The TABC spring play A Few Good Men is coming up on May 30th. I’m an actor in the play, so I’d like to tell everyone about the process of creating the play and why I find it so much fun to participate in.
Before the auditions even began, Director Rebecca Lopkin thought out every aspect of the production. “I spent a lot of time researching and reading thinking about how I wanna put my season together,” said Lopkin.
“I consider what to play [my students] want to do...and I also consider how many roles the play has and who I think the actors that would participate would be,” Lopkin added.
Once the school year started, students who were interested came and auditioned. People heard about the auditions in various ways. Netzach Schuman, a senior who was cast the play’s chief antagonist, has been in many TABC productions. He came to his first audition because he had acted in the past and was “on the lookout” for a theater program.
Meanwhile, other people like Mickey Schwartz, a junior playing a major supporting role, came to the theater program inadvertently. In Schwartz’s case, he only heard about our theater program because I was looking for a stenographer freshman year and he was sitting across the table from me in biology. And he only came to his first audition because it turned out he was cousins with the director.
At the auditions for A Few Good Men, the actors told Mrs. Lopkin what role they wanted and when they were available for rehearsal. After that, everyone performed a monologue of his choice to help the director get a sense of how everyone acts.
The next night, all auditioning actors met to perform scenes with each other so that the director could get a feel of how different actors will share the stage with each other. It’s important to know which actors work well together and which don’t.
I worked with one classmate who is very serious; while performing a scene with him, I really got a sense of his attitude. He now is portraying Jack Ross, a lawyer who represents “the people without passion.” I think he fits the role very well, even better than the guy in the movie.
In these auditions, I also worked with my good friend Noah Gluck. Noah and I work well together, and our rapport will help us in our parts, because we ended up cast as close friends in the show.
Once the auditions finished, Mrs. Lopkin cast the play. This is never an easy decision for her. “Casting a play...is the most important part of directing,” said Lopkin.
“You could have the most amazing actors and you can have the most amazing script but if you don’t cast the show correctly it will not be the best,” Lopkin added. “So when I’m casting I really think long and hard about where I feel like each actor fits best.”
After casting, the actors got together for what’s called a “table read.” This is exactly what you might think - actors sit at a table and read the play together. This exercise helped us get a sense of who are characters were.
Sometimes these table reads can be amusing, especially when actors mispronounce words or names, as often is the case when people read things for the first time.
The rehearsal process came next.
Of course, this is what people think of when they think of play preparation - acting out the scenes and memorizing lines. However, another important part of the process is figuring out who your character is and how he fits into the play.
Director Lopkin likes to help with this part of the process with creative exercises. “You choose some very specific warm-ups, you do some character development and you spent some time talking about the character relationships,” said Lopkin. “[That lets] you delve into the heart of the play and investigate what’s going on in the play.”
Throughout this process, the actors slowly developed a sense of who their character was and why they were in the play. This will help immeasurably when the actors finally perform their parts in front of an audience.
Let me give you an example of this from my own experience. I’m playing Daniel Kaffee and I have to try to figure out the intricacies of my character. I have to try to get into his head and become a person who has to deal with the moral difficulties of either getting my clients off easy with a plea deal or defending them in court as they want.
Meanwhile, Mikey Schwartz is playing Jo Galloway, a lawyer who wants to get a fair deal for the accused throughout the play. Schwartz commented that he’s had particular difficulty identifying with this character because he doesn’t like how Galloway is always getting involved when he doesn't know what he’s doing. Schwartz sometimes feels uncertain about how portray a character he dislikes vehemently.
Netzach Schuman, on the other hand, is playing Colonel Nathan Jessop, a military man who thinks that he is always right, no matter what. Schuman has to be authoritarian and figure out how to portray his power. He has to act contrary to his normal cheery and lighthearted self to be very authoritative and powerful.
Itai Hudes is portraying Captain Markensen, a man torn between doing what he thinks is right and following his commander. Hudes has to deal with the internal conflict that his character has to deal with.
The rehearsals haven’t’ been all hard work; they’ve often been a lot of fun. One of the best parts of doing the play are all the inside jokes. For example, at one point my character forgets the name of one of his clients and calls him “Donnelly,” so we’ve been calling that actor “Donnelly” all the time.
The intensity of rehearsal increases right before the show, culminating in the challenges of “Tech Week.” This is the last week before the performances, where the actors perform the play on stage with lights and sounds. Every night, we do the whole play. This takes a long time and regularly finishes after 8. Once, a rehearsal went past 10.
Right before each performance, we all do a meditation together in a circle. We all get to reflect on how everyone worked together to create something that we never thought would occur.
During the meditation, everyone gets a turn to comment about how he views the process.
While participating in a meditation last year, Ari Kutin remarked how he was amazed that the cast was able to work together to create such a play. Others mentioned how they felt closer to everyone else as a result of the experience.
Then, after all the wait, comes the performance.
While rehearsing and practicing is fun, the actual performance is exhilarating. “It feels kind of thrilling, to be honest,” said Schuman. “If you do well, it feels amazing… you’re the center star.”
All of the actors are eagerly awaiting our opening night. Lopkin is looking forward to “see how the actors interpret it and how the audience receive that.”
I hope you will come out to see the Spring Play. We are so ready to show our friends and family all the work we’ve have put in to A Few Good Men. Come May 30th to see what we’ve have done.