Rehearsal Reflections by Dipika Guha

It was wonderful for me to be in the room yesterday with Jim Frangione and three
very talented actors, Charles Socarides, Jack Cutmore-Scott, and Kaaron Briscoe
Minefee, in rehearsal for my ten minute verse play An American Dream.

I wrote this play before a trip to England with the T.S Eliot, Old Vic New Voices
Exchange for a one day festival at the Old Vic Theatre in London. It’s a large
space so I knew I wanted to write something that would both fill a big space
and give the actors a chance to demonstrate their talents. As a playwright, I love
working in direct response to my collaborative team so I asked my director what
inspires him in theatre. His list included ‘actors shouting, real toads in imaginary
gardens, T.S. Eliot quotes seamlessly undetected, and romance’. So I decided to
go full tilt and write a play directly in homage to Eliot in a style that would give the
actors permission to embrace theatricality and to fill the theatre with their voices.

What emerged was a play set in an ‘unreal city’, a dream space where magical
transformations (which are, in earnest, earthly transformations) might occur.
I sought inspiration from the comedies of Shakespeare and identity farce in
American film. I stole tropes of false identities, arbitrary romantic attachment and
a Shakesperean fool figure. I wanted to write a play where the characters could
undergo a deep transformation which impacts their capacity for love in a second;
where we might feel that change is possible now, instantaneously and in the
moment.

Embracing these transformations is challenge that these actors were taking
on with grace and poise. Jim is a wonderful reader and it was a treat to watch
him guiding the actors on the rhythm of the verse and how to use the rhythm to
clarify meaning. Jim being also an incredibly kind, mindful director, created an
open room where we could all pitch in with our thoughts and questions. It made
for an incredibly light and positive rehearsal room and allowed for everyone to
collaborate fully.

I love rehearsal more than I do any other part of the production process. I was
thrilled to be in the room yesterday and wish them a myriad broken limbs on
Saturday!