WHERE'S CHARLEY'S Amy Justman Blogs on Encores! Experience- Day 1

The 10-day Encores! rehearsal process is like no other, and now Where's Charley? cast member Amy Justman is blogging each day about the intense rehearsals. (This is Amy's third Encores!) It's a great insider's look at what Kathleen Marshall calls "summer stock for the A team!" Access here full blog here or read about her first day below!

It's always fun to walk into the 3rd floor studio on the first day of Encores! and pick up your script, score, and a mountain of contracts and tax forms from the hardest-working man at City Center, Company Manager Michael Zande.

After everyone settled in, our first order of business was the Actors Equity meeting (go unions!). If I tell you what went on in this meeting, I'd have to kill you.

Then came possibly my favorite part of the whole rehearsal process, the Meet and Greet. This is where all of the cast, creative team and City Center staff get together for coffee, fruit and pastries and say who they are and how many Encores productions they have been involved in. The next time we will all be in the same room will probably be at the closing night party. Besides our Artistic Director, Jack Viertel, I think Music Contractor Red Press and Set Designer John Lee Beatty may have posted the highest numbers. There were many, many first-timers, and I was very happy and grateful to say that this was my third Encores production.

We were honored to be joined by Frank Loesser‘s widow, Jo Sullivan Loesser, who also happens to have been the original Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella. Ms. Loesser spoke to us briefly about the history of the show. She was extremely gracious and, might I say, looked fabulous.

Our director, John Doyle, spoke a bit about his history with the play Charley's Aunt and the particular style of British farce, as opposed to French or American. Looking at the clock and seeing that we only had a minute or two before the Meet and Greet was scheduled to end, he sent us all off with, "Ready, get set, go!"

And he wasn't kidding. The saying at Encores! is that "every day is like a week", and the idea that we will be onstage in front of 2,000 people in a little over a week, not knowing a single note of music this morning, is a little overwhelming. Thank goodness nothing has to be memorized! (okay, we did talk about memorization in the Equity meeting. But I can't tell you anything else.)

The ensemble went to the Green Room for vocal rehearsal, and that is where we stayed for the rest of the day, bent over our scores. It really did feel like the first day of school as I surveyed my fellow ensemble members. Oh my God, I thought, they're all so young and good-looking!! City Center, you should not hesitate to emphasize this ensemble's youth and hotness in your marketing of Where's Charley?.

And talented! I can tell you that every person that opened their mouth to sing a solo today will put the lie to the rumor that there isn't any good legit Broadway singing in New York anymore.

With our fearless (and frequently wisecracking) Chorus Master, Ben Whiteley, we spent the day going through almost every ensemble number in the score. We attempted British accents that are sure to be critiqued by Mr. Doyle. And we sang high notes that really should not be assigned with such frequency to sopranos and tenors.

Tomorrow, it looks like we are scheduled to stage the dancing in "New Ashmolean Society", a large company number. That's how it works at Encores! - you barely learn a number one day, and you're on your feet with it the next. Tonight, I will break out my black character shoes from the back of my closet. And pray that my choreography will consist of standing in the back and clapping.

Justman's Encores! credits include: Lost in the Stars, Music in the Air.  On Broadway she has starred in Company (Susan, PBS Great Performances), White Christmas (Tessie/Betty understudy). For more information, visit www.amyjustman.com.

Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter-Keddy