{"id":11427,"date":"2015-12-02T06:46:03","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T14:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=11427"},"modified":"2015-11-30T11:48:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T19:48:16","slug":"meet-me-in-st-louis-director-helps-cast-build-character","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2015\/12\/02\/meet-me-in-st-louis-director-helps-cast-build-character\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Me in St. Louis<\/em> director helps cast build character"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Chris Moss, director of Meet Me in St. Louis,<\/i> rehearsal stands for \u201cre-hear.\u201d It is only after he and the cast re-hear the music and words a number of times, he says, that his cast members can truly \u201cown their character.\u201d The countless hours of collaboration and preparation for a large-scale show like this one is something that Moss loves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of dealing with people,\u201d he says. \u201cWhich, in theatre, I enjoy. This show is a boy-meets-girl kind of show. It\u2019s a really fun, family show. It\u2019s not going to break any records anywhere, but it\u2019s one you can come away from smiling. It\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moss is directing 23 actors and actresses, most of whom are still in high school. Working with such a large group of people and watching them develop, Moss says, is one of the most rewarding factors of directing.<\/p>\n

\"Meet<\/a>
Meet Me In St. Louis features local 15-year-old Angelina Robinson as female lead Esther Smith (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cGradually, over the period of the whole rehearsal period, you go from telling them, \u2018That was terrible\u2019 to, \u2018That was wonderful.\u2019 And their confidence builds every time they have a rehearsal. And they can feel it. They own the roles, and they start saying to each other, \u2018Let\u2019s go over that part that we did yesterday and get it right this time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Moss says that when the writers adapted the movie for the stage (Meet Me in St. Louis<\/i> was originally a 1944 film starring Judy Garland, then adapted to the stage in 1989), they evened out all the parts, so that each cast member had \u201cenough to build their character around,\u201d which, according to Moss, has created \u201ca much more balanced show than it is in the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing we don\u2019t have is small cats and dogs in it,\u201d says Moss with a chuckle. \u201cOther than that, it\u2019s loveable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moss says that if he, as a director, can be responsible for 50 percent of what happens on stage, leaving the other half to the creativity of the actors and actresses, then he can trust the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome actors are used to being told exactly what to do on day one. You stand there, you turn in this direction, you raise your eyebrows, and then you say your line, and that\u2019s not the way I direct. I explore the character.\u201d<\/p>\n

15-year-old Angelina Robertson is playing female lead Esther Smith, who was portrayed by Judy Garland in the film version. Robertson\u2019s love of theatre and performing arts goes back to Grade 3, she says, when her elementary school drama teacher introduced her to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then, I\u2019ve always loved theatre,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Robertson says she was attracted to the storyline and the role of Smith right from the beginning of the audition process. She is tackling a big endeavour at a young age, but loves being up on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a bit of pressure in having a part like this and having had such a world-known person play that part,\u201d she says, adding that Moss is a great person to work with and has amazing pointers. \u201cI think it shouldn\u2019t be too bad, but there is always pressure trying to get it to be as good as you want it to be, especially when someone as good as Judy Garland has played the role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moss says that he loves comedies because he gets to laugh a lot during rehearsals, but adds that after all the laughs is the satisfaction of a job well done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a satisfying experience when you put that much effort into something,\u201d he says. \u201cYou want to come out of it saying that everyone\u2019s been having a good time here and we\u2019ve come up with a product that the audience will like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meet Me in St. Louis
\n<\/i>December 4 to December 13
\n$21.75-$49.50,\u00a0MacPherson Playhouse
\nrmts.bc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Chris Moss, director of Meet Me in St. Louis, rehearsal stands for \u201cre-hear.\u201d It is only after he and the cast re-hear the music and words a number of times, he says, that his cast members can truly \u201cown their character.\u201d The countless hours of collaboration and preparation for a large-scale show like this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-december-2-2015"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11429,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11427\/revisions\/11429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}