Road to Opening Week 10: Matt Armet on 5 Weeks to A CHORUS LINE at Stratford

5 weeks until Opening Night

Last Saturday was arguably one of the toughest days of rehearsal all year. We started our day with a really great second dress run of the show which started at 1:45PM. This last dress rehearsal was almost as busy out in the house as it was for us on stage. We still had all of the production tables in the centre of the house for sound, lighting, and our director. Then we added an invited audience of roughly 500 people, about four video cameras for b-roll footage, plus two roaming photographers taking still shots. It was wonderful! The excitement before the show was high. It was very exciting to finally have an audience to find out if jokes would land and where we might have to hold longer for applause. The audience was mainly made up of friends of the cast and friends of the Festival. So the true test came on Tuesday when we had our first preview audience.

But before we get to Tuesday's preview, we have to finish Saturday. This is where the day got really, really tough. We had our EPK Shoot (electronic press kit) that evening. So after supper we all came back and got all dressed into our costumes and wigs and make-up again to head out on stage to encounter even more video cameras. We ran multiple sections of four numbers, three or four times each, to make sure we had all the camera angle coverage that they require to make an amazing trailer for A Chorus Line. The pressure is high at an EPK shoot to dance perfectly, sound incredible and not look sweaty. The wig department was running around tirelessly trying to dry our faces off with tissues and towels all night. (Trying to not have my head become a sprinkler while dancing the Opening Number four times in a row was very difficult! LOL) We also ran the finale kick line three times in a row to get great slow motion shots. So when I woke up on Sunday morning, barely able to get out of bed because my hamstrings were so sore, I started doing some math. We do about 32 jump kicks at the end of the show. So having done them once in the dress run earlier plus the three times at the end of the night, we did over 128 in total on Saturday. No amount of epsom salt baths could have saved me from the pain the next morning. "What I Did for Love"...right?!

Before every show starts at the Festival Theatre, there is a traditional "gong" that sounds in the house. I've heard this gong sound many times before in my career here at the Festival, but this year it sounds different. Not to give too much away, but A Chorus Line starts at about 110%! There is no "ramping-up" in this show. So while standing silently backstage in the dark, this gong sounds like a beautiful metaphoric canon boom. From that moment onwards we are physically, mentally, and emotionally shot out of a canon. On Tuesday, it was a glorious feeling to have my heart racing before this moment, with nerves, adrenaline and also because I'd just done a bunch of push-ups. HA!

The show went really well. A few minor mishaps along the way - sometimes with us, sometime with tech and sound, but that's normal. That's why we have preview performances. Previews are a chance for us to see how things play and work in front of a live audience. So after the show comes down at 4:00PM, we go on dinner break until 5:30PM, when we all meet back on stage and rehearse with full tech until 9:30PM. We are constantly fixing, changing and working on the show over the next 14 previews to make the show better. You can come to multiple preview performances and literally see the show evolve, grow and change with every performance. I don't know if anyone's ever actually done that. So if there are any super fans out there who want to give that a try with A Chorus Line, please go ahead. I'd love to hear how that experience is for you.

Quote of the Week time! This week's quote comes from a sentence I wrote for this blog and then realized that its double entendre was not the meaning I had originally intended. The line was, "No amount of epsom salt baths could have saved me from the Sunday morning stiffness." Yes, I'm ridiculing myself this week. I figured it was about time. You're welcome!

Not only can our cast sing, dance and act, but some of us have some other amazing talents. Galen Johnson (Frank) has been making incredible stop motion Lego movies for years under "5055 Productions". Here is the link to the video he made as a gift for our first preview. It's a great sneak peek at our finale of A Chorus Line. Guys! The expressions on our Lego faces are uncanny!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IGSeLU2Yes

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