Life moves fast at the festival. It’s only been a few days since my last post but in that time previews for some of the season’s highlights have started, rehearsals for the Shaw’s production of “Master Harold”…and the Boys have begun, and The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God is up on its feet — newly revised scripts in hand.
Monday is a day off for everyone at the Shaw, so Tuesday I returned to catch the first read through of Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold” with the rest of Shaw’s interested company members. If I hadn’t known this was the first rehearsal for the three-man ensemble, I never would have been able to guess. Actors Andre Sills, Allan Louis, and James Daly responded to director Philip Akin’s invitation to “attempt the South African accents” if they felt comfortable with impressive ease. They appeared deeply familiar with the text, even able to perform their lines off book in several sections, and the result was a reading that felt more like a rehearsed presentation than one just beginning.
The innocuous 1950s family diner setting of “Master Harold” acts as a container for the underlying pain and anger bubbling just below the surface during the South African social apartheid. Beginning with a lighthearted discussion about the frustrations of ballroom dancing, the play reveals messy truths and insecurities hidden beneath the armour of social convention. At the end of the read through, there were few dry eyes amongst the observers. “Master Harold” promises, I think, to be truly stirring and, if the actors initial performances are any indication, a high-quality production filled with subtlety and strength.
Jumping back into the Black Girl rehearsal hall the next day, I was happy to join the cast and production team as we continued working through a close read of the text. Yesterday, to everyone’s excitement, director Ravi Jain suggested the cast get up on their feet for the first time and explore one of the scenes they were reading through. As the set is going to pose some very particular challenges in terms of blocking, it was easy to see what Ravi was thinking and why he wanted everyone to get a feel for the constraints of the space early on. Seeing the cast loaded up with hilarious props and following some creative rules for spacing set by Ravi, the eccentric aesthetics of the Black Girl universe began to take shape before us. This first visual of the show whet my appetite and I can’t wait to watch the play develop.
One of my new responsibilities at the Shaw is to research and write short playwright biographies to be included in the programs. Currently I am working on one for Athol Fugard (“Master Harold”…and the Boys) and W. S. Gilbert — of Gilbert & Sullivan — who wrote this season’s Engaged. Keep an eye out for them when you check out shows at the festival this summer!
Shaw and Tell 