In Tuesday night’s class, Ryan and Kayla had a great rehearsal of Book of Days by Lanford Wilson, pictured above. In the scene, Kayla plays a small town community theater star and Ryan a hot shot New York director. Kayla is auditioning for St. Joan by Bernard Shaw, thinking that it is by the same composers who wrote My Fair Lady and therefore a musical. Ryan asks her if she has a dramatic monologue prepared, which of course she doesn’t and so she wings the balcony speech from Romeo and Juliet. For their second take, Cay encouraged Kayla to explore the, “no bullshit, community theater star” aspect of her character and encouraged Ryan to explore the exhaustion and frustration of sitting through an entire day of bad auditions. In their second take, they both discovered specific and telling behavior and it was hilarious.

Later on in class, Lesley Karsten-DiNicola read from her one woman play, “Maestro, just play a tango.” an encounter with Astor Piazzolla, the man and his music. Astor Piazzolla was one of the leading composers of the 20th century. He took a minor form — the tango– and broke it wide open so that now both the greatest classical and jazz musicians in the world perform it regularly. The piece is excellent. It’s funny, genuine and really draws you in to the world of tango. Lesley reads as Astor himself and she was beautifully relaxed, open and engaging throughout. Cay commented on how much she liked the rewrite and enjoyed hearing the piece again.  Stay tuned for updates on upcoming performances.