Here’s playwright Kenneth Lin writing about the rehearsal process for said Saïd, the next show in our season:

Hello, MTC Weblog Visitor. Welcome to the first addition of my said Saïd production blog. I must admit that we are getting into it a little bit later in the process. My apologies. The first week of rehearsal was spent getting over a little jet-lag; getting to know the artistic team (each one a Valentine, incidentally); dealing with storm-induced, electricity-less frontier living and finally, reacquainting myself with my play. As I’ve learned, there was unfinished business to be done.

So, anyway, this is the second-production of said Saïd and in many ways the second production of a play is just as important as the World Premiere. The World Premiere is generally full of excitement and a lot of energy, but then the play graduates and goes into the world to find itself. The second-production is the first job.

Judging from the past week of table work, it’s been a really great gig — especially, since I get to work on this play with my good friend Jasson Minadakis, who I met when he was the Artistic Director of Actor’s Express in Atlanta. Jasson has an incredible facility with working with text. He has a deep understanding of theatrical language, which is really a deep understanding of all the things that go unspoken between people. I think this kind of fluency is deeply important as I think that it speaks to why I think being a theater artist is important. Theater gives voice to that which goes unspoken between us. It says what needs to be said. (No pun intended.) It’s been incredible to see how Jasson is able to understand the hidden voices inside of my play and help the actors place it in their bodies.

And what actors! This is an incredibly strong cast and now that blocking and stage have begun, the play is really starting to take on it’s own life. This is also the time when I’m starting to feel like the play isn’t so much mine anymore, and actually starts to belong to the production. At the end of it all, these actors will know more about these characters than I know about them. Jasson will know more about this production and the text’s role in it than I. That is as it should be and I’m thoroughly enjoying sitting back and watching. This also means that I have more time to spend with you now, so stay tuned and I’ll try my best to be a fly on the wall for you. Thanks for reading. I look forward to seeing you on opening night.

Best,
kl