“Can you believe we have an audience on Friday?”

A discussion on propping up a drunken Michael James. From left to right: J.R. Sullivan, Sean McNall, Bradford Cover, and Lee Stark

I was chatting with our fantastic Stage Manager, Lisa Ledwich, during last Sunday’s rehearsal of The Playboy of the Western World when she pointed this out to me. It was the final run of the show before we went into tech this week—the next time the actors played it through was dress rehearsal last night.

Seriously, where does the time go? One day there’s a group of actors sitting around a table wrapping their mouths around Irish vowels for the first time, the next, Harry Feiner, our set designer is staple-gunning moss to the edge of a still drying set as Rachel Laritz, our costume designer, puts the finishing stitches on a red petticoat.

But I suppose my somewhat skewed sense of time is an occupational hazard. As a dramaturg, I often see the growth of a show in snapshots rather than seeing every step of the process. I’m around at the beginning, for the first few days of table-work as the actors and director talk through the script, sifting through actions, ideas, and story arcs. And as much prep-work as I do before a show begins, often it’s the actors’ questions and interests that come up here that lead me to the most interesting places—for The Playboy I spent a fascinating (and somewhat bittersweet) week trolling for images and sound-sources related to the practice of “keening,” and a hilarious morning on YouTube listening to The Clancy Brothers’ renditions of traditional Irish tunes (they wear matching knit sweaters—how great is that?!?).

A brief respite from the rigors of the day: Joe Kady as Old Mahon

I bop in and out of the initial round of blocking, to see if any further questions come up once the play is “on its feet,” but after that, I try to limit myself to watching the run-throughs, so I can offer the director an outsider’s perspective on what’s happening on the stage if he or she wants it—which is a real challenge when the show is exciting and I want to be there for every minute!

With The Playboy, it was particularly hard to stay away. Watching the company build the strange little corner of the world that J.M. Synge has written, seeing them find a physical life for the curious creatures who inhabit it, has been a real privilege. I love how rough and tumble things are, both physically and verbally. This is a village of storytellers who live by making things up as they go—that sense of improvisation and exploration is really feeding how people talk and move throughout the play.

Costume adjustment! Director J.R. Sullivan and Bradford Cover (Michael James).

As I write this we’re working through the play to add in lights, costumes, and sound, figuring out exactly which cups, jugs, tumblers, and plates we’re going to use, and fine-tuning the incredible fight scene at the end of the play (which I know only looks scary through the magic of theatre—a.k.a. fight director Rod Kinter—but still makes me bite my nails a bit).

And tonight we enter by far the most exciting part of the run, when we finally get to put things up in front of an audience, and can grow the show based on what that audience tells us. I think it’s amazing how much a show gains in strength between first preview and opening night, and I can’t wait to see where The Playboy ends up.

So, yep, audience tonight—I can’t wait to hear what you think of it. See you at City Center!

-Kate Farrington

The week our signs went up outside New York City Center for THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD. Check out the pictures of our new signs and be sure to get a good look at them when you come up to 55th Street to see the show. They feature the wonderful illustrations by Scott McKowen.

And so the season begins! On Tuesday we held our first rehearsal for THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD. Armed with bagels and coffee, the cast gathered around the table to read through the script.

After the reading, we were joined by our design team who presented the work they’ve been preparing for the show.

The Playboy takes place on the west coast of Ireland, the last part of the country most Irish emigrants saw before they left for America. In a sense, this coast is the edge of the world. In creating the lonely “shebeen” (public house) in which the play takes place, Set Designer, Harry Feiner sought to capture both the rugged, earthy lives of these characters and the sense of the wide, somewhat mysterious world somewhere beyond the walls.

Scenic Design by Harry Feiner

One of the things we were interested in exploring was the idea of conformity—that the people of this world might talk about grand deeds, but are born into a way of doing things, a way of behaving, and a way of thinking that doesn’t change much from person to person–and where Christy Mahon’s sudden appearance strikes them like a bolt from the blue. Rachel Laritz’s costume design utilizes the women’s red skirts and men’s work jackets that were widely worn across Ireland well into the 20^th century, and emphasize this sense of convention–these people are all cut from the same cloth.

Design by Rachel Laritz

Design by Rachel Laritz

Design by Rachel Laritz

Design by Rachel Laritz

Design by Rachel Laritz

Design by Rachel Laritz

Design by Rachel Laritz

Design by Rachel Laritz

Design by Rachel Laritz