material for teenagers, but Peter treats his students like professional actors. They will be together every day until performances in late February. He pushes them to work hard, but he also keeps the atmosphere fun. “We laugh a lot. We use humor,” says Peter. “I try to be respectful of their time. Some days I sense they are tired and I’m tired, so I just let them go for the day.” Peter is a ball of energy, often surpassing his students’ pace. As they work, he elicits their feedback on the lines—sometimes changing or deleting words and paragraphs because they sound awkward, repetitive or overwrought. During this phase, Peter sometimes interrupts after every line. Getting through one page of script can take an hour. “What are you thinking at that moment that line comes out?” he asks constantly, prodding the actors to probe their characters’ motives and thoughts.
Progress means moving from reading lines to working on entering scenes and blocking movements around the stage. In the first scene, the young Ferdinand (Sam Audette, Class I) enters the house of the pious and pure Luise Miller (Cary Williams ’12). In this scene, Luise rushes over to Ferdinand and they embrace. Their first attempt is so awkward that everyone bursts into laughter. They will redo this entrance over and over in the weeks to come until the embrace is natural and conveys the love between these characters. “Feeling a scene work is great,” says Cary. “When we first did it well, we both felt it, and we knew why and how it worked. Those are really rewarding moments.” Eric Bohn ’12, playing the flamboyant palace aide and gossip Hoffmarschall Von Kalb, relishes the role. Eric is comfortable onstage, but Peter wants to tamp down some of the excess.
“You’re still figuring out how he moves and sounds,” says Peter. “I appreciate the experimentation. I would take him down a notch or two, but I like how you are taking a risk.” Eric listens and redoes the scene. “I like the more subtle choices. This is more honest,” Peter tells Eric. Peter does not hold back the critiques, which are both funny and dead-on. He moves around the room, tossing out bon mots with exaggerated flair. “No, you are giving me crazy Muppet.” “Why do you sound like Maya Angelou reading a poem?” “Boring!” he yells after emitting a loud snore. “Mr. Parisi shows you how you are doing it wrong, in a fun way. Then you get to choose the right way to do it. It’s more effective than his just saying ‘I think you should do it this way,’” says Caleb.
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