Rehearsals ran for two weeks, nearly 12 hours a day. As the opening night approached the details of the production filled out. After the blocking was in place, the music was added, the props appeared, and then with the cast in full costume and makeup there was a complete run-through.
After each rehearsal, the cast would sit in the house seats while the director, the choreographer, and the choral director would give notes...points on where to improve, corrections, some scolding, some encouragement...notes. As the rehearsals progressed, the notes became more specific, refinements on nuances, and there would also be notes from the stage manager, the property master, the technical director, and the costumer.
I don't remember ever having notes directed at me. As an extra, I was more of a prop: important, really essential, but not requiring a lot of direction as long as I was in the right place at the right time acting the right way.
The night before opening night, there was the full dress rehearsal just as if all 2,022 seats in the house were filled. But they weren’t; there were probably 20 people in the audience which included all the various directors, but there were also two people who had not seen any of the rehearsals, but to whom the cast played every line and movement.
One was the playwright, Paul Green. Father of the Outdoor Drama, he had built a huge reputation over the previous three decades as the creator of symphonic drama...a combination of choral pieces, dance numbers and dramatic action all with a very specific purpose: the depiction of a significant historical event performed on the site of the historical event. Most often the audience were tourists. Green had won a Pulitzer in 1927 for his Broadway play In Abraham’s Bosom. He had written the screenplay for the 1933 version of State Fair and worked with Richard Wright to adapt Native Son for the stage in a 1941 production directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman.
The other person was Richard Boone, known at the time and forever as Paladin, the cool and kind hit man from the television western Have Gun, Will Travel, that ran on CBS from 1957 through 1963. He had been nominated for an Emmy five times, had done Broadway and film, but it was his role as Paladin for which he is remembered. After retiring to Hawaii, during which he declined the lead for the new show, Hawaii Five-O, but convinced show's creator that is should be shot on location, Boone had come to live in St. Augustine in the early 1970’s. He became associated with the Cross and Sword production, serving on the board of directors and as an advisor. By 1974, the production’s 10th year, he only appeared at the final dress rehearsal for notes.
At the time of that night's dress rehearsal, Green was 70 and Boone was 57. Both died in 1981.
I remember that both made a few comments, and although their notes were mostly for the leads, we all listened carefully. None of their notes were directed at me...a very, very good thing for an extra.
After each rehearsal, the cast would sit in the house seats while the director, the choreographer, and the choral director would give notes...points on where to improve, corrections, some scolding, some encouragement...notes. As the rehearsals progressed, the notes became more specific, refinements on nuances, and there would also be notes from the stage manager, the property master, the technical director, and the costumer.
I don't remember ever having notes directed at me. As an extra, I was more of a prop: important, really essential, but not requiring a lot of direction as long as I was in the right place at the right time acting the right way.
The night before opening night, there was the full dress rehearsal just as if all 2,022 seats in the house were filled. But they weren’t; there were probably 20 people in the audience which included all the various directors, but there were also two people who had not seen any of the rehearsals, but to whom the cast played every line and movement.
One was the playwright, Paul Green. Father of the Outdoor Drama, he had built a huge reputation over the previous three decades as the creator of symphonic drama...a combination of choral pieces, dance numbers and dramatic action all with a very specific purpose: the depiction of a significant historical event performed on the site of the historical event. Most often the audience were tourists. Green had won a Pulitzer in 1927 for his Broadway play In Abraham’s Bosom. He had written the screenplay for the 1933 version of State Fair and worked with Richard Wright to adapt Native Son for the stage in a 1941 production directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman.
The other person was Richard Boone, known at the time and forever as Paladin, the cool and kind hit man from the television western Have Gun, Will Travel, that ran on CBS from 1957 through 1963. He had been nominated for an Emmy five times, had done Broadway and film, but it was his role as Paladin for which he is remembered. After retiring to Hawaii, during which he declined the lead for the new show, Hawaii Five-O, but convinced show's creator that is should be shot on location, Boone had come to live in St. Augustine in the early 1970’s. He became associated with the Cross and Sword production, serving on the board of directors and as an advisor. By 1974, the production’s 10th year, he only appeared at the final dress rehearsal for notes.At the time of that night's dress rehearsal, Green was 70 and Boone was 57. Both died in 1981.
I remember that both made a few comments, and although their notes were mostly for the leads, we all listened carefully. None of their notes were directed at me...a very, very good thing for an extra.