Globe Education Online

Romeo and Juliet (2008)

Assistant Director for Romeo and Juliet

Caleb was the Canadian participant in the 2007 International Actor's
Residency at Shakespeare's Globe and currently teaches as a
Practitioner in the Education Department. He holds a BFA
Honours Acting Degree from York University (Canada), trained at the
Stratford Festival Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training and
recently completed his MFA in Theatre Directing at Middlesex University. Select acting credits include: On the Middle Day (Old Vic New Voices); Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night, Richard III, Love's Labour's Lost, The Taming of the Shrew, Pericles, King John, Cymbeline, Timon of Athens (Stratford Festival of Canada). Directing credits include: Romeo & Juliet (Toronto Fringe); Somme Letters Home (Atlantic Fringe); A Dog A Panic in a Pagoda! and his own adaptation of Nights Below Station Street (Notable Acts Festival); Hope in Every Home (Fredericton Playhouse). Assistant credits: As You Like It (Stratford Conservatory); Cricket on the Hearth (Theatre New Brunswick); UK tour of Wild East (NOT
The National). Caleb was named the 2007 Emerging Artist of the Year by
the New Brunswick Arts Board and recieved the 2007 Christopher Plummer
Fellowship Award.

What is an Assistant Director's job?

After a very welcoming and inclusive rehearsal process with
Elizabeth Freestone [the director], that afforded me the opportunity to
contribute many ideas and share my text experience with the actors, my
primary role with the show began on tour. My responsibility is to
acclimatize the actors to each new venue; point out any local landmarks
that can be incorporated, appraise them of any vocal challenges, do any
necessary re-staging, note the show and support them in any way I can.

Assistant Director's Notebook

Final rehearsals: Boot camp

Day 1
Romeo & Juliet's rehearsal process began much like any other play's
in that we worked full days in a rehearsal hall aided by stage Managers
and the rest of the creative team, but like most other play's its
process was also unique unto itself. Each director brings their own
approach and Elizabeth Freestone certainly introduced us all to some
new ways of working. (I'm afraid I can't reveal those new ways of
working here, as they are guarded industry secrets.)

After three weeks of rehearsals in London we prepared to spend our
final week (technical rehearsals, dress/preview performance) at Wispers
Girl's School in Haslemere. The cast and crew joked that this was going
to be our 'boot camp'…

Wispers School is set in a sprawling old country estate and we were
given a very warm welcome by the headmaster, who explained that the
girls were giddy with excitement to have a troupe of "rogues and
vagabonds" arriving for the week. After getting settled we gathered in
a secluded corner of the grounds to meet and discuss what we hoped to
accomplish in our time there. We had spent our last day in London
stumbling through a first run of the show and this meeting gave
Elizabeth and I the chance to find out what the actors’ main concerns
were. When we asked them what they needed most in order to move forward
with confidence, getting to know the Camper Van, running lines and
outdoor vocal projection were among the most popular answers. Instead
of giving the company notes from the final London run (these were
covered as we worked on individual scenes later on), Elizabeth instead
asked each actor to offer one another a compliment on the work they had
each witnessed so far. It was nice to see how much respect there was
among the company for the risks being taken.

After an hour in the hot sun I found myself creeping towards the
shade, and as we broke for lunch everyone was a little pink and cooked.
Being the good assistant I urged everyone, director included, to wear
sunscreen for the afternoon call - but of course didn't heed my own
advice.

After lunch there were line cuts to be made and then the cast had
their first, highly anticipated, introduction to the Camper Van. We
felt it best to just let them play on it, explore it; try it out in
various ways. Their initial reaction was a little cool and distant - it
felt foreign to them and seemed like it belonged to another company of
actors (there were jokes about needing to christen it with a bottle of
wine later that evening), but as the day wore on it rapidly grew on
them.

The van had been set up under an enormous tree and we learned
quickly that this should never be repeated; whenever a gust of wind
rose up even the most experienced actor was drowned out under the
rustling of a million leaves.

Since there was no need to travel home and back (we were staying on
site and all of our meals were supplied by the school), the actors
volunteered to rehearse during the evenings as well. That evening,
Elizabeth drilled the dance in the school's gymnasium while I prepared
the schedule for the following day. Since we had the whole grounds at
our disposal, Elizabeth could rehearse ‘on stage’ while I took any
remaining actors for a secondary call elsewhere. In fact, our fight
director was arriving the next morning so we started day two with three
rehearsals running simultaneously.

Day 2

As Elizabeth worked through detailing the show, I spent the day
acclimatising the actor's voices to the great outdoors. We had spent
three weeks in a small rehearsal hall and now the horizon was our only
limit. I knew we would be dealing with many variables in each venue;
the shape of the space, traffic, wind and audiences choosing to sit a
long way from the stage. It was crucial that the actors could be
clearly heard but whilst not shouting (and therefore losing the
intimacy and nuance they had found in the rehearsal hall). I asked them
to begin a scene standing face to face and after each line take a big
step backwards, all the while holding to the connection they had
established when they were close. They could easily get about 200 feet
apart before they started to lose that connection. What was important
about this work was that it assured them that they could be heard
outdoors at quite a distance, but it also made them aware of the energy
and breathing/support they needed for this.

Day 3

The first two days had been beautiful, with perhaps the biggest
complaint being too much sun, a fault of our own for not being in the
habit of lathering on protection (and a stiff back from sleeping on
what I'm sure were infirmary beds left over from World War I). It was
only just that experiencing Boot Camp should mean experiencing all the
elements. On the third day, which was meant to be spent incorporating
the technical elements into the production, we woke up to rain. The
lights had to be bagged in plastic, the deck mopped and many of the
Elizabethan costume pieces, we found, were too delicate to be able to
be dried quickly if they got damp. We continued according to schedule
as best as we could. By mid morning the one pair of shoes I had brought
were soaked through and after changing socks twice I decided the best
way to solve the problem (if not the most flattering) was to line my
feet with shopping bags.

