Theatre Thoughts
This semester I’m back in a 3Ps major, and I couldn’t be happier.
The 3Ps major plays, along with the Torn Ticket major musicals, are the highest budget student-run performances put on each semester. They each have rigorous rehearsal schedules, and around 35 total people work on each show each semester.
Although I’ve been involved in both student and department theatre, I haven’t participated in a 3Ps major since the Fall of 2014. It’s a demanding commitment, with only six weeks to rehearse and tech a full-length play. Now that I’m in the middle of it, though, I realize how much I’ve missed it.
On March 9, Sarah Ruhl’s Melancholy Play will open in the Balch Arena Theatre, the lovely egg-shaped stage we call home. The play is unlike anything I’ve worked on before—it’s poetic and absurd, whereas I usually stick to realism and comedy. I’m loving getting to know my character. She’s incredibly complex, and I’m finding myself more lost than grounded in rehearsals, but in a good way. There’s so much to explore and I haven’t pieced the puzzle together yet.
In the first two weeks we focused entirely on ensemble building and character work, playing games and doing theatre exercises. I love this time in the rehearsal process. You get a feel for each character and scene, each relationship, but you get the freedom of knowing no choice is permanent. This third week we moved into blocking, which brings the excitement of working on a set.
Although the time commitment isn’t outrageous, it has definitely made me think deeply about what kind of theatre I want to partake in senior year. I never feel like I’ve done enough in theatre, because I sense in myself so much room to grow. But senior year might be the time to not have these large blocks of time commitments, and enjoy some freedom a little bit more. In the meantime, though, I’m incredibly happy to be working on Melancholy Play and I know I’ll miss it when it’s over.