ABSTRACT
The last rehearsal I record is a kind of return home, an observation of and gradual absorption into the process of rehearsing Sophocles’ Antigone on the campus of Albertus Magnus, the college where I teach, just before I embark on an extended sabbatical to write this book. No less than in the earlier documentation of award-winning theatre professionals, I encounter the truth of W.B. Worthen’s remark: “To describe how the theatre subjects texts and performers to its process is a daunting challenge. …” 1 My purpose in ending with this project is simple. It is an occasion for discovering to what extent the rehearsal work of a company of untrained, inexperienced actors and a student director may elucidate that of professional theatre artists. The names that occur in the following pages will be known to very few. The dilemmas, frustrations, disasters, triumphs, and above all trust in the process itself are surprisingly familiar.
