First Table-Read!

Hi everyone!
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A few nights ago we invited our cast of 13 and our designers/crew of 9 to our itty bitty apartment in order to read the script, aloud, all together, for the first time. I was reminded of when I invited about 10 actor friends of mine over several months ago to read the script, and I thought cramming in 10 people would be hard.
So 20 should be a piece of cake!

Remarkably, armed with food, warmth, massive amounts of art supplies and every available surface in the house, we made it into an absolutely lovely evening.
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We began with the paperwork, contracts, waivers, all that good stuff, and quickly moved into designer presentations. Despite some of our designers being unavailable (it's what happens when you try to schedule a meeting with 20 people), we had presentations from all of them, giving everyone a better sense of the world we'll be creating with the play.

We took a short break and ate some brownies.
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Before reading, Jordan and I taught everyone how to paint an enso. It was lovely to see such interest in the core philosophy of our company. Enso's abounded and provided a new sense of presence in the room.

And then we dove into the script! With three missing actors, our brave ASMs stepped up and filled in for the necessary roles (with brilliance, I might add). So many beautiful moments happened that night. I think my favorite ones were when a cast member read a line completely differently from what I had in my head and an entirely new backstory/insight into that character erupted in front of me. They were adding depth to the piece that I didn't even know was there!

Following the read-through, we ate more brownies and pulled out the art supplies. I put out a large foam poster, magazines, markers, glue, post its, etc, and gave instructions to fill the poster with images we thought represented the world of the play, as we currently understand it. Some really exciting images appeared. We will continue to add to it once we begin rehearsals. You'll have to see the show to see the final collage... :)

All in all, a promising start to the process. I wish rehearsals were starting next week!

You can see the faces of our cast & crew here.

If you'd like to know where we want Enso to go in the next five years, go here or here.

If you'd like to see the first update of #enso4you, go here.

THANK YOU!!

Much love,
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Caitlin