Associate Director Samuel Keefe takes us behind the scenes of Perth Theatre production Gaslight
Gaslight Week 1
Week 1 of rehearsals can be an incredibly exciting, sometimes challenging, but always interesting part of a show’s journey. Many hardworking and talented creatives have been working away for months already, but Week 1 is where that work begins to take shape in the rehearsal room.
Day 1 tends to be pretty jam packed. After some quick introductions with the cast, the different departments of Perth Theatre, the sponsors (many thanks to Blackadders) we began straight away with a read through. This gives the cast and creative team a chance to hear the play read out loud by the people who will actually be bringing it to life on stage. The cast then got to see what the set and costumes will look like. I can’t show you this part yet, you’ll have to come and see the show.
For the first half of the week, a day in the Gaslight rehearsal room looked like this:
Start of the Day – Warm Up. The plan is to become masters at keepy uppy!
Morning – Table work. This means reading the play from the start again, rigorously asking questions, throwing out ideas, generally going through the text with a fine toothcomb.
Lunch
Repeat
Once we have gone through this process as a group, we then get the play up on its feet section by section. With such a talented cast, this is a joyful process, and one that will continue throughout Week 2.
Thank you for reading. The next instalment of this blog will focus on the work the costume department get up to at this stage of the rehearsal process.
