We are right in the middle of rehearsals for our last production of the season, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress by Alan Ball. I have been amazed at how much fun we are having in rehearsal! To give an audience the chance to go “behind the curtain” and see the inner workings of relationships between females is an exciting prospect. It also allows for a great deal of silliness. I can’t wait to see how the menfolk react to this production!

Another reason I’m so thrilled to be a part of this production is just the sheer number of women working on it. A cast of five women (obviously), female Stage Manager and Stage Management Intern, female Lighting Designer/Technical Director. DCRT is obviously a female friendly company but there’s something about working with this many women that’s just delightful. This process has, so far, been so exciting to me for many reasons. One, we get to work with some new blood. We’ve got plenty of familiar DCRT faces in the show but getting the chance to work with one actor we’ve only worked with once before and two other actors we’ve never worked with is galvanizing us all in the rehearsal space. The new blood is energizing everyone!

But the main reason why I look forward to going to rehearsal every night is getting to work under the direction of DCRT Associate Artistic Director Frank Green.

Now, the reason why I love working with Frank on this production is that I go in to that space every night and watch a man approach something that terrifies him with complete and utter bravery. I see a man, directing a show about women (a mystery for any person of the male persuasion), surrounded by women, with little directing experience and Mr. Green is running, RUNNING towards the unknown. Watching Frank direct this show is witnessing a master class in bravery. Every night I watch him discover a new and more efficient way to communicate with his actors, a better way to lay his preconceived notions aside. I watch him creating a new language for himself and his cast. He is a brilliant example of an artist experimenting with his art at every opportunity. And what I also see, the thing that makes my heart swell, is that Frank’s bravery and humility in the rehearsal room is inspiring the rest of us to rise to that same level of risk and lack of ego. Frank has set the bar. And it’s now up to the rest of us to meet him on that level. It’s a challenge and a struggle for some of us, I know, because it is never easy to do the scary/hard thing. But I see the fire burning in our eyes. I see the desire to be great.

And I know that this show, which could so easily be written off as a fluff piece, will be so full of courage and wonderful because we had a fearless leader in Frank Green.