Last night's rehearsal was a real treat! After a quick run-through of the convent scene that we had worked on Tuesday night, Steve introduced the guest artist for the evening, Dale Girard, well-known combat instructor from UNCSA and beyond, ready to orchestrate the fight scenes. For more info on Dale, follow this link: http://www.uncsa.edu/drama/faculty8.htm.
While the early stages of fight training were going on, Jamie took the chorus downstairs to work on their music. Since I don't sing, I was able to stay upstairs and watch the process, while being sweetly serenaded by the music wafting up from below. How great is that!
Dale was fascinating to watch as he choreographed the swordplay in Act II. The principals Manrico and Count di Luna (Stephen Mark Brown and Mark Walters) caught on quickly to their routine. I believe they've done a good bit of such fighting before! Dale next worked with Ruiz and Ferrando (Marvin Kehler and Richard Ollarsaba), who also were quickly adept. Then it was the male chorus members' turns, and they also did well. Thank goodness...we nuns are onstage directly behind all this action and flying swords, and we don't even have to "act" frightened, because we are! We were all told to shout "Hold" in a very loud voice if we should see something going awry, but let's hope that doesn't happen.
One other frightening moment occurred when we watched Steve LaCosse use a folding chair to climb up onto the windowsill, in order to get a panoramic view of the action. To everyone's great relief, he made it up (and down!) with no missteps. What he will do for Art.
It's about time to leave for the next rehearsal. Who knows what is in store for today!
Still head of the convent, waiting to be indoctrinated into the brotherhood of monks,
M. Superior
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