The Thaumaturgy Department

Samuel French has teamed up with MyTheaterApps.com, the developer of Scene Partner, an App that helps actors learn their lines using their own scripts or by choosing from a growing collection of Publisher e-Scripts—the authorized Acting Editions designed specifically for use with Scene Partner. The first wave of select Samuel French titles are available in the Scene Partner webstore for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch). Apps for other Smartphones and Android devices coming soon.

What is Scene Partner?:

Scene Partner is an app for Apple devices that allows actors to listen to their lines, their cues, or a whole scene to help them learn their lines faster. Actors can listen to a variety of prerecorded voices – available in different dialects as well – or they can record themselves and their cast mates! Each role can be isolated, so every actor can follow their track through the show or they can customize their track by making their own French Scene Breakdown. Everyone stays on the same page, with real time syncing of any cuts or edits to the script!

-from Anne Hamilton, Hamilton Dramaturgy
http://hamiltondramaturgy.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/new-app-helps-actors-learn-lines/

Rehearsal video and interview with Danielle Ferland, who appeared in the original Broadway production of Into the Woods as Little Red—now returning as the Baker’s Wife in Mark Lamos’ co-production between CENTERSTAGE and Westport Country Playhouse.

The work, style, and tone of Hoffmann are proving influential starting points for the production of Into the Woods now rehearsing—both for Mark Lamos and the company in staging the piece, and for the design and production team as they construct the world of the show.

stillpointeti:

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been fully transitioning my role from that of dramaturge to that of the actor playing Tamora, the evil Queen of the Goths. It’s an interesting transition because I have to look away from the full play and focus more closely on one character.
We are in blocking now. That is when the director takes full control of the production. She tells us where to stand, where to move and gives notes on our line delivery. The director is a pretty modern invention. In Shakespeare’s day, there was no director. The actors decided how everything would work during the three days that they rehearsed a new play. If they were re-staging a play, they had one day to tinker with it before an audience arrived.
Shakespeare understood this since he was an actor in his own company, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later The King’s Men, under King James). As a playwright, Shakespeare often put stage directions in the text itself to give the actors an idea of what he wanted on the stage.
We don’t have those worries. Raine Bode is making sure that the play moves apace and looks beautiful. We have worked our way through more than half of the play.
At Sunday’s rehearsal, we began the process of putting in the musicians, who will be accompanying our performance. The flutist and cellist, working with our musical director Ryan Haase, explored the possibilities of music to both underscore and accent the text and movement. This is my first time working through a process in this way. It’s very exciting to watch the music being composed in front of us.
As an actor, one uses the text, blocking, costumes and set to help develop the character. We have the added bonus of also using music. I can’t wait to hear what the musicians add to the production. They’re dripping with talent, so I am completely confident that it will be amazing.
The clock continues to tick, the calendar pages flip. We edge closer to production. It’s exciting and terrifying, just like the play.

tumblr link for our friends over at The Second City Network. You can catch various franchises and offshoots at theaters and venues around the country, but the best place remains at their home in Chicago. Still, we’re looking forward to having the customized Baltimore show here in about six weeks. Plenty more on that to come, but especially once we get out there in mid-December to watch a run-through!

As recommended by ReEntry cast member (and USMC vet) Joe Harrell, the Peter Levine book Waking the Tiger—which discusses “Nature’s Lessons in Healing Trauma.”