Road to Opening Week 1: Cynthia Dale Begins Rehearsals for A Little Night Music

Starting a new show is a gloriously wonderful, terrifying experience. Everything I think I know about acting gets questioned. My heart races, my mind becomes numb and my soul pushes against the cage of fear. I am a 55 year old actor. I have been doing this since I was five, but it doesn't get any easier. It's the terror of the first day of school mixed with the joy of spring after a long winter. New beginnings, new friendships, new families, new life.

Acting is not for the faint of heart.

The place is the Stratford Festival, the show is A Little Night Music, the director is Gary Griffin, the character is Countess Charlotte Malcolm and I am Cynthia Dale.

It is my 14th season here. I have been lucky enough to make this theatre my home. It is at times like this I am grateful for all the fabulous people who work here and will guide this show from pre-production to its closing in October. Designers, stage managers, artisans, crews, musicians, all the actors and the audience that will be a part of this journey.

Our first days were spent working on music. It is an intricate and detailed score. Lyrical waltzes that are filled with elegant melodies and hauntingly difficult harmonies.... one of Stephen Sondheim's most famous. We individually and in groups stood poised at our music stands ready to listen and learn.

"I don't hear it in my body yet"....

"Is it supposed to sound that way?".....

"Is it really that fast?!?".....

"There a lot of words in that bar!".........

"I need help!!!"

No matter what other songs you sing in your life you will never forget learning and loving to sing Stephen Sondheim. It is a humbling experience, and one that keeps you on your toes. There is nothing casual about this music, these lyrics. Your brain and your heart are pushed to the utmost at all times and so it's only fitting that his music is being done here.

Shakespeare reigns supreme at the Stratford Festival, and has for over 60 years, but to those of us who mainly do musicals, he is our Shakespeare...Sondheim is to musicals as Shakespeare is to other theatre. It just simply does not get any better.

From my first conversations with Gary last summer, he spoke to me about the role of Charlotte (we were working at the time on another Stephen Sondheim show, Passion.) He spoke about what kind of a woman she is, what kind of an arc her character has, and of course, he spoke about the song "Everyday A Little Death"....

I can remember listening to this score, this song, over and over when I was younger. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever believe I would be this lucky.

It is still early days. Music stands, table work, learning lines and feeling our way through the story are all that we are about at this point. I have more questions than answers and definitely more things I don't know than I do, but I do know this.....I count my blessings every day that I get to walk into this rehearsal room. I get to breathe and live in this world of A Little Night Music, here at one of the most wonderful theatres in the world.

Hard work, magic and wonder....What could be better...?

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