Open Rehearsal, Melodramatic Photo Shoot

On Saturday, March 26, at the Old Stone House, we presented an open rehearsal of selected "Alice" scenes (plus added material by our writers!) for a small audience of our friends and mentors. This was a great opportunity for us to see how an audience would respond to the work we've been doing over the last few months. In rehearsals, we've experimented with applying melodramatic acting techniques to Pixérécourt's play, using "The Thespian Preceptor," an acting manual from 1810, as well as paintings from the period and other research. We chose three action-packed scenes from "Alice" to work on--one from each act, so we could begin to envision the arc of the piece--and also rehearsed original scenes by Libby Emmons, Avi Glickstein, and Sarah Sakaan.  

After the open rehearsal, we held an informal discussion with the audience, and they reflected on the story, the acting techniques, and melodrama more broadly. We're grateful to them for their encouragement and insightful comments!

We're also very grateful to Howard Wallach, who took beautiful photos of our actors rehearsing "Alice," and we wanted to share a few snapshots of our adventures in melodrama.  Click here for the photos!

--Miriam Felton-Dansky