Clybourne Park

Watching the final dress, I could not help but feel that I had played some role in this production-even just by doing a tiny bit of press-and I feel that sense of community that comes with working on and rooting for a show. Even after I had already seen most of the first act, and read the entire play, I was still moved by this piece, laughing at the jokes and being moved by its message and the questions it raises. I cannot wait to go back to Clybourne Park with my friends, and to watch more audiences be affected by this powerful work.

As I arrive, things in the Walter Kerr Theatre seem fairly at ease. The team is joking and bantering across the house, and the actors mill about comfortably. But, work is happening fervently all around me. Between acts, the play travels 50 years in a 15 minute intermission, and the crew is busy dressing the not-quite-dry set. Will the sanding (and the noise that comes with it) be done in time for the run? And the milling actors are not shy with their questions for playwright Bruce Norris, or director Pam MacKinnon.

When I arrived at tech on Thursday afternoon, the cast and creative team were working on the final scene of the play. That was the first day with the set and costumes for Act 2. The difference between the set and costumes in Act 1 and Act 2 is like night and day, more exactly 50 years. The set for both Acts has the same structure, where the stairs are, where the doors are, and where the windows are, but everything looks different. The walls are covered with different wallpaper and graffiti; the door to the basement has fallen off its hinges; the front door was wood and is now metal, and the large trunk that fell down the stairs looks like it aged 50 years, covered in rust.

I walk into the Walter Kerr and the first thing I see is the wreckage. The house on stage looks like hell, graffiti on the walls, doors off their hinges, and the mirror on the door in the bathroom is smashed. Today, tech rehearsal starts early on in Act Two, as the characters try to hash out the socio-political ramifications of the middle-class white couple trying to demolish this formerly beautiful house in a predominately black neighborhood in order to build a larger, more garish model for the family they're trying to start.

No one ever said that teching a show is an easy process. Or a fast process. To give a stellar performance to every audience every day takes an incredible amount of time and effort both on and offstage, even before these rehearsals begin. Walking into the Walter Kerr Theatre, I thought for a moment that construction was still happening onstage. The set was covered with boxes and other random items and my immediate reaction was to think that these things had been put there temporarily as they continued work on the set.

Broadway. Just the name conjures thoughts of glamour and bright lights. High quality entertainment is assumed to accompany a Broadway show. But in order to achieve this status, what do the actors, directors, stage managers, techies, and all the various staff of each and every show have to go through to make it what theatre fans everywhere dream of one day seeing? Allow me to give you a glimpse of such a process.

I have been backstage to several Broadway shows and every time is like the first time. Walking into a Broadway theatre during tech is like walking backstage at Disney World but twice as magical. The audience of the Walter Kerr Theatre, where Clybourne Park is located, is currently filled with tech tables, a table for the director, a table for lights, a table for sound, a table for set, a table for props, a table for stage management, and there are snacks on every table. You might not recognize the Walter Kerr Theatre during tech, the carpet and seats are covered with plastic to protect them.

Most theater artists would agree that tech rehearsals can be incredibly boring. They are repetitive and slow and tedious. You might go over a single moment once, or twice, or five times, or two hundred times. That one moment, which may have seemed interesting and thought-provoking at first, quickly becomes torturously mind-numbing. These tech rehearsals are where the work of designers, stage managers, actors, directors, and all manner of theater artists involved in a production comes together to create the play that audience members will experience just a few days later.

The Walter Kerr Theatre was a house of excitement this spring afternoon at the first official meet and greet for Broadways new show, Clybourne Park. The afternoon began as proud producer Jordan Roth welcomed the Clybourne family to their newest home. "You will make your mark here, and this theatre will be better for it" he stated as the members of the Clybourne team gave supportive cheers.

I wasn't sure what to expect as I rounded 48th street towards the Walter Kerr. This time was different from every other trip I had taken here. This time I was going to be privy to the inner workings of a show and not just another benighted spectator of the final product. I was slightly nervous and I welcomed the cold day, as I concentrated on the nippiness of the air rather than the grandeur of the theater that lay ahead. This was going to be my first time backstage in a Broadway house.

BroadwayWorld.com will welcome Clybourne Park to the Broadway neighborhood by offering readers an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek as the play gets ready for performances. We have invited students from the Theatre Design Program at Fordham University to observe technical rehearsals from Tuesday, March 20 to Sunday, March, 25 and blog about the proceedings exclusively on BroadwayWorld.com. We'll begin with a sneak peak of the load-in complete with time-lapsed photography and observations from our bloggers.