Switching Hats
Posted by Patrick Holland on 9/10/2009
First off, a quick introduction. Hi! I’m Patrick Holland. I’m a freelance theater director, and I’m serving as the Assistant Director on Fake. My job is basically to support and observe Eric Simonson, the director and playwright.
At this point in the process, we have left the cozy confines of our rehearsal hall. Back there, the set was imaginary. Instead of actual walls, pieces of tape were placed on the floor to indicate where the walls would be onstage. Think Les Nessman on WKRP in Cincinnati. Some of the props used in the rehearsal hall were real. The Piltdown Man skull we rehearsed with is the exact same prop the actors will use onstage in performance. Other props we used were simply stand-ins for the real ones. At one point, the actor Larry Yando ended up using a necktie as a camera strap while his real prop was being constructed. We all found him very silly wearing this temporary prop.
As I said earlier, we are now onstage. The environment for the show is nearly complete. Those pieces of tape are now actual walls, one weighing more than 1800 lbs. Larry’s silly necktie camera has been replaced with a beautiful vintage 1953 one (though, secretly we miss his necktie prop). Now is a crucial time. All the elements that make up the play are being orchestrated and blended together. We will spend days detailing every moment of the two-hour show.
What is especially compelling about tech rehearsals is how Eric Simonson approaches the piece. Sometimes he is clearly wearing the hat of the director: he focuses in on the rhythm and flow of the scenes. He choreographs the scenic transitions. He focuses the balance between the actors and the design elements. This is especially true with lighting.
Other times, Eric has his playwright’s hat on. He makes minor tweaks and rewrites to the scenes. He collaborates with the actors on the clarity of the dialogue he’s written. From the start, the structure to the script has remained unchanged. But over the rehearsal period and now even through tech, Eric has constantly sought to deepen the characters and story.
Eric has regularly been switching hats between that of director and playwright. I believe it’s his talent that allows him to smoothly shift his perspective between the two roles. And because of that, he has been able to anneal his play. Now, to be clear, Eric is not literally switching hats. But if he were to wear a hat for this show, it would probably be a Sherlock Holmes deerstalker.