Pratima's Ponderings

I love podcasts. One of my favorite podcasts is “Radio Lab”, which releases weekly hour-long episodes featuring stories that revolve around a central theme or topic. This week’s episode focused on a theory the hosts composed of the “black box”. This refers to a situation where the beginning and end are apparent but what happens in between is unclear. For example, the thought process of a patient who undergoes surgery and has been anesthetized is discussed. The patient remembers “going under”, lying on the table ready to be cut open and repaired and waking up in a hospital room, connected to a myriad of beeping machines with no knowledge of what had inevitably occurred during surgery. Strangely enough, this made me think of the process we experience when preparing for a play here.

On the outside, you’re completely blind to exactly how much work goes into a play here. You’re unable to comprehend the complexity of the rehearsal procedure until you’ve experienced it firsthand. Even the most detailed accounts of the work that a play requires is still not an accurate summation. The middle is ambiguous, furnishing Berkshire Theater with our very own “black box” – a unique kind of Black Box Theater.

This week, we had out Act II line run, which was both amazing and anxiety inducing. As of this Thursday, we open in three weeks. It’s incredible to think that everything we have been doing up to this point, memorizing lines and working on the set, is leading up to a palpable goal: the performance. As the pre-tech week nerves start to kick in, however, it seems that our cast only becomes more tight-knit and supportive. Everyone is helping each other run lines and songs instead of just working on their own parts. Our run-through on Friday helped everyone realize the extent of Into the Woods’ potential, which wouldn’t be plausible without the love that everyone has for the process. I have enormous faith this cast (myself included) that we will all come through and put on an A-plus performance. After all, the mystery of the “black box” loses its intrigue if the end product is not ceaselessly fascinating enough to make you wonder how it all exactly happened. Let’s keep them on their toes, friends.

Until next time, this is Pratima, and these have been my ponderings.