Today’s date: Thursday July 9, 2026
Show title: Antony & Cleopatra
Director: Mili Koncelik
Staff crew: Analise Toone, Topher Zane (RDAs), Julia Hill, John Spellman (interns)
What we did
We went over the plan for today, before going into working on the walking/curtain page sequence in 4.1. Campers did text work on and reviewed the marching sequence for 3.10, 3.12 (interaction between Caesar, Ambassador, Dolabella and Agrippa), before going back to 3.1. We then went forward to 5.1 and the passing of the sword from Decretus to Caesar after Antony’s death, the Egyptian’s bow/exit and Proculeius’ entrance. Those involved in the 4.7 fight got into place, got into their fight pairs and practiced the sequences, both individually and as a whole scene. Both pairs did a run of both sequences sans swords (miming) before taking a ten. Afterwards, we had fight calls for 5.2 (Cleopatra, Proculeius, and Guards), 4.7 (miming swords) and 4.14 (with actual pieces). We did another second-half run (as this is the campers’ 3.8-5.2 off book day). Summer (today’s visiting ASC AIR) gave feedback, and praise (highlighted Caesar being locked in the moment they enter scenes, Agrippa being focused every moment, playing the exhaustion of battle and not letting it slip in the scenes follow). She then emphasized the importance of following through on delivering lines, controlling vocals when giving/saying bad news, sadness, feelings of upset (grounding the emotion and not making it too breathy). She also reminded them the importance of keeping eye contact in a scene (specifically for characters with little/no lines/when not speaking). She praised the campers playing Octavius and Cleopatra calling prithee, and not dropping out of character/the scene. We then slid right into music rehearsal with Scarlet for the last bit of rehearsal (starting with a full run, instruments and all). They then worked out stage spacing before going into a second run; both sound great! They worked through some timing issues (slightly slowing it down, cutting the Latin count-in and changing it to the camper on the cajon doing the count-in). Scarlet then broke them into two groups – one in another room singing the chorus together with one of the instrumentalists, while the other stayed in the main room and ran the same point to adjust some of the earlier issues (timing, dragging words and phrases, fast pauses and stops).
Quick and Quotable
- From the play: N/A
- From the director: “All of a sudden, Dolabella has aged 50 years.”; “We have five minutes left in break, use them wisely…with malice.” John Spellman
- From the cast: “Old people have square faces.” Kat
Production Insights
While off book days can be extremely nerve wracking, it is also a chance for actors to show (to themselves, directors, each other) how far they have come and where they can go from here. Off books days are where motions, movements, and blocking align with the words you’ve spoken as these characters for so long. When I receive feedback or comments from outside eyes (research, acting, etc.), I often find it helps my performance going forward as it may not be something I had heard before. Having an outside perspective (especially one that has experience acting in a space like the Playhouse) is super helpful because they are able to be guidance for mechanics when acting in such a space (like accounting for the audience on all sides, including those on gallant stools). Even though I am not acting in this production, I am learning a lot about acting from simply watching runs, and blocking rehearsals.
