Rehearsals on the big stage

05.08.2010

“Transition from the rehearsal room to the big stage is always a strong stress even for professionals, not to speak of our young artists. Yesterday, at the first dress rehearsal, there was a very clear sense of confusion among the kids – everything that was so well put together in the rehearsal space was immediately gone. Of course, they were all very upset at first, but no one gave up. At the very beginning of the project I warned them that this moment would definitely come and that they should survive it with dignity, concentrating on their work. It’s like moving into a new apartment, where you haven’t even had time to move in the furniture yet. Before you can start enjoying your new home, you have to get used to it. Today’s rehearsal showed that the children quickly enough took control of themselves and somewhat adapted to the new site. I can’t say that everything is smooth, but their actions have gained some confidence and started to look more organic. They began to slowly feel the magic of the big stage, which never happens in a rehearsal space. The children really began to feel their roles and enjoy everything that was happening between them on the set. We also got the light, which carries a powerful emotional coloring, with it all the scenes and dances of the musical look much better and even the sound is perceived in a completely different way. All the children take the rehearsal process very seriously and, despite the fatigue and weather, there is a fire of passion in their eyes, a desire to make the musical better – and it’s wonderful! Now we are at a new rather difficult stage of the project – linking light, sound, dance and transitions between scenes into a whole. There is a lot of fuss, everything sounds shaky and the main task of this week is to bring everything in order, to create the final picture of the musical. All in all, I think we have overcome all the problems that any artist experiences when going on the big stage for the first time.”

Recorded from the words of Elena Saleikova, the director of the musical.