Lindbergh’s Rehearsal Log
Day: 9
Weather:
Hours of rehearsal: 63
Days until first preview: 22
Number of props used in the show (so far): 124
*Note: This week’s rehearsal got pretty busy and so I fell a little bit behind on the log blog, and for this I apologize. But with the addition of these three entries, I will be caught up and you will be up to date! Don’t miss the Wright Brothers competition as part of Day: 11.
*Note: I was chatting in rehearsal today and mentioned to one of my cast mates that I’m red/green colorblind. Usually when I mention this fact to people they start pointing at every red and green thing in sight and asking me what color it is. I laugh when people point to something red or green and say “So, can you see this?” As if I’ve somehow managed to live my life only seeing half the things in the world and struggling to find those that have been rendered invisible by my colorblindness. On this particular day, however, that was not the case. However, it was brought up that I wouldn’t actually be allowed to fly a plane. And its true, colorblind people aren’t allowed to fly planes. As part of your pilot’s license testing, you have to be able to identify colors of signal lights, flares and map symbols. So I guess I won’t be giving up acting to become a pilot!
Posted by Claybourne Elder, who plays Charles Lindbergh in McCarter Theatre’s Production of Take Flight.
Lindbergh’s Rehearsal Log
Day: 8
Weather: Overcast, scattered showers
Hours of rehearsal: 56
Days until first preview: 23
Number of days it took to build the Spirit of St. Louis: 60
Number of seconds it took the Spirit of St. Louis to take off for the first time: 6.5
*Notes: Today we had a music brush-up rehearsal and we started chatting about the music that underscores many of my scenes in the show. To my amazement our music director told me that our brilliant sound designer, Ken Travis, has taken an actual audio recording of the engine of the Spirit of St. Louis and put a pitch to it and it will be playing along with the orchestrations! How incredible is that?!
*Notes: A few facts about Amelia Earhart:
Earhart was called “Lady Lindy” because her slim build and facial features resembled that of Charles Lindbergh.
Earhart refused to don typical flying gear—she wore a suit or dress instead of the “high-bread aviation togs,” a close-fitting hat instead of a helmet, didn’t put on her goggles until she taxied to the end of the field and removed them immediately upon landing.
She developed a friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt, who wanted to learn how to fly. Earhart had planned to teach her, for which the First Lady even got her student permit.
Earhart met Orville Wright at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1937, the same year she disappeared.
Earhart had such an impression on public that people often wrote and told her about naming babies, lakes and even homing pigeons “Amelia.”
The United States government spent $4 million looking for Earhart, which made it the most costly and intensive air and sea search in history at that time.
She was the 16th woman to receive a pilot’s license from the FAI (License No. 6017).
Posted by Claybourne Elder, who plays Charles Lindbergh in McCarter Theatre’s Production of Take Flight.
Day: 7
Weather: Sunny, clear skies
Hours of rehearsal: 49
Days until first preview: 24
Number of steps from my house to the theatre: 1184
*Note: I got online today to read up about flight in the early part of the 20th century. Today, we’re very disconnected from our flight experience. We get so used to planes that we forget that we’re up in the sky at all. Planes in the 1920’s often didn’t have roofs so the pilot and passengers were totally exposed to the elements. The Spirit of St. Louis had a roof but had big open windows. Lindbergh talks about wanting to lower his plane to bounce off the ocean waves hoping to send some water spraying into his face to wake himself up. For me, it made the danger of early flight so much more tangible.
