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

10 Weeks until Opening Night

Every Thursday night, I sit down at my computer to write these posts. These Thursdays keep coming around so quickly. I feel like I just wrote the last one yesterday. I'm pooped. We're pooped. We are having a blast, but working very long, very hard days.

For over two weeks now, we've been switching off days rehearsing A Chorus Line and whichever other show we cross into - three days on one and three days on the other (usually alternating). For me and 10 others in our cast, that's As You Like It. For nine others, that's A Little Night Music. The other eight don't even start rehearsals for The Hypochondriac until June, after we've opened A Chorus Line. But don't worry, we have still been busy on secondary days working on individual scenes, songs and dance numbers, when available from primary rehearsal.

I've been reading multiple books about A Chorus Line for months now, and last night, I was reading about original designer Robin Wagner in Tom Rowan's "A Chorus Line FAQ." His idea for the periaktoi (a three sided rotating pillar) was so simple and yet so very effective for the show. In the original production, there were eight periaktoi in total. One side was black velour, one side was the shiny sunburst design used in the finale, and the third was the mirror side. In our design by Michael Gianfrancesco, just like the original, the mirrors aren't actually mirrors. They are made of a lightweight material called Mirrex, which is a mylar type material. They won't shatter if you hit them, but they will dent, so we have to be careful to never touch them during the show.

The original periaktoi were connected together and turned by one crewman on a large crank backstage. Thankfully, in 2016, we have amazing technology and are able to automate everything electronically. Our panels only have two sides: one is a black wall and the other is a mirror. (You'll have to come see the show to find out what we use for the huge finale!)

I sat out in the house today to watch our Cassie (Dayna Tietzen) work on her choreography for "Music and the Mirror." The creative team was also working on the angles of the mirrors. It's so amazing what they can do with these high-tech mirrors to really make incredible use of the thrust stage. We don't just have to rotate the mirrors in one direction, like in the original production. Instead, we are able to rotate them multiple ways and at various speeds, which is extremely effective.

Here is a direct quote from "A Chorus Line FAQ" that I think so eloquently describes the effectiveness of the open blank stage and the mirrors.

"By setting the musical in a streamlined, empty black box rather than a realistically appointed theatre, Wagner subtly gives us in the audience permission not to take the "audition" too literally, and to experience it as a metaphor for something bigger: the open, scary place we all enter at turning points in our lives, where we submit to evaluation by others in the hopes of being allowed to move forward, and where we are forced to reflect on our own pasts and our own choices. (It's very significant that the mirrors were meant to reflect not only the dancers but the audience beyond them as well: at many points in the evening, we are watching ourselves.)"

This week's "Quote of the Week" is something that we hear quite often in rehearsals, usually on a daily basis. Now, there is some foul language in the show, and for some reason, a good place to start up again from the script usually involves one of these choice swear words. So this week's quote of the week is, "Let's take it from, SH*T!" You're welcome.