Assistant Directing Pail of Grace

As B Street Theatre’s Directing Intern, I assistant direct (AD) under Artistic Director Buck Busfield. The first show I ADed at B Street was Pail of Grace, the holiday comedy written and directed by Buck himself. AD is the vaguest title in theatre. It’s a role determined by the director’s requirements and the assistant’s capabilities. Some ADs co-direct; some run lines with actors; some fetch coffee. New to Buck’s directing style and to B Street’s rehearsal process, I printed script rewrites and observed rehearsals. (Assistant to the Director is a more apt title.)

One of the first things I witnessed is B Street operates under a dynamic little replicated across the country. The theatre opened in 1986 with many of its acting company members joining around this time. As one actor stated, “[When B Street opened,] Buck went around Sacramento, picked the best actors, and locked them in a room for 20 years.” Of the five cast members in P of G, three have been with B Street for 20 years and two for 10 years. It’s not uncommon to hear actors in their early forties laughing over shows they did together when they were 19. Ergo, walking into rehearsal is walking into decades of inside jokes, stories, insight, and an incredible ability to fuck with one another, a perspicacity they enact with relish.

This history shapes the production’s development. Buck knows where each actor will be at each point of rehearsal in his/her character development, line memorization, spatial awareness, and story comprehension. He knows how and when to direct the actors as a group and as individuals. They, in turn, know him and each other just as well, forming a playfulness, trust, and collaboration unique to B Street. They challenge each other, break each other, ground each other, and push each other’s buttons. In the end, they deliver a professional production.

When tech began, I transitioned from AD to stagehand, moving sets and maintaining costumes. Being present from production meetings through closing night, I absorbed the life cycle of my first B Street production— its rhythms, politics, idiosyncrasies, and characters. When the play closed, three other shows had been in rehearsal for two weeks and were skidding into tech. The wheel never slows at B Street, but on the brink of screaming, it’ll keep you laughing. Here’s to another round.

-Anna Rose