My scariest in-flight experience happened recently: I was flying from Utah, where my family lives, back to my home in New York. It’s your standard cross country flight; 5 hours of sitting and enjoying a thimble of ginger ale and peanuts (if you’re lucky) trying to get interested in what are mostly terrible movies. I knew the flight was a little cursed before take off because I found myself sitting between two extremely tall men who were invading my knee space. I’m 6′2″, but these guys must have been over 6′5″. So I didn’t exactly blame them for spilling their ample leg length toward me, but I did object to the fact that I couldn’t put my tray table down without resting it on their knees. I went to my happy place: SkyMall magazine and was thrilled when a woman showed up and told the giant on my left that he was sitting in her seat. As our row re-situated and my compacted body expanded slightly, the rest of the plane filed in, including a woman with twins who plopped down directly in front of me and someone with a cat in a bag who sat directly behind me. I realize in both of those situations there are success stories and failures. I have two very well behaved twin nephews who I’m sure would be nothing but delightful on a flight. They would sit and color and the flight attendant would give them little gold wings. And I have a dog, but I have many friends with cats that seem so mellow that you could stuff them in any sort of bag and push them under a seat and they wouldn’t make a peep. Think of the extreme opposite of these two situations and you’ll have a picture in your head of what I was dealing with.
After about two hours of listening to the the miserable cat howling and the children struggling with their poor mother, things settled a little. Then the captain announced that we would be hitting some turbulence and that we should take our seats and buckle up. How many times have you heard that? How many time do you actually take it seriously? A few minutes later the plane shook violently. One of the flight attendants ran down the aisle to get into her seat and buckle herself in. The whole plane fell silent. Even the cat was quiet. Then the plane shook even more vigorously than the first time, dropped for a few seconds and then shook us all like a cheap carnival ride. At that point something unexplainable happened to me. Me and the woman sitting next to me, who hadn’t said a word to one another, bent our elbows and firmly grabbed each other’s hands and held on tight for several minutes looking ahead all the while.
If Lindbergh had only known that he just needed to put a spastic cat under his seat and let a couple of twins ride with him he would have had no trouble staying awake. But he was firm in his decision that he would have to fly alone if his single engined plane was going to make it across the Atlantic. It’s difficult for us to understand the danger he was putting himself in. After imagining myself in his situation for a while, my research time was finished and I was happy to return to the land of commercial flying in the 2000’s.
Posted by Claybourne Elder, who plays Charles Lindbergh in McCarter Theatre’s Production of Take Flight.
Lindbergh’s Rehearsal Log
Day: 6
Weather: Perfectly sunny for finding Easter eggs
Hours of rehearsal: 42
Days until first preview: 25
Numbers of full read/sing throughs of the show: priceless.
*Note: After a week of working hard to learn all our music, today we put the script and score together and read through the show for the first time. You could cut the excitement with a propeller (get it?) as the cast, artistic staff, writers and some theater staff gathered to hear the first sketch of what this beautiful show is going to be. I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous. It was mostly nervous-excitement though as there was no pressure to make it any sort of performance, just a first, broad stroke. All the nervousness melted away when as a cast we sang the first number. There’s something very magical that happens when a cast unites in purpose. I felt immediately like part of a larger whole and the energy of the cast lifted me up and supported me and before I knew it we were at the end of the show. I don’t want to ruin any surprises for you when you come to the show, but let me just say that there are moments that are going to blow you away. I feel so lucky to be in the company of such a talented group!
Posted by Claybourne Elder, who plays Charles Lindbergh in McCarter Theatre’s Production of Take Flight.
One section of the Take Flight historical image board in the rehearsal room, complied by McCarter Literary Department
Day: 5
Weather: Foggy morning but clear and beautiful during the day
Hours of rehearsal: 35
Days until first preview: 26
Percent of my New Jersey tattoo remaining: 40%
Percent of return gained on buy-in from cast poker night: 180% (sorry guys)
Number of costume fittings: 5
Wig Measurement Appointments: 4
*Note: Today we did some more table work on the scenes from the show. When a cast does table work, it means we gather with the creative team and talk through the show. We read the scenes and then open up discussion about the characters and their interactions. It’s a great time to talk through questions you have with the script and for the director to give you their impressions on the material. While discussing the Lindbergh scenes, we talked about what it would be like to have to force yourself to stay awake to stay alive. Lindbergh didn’t sleep the night before he took his flight and then he had to fly for 33 hours. There was a brief moment in which I considered staying awake for a few days as research. But instead I decided to draw on what life was like in college and called it good.
