Nick Aliberti and Sarah Anderson star in the conservatory production of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie."

Extensive research, rehearsal for 'Jean Brodie'

By: Emily Dale Swoboda

Posted: 10/7/04

Jean Brodie's character is dark and complex. Her choices are questionable to most, yet she makes no apologies.

"Jean Brodie is a teacher with great charisma," said Doug Finlayson, head of the Conservatory's directing program. "She teaches outside the norm of teaching. She starts to try to live through her students in a way that is not completely appropriate."

Brodie isn't actually employed at Webster, just traveling through. She's the main character in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," the Conservatory of Theatre Arts' opening play of the 2004-05 season, which was written by Jay Allen.

Finlayson, who directs "Jean Brodie," chose the play because of the opportunities it provided in terms of roles for conservatory students.

"It's a great play with great women's parts," Finlayson said. "We currently have a very large population of talented women in the conservatory. So, in searching for projects for this year, we knew we had to find a couple plays that had strong women's roles."

The play opens in 1965, but the greater part spans more than half of the 1930s in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Senior musical theater major Sarah Anderson plays the title role. Anderson said preparing for this role required a lot of research to understand the multiple references made throughout the play.

"This play is rich with references to literature, art and history," Anderson said. "Jean Brodie rattles off names of dictators, artists, poets, progressive women and movements. She's extremely well-educated, so

I wanted to get a grasp on all of these references at the start."
Anderson caught the acting bug at 8 years old in a children's summer theater group in Woodstock, Ill. She played the forequarter of a dancing dragon in "Hey George, What do I do with this Dragon?"

Anderson has been involved in theater ever since. In high school, she was in several plays and musicals. Last year Anderson was in "Nine,"

"Two and Twenty" and she played the title role in "Lysistrata," directed by Finlayson last semester.

Finlayson's work on "Jean Brodie" began when the play was chosen and ended when the play opened. He said his job now is to keep a distance from the performances.

"As the director, basically, you have to do analysis of the play. You research things in the play that you don't necessarily know," Finlayson said. "Jean Brodie talks a lot about Scottish history. She talks a lot about the fascists in Italy and Spain. So going out and doing that sort of work along with sort of trying to figure out what the play is about is where I spent most of my time prior to rehearsal."

There has been no rest for the actors, however. Finlayson said more than 100 hours of rehearsal went into this production. In the four weeks between auditions and opening night, actors and crew have had only four days off, rehearsing Mondays through Fridays, 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Sundays, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., Finlayson said.

Students behind the scenes are working just as hard as those in front of the curtains.

Junior Rachael Holiday is the stage manager. Her job began a little before auditions when she was meeting with Finlayson and the scenic designer.

Now, with the show underway, Holiday's job is to call every show (make sure the actors are in their places) and to keep communication open between cast and crew.

In January, Holiday will be working as a production assistant on the Studio Theatre's production of "Frozen."
Before designing the set for "Jean Brodie," junior Lark Potmesil had much of her own research to do. She had to find out exactly what classroom furniture would have looked like in Scotland in 1930s. She also met with Finlayson to discuss the themes of this play.

She was then able to design the set. While the set was being constructed, Potmesil worked closely with the building crew in case any problems arose.

The preparations are complete and the play has run for five days already.

"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" will run Oct. 6 through 10 in the Emerson Theatre, in the basement of the Loretto-Hilton Center. Show times are 7:30 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday.