By Valeria Benitez
The Lovett School is about to head back to a scary time, when colonial Americans were afraid their towns were being infested with witches. This year’s fall play is “The Crucible,” directed by Mr. Decker, based on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693. The story focuses on ten girls who start accusing everybody in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts of being a witch.
I met with Mr. Decker at his office in the black box, and he was very excited to tell me about this new play. That afternoon’s rehearsal was about to start, so he was making sure everyone was in place.
As a director, he has to deal with the challenge of having short rehearsal periods, so they try to maximize their time together. For this specific play, he told me that “There’s a lot of research and development that goes into it” as he needs “to know what the country was like” during that time period. He said the research is what brings the script to life because a play is about much more than reading a script.
If you’re wondering how Mr. Decker chooses a play like “The Crucible,” he told me that he picks the script based on his actors. He can anticipate about 75% of the actors who will audition and the rest will be new. Based on the 75% of the actors he knows he picks a script that matches them.
Mr. Decker usually casts veterans as his leads or students in Lovett’s acting classes.
After the interview, I stayed to watch their rehearsal. It happened to be the day they were doing costume fitting, so everyone was running around the place trying to get their clothes and shoe sizes. Luckily, stage manager Sophie Hatfield and assistant stage manager Florencia Cruz-Pelaez were there to get everything under control.
Florencia, also known as Cece, told me that their main job is to “keep track of where everybody is during rehearsal.” She pointed out that their job doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. “The actors are a big part of it, but a lot of the technical things wouldn’t be able to happen without all the stage crew,” she said.
Mr. Decker had told me that he chooses the costumes “based on the time period, and based on what the Puritans wore back in Massachusetts in 1692.”
Before the actual rehearsal started the actors began with a brief warmup that consisted of several arm, leg, and neck stretches. This was followed by many tongue twisters, with a room full of teenagers asking, “How much could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” My favorite part of the warm was when Mr. Decker gave them a random scene to act out from the top of their head.
When the actual rehearsal began, the actors whose scene was about to begin got in place while the others sat in chairs to watch them. I managed to score some interviews with the actors. Sidney Wynn, an ensemble member in the play, told me, “In Middle School, I auditioned for nearly all the plays. I got in and fell in love with acting.” He hopes to be featured in future plays.
Acting isn’t easy. Grace Schmidt, also an ensemble member, told me how memorizing the lines is definitely a challenge. What’s her strategy? “Just keep rereading the page over and over,” she said.“Once I really know them, I like to practice with my scene partner or just someone else.” Grace added it’s also helpful to have a scene partner who actually takes their job seriously and cares about the performance.
After spending my afternoon watching the production of the play I can definitely say it will be a must-see play, especially during the Halloween season.
There will be three performances on November 2-4. Mr. Decker hopes to see all of you there. Unless you’re in the Lower School, because it is kind of a “scary” play, he said.
Can’t wait to see it!