welcoming these days, and I think the mentor groups are a part of that. I’m not sure if this is something that Cindy started or not, but I know that they started after she began working at NDW.

Other things that have changed since I was in the program? The games. Because this is a workshop, we like to play theater games with the kids. We hope that these improve our actors’ improv skills, characters and energy on stage. I only remember playing a couple games, and I don’t know that they were theater games at all. So what game did we play this week? Zip Zap Zop. This is an energy passing game that requires everyone to pay attention at all times. When everyone’s into it, it ends up looking like a tennis match with all heads going back and forth at the same time. To make the game more interesting we play with eliminations. And then the “losers” create their own side game. Our current Zip Zap Zop champion is Jacob Clerico – and he has a really big head about it, too! After we finished our main game, Kay and I broke the kids up by grade (with eighth graders supervising) to play some more. I was hoping that the winners from those 3 games would have time to face off, but rehearsal ended minutes too soon.

But we don’t just play games at NDW, all the kids also learned the opening number, “Hi Ho Robin Hood.” From what I heard, it sounded great. Next week we’re going to keep our actors super busy learning songs and dances. Be prepared! And don’t be late!

I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday.

Welcome back everyone!  Or, for our new folks – welcome!  We’re so glad to have all of you here at Natick Drama Workshop. 

First things first: the show.  We’re doing Robin Hood this spring and I couldn’t be happier.  I love Robin Hood and I have such fond memories of doing this show a few years ago.  Also, there’s fight choreography, which usually falls to me to block and I always have so much fun with those scenes!  The last fight I choreographed was for Enchanted Sleeping Beauty.  I worked with the Prince (Patrick Conaway) and the Dark Knight (Jacob Rosen).  I think those two had more fun than I did.  And now, Jacob Rosen is playing the Sheriff, so I might get to do some more fighting with him.

Before we (the production staff) get to NDW on Saturday, we put a lot of thought into the show that we pick.  There’s no specific formula, but we look for a show that would appeal to our kids and our target audience.  We also look for something that, we hope, will showcase our current cast, and particularly the 8^th graders.  But more importantly, we need to find a show that has enough for our 55 member cast to do.  Who would want to do a show in which only a few actors are featured?  Not us.  In addition, in the spring we try to find something with name recognition.  Audiences might not know our particular Robin Hood, but they definitely know who Robin Hood is and that our musical is going to be more action packed than say, Beauty and the Beast.

Once we pick a show, Cindy, Lisa and Sam do a lot of work to get ready for auditions.  I get to sit back and relax, although I’m always around in case Cindy wants to discuss anything with me before audition day.  Of course, Cindy has the most to do, preparing monologues and making the audition schedule, but Lisa has to choreograph something for auditions and Sam has to get a song ready for auditions.  And Sam actually picked two songs and let the kids choose.  So lots of prep goes into this day.  And that’s just from the production staff.  I don’t even know half the stuff that Friends of NDW does to prepare for our first day back.

In the fall, I sadly had to miss audition day, so this was my first audition with Sam, our still somewhat new musical director, and with Kay, our Assistant Stage Manager (or mini me, as I sometimes call her).  That was fun for me.  It’s fun seeing how others react to the same things that you’re watching.  It was also my first NDW audition without Jane.  Unless you count my Cinderella audition in 7^th grade when Jane was too busy having her youngest child to show up.  The nerve (kidding!).

We started out by introducing ourselves and the show to the cast.  Then Sam taught them the music, we handed out monologues and Lisa taught the cast the dance audition.  And then we were off!  The kids were divided into smaller groups and danced for us.  They did a great job.  With dancing, we’re not just looking for the kids that are dancers, but for the kids that can move, have rhythm, and, as with everything else, who was giving their all, no matter the outcome.  When all the kids had finished their dance audition we split them up into 3 groups: 8^th graders with a 7^th grader (to even groups out), the remaining 7^th graders and all 5^th and 6^th graders.   

First up – the 8^th graders.  While all auditions are important for us, our 8^th graders are the ones we watch, and judge, the closest because we know that the lead roles are going to be divided amongst this group.  The singing audition went well and then we moved on to the monologues.  Each actor had to choose between playing Robin Hood, the Sheriff, the Sheriff’s wife, Maid Marian and Lady Merle (our villainess).  We told them that they didn’t have to stick with their own gender.  If a girl wanted to read for Robin Hood, that’s fine, it would still show us what that girl can do.  It’s always interesting to see who picks which monologue.  Usually it’s predictable.  But every now and then we’re all surprised by which one an actor picks.  We all made our notes and moved on to the next group.

The 7^th grade audition went the same as the 8^th grade audition, but unlike the 8^th graders, this group of girls chose to do some boy monologues.  We had some extra time at the end of their audition, so Sam placed them in groups of 3 or 4 to sing again (she picked the song) in order to get a better handle on our actors’ singing talents.

And finally, we brought in the largest group.  For this audition, we had the actors sing in groups of 3.  Those who wanted to sing solo could volunteer after all the groups went.  More than half of our 5^th graders sang solo and very, very few 6^th graders did – interesting.  (In all fairness, we only have 5 5^th graders, so over half only equals 3…)  These kids also had some fun reading monologues of the opposite gender.  And many of them are just so darn adorable!

When they finished, we brought all the kids back to the gym and said goodbye.  Then we casted.  Usually, we’re done by 3pm at the latest.  This time, when I got in my car to go home, I noticed it was almost 4pm!  And I was exhausted!  Casting is always fun for me because it’s kind of like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.  If the pieces (actors) don’t fit in their places just so, the whole thing could fall apart.  And what made this particular casting session so hard was that we have so many actors that could be cast in multiple roles.  So you then have to figure out which combination works best.  The 5^th graders are always the easiest to cast.  I think the next easiest thing to cast this time around was the role of Alana Dale and the Sherwood Quartet.  We knew that we wanted 5 girls that could sing and dance.  The 8^th and 7^th grade boys were fairly easy, too.  There’s actually only one 7^th grade boy in our cast this time around, so that was a little easier than casting the 8^th grade boys.  When we left at 4pm, there were still a couple roles that we hadn’t quite figured out yet. 

I left, ran some errands and went about my business.  After dinner, I talked with Cindy on the phone, and we each, independently, had come up with what we thought would be the best actor for the roles in question.  We discussed it for over 40 minutes (I’ve started looking at the call time on my phone, because we have very long conversations about NDW on a regular basis).  And then it was done.  When I woke up Sunday morning and saw the final cast list in my email I was relieved that it was all done.  I can’t remember another show that was so debated. 

I’m not saying this so that you take pity on us or because I want you to agree with every decision we made, knowing how long the whole process took, but rather so that you understand that there is a whole process.  We may joke about picking names out of a hat to make it easier for us, but we would never do that.  We want a great cast.  We want a happy cast.  And, when we have the opportunity, we want to stretch certain actors.  After all, this is a workshop.  When we did The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree a few years back we cast our resident ham, Alex Farquharson, as the male [romantic] lead.  And we told him that he’d have to be serious for the first time ever.  And he was great!  So hopefully, any time we do this, our actors are learning and getting new things from each character they play and in each musical they’re in. 

Next week we have our read-through.  I can’t wait to see our actors’ responses to the play itself.  And to the characters they all play.  I’m sure everyone will enjoy Robin Hood.  In the meantime, don’t listen to the music online – it does not reflect in any way what our musical numbers will actually sound like.

Have a wonderful week.  See you at the read-through,

Debbi