Circle Mirror Transformation
By Lindsay Eberly
I am currently working on Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker at the Huntington Theatre Company. It will be familiar to Emerson students because our very own Chair of the Performing Arts Department Melia Bensussen is directing! It’s part of the Shirley, VT Play Festival being put on by three theatres in Boston. Circle Mirror is the story of five people in a Adult Creative Drama class in a community center in Shirley, VT. Shirley, VT is a fictional town where three of her plays take place – Circle Mirror Transformation, Body Awareness and Aliens. The Huntington is producing Circle Mirror, Speakeasy Stage Company is producing Body Awareness, and Company One is producing Aliens. It’s actually a really amazing showcase for such a young talent, especially when you know Annie. She was in our rehearsal room for the first week of rehearsals and she is such an intelligent, insightful artist. It was such a great opportunity to pick her brain about her work. 
In Circle Mirror land we are actually finishing up our second 10/12 today and gearing up for our first preview tomorrow night. It’s been a very interesting process so far. It’s obviously a different experience than working on an Emerson Stage show. It is a great hands-on learning experience to work with professional Equity actors under a LORT contract as well as all the contracted technicians backstage. Emerson Stage does a very good job of emulating the Equity rules and process but it’s always more informative to deal with the real deal.
Our biggest challenge right now is the quickchanges that happen between each of the six acts. Not only was I the production assistant for the rehearsal process, I am staying on as a member of the run crew for the run of the show. So right now we are rehearsing the quickchanges like crazy and staying atop of all the changes. I do have to say, I personally would love to own all of the female characters’ costume pieces in the show! They’re so cute!
So come see the show!! We start previews tomorrow and officially open October 20th. See huntingtontheatre.org for show times and to get tickets!
******
Lindsay is a junior BFA Stage/Production Management major in the Department of Performing Arts at Emerson College.