Posted by Claybourne Elder, who plays Charles Lindbergh in McCarter Theatre’s Production of Take Flight.
Day: 4, Table Work Sessions
Weather: Light fog in the morning, not a cloud in the sky during the day
Hours of rehearsal: 28
Days until first preview: 27
Number of cast field trips to visit the stage: 1
Crazy cats waiting for me outside the theatre: 1
*Note: I love pets. I grew up with dogs, horses, fish, turtles, hamsters, etc… I say this so you’ll know that I generally have a good rapport with domesticated animals. However, today I met my match. I finished rehearsal a bit before everyone else and so I left the theatre alone. As I walked out the stage door, I stopped to check my cell phone and noticed a cat intently watching me from a bench about 3 yards away. It was perked up, back slightly arched, staring me down in that way that cats do as though you’ve just interrupted them in the middle of something important. Like the cat was curled up with the latest Harry Potter and a glass of milk and I came outside screaming and waving my arms. As I started to walk again, I expected the cat to bound away like jittery cats do when interrupted. But to my shock, the cat jumped down from the bench and took two strides toward me, eyes locked with mine the entire time. “Its on,” the cat’s beady little eyes gleamed.
What stuck me most—as I was contemplating what it would be like to get rabies—was something I had just read about Lindbergh. Just before he took his great flight, he spent 8 days waiting for weather to clear to take off from Curtiss Field in New York. He kept the plane ready so at any moment he could jump in and fly. During that time a kitten took up residence near the plane and kind of became their little mascot. They named her Patsy. Up until the day before he left, Lindbergh spent a lot of time playing with the kitten in the plane and had decided to fly her across the ocean with him. There are some great photos of them together in the hangar. Ultimately he decided not to take Patsy, but for a moment newspapers reported Patsy was going to be the co-pilot. Apparently even cats get 15 minutes of fame.
It seems that the crazy cat outside the theatre decided I deserved to live because it finally took off in another direction. But it stands to question: If cats have nine lives, could Patsy still be wandering somewhere around the Northeast waiting for Lindbergh to take her on the promised flight? Probably not. So I’ve decided to call my crazy cat Sally.
Posted by Claybourne Elder, who plays Charles Lindbergh in McCarter Theatre’s Production of Take Flight.
Lindbergh’s Rehearsal Log
Day: 3
Weather: Gorgeous blue skies
Hours of rehearsal: 21
Days until first preview: 28
Number of cast members with pink socks: 1
*Notes: Lindbergh Facts learned today: In his life he flew an estimated 280,000 miles in 8,400 flights. He spent 3,150 hours in airplanes according to his meticulously organized flight book which included flight number, mileage, cities traveled to, passengers and mechanical data of every flight ever flown. He flew over 8,600 passengers.
*Notes: During music rehearsal today, two actors were asked on the fly to improvise some Italian dialogue and flawlessly spewed forth in actual Italian (or what miraculously resembled it.)
Posted by Claybourne Elder, who plays Charles Lindbergh in McCarter Theatre’s Production of Take Flight.
Day: 2
Weather: Beautifully sunny, Spring is near
Hours of Rehearsal: 14
Days until 1st Preview: 29
Dialect Sessions: 8
Number of New Jersey-shaped temporary tattoos on members of the company: 5
*Note: After a long day of rehearsals, I decided to pick up some mini-cupcakes at the Bent Spoon and lo and behold found New Jersey-shaped temporary tattoos for sale. Included is a photo of mine—proudly displayed on my arm.
*Note: Special thanks to the nice women at J. Crew who lent me an umbrella yesterday when it was very rainy. They only had umbrellas in the women’s section and I couldn’t bring myself to show up with a pink flowery umbrella.
