By everyday standards, the sights at our recent Tartuffe rehearsals would rank as bizarre: men in shorts, ankle socks and black “character” shoes and women wearing corsets over their t-shirts speaking rhyming couplets against a backdrop of mis-matched furniture pieces and half-way painted floors and walls.
But it’s all part of the process for us … this awkward adolescent phase. Trying on the “grown-up” clothes. Learning to navigate new levels and unusual language. The terror of what we are (or aren’t) becoming!
If early rehearsals are similar to childish play and middle rehearsals are like adolescence — then we move into the responsibilities of adulthood this weekend as we add the technical elements, full costumes, and the responsibility of sharing this story with an audience.
Thankfully, in the end, we return to childhood play again: the joy of story-telling, the fun of playing “dress-up” — and the possibility of making new friends!
