Second Week of Rehearsal
page 6

Kathleen Smith, an assistant director, is a delight. Among her many duties, she stands in for principal singers to indicate their positions onstage. Yesterday we rehearsed the “opium scene,” during which the demons first appear to Faust: we lay out a carpet and pillows, he lies down, and then we crowd around him and give him a massage. At one point, we were told to sniff him first, and Kathleen, substituting for Faust, lay on her back and enjoyed the attention, crying, “No! Massage first; sniff later.” Several times during this scene she consulted her annotated score—I knew what she was doing, but I couldn't help bursting out in laughter at the sight of Faust enjoying a good book while surrounded by demons. Later, when we did the same scene in our latex costumes, she announced, “I'm sorry, but you people smell like a box of rubber bands.”

There were, however, more credible problems with this scene than the aroma. After several minutes of walking on and rolling all over Faust’s carpet, we rendered it an unsightly and potentially hazardous crumpled heap. After heated onstage discussion about this important issue, during which Faust intoned, “Our finest minds are now at work on this problem,” the props people put Velcro tabs on the corners and stage, which seemed to hold the carpet down satisfactorily.

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First Day - 1 2
Second Day - 3 4
Second Week - 5 6
Third Week - 7 8 9
Final Week - 10 11 12

“I'm sorry, but you people smell like a box of rubber bands.”
—Assistant Director