After just a few weeks of rehearsals, the Spotlight Players have already made progress in getting ready to perform “The Curious Savage” on November 19, 20 , and 21. Theatre director Mrs. Cori Nelson is pleased with how rehearsals have been going.

“We actually have the whole entire show blocked, which means the actors know exactly where they are on stage for the whole entire show already,” Mrs. Nelson said. “Now, we just run the whole show.”

Mrs. Nelson is satisfied with her casting decisions, as everyone seems to be working well together and understanding their characters completely. She is grateful to have a group of such talented actors be a part of the Spotlight Players.    

“Yesterday, I was taking notes and at the end, I didn’t really give [an actress] any notes,” Mrs. Nelson said, “and she was like, ‘How am I doing?’ and I said, ‘You’re pretty much spot on.’”

Junior Gea Henry agreed that rehearsals have been going well, in part due to bonding activities  the theatre kids take part in on their own time.

“That’s one of the amazing things about theatre, we all just immediately become a family, and we all just work so well together,” Henry said. “We do things outside of school to create bonds between each other, so that we become more friendly on stage.”

Somehow, the students find time to bond, even though rehearsals occupy a lot of the their time. According to Henry, rehearsals for the cast members are everyday after school from 2:30 to 4:30, but as the dates of the show get closer, they can last hours longer.

“In the past, we’ve done rehearsals until 10, but this year we’re moving it down to 7:30 because of homework and school reasons,” Henry said. “It can be difficult to balance everything and to find time, but you find ways to make it work.”

Typical Spotlight Player rehearsals focus on blocking for the first couple of weeks. This allows the actors and actresses to find out where they need to be on stage. Then, they read their lines from the script in their places and try to memorize them as quickly as possible.

“We usually read with our scripts for a while, and then we start to memorize our lines,” Henry said. “The sooner you can get your lines memorized and be off-book the better, because then you can really start getting into character.”

Rehearsals for crews are a little bit different. What they do at rehearsals depends on what Mrs. Nelson needs them to accomplish that day. All of the crews are intertwined, and each one depends on another to get their job finished.

“A crew typically meets two to three times a week, except for set crew,” Mrs. Nelson said. “Set crew meets every single day, because they have the biggest job.”

The crews are already well on their way with costumes, set designs, platforms, and color schemes. Mrs. Nelson and Henry agree that the Spotlight Players are on track for the dates of their performance. Henry believes that by the time the dates come along, they will have adequately prepared for the shows.

“We’ve been preparing for weeks, just full run-throughs, so we’ve been able to run the show through many times so that we’re better prepared for the show,” Henry said. “Everything always plays out well.”