Day 1 (9-3-19)

We begin work on our 10th full production of a Shakespeare play...

Nine men showed up on this first night- all of them enthusiastic, and ready to go.  Several men did not show up and do not plan to participate this year, including two of our core members, Ed and Cory.  I wonder if the strangeness, bitterness, and difficulty of this play discouraged them...

Troilus and Cressida was selected by the men last spring, from among several contenders, including Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth (first runner-up).  T&C won out in part because of the men's interest in the Trojan War, and in part because the play offers as many as 14 "major" roles (according to one Shakespeare handbook).

Even with doubling, we will need at least nine more actors in order to have a viable production - so we are now actively soliciting for additional participants.

After check-in, Josh led the group in some warm-ups, and then we got right down to the informal business of "auditioning" for roles.  Some men had prepared pieces ("All the world's a stage," Hamlet's advice to the actors, Henry V's St. Crispin's day speech).  Others performed cold readings.  We pulled scenes from T&C, and tried them out.  Some actors expressed interest in particular roles, others did not.

The plan is to cement initial role assignments on Thursday.