Ground Zero for our Covid Ditty rehearsals. With outdoor dining firmly in place the tents now a fixture in the parking lot became our rehearsal hall. Actors coming in from all the five boroughs, crew from Jersey it all seems like light years ago in a strange way. We would Covid test across the street at Imperial Pharmacy as required pre-vaccine with pencils and scripts in hand. I love pencils and paper. Don’t show up to my rehearsals with your script on a cell phone or kindle…Pa..lease! We’d dive into each script. Andrew Terranova a.k.a. Charlie loved our table reads and how he could explore the lines, characters and relationships. We would discuss the script, the meaning and urge our cast to bring their own Covid trauma to their characters. I think that's what gives Covid Ditty its authenticity; that we were creating the show sort of speak on the fly, getting inspired by what was happening around us. For instance, piled up chairs at the Panda restaurant to the church memorial service at St. John's visitation, it all became very real and immediate. Moving now into 3 years after we started our series I feel we captured a time that we can remember and learn from or has our society as a whole really learned from that collective trauma? Have we become a kinder more compassionate land?
