Andrea Bianchi on the rehearsal process

Hello, my name is Andrea Bianchi and I am a character woman in Being Audrey. Jack Cummings III approached me back in August of 08’ to do a few table readings of the show. This was love at first read for me. The roles I was given the opportunity to explore were different characters from various Audrey Hepburn movies-my favorite sort of thing to play. After I heard Ellen Weiss’s music at the second read, I was hooked and knew I wanted to be a part of it. I even had this superstitious thing going where I never said good bye to any of the creative team because I always wanted to feel like I was coming back to the project. Well, my lack of common courtesy paid off.

From the first day of rehearsals, the vibe with the cast has been great and the chemistry right-on. I’m laughing from the moment rehearsal starts until we break. The safe environment Jack creates for us, along with dance director, Scott Rink, gives us wonderful childlike freedom to just explore-so important when working on a brand new project, particularly an ensemble piece like this one.

James Hindman has written very satisfying material to play which goes from farcical proportions, at times to incredible moving, break-your-heart moments and back again. We were rehearsing a number last week called Wall Of Wishes. The song and sentiment are truly profound and when the song’s over we meet some of the “movie characters” for the first time. I didn’t, as a character, want to be intrusive at this point and thought well I guess we’ll find the balance as we go along. As we began running this moment, it became apparent to me how skillfully James had crafted the story. If we just related to Cheryl’s character, Claire, honestly, these shifts of tone and emotion work rather elegantly. The balance was put in for us.

This show is a real tour-de-force for Cheryl Stern and I’m so loving supporting her in this. She is a great dame and fiercely talented. I can’t wait to take the audience with us on this ride.