Opening night to the Kaatza Lakeside Players’ latest play, Cosi, is in just over a week, and the actors are feeling the crunch.
For Brandon DePol, who is playing Cosi’s protagonist Lewis, it means learning how to get angry.
“I don’t get angry very often,” he said, adding that his character, Lewis, must lose his temper at one point in the play.
During the players’ latest rehearsal, last week, the actors delved into Cosi’s play-within-a-play, during which time the actors had the opportunity to cut loose and over-act.
“It’s a lot of fun,” artistic director Dena McPhee said, a smile stretching across her face as she watched the on-stage silliness.
The play-within-a-play helps break up the seriousness of previous scenes, which revolve around residents of a mental institution, headed by Lewis, who are preparing to perform a play.
Actors still aren’t in their characters’ clothes, with Lindsay Anderson and Glenda Berg currently finalizing the play’s costumes. These two seamstresses impressed audiences last December, with the costumes they helped prepare for the pantomime Mother Goose.
Since Cosi includes a play-within a-play, many of the actors will require two costumes, each.