Last Saturday’s performance of The Comedy of Errors was interpreted in ASL just off-stage-left as part of CSC’s dedication to making the production accessible to all.

Pictured: the ASL team is applauded during the curtain call.

This year, for the first time, CSC has been presenting “greenshows”: brief programs of music and theatre before our main production on the Boston Common. This past weekend, we were joined by Timothy Steele of the New England Conservatory Opera Studies program, as well as NEC Opera students Samantha Weppelmann, Kimberly Soby, Mxolisi Duda, and Jean Bernard Cerin.

Onstage: twenty-seven actors dancing, singing, speaking Shakespeare’s words.

Backstage: one actor tapping out his own dance in downtime between scenes.

First, there was a severe thunderstorm that drenched the area and chased the cast into the trailers:

Anyone know any good camp songs?

Once the skies cleared and the set was swept and squeegeed, we returned to work…

However, all the electrics had been shut down and wrapped up in plastic to save them from the rain, so we had to do a bit of improvising to get audio playback for rehearsal. Soon, with the aid of a laptop, a set of computer speakers, a megaphone, and a game stage manager, we were in business again:

Pictured: One of many audience members engaging in the nightly ritual of rushing to get a spot close to the stage when the house opens up before the show.

And once word of the Boston Globe’s review gets around, the rush is only going to get rushier!

Lighting Designer Scott PInkney and the rest of the lighting and electrics crew (Brittany, Mercedes, et al) getting the light plot focused and gelled.

More photos here.

Yesterday night, we had our last run-through and last note session in the rehearsal space and went over all the details and advice for moving rehearsals to the Common (bugspray and suntan lotion, and how!)

Then stage management went about breaking things down and moving us out of the hall:

It was a wonderful two weeks in the hall, but now it’s time for the Common, and the set and the lights and the show and the crowds and… Well, actually, today is a day off.

All that starts tomorrow.

The truss went up, the trailers were delivered, and the lights were hung from the truss. Here is most of it in photo form.

More photos here.

The soundtrack to these shots is the clock ticking away the hours and minutes before our first performance this Friday…

Last month, in preparation for The Comedy of Errors, the production team for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company met at Parkman Bandstand and discussed the where’s, how’s, and what’s of this summer’s show.

(click the image to see the full-sized panorama)

In Act 5 of The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare dumps pretty much the entire cast on the stage all at once. We’ve done that, and added a few ensemble members for good measure.

I would say we’ve done this because the stage we’re using is much larger than the one on which Shakespeare worked, however, a quick jaunt over to Wikipedia reveals that the dimensions of his stage (43′ x 27′) and ours (42′ x 24′) are eerily similar…

So let’s fall back on the fact that our anticipated nightly audience (5000) is significantly larger than his (3000), and we want to maintain the cast-to-crowd ratio he established in the scene.