Road to Opening Week 3: Cynthia Dale On Rehearsals for A Little Night Music

Confusion. Discovery. Enlightenment. Resolve. Simplicity. Understanding. Connection. Listening... and then more listening... and... BE BRAVE!

These words have filled my week.

It's been a big one.

I know that often, I am too much in my own way. I am not letting the character shine through. I am bogged down in only the work, and not in the delicious joy it can be.

I know it. I can feel it. Sometimes I am not exactly sure how to get through.

All I see and feel are the things that are wrong.

Thankfully, our director Gary Griffin will have none of it:

"Well, you just have to stop that. Get over it!"

I am grateful he see's beyond the muddle and guides me to where I need to be. His insight, his heart, his understanding are beautiful and strong.

And, I appreciate his no nonsense approach to the melodrama. Because maybe that's all it is.

Insecurity can be dangerous.

It's a dangerous thing for anyone, but for an actor it can choke the life out of a performance.

I want to stay in the discovery of the character, not in the attitude of her or her life. I want to be completely subjective about her. I want to speak in her voice genuinely and not pump emotion into a moment or a line. For that to happen I need to just stay on the text.

I know that soon the clouds will clear and it will drop into my body and the ease and flow of it will be all I feel - or mostly all I feel. I know that the moments that really work can be my lighthouse, that this is a process and I don't have to "get it" right away. That the darkness of ego doesn't help.

Breath....and listen. And be brave. That is my job.

There is nothing casual about this script, these songs. They are rich and nuanced and we are here to tell the story, and be the medium that helps it come through.

There is so much to love about this show. It is an elegant universe. It is hypnotic. It is a dense wonderful book by Hugh Wheeler that is even more complicated by the Stephen Sondheim songs. It is an adult world that is heightened by the passions of a story that is full of wit and warmth.

There is love in this show. There is sex in this show. There is commitment in this show.

The desires of the characters are universal in their longing for understanding, and coming face to face with themselves. It is the perfect imperfectness of love.

We are moving fast. We are stumbling through the entire show at this point. Physically and emotionally.

Gary has finished staging it. Our choreographer Christopher Bailey is about to join us. And soon we have our first day on the stage.

Yes, things will be re-examined; there is still sooo much to do. The working and tweeking will go on up until opening day, but the scaffolding is up. Now we are building the house.

I'm ready to move in!

I'll name it "The House of Brave People."

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