Stratford Road to Opening Week 1: Matt Armet on Getting the Job, First Rehearsals, and More!

When I was twelve years old, my mother drove me from our small town of Battleford, Saskatchewan, into the "big city" of Saskatoon to see my first musical: a touring company of A Chorus Line. I had been taking singing and dancing lessons for about five years at this point and, needless to say, the show blew my mind. It has been my favourite musical ever since and has always been at the top of my bucket list of shows to be in during my career.

So when I got the call from my agent in mid-September to tell me that I booked the role of Greg (after waiting all summer to hear), I pretty much lost it! Side note: my agent's ringtone on my phone for years has been "God, I Hope I Get It," just to give you a sense of how much I love this show and how funny I think I am. Ha! I also find it quite beautiful that this week is the eight year anniversary of my Mother's passing, and here I am starting rehearsals at my favourite theatre company in Canada, on my favourite show, that she introduced me to so long ago.

Over the next fourteen weeks, I'm going to bring you behind the scenes and backstage into what our lives are like while "Living On The Line" and creating this re-imagined version of A Chorus Line at the Stratford Festival. I will be blogging every Monday from now until Opening Night on May 31st.

Last Tuesday, February 16th, 28 of the best triple-threat performers in the country gathered at 10:00AM in Rehearsal Hall #3 at the Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, to start what is already shaping up to be an incredible show. Our day started with a meet and greet, where we go around the room introducing everyone from the cast and creative team to wardrobe and publicity. A quick word from our Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino and we were off and running!

Headed by our fearless and talented Director/Choreographer Donna Feore, we moved onto a design presentation from our Set and Costume Designer Michael Gianfrancesco. Guys, this show is going to look amazing! The design is fantastic and without giving too much away, there is even some cool "magic" involved. Just you wait! After that, we quickly broke off into different rooms all over the building to work on group music, individual music, costume fittings and character chats with Donna.

After the traditional hour for lunch, we dove right into learning the opening dance number "I Hope I Get It." I'd be lying if I said there wasn't uproarious applause and excitement after we all "faced away from the mirrors" and did the opening combination for the first time together. It was a pretty spectacular energy in the room. The day ended with some more group music and chats, and we were all out the doors at 6:00PM to head home for epsom salt baths. (After day two, I may have actually Googled "How many epsom salts baths are you allowed to take in a week?")

I would like to start a little section at the end of my blogs entitled "Quotes of the Week." I think it's pretty self-explanatory. The first one was a question asked by one of the female dancers on the line as we were learning some of the choreography for the end of the Montage Part 4 section. The quote was: "Was that a shimmy or a krump?" Good luck picking out which step that question was about when you come see the show. Let's just hope it makes the cut!

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