"A Monster of a Play to Memorize"

Charles Soto as Vladimir (left) and Mikaela Baker as Estragon (right) stand in front of Waiting for Godot’s famous tree, created here with the shadow cast by a sculpture made from trash. “[Bryan Hunt] gave me lots of creative liberty,” set designer Jane Gendron said. “When I came up with an idea, his answer was almost always, ‘let’s go for it.’” II Photo Credit: Audrey Pickett

Seventeen cast and crew members gathered in the City Room Thursday night to run through their last dress rehearsal for Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. The play, which opens Friday, stars Charles Soto and Mikaela Baker as Vladimir and Estragon. The story focuses in on these two men who find themselves held up for a long time at a tree where they expect their appointment, Godot, to arrive.

Rehearsal for the play took place over a four-week span, testing the limits of the five-person cast.

“It’s a monster of a play to memorize,” Producer Abby Tilly said, describing it as “an incredibly intellectual play.”

Actors also noted Godot’s unusual style.

“The lines aren’t based on what someone else said, so you have to memorize the cues as well as the words themselves,” Kat Samelson, who plays Pozzo, said.

While the tight schedule meant long hours memorizing lines, Director Bryan Hunt felt it helped the cast’s performance.

“It forced us to ram it into existence, which was good,” Hunt said. “There are parts of the play in which the characters should just have a glimpse at understanding. It leaves you with a lot of questions, and I think if we had given more time for the actors to think about why the characters didn’t understand, it wouldn’t have come out so well.”

The King’s Players will perform Waiting for Godot in the City Room at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.