A Fly on The Wall, April 19, 2013

The Moment of Truth
by Jim Murchison 
@JimMurchison

As I write this I have just finished the first day of tech rehearsal in the theatre with lights and sound and costumes for Taming of The Shrew. This is a very necessary part of the process, but at times draining and frustrating. The actors all just want to play, but it is very important to know all the cues for the lights and sound, so there is a great deal of standing and waiting and doing it again and again. In this production all the sound cues are done by the actors themselves and there are 54 of them so there is no rest for this wicked company.

By the time this is posted, we will have done our first preview and be doing our final tweaking for opening night. We believe that an all male cast of the play has never been done in Canada before or possibly even in North America. I will not give away any secrets here, but to say that the induction or prelude is being done very bravely. We will soon have the last layer added: the audience. That is when we truly find out how much everything has worked. 

Taming of the Shrew runs at The Gladstone in Ottawa April 18-May 5