Despite the weather, we were still making good progress and it was
really encouraging to see all the production elements coming together.
By early afternoon it seemed like the skies were clearing, but no
sooner had the rain stopped but insects appeared in droves. Our jackets
were still zipped, our hoods still pulled tight and now instead of
sunscreen we were dousing ourselves with repellent. I hadn't
experienced a day like that since Boy Scout camp at the age of twelve.

Day 4

The next day was still damp and my shoes still wet. The stage
managers were already busy at work striking and moving the set. I had
last seen them there the night before and wondered if in fact they had
gone to bed at all?

Audience members, when faced with the camper van, might think that
the actors just drive up to the site and explode out of the van onto
the stage. It's designed to appear that way, but in truth, there's no
engine and any manoeuvring needs to be done manually; one person
steering whilst three or four people push from the sides and behind. In
preparation for our dress rehearsal and preview we moved the stage and
the van to the School's front lawn. Moving meant a trial run at
striking and setting up but changing location would also mark the
event, honour the final phase of boot camp and give the actors the
opportunity to experience a new venue and see how it informed them.
Although van is actually fairly light and easy to push, it’s a little
tricky to manoeuvre it up a path and through a narrow gap in the hedge.
More actors then we needed were helping and we were building up a fair
speed as we approached the hedge. I was pushing from the side door and
unaware that a number of branches were being bent forward until they
swung back, swatted me off my feet and sent me flying.

So far, the actors hadn't had many opportunities to weave the show
together and tackle the issue of pace. Once we were set up, Elizabeth
decided that the best way to spend the time remaining before dinner
break was to do a speed run. The result, running through the entire
show in just over an hour, was one of the funniest things I've seen in
a long time. The pace served the play and, we hoped, opened the actors’
eyes to the fact that, for much of the play, the humour comes alive
with that level of drive. The tragic elements were, of course,
sidelined, but that was not the point of the exercise.

The company hosted a question and answer session that morning for
the students and to thank us they hosted a Bar-B-Q for us before the
evening run, complete with wine that none of the actors could drink
before they went on stage. I felt it shouldn't go to waste and I didn't
want to be rude, so I had a little. Having experienced hot sun, rain
and insects, it was perhaps no surprise that it was bitterly cold for
our dress rehearsal. Elizabeth, Dominic (Dromgoole, Artistic Director),
Stu (Barker, Composer) and I were all bundled up in blankets downing
tea. Elizabeth's notes were becoming increasing illegible from
shivering and Dominic borrowed some unused costume pieces during the
interval for warmth, wearing one of the servant's funny hats that
didn't make the final cut.

Day 5

It looked like it would be a nice last day at Wispers and fine end
to a rigorous but gratifying week. We were all proud that we had
accomplished so much in a few days and felt battle hardened and ready
for anything. Our dress rehearsal would truly put that to the test.

An hour before our preview performance it began to rain. We were
offered the option of using the school's gymnasium but, as one of the
Stage Managers rightly pointed out, this was the test. If we started
the tour by shying away from the weather we might always feel inclined
to, but if we faced it we would always know that we could. So, the cast
performed for a small invited audience of about 80 people during a
two-hour torrential downpour. The stage was slick and pooling with
puddles; a cause for concern during the fight scenes. After the opening
brawl the actor's costumes were drenched. They soldiered on with
driving wind and rain pelting their faces. Despite their raincoats,
umbrellas and blankets, the audience sat on the edge of their seats and
were attentive and appreciative until the very end; their laughter and
applause made one realize they were absolutely engaged in the story
despite the weather. Of course, lines like "Now ere the sun advance his
burning eye" (II.iii.1) and "The day is hot…" (III.i.2) delivered with
a knowing shrug or roll of the eyes to the audience as if to say "what
can we do? We're in this together" received a special laugh. The actors
and audience bonded, knowing they were not only sharing but also
enduring a unique experience. As the performance splashed on the
amazing thing is that we all forgot the cold and wet; we were no longer
aware of our discomfort and were just mesmerized by the story unfolding.

The scene best served by the geography of the space was the
‘balcony’. A short two-foot wall ran along the edge of the space
between the stage and the school and when Juliet asked "How cam'st thou
hither… the orchard walls are high and hard to climb…" (II.ii.62) she
couldn't help but smirk and be a little unimpressed by Romeo's less
than daring feat. Responding, Romeo couldn't help but look to the
audience and pause slightly before saying "With love's light wings did
I o'erperch these walls…" (II.ii.66) making it more of an apology then
a testament of his passion. This interchange was greeted with roaring
laughter by the audience who realized that everyone, actors alike, had
been caught off guard and were experiencing something truly
spontaneous. As the scene neared its end and Romeo said to the audience
"Love goes towards love as schoolboys from their books, / But love from
love, towards school with heavy looks…" (II.ii.156-157) he trundled off
towards the school and everyone felt the weight on his shoulders. What
made these moments so lovely was that it wasn't in-jokes made by actors
sending up a scene, but instead it was two characters having to react
to the reality of their surroundings and the unforseen nuances they
brought out in the text.

As the play ended and the small crowd erupted with appreciation it
became clear to all of us that we had a special show - the story was
clear, funny, moving and enthralling. Boot camp ended with passing the
ultimate test - not only succeeding but surmounting the worst of
circumstances.