Moving into the space

Sunday's rehearsal was the last in the rehearsal room. Tomorrow begins a new phase: moving into the performance space at Villa Victoria in Boston. Scenes that take place on the grand curving staircase or on the balconies, entrances and exits through the double doors or the upper doors or via the ladder -- places that till now have been suggested in rehearsal by low platforms or signaled by taped lines on the floor, or that have just been implied, in thin air -- will now be physically realized.

"Into thin air" -- hard to imagine not having that expression available in English, but what if Shakespeare hadn't invented it in The Tempest? A few now-common phrases in English that come from Othello: "a foregone conclusion" . . . also, the expression, "to wear your heart upon your sleeve," something Iago says he will never do.

At every rehearsal new windows open for me onto the play. Seeing the actors do the lines, I'll suddenly get it -- I'll think: "So THAT's what that line is for! That's WHY he says that! NEEDS to say it, at that exact moment! THIS is where she finally realizes it. THAT's when he suddenly feels the stab of it!" I find it infinitely fascinating, these glimpses into how the play works, how cunningly and intricately it's been composed. I love watching the actors make discoveries as they rehearse, and through watching and listening to them, I get to make them too. Often it's an actor's physical gesture, some movement or subtle intonation, that throws open the window in my mind. And then I'm amazed that I didn't see it before! But I didn't. The actors make it live. And then I think once again (as millions have before) how brilliant Shakespeare was at writing for the actors -- as well as for the rest of us.

Joyce Van Dyke
Dramaturg