The GoodheART Report – Crossing Rehearsal Diary: Week 3

Nina Goodheart, rehearsal assistant and gap year intern, returns with a progress report on rehearsals for Crossing, a new American opera written by Matthew Aucoin and directed by Diane Paulus. Check out http://americanrepertorytheater.tumblr.com/tagged/the-goodheart-report to read about this rehearsal process from the beginning. 

I am writing this blog post from a bus to Boston, and I can’t believe our three weeks of rehearsal in New York are over! To catch you up, here are some highlights from the past week…

– Watching Matthew tinker at the piano in the middle of a rehearsal session, writing new music right before our eyes. One day, the changes to the character of Wormley’s music and lyrics were coming so quickly that Matthew just penciled them directly into actor Al Lewis’s copy of the score.

– Joking around with the cast. Considering that we spend our days reliving one of the most tortured times in American history, we have a pretty good time together.

– Visiting the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library after hours, where curator Isaac Gewirtz gave us a special presentation on Walt Whitman and allowed us to view a number of original Whitman documents. We got to see several first edition copies of Leaves of Grass, handwritten manuscripts, and even postcards from Whitman to his friends and lovers. On one postcard, Whitman wrote, “I am now going out on a prowl ‘til dusk,” a line that I firmly believe should be integrated into the Crossing libretto, because it’s amazing. Special thanks to Isaac, and to Brenna Nicely, one of our wonderful dramaturgs, who arranged the field trip!

– (On the same trip, we also got a chance to see a few artifacts unrelated to Whitman, like Charlotte Bronte’s portable writing desk – I held her pencil! – and Charles Dickens’s letter opener, which was mounted with the leg of his deceased cat, Bob. For real.)

– Our first run-through (or two) of the opera. I am in awe of our cast’s ability to synthesize all the aspects of performing Crossing – from singing intricate harmonies and rhythms to embodying their characters’ war wounds – and turn out such fully realized performances in just three weeks of rehearsal. I actually found myself getting choked up at the end of the show (you’ll have to come see it if you want to know why…). We welcomed several guests to the run-throughs, from A.R.T. board members to A.R.T. alum Laura Michelle Kelly, who continues to dazzle on Broadway in Finding Neverland. We still have work to do before we open on May 29, but it was thrilling to see the whole show from start to finish and become immersed in the story all over again.

– Looking ahead to Boston. As much as I’ll miss living a few blocks from Broadway, I’ll be very happy to be home, and I can’t wait for the Crossing team to get to the Citi Shubert Theater.

Check back soon for another update!

Nina Goodheart is a full-time artistic intern, blogger, and rehearsal assistant to the director for Crossing at the American Repertory Theater. She thinks opera singers are basically superheroes.