By Joseph Haj, Director
After fourteen months of reading, research, planning and
preparation, here we are beginning rehearsals for Cabaret and I am filled with
the terrifying feeling that I have at the beginning of every project: I can’t
possibly begin since I don’t know enough about anything. I have learned
enough about myself as a director to know that this crucial stage, as I step
into rehearsals for the first time, of “unknowing” is as important as
researching and contemplating the play deeply.
It is in the “unknowing” that you make sufficient room for
your collaborators; the designers, music director, choreographer, dramaturg and
actors. The only difference (from my point of view) between a musical and a
straight play is that with a musical you get more collaborators, which I love,
and my collaborators on this project are superb.
It has been said that one has to be “thick-skinned” to be in
this profession with all its vagaries, but in order to start work, in order to
enter the rehearsal room with the humility that is required, I need to be very,
very “thin-skinned”. It is only in that state that I can be sufficiently
sensitized to the possibilities of the rehearsal room. As an actor for many,
many years, I know that actors ALWAYS know a director who isn’t ready. But a
good actor also always knows when a director is so besotted with his/her
carefully crafted ideas that there is no room for ideas other than the
director’s. The danger of knowing too much is at least as significant as
knowing too little. One needs to “not know” rather profoundly.
And so, after many months of preparation, it is great to
finally all be in the room together. This week will be all about learning the
music and beginning to build the dance choreography. Next week we’ll begin
staging the “book” scenes (the non-musical parts of the text). Here we go!
