The Hey Dani Dialogues: W;t Rehearsals Start

Actor/Director explorations of Pulitzers, eyebrows, a staff disrobed (gotcha!) and rehearsals that shine both ways

*“Hey, Dani, what are your three take-away words from table work for “W;t?”

*“Hey, Kate, we have to think about eyebrows.” 

Actor, Kate Goehring and Director, Dani Keil, still begin conversations like this, as the deeper dive into the Pulitzer Prize-winning “W;t” starts up rehearsals.

 

On the first rehearsal….

Dani: At first rehearsal the design team presented our concept.  Did any ideas or images inform you and your process?

Kate:  Oh, all of it:  our set designer’s ability to create distance (as illness can); the intuitive awareness of silence’s part in a soundscape by our sound designer; and our costume designer’s use of color and white to underscore the thin line between which is more ‘real’ – past or present.

On table work…

Kate:  What is the biggest surprise from the beginning of the process?

Dani: The laughter and joy during table work. The discussion has such passion, and each of you bring an openness.  You are all building off of each others’ ideas and reaching deeper understanding together. I see a chemistry among the cast already.

Kate: What are your three take-away words from table work?

Dani: The word Research is still resonating for me throughout the play. That word was a jumping off point during the design process, and the cast discussion has illuminated the art and wonder that a research process can hold.  The new words I’m thinking about are Time and Vulnerability and especially a relationship between those two ideas.

On poetry….

Dani: Your “100 Poems in 100 Days” Facebook challenge has come to a conclusion. What’s one that surprised you?

Kate:

MY HEART

I’m not going to cry all the time

nor shall I laugh all the time,

I don’t prefer one “strain” to another.

I’d have the immediacy of a bad movie,

not just a sleeper, but also the big,

overproduced first-run kind. I want to be

at least as alive as the vulgar. And if

some aficionado of my mess says “That’s

not like Frank!”, all to the good! I

don’t wear brown and grey suits all the time,

do I? No. I wear workshirts to the opera,

often. I want my feet to be bare,

I want my face to be shaven, and my heart–

you can’t plan on the heart, but

the better part of it, my poetry, is open.

 

– Frank O’Hara