“As a child too you were very pretty, very pretty child.” –A Number, scene two

A play is like a child. It begins as an infant and grows to reach maturity. A play travels across a vast range of stages of life. Exploring different directions it can go, stretching and growing until it discovers itself. The director is its parent fostering its abilities and guiding its path. Actors are what give it life. They grow along with it. A play is an entity, a life-force. You can understand it and it in return can understand you. Whether you are the audience, the director, the actors, or the stage crew, you are all a part of this life.

I dealt with this notion a lot this past week as I sat in on a few rehearsals for A Number. Parts of the play deal with childhood and how events during adolescence can change your outlook and personality as an adult. As I watched Graham and Charlie rehearse their lines at the table, I noticed how much their tones and demeanors had changed since the first rehearsal last Monday. The characters began to appear within them. I felt shocked during certain scenes by the depth of emotion which came out in their words. Their faces turned red as they began to shout at one another the way their characters would while having these conversations as real people. At times, the actors seemed indistinguishable to their characters. I have been to many plays in the past, but I have not previously experienced witnessing the amount of work and analysis that goes into a show, particularly the initial stages. It has been so interesting to watch the growing process of this play.

In case you are wondering why the actors are still spending time reading at the table during rehearsals I would like to clarify. Ron explained in rehearsal on Saturday that they planned to finish close analysis of the text at the table before working out any of the staging. He said that in some cases while working on a show, the cast will analyze one particular scene at the table, then stage it and go back to the table to work on the next scene and so on. With A Number, they are gaining a lot of progress at the table by reading chunks of text, then discussing questions and interpretations about that scene. They will usually read a certain part, analyze it, then go back and read it again. In doing so, the structure of the lines take a new form each time they are read. The way the text is written allows an open means of interpretation. Ron explains the construction of the Churchill’s writing and the play itself in his blog in a very detailed, coherent way. This next week, the cast will finish up table work and move on to staging. I’m looking forward to continuing to watch this show evolve and grow.

-Elizabeth Dacy