Unmasking The Malcontent: V.VI

Ladies and gentlemen, Tech Week has commenced.

JD Cullum and Bo Foxworth selecting cast names. Photo: Geoffrey Wade

The night began with Ms Hackett herself handing out the much deliberated, long labored o’er, and hitherto utterly secret Cast Lists. That’s right. We have now become a cast divided.

(Only not really, considering the Thursday/Friday mystery casts and so forth, but still. Highly dramatic, nonetheless).

These lists were complete in every respect excepting that each cast was as of yet unnamed; it is customary for Antaeus to name the separate casts after families or lines from the play, such as the Madmen and Fools casts for King Lear. In our case, we have the dubious honor of being either Wittols or Cuckolds. It was already determined that the Cuckold cast would open on Thursday and Saturday, whilst the Wittols would do so on Friday and Sunday…but which cast was which? Here began an unassailably objective (and dare I say rather complex) selection procedure, beginning with a coin toss.

Bo flipped. JD called. Bo won. Bo reached into the hat and withdrew… CUCKOLDS.

And thus, the casts were named. And there was much rejoicing.

Wittols                                                                                         Cuckolds

Oh my God! Did I even mention the set, yet? Tom Buderwitz has built us a BEAUTIFUL stage to play upon. Not only beautiful, but HUGE. The playing space has been extended a couple of feet out into the house and the walls seem to extend forever upwards into the heavens. It’s truly amazing what Tom can do with that space — it looks like something out of a museum and a palace all at the same time. There’s no other word to describe it except grand. The set is grand

Ann Noble and cast in Tech Rehearsal Photo: Geoffrey Wade

As for the costumes, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a little longer for my commentary on those; I haven’t seen any of them yet. Jeffrey Schoenberg and Jessica Olson lurk around the theater, plucking actors from the proceedings and spiriting them upstairs to be fitted; moments later they all seem to come down glowing with glee about whatever it is they’re going to be wearing and telling us all to “wait until we see it.” I’m told, however, that I won’t have my fitting until the end of tomorrow, and it’s KILLING me.

Jules Willcox, Adam Meyer and Saundra McClain rehearse. Photo: Geoffrey Wade

Ah well. At least I have the magical lights and music cues to keep me happy. They are delightfully beautiful, and add an entirely new level of momentum to the play that left all of us rolling with laughter as we worked through them. Who doesn’t want entrance music whenever they appear or red lights of fire whenever they’re enraged? All of these elements, the set, the costumes, and the lights and music, turned us into over-caffeinated kids on Christmas morning; we have but one more week of this before previews, and the real fun, begin.

A2 Ensemble Member, Abby Wilde, continues to share her experiences working on our production of The Malcontent . This is the sixth installment. For tickets, visit www.antaeus.org