The Home Stretch: Broadside Takes Shape

This will be my fourth production at the Edinburgh Fringe, so by now I know what the final few weeks before opening night feel like. There comes a point when the planning stops, the excuses run out, and the show simply has to become itself. We're right at that point with Broadside.

Broadside costumes by Kathy Page

Right now, actors are getting off book, scenes are finding their rhythm, and we're starting to run the show from beginning to end. For months I've been staring at scripts, scores, spreadsheets, and historical documents. Suddenly those pages are turning into people, voices, and moments that actually exist in front of an audience.

Cooper Kaminsky as General Thomas Gage

Around the edges, the physical world of the show is taking shape too. Costumes are coming together, set pieces are appearing in rehearsal, props are migrating from garages and workshops into the theatre, and Revolutionary Boston is slowly emerging from a collection of sketches and conversations. Every rehearsal seems to add another piece of the puzzle.

Sonsharae Tull as Phillis Wheatley - Heather Westenskow as Abigail Adams

What makes this one feel especially meaningful is where we're headed. In a few short weeks we'll share Broadside with audiences at Vintage Theatre as part of the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding. We've been living with these people, these events, and these ideas. Soon we'll finally get to invite an audience into that conversation and celebrate the stories, debates, triumphs, and contradictions that helped shape America. That's a pretty special way to spend a summer.