Shout out to our Kent State fellow players and dramaturgs

Hello Kent State! This is Dr. Fitzgerald, the official dramaturg for our production here in Toledo as well as in Toronto (and blog master, to boot). If things seem a little strangely silent on our end, I just wanted to let you know we're thinking of you. And clearly, you are thinking of us, too, because I noticed that many of your blog posts at your Tumblr site mention us and wonder what we think of your production so far.

Let me just tell you that so far we've had one lively and enthusiastic class discussion about your first run-through video. After we've watched the second one, students will write a response to both videos and we'll forward them all to Dr. Dugas.

There are a couple of things you should know about how our class and production are organized. First of all, the students in our medieval drama class ("Medieval Drama Then and Now") are *not* in our production. However, they *are* all assistant dramaturgs, and will get a credit in our program here, since Dr. Lingan, the director, has been incorporating many of their ideas into our production. It's the students in the class who will be responding to your production, so they'll be thinking more as dramaturgs (and potential audience) than as actors. The other thing that makes your production very different is that you guys clearly have a tight-knit group of performer-students because you've been working together in class and in performance since last semester. We've only been at it this semester, and with two entirely separate groups of students! Although the students in our class are coming to rehearsals and will be coming to the performance, our actors aren't in class with us.

And the other big difference, as I mentioned below, is that we're first doing a two and half hour performance of our truncated "Creation/Doomsday" play and then rehearsing for the wagon performance. I noticed from your blogs that some of you are worried about falling off the wagon (literally, that is), but you'll have more practice before Toronto than we will, at least!

We're looking forward to your next video, and, of course, meeting you all in Toronto!

Updated to add: And thank you all very much for your response to our first video!!! Sorry we've been so rudely silent.

Latest rehearsal footage of Temptation/Woman in Adultery/Healing of Blind Man

Here's the latest rehearsal footage of our performance of the Chester play episodes we're taking to Toronto: The Temptation of Christ, The Woman Taken in Adultery, and the Healing of the Blind Man.

The set is clearly not a mere pageant wagon. That's because we're doing a production here at Toledo in two weeks of the entire Chester Cycle -- well, a truncated version of it -- and this performance is blocked for that. After our production closes, Dr. Lingan, the director, and the actors will re-block it for pageant-wagon performance.

Let us know what you think!

Oh Canada!

Are you wondering what all these references to a production in Toronto are about? Well, in addition to our Creation / Doomsday play at UT (April 16-18, 21-25, 2010 -- get tickets here!), we're taking a part of that production -- the Temptation of Christ, the Woman Taken in Adultery, and the Healing of the Blind Man episodes -- to Toronto to perform as part of a production of the entire Chester Cycle over three days, May 22-24, 2010. You can read all about that large scale effort here, at the Chester 2010 web site.

Ohio gets medieval!

Our peers at Kent State will be performing immediately after us at the Toronto performance of the Chester Cycle. We're doing Play 12: The Temptation of Christ and The Woman Taken in Adultery (also featuring The Healing of the Blind Man) and they're doing Play 13: Lazarus, Simon the Leper, the Entry into Jerusalem, and Judas' Plot. You can see what they're up to and how their play is coming along at the KSU Medieval Drama Guild web site. Go to the "Media" tab to see costume sketches and videos of their rehearsals.

By the way, KSU and UT aren't the only Ohio universities involved. Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, will be performing Play 7: The Prophets, the Annunciation, and Joseph's Troubles. Let's hear it for the Buckeye State!

Our play is taking shape - rehearsal footage from 2/11

Here's the first video we shot of rehearsals. We're still more or less in the beginning stages of our production, as you'll see.

The video focuses on the Temptation of Christ, one of the three episodes from combined plays 12 and 13 that we'll be performing in Toronto. It's an hour long, so you might want to watch it in batches. I'll ask Dr. Lingan, the director, to post a comment below with any highlights that you might want to skip to.