Believers

 A Note from Julie

The process of working on Believers was awesome because I worked closely with the Book Writer, Composer, and Music Director for four solid weeks. The first week was all script-based work and rewrites. Then we got it up on our feet and embodied the current draft, at which time the Book Writer and Composer went away to rewrite sections of the show. They came back with new pages, cuts, and character arcs that were either changed or cut completely.

It was a very good process for a group of students to participate in. They had to learn how to deeply connect to the work, commit fully to an interpretation, and then not hold on to anything personally. Character arcs got cut because the students connected and committed to the work, not because they didn't do a good job. That was a personal learning experience for those students that I enjoyed guiding.

That process was one of the best, and I use it as an example when approaching other new work. This is how you have to do it: make changes up until the last two to three days. Then you put it up, rehearse and clean whatever the final draft will be for presentation. The point is to workshop the material.