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Posted by DCA Theater on September 13, 2010 in July-December 2010 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Strange Tree Group

by Delia Baseman, Associate Artistic Director of Strange Tree Group

Hello Dear Readers!  This is Delia Baseman, Associate Artistic Director from the Strange Tree Group and I am writing to report on our first day of the DCA Incubator Series. We are working on a new full length piece called “The Spirit Play”.  It centers on the subject of turn of the century spirit mediums and mentalists.  Our Resident Playwright and Artistic Director Emily Schwartz is penning this twisted tale of faith and trickery.  Involved in this workshop we have the amazingly talented Strange Tree ensemble (which includes writers, actors, musicians, and artists) as well as some special invited guests. Everyone is taking an active hand in creating this piece and it is truly awesome to be in a room with this many wonderful people.

Walking into the workshop space I could not control my feelings. For a small company that has spent their last six years doing workshops in people’s living rooms or in non-air conditioned garages or in unheated empty storefront spaces, this is a dream. There is a giant room with lights and chairs. There is a bathroom and, yes, a water fountain.  The building is a beautiful historic space and we could not feel more lucky to have a little corner of it for the next three weeks. 

We began our first day by reading through some of the script and discussing it.  Emily has gone in many directions with multiple drafts and many different characters so we tried to focus on which had the most dramatic potential to try and narrow it down.  We randomly assigned roles to the actors in the room and it was wonderful to hear what was brought to a cold reading by an actor who was most likely the wrong gender and or age.

Finally, Sept. 7th being Emily Schwartz’s birthday, after a lovely creative 1st rehearsal evening, we all raised our voices in song to wish Emily a happy birthday.

More from the rehearsal room coming! My next blog post will be after our Magic day with our resident magician Brett Schnieder.