Tartuffe Rehearsals – Act 1

Now for the good stuff.  I have a few weeks to discuss first before I am caught up to current events, but once I am caught up, this blog will read like diary or journal entries.

I mentioned that we had auditions for two whole nights.  This was mostly to give people a chance to show up and read for a role and to re-audition those that read the first night.  The first night there were about 30 students who auditioned.  Most of them, and this is rare, were men.  Wendy wasn’t even going to audition, but I felt it would be nice to be involved in a play with a good friend so I asked her to stay and audition.  She did stay and was the first to audition, and although she was reading too quietly at first, she quickly found her character and presented a very believable Madame Pernelle.  Eventually, in turn, we all read a number of times for various roles.  I was actually auditioning for the role of Damis, but I was asked to also read for the title character Tartuffe.  I wasn’t going to at first, but I would have been the only male there who didn’t at least try for the role, so I did.  Nader auditioned on the second night and it was clear, as soon as he read the role, that he was perfect for the Tartuffe character.  No roles were cast officially until that friday, but it was obvious to me, having performed a number of dramatic works, who would be getting each role.

Rehearsals began the following monday.  “Tartuffe” takes approximately two hours to perform so, to take off some of the pressure, the rehearsal schedule was split up into acts so we can focus on one part at a time.  This is a little different from other plays I have been in in that usually the entire cast is there the entire time unless the director feels certain scenes need extra time.  As a result, we do not get to build the closeness a cast usually develops until we begin full-run rehearsals.  As of now, we have been rehearsing for about a month.  We are supposed to be off-book by September 8, but last night, our director had us try our lines off-book to see where we are with our parts and he said he was actually impressed with how well we seem to know our parts already.  He also said, and I would agree, that our first time off book was actually our best run of Act 1.

I am looking forward to this play and even this semester.  It will be a challenge to do the designs, readings, and stories that will be required of me while developing my role, but I believe it will be a worthwhile and rewarding experience for me.  So until next time, I will leave you with some behind the scenes video and photos of some of the cast members.  Click photos to enlarge.

Please let me know if there is something you would like to have me discuss or if you have any questions or comments.

Aaron Thomas Leonard Piccirillo

My name is Aaron Thomas Leonard Piccirillo. I was born in Jamestown, NY, but I grew up in Homer City, PA. I have been living in California for about 12 years and I am working on my fifth AA (anthropology, song writing, English, art, and general education). I love swimming, biking, hiking, reading, writing, traveling,and home cooking. Mostly, I love to write about arts and entertainment, but I also like to write investigative stories.