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Hello, I am Jennifer Erbes and I am a freshman theater major at Monmouth College. I have been cast as
Pozzo in the play "Waiting for Godot" and this first week of rehearsal has been very interesting for me.
I was involved in many different productions throughout high school, but the rehearsal process was very
different, partly because I didn't do any acting in high school and party because I've always been on the
other side of productions (designing lights, stage managing, running boards, etc...). When I was in high
school, the actors would be up on the stage from the first night of rehearsal, but it wasn't like that at all
starting out with rehearsals for Godot. All we did on the first night was sit and read through the script.
That was the night that I found out I will be learning how to smoke a pipe...which should be an interesting
adventure. I also found out that I will be eating on stage during each performance. I'm going to be so sick
of chicken. I absolutely love this script. As all of the hidden meanings behind different lines and behaviors
pop out at me, I get even more intrigued. There are so many different meanings behind the conversations
between the characters and so many different meanings behind the characters themselves. This has
already been an interesting experience for me, and I think it will be a very interesting production for our audiences to walk away from.

This week of rehearsal went by super-fast for me. Perhaps it's the things that are different than what I learned in high school that are making rehearsals (and just days and weeks in general) go by so quickly. In high school, like I said last week, I did more behind the scenes stuff (I love being a techie), so I've never really seen it from the actors' perspective until now. This process is brand, spankin' new for me, but it hasn't really been difficult to get used to. I love playing theater games and running around like a crazy person for hours on end, and it's been absolutely wonderful so far!

As for being different.... Rather than only having certain people show up on certain nights at certain times to rehearse, in high school, everyone would be there every night from whenever we were to start to whenever we got done. As the stage manager/technical director/student director my senior year I was always the first one to get there and the last one to leave. Now it's completely different, and I've even almost been late a couple of times! Oops! Another thing that is a LOT different for me is that I've never stretched before (or had my actors stretch before) rehearsal started. When I've been involved in other productions elsewhere we would just jump right into rehearsal without playing games or running around like crazy people (did I mention that that is amazingly fun?).

So as I sit here in my neighbor's room on this Friday night, listening to the new Jack Johnson album, I've been trying to figure out why I agreed to be a part of this production that isn't behind the scenes. And it's slowly dawning on me that I love all aspects of theater. As much as I love being a techie and working back stage, I'm beginning to love being an actor as well. I never thought that I would have this much fun (and I've never actually had this much fun) working on a production. I've bonded with the rest of the cast and I've really gotten to know them. I love everyone. I absolutely loved the other night at rehearsal when we were asked to buddy up for a game and Andrew ran over and practically tackled me to the ground and then started dancing with me! I'm having so much fun getting to know my fellow actors and bonding with them. This whole experience for me has been totally a-mazing. That's right. Two words. A MAZING.

Another thing I love is Tiela's facial expressions when I'm approaching her in the beginning of the first act. I'm approaching her and talking to her about smoking a pipe and she's just giving me this look as though she's completely disgusted with what I'm saying. It's absolutely wonderful.

Andrew's part is marvelous as well. Andrew, you are one of the reasons I love rehearsal so much! He has done an amazing job... no, wait....A MAZING job with his part. I can really see that he as grown as an actor.
Brandon's really gotten good at keeping a straight face and staying in his character. As Lucky, I can only imagine that it has to be really difficult having to stand there for the majority of the play without saying anything. You are such a strong character and I love you!

The other night of rehearsal was really interesting. As we were reading through Act 2, Lauren came up to me and was explaining one of the ideas that she had for the characters of Pozzo and Lucky. She said that maybe Lucky is Pozzo's soul. Perhaps he keeps his soul on a leash/rope because he's learned everything from his soul that he can so he no longer needs to learn anything. Lucky may be Pozzo's morals and values, but Pozzo has begun to lose sight of his morals and values. I really like this idea of Lucky being Pozzo's soul.

The more and more we rehearse for our opening of Waiting for Godot, I keep finding more and more references to the Bible. Maybe it's because I grew up going to church and I work at a church camp during the summer, I don't know. Or maybe it's just because that's the mindset I have when we're rehearsing. For example.... Thursday night is the first night that I actually caught the reference to sheep and goats during the first scene with the boy. He says that he "minds the goats" and that his brother "minds the sheep." He also mentions that Godot beats his brother, but not him.

The sheep and goats reference in the first act, I believe, is a reference to the Bible. From the New Testament when Jesus is talking about separating the sheep from the goats (believers from non-believers). So why does Godot beat the boys' brother and not him? Is Godot really God? Is the boy a believer or a non-believer? What about his brother?

If Godot is God, then who is Jesus? And the Holy Spirit? I thought I answered these questions.... In my opinion, Godot is God because they (Gogo and Didi) never see him, but they believe that he is there somewhere and he will eventually come. Then Pozzo comes and trys to make them happy (to some extent), but it seems to be all about him when he is on stage. As if the little people don't matter, only Pozzo matters. However, as vain as Pozzo seems to be, I believe that the character of Pozzo is representing Jesus and that Lucky represents the Holy Spirit.

I believe that Pozzo is Jesus because he is the character that actually comes, rather than Godot (God). And I believe that Lucky is the Holy Spirit because he never speaks (save for his three page monologue). And Pozzo even mentions that Lucky taught him all of the beautiful things he knows (just after my favorite line in the entire play--but you'll have to come and see the play if you want to know!). It's almost as if he's saying, "my spirit taught me all of these beautiful things and I am grateful for that; however, I now just keep him on a leash because I am through with him."

So, as it seems to me, Pozzo and Lucky represent Jesus and the Holy Spirit in some ways and not in others. Pozzo also has mannerisms and lines and places where he could be representing the Devil rather than Jesus (which I won't go into now because it'll drive me nuts).

I've been having so much fun at rehearsal and even outside of rehearsal getting to know my fellow cast members. This has been a wonderful experience for me so far and I really hope to continue to act in the future. I've had such a great time and I'm going to be sad to see it end when we're done on closing night. For now, I'll just continue to take it in and enjoy every minute of it. :)

After so much hard work and long hours rehearsing, we finally got to perform in front of an audience. As nervous as I thought I would be, I wasn't very nervous at all. It seemed like any old thing that has ever happened in my life. I thought I would have a nervous breakdown. I thought I would get sick. I thought I would get stage fright and forget my lines. I thought a lot of things would happen. Things that have never really happened to me and that never DID happen during MC's production of Waiting for Godot.
I think a lot of people enjoyed coming to see it. However, I know a lot of my friends left confused. My parents even said that if I hadn't explained it to them beforehand, they wouldn't have understood it and it wouldn't have been as exciting to see me perform. Although, they did say that it was exciting nonetheless because I haven't been on stage since jr. high. And even then it wasn't a very big role (but, of course, in theater there are no small roles, only small actors--or so I've been told).

It was really exciting to see everything come together the way that it did. I've never been in a production where I've had so much demanded of me. So much of my time. So much physical work. It was so much fun, and we all put a lot of hard work into this production, but it was SO worth it in the end. There is such a sense of satisfaction in knowing that you've done something so big and accomplishing something that you never thought you could (at least for me, anyway). Andrew and I were both pretty new to acting when we auditioned for Godot. It was a new, wonderful experience for the both of us. And, I don't know about Andrew, but I will definitely be auditioning for more plays as my years of college go on!