Posted by Claybourne Elder, who plays Charles Lindbergh in McCarter Theatre’s Production of Take Flight.
I was that kid on the first day of school who was so excited and nervous that he packed two lunches, just in case, and had his clothing options lined up four days ahead of schedule. Obsessive? Maybe a little. But it all grew out of excitement for the unknown and the exploration of something new. What will my teachers be like? Will the other kids like me? Will they make fun of my Thunder Cats trapper keeper?
Claybourne Elder
Now as an actor, I get to have the first day of school about every three months as I begin work on a play. But rarely do I get the extra-exciting thrill of working on a new musical. I couldn’t hide my grin as I walked into the Berlind Rehearsal Hall today, having John Weidman, Richard Maltby Jr., and David Shire in the room casually sipping coffee. Three men whose work I admire so much, and here we are about to embark on a new adventure together: Take Flight. Plus an outstanding director, crew, cast and company on the runway, just waiting to take off. We all milled around and ate delicious bagels (and macaroons and matzo in honor of Passover) then took our seats to start our day.
So much preparation has gone into the weeks and months before our arrival that I couldn’t even begin to describe. What I can tell you about, however, is my preparation for playing Charles Lindbergh. It’s always tricky playing a historical figure because you can study and research to your heart’s content, but the story told within the script is the most important piece of reference material. There are countless books on Lindbergh and each paints him such a different light, I wasn’t sure where to begin. Lost in a sea of Lindbergh biographies at the Strand Bookstore in New York, I emailed John Weidman to ask for advice. He recommended a few books that he felt gave a good unbiased overview and a great piece of advice: Be careful, Lindbergh wasn’t necessary the heroic man you picture in your head standing next to his plane, scarf waving in the wind. Well, maybe that’s not exactly what he said, but that’s what I took away.
The month prior to starting rehearsals, I did a lot of traveling, perfect time to get some reading done. I spend so much time on planes that I ended up reading The Spirit of St. Louis, Lindbergh’s account of his transcontinental flight, entirely in the air. Learning so much about flying makes your senses heighten when you’re on a commercial flight. How amazing is it that we can get into a big metal tube and 5 hours later be on the opposite coast? We’re long past the days of Lindbergh when planes had an open cockpit and were made out of a metal frame covered in cloth and painted with dope. Before the jet engine, cargo weight was a very important issue pilots had to deal with. Lindbergh was so concerned about weight that he used a wicker chair as his pilots seat in the Spirit of St. Louis. And he probably would have charged you a lot more than $25 a bag to check your luggage.
Reading The Spirit of St. Louis gave me an idea, which leads me to the real purpose of this blog entry. In the book, every hour Lindbergh notates in his flight log. So, I bought myself a little notebook for my back pocket and decided that I would make a rehearsal log, just as an exercise and a way to connect my experience. And on our first day when it was mentioned that cast members sometimes contribute to the blog, I thought this might be a great addition. Every few days, hopefully, I’ll post Lindbergh’s Rehearsal Log Blog with some stats, info and maybe a photo or two about our journey into this piece. This first entry will be pretty short, but as the days go on I’ll have more to include!
On behalf of the cast and crew, we’re all so thrilled to be here at the McCarter and in this fantastic community to create this piece AND we’re so excited to share it with you!
Lindbergh’s Rehearsal Log Blog
Day: 1, Cast of Take Flight descends on Princeton
Weather: Heavy Rain
Hours of Rehearsal: 7
Cast Members: 12
Bagels Consumed: roughly 24
Cast members with mustaches: 1
Posted by Claybourne Elder, who plays Charles Lindbergh in McCarter Theatre’s Production of Take Flight.
In this video, Francis Guinan, Tracy Letts (author of August: Osage County and Superior Donuts) and Patrick Andrews discuss working with director Amy Morton on American Buffalo. The play, from Chicago’s famed Steppenwolf Theatre, will be performed at McCarter Theatre from March 9-28, 2010.
Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.
