Costumes and Professional Rehearsals

Tuesday Morning. July 27. Blackfriars Playhouse. Half of the counseling staff, the directors, and Doreen, left the campers in a history and culture lecture and went over to the Blackfriar’s Playhouse to take a look at the costume stock for their productions. Guided by the resident costume designer, Jenny McNee, the group climbed the seemingly endless staircases all the way up to where the ASC’s costume stock resides, in a place referred to as The Heavens. They even had to climb sideways up a steep red metal staircase, but the effort was worth it to finally reach the rows of dresses, vests, and cloaks at their disposable to bring their productions to life. Their eyes lit up as McNee pulled more and more pieces to clothe the characters from Rome and Egypt. One counselor, whose emphasis in theatre is costumes, said “When I grow up I want to be a costume designer so I can just live in a stock room like this.” After laying down the ground rules, Jenny left, and everyone got to work looking for the pieces that would complete the directors’ visions.

Tuesday Afternoon. After lunch all the campers walked over to the playhouse, happy for the break from the intense heat that had fallen over Staunton for the last couple of days. As they shuffled into the balcony of the theatre, Ralph Cohen, who is the co-founder and Director of Mission at ASC and also one of their previous lecturers, was in rehearsal with the resident troupe for 2 Henry IV. As the rehearsal moved forward, Ralph walked the campers through their process. Afterwards, he asked the two girls playing Cleopatra how they were doing (He had previously told the campers that Antony and Cleopatra was his favorite play). One of the girls who was cast as Cleo in Part 1, said “it’s nerve racking!” Ralph Cohen laughed and said, “Nerve racking? It’s theatre!” Next on stage was the traveling troupe rehearsing some of the final scenes of the Scottish Play. The campers were spellbound as they watched the process of the director and the actors, observing how a single scene evolved and changed with each new addition or new tactic the actors took.

Darielle Shandler