Having not a single theatre bone in my body, I had no clue what to expect when attending one of Fresno City College’s “Living Out” rehearsals. The cast practices almost every night, each trying to ready themselves for opening night on March 7.

The way they rehearse is not what would not be what pops into most peoples head, which is having the whole cast dancing around on stage practicing their lines.

In this case rehearsal consisted of two actors, Laura Castro (who portrays the lead character Nancy), Marcos Hammer ( Bobby, Nancy’s husband) and the Director Chuck Erven.

Instead of them practicing onstage, they practiced in the Black Box theatre down the hall. The title really does it justice considering everything in the room was head to toe, black.

From the color of the walls and floor, to the prop counter top the actors were practicing on. “The black sort of makes everything else fade away, allowing you to sort of focus on the actors and the true importance of the scene”, said Erven.

The room may seem a little backwards at first, but once the actors start to do their thing, the room really does help you notice the acting with great facility. Without distacting sets and props, the director is able to see each character in their primitive states.

During the rehearsal, Erven sat in one of the black plastic chairs and would watch the two actors. In the scene that they practiced for about an hour, Bobby and Nancy are in a fight.

It seemed that every minute or so, Erven would stop what they are doing and would talk to them and ask them numerous questions. Most of the questions revolved around how the actors thought their character felt, so that they could better understand what emotions Erven would like to see them portray.

Usually after that question he would stop them again afterwards and have them redo the scene countless times. Simply sitting and watching the actors repeat each line over and over is frustrating enough. It must be even more so for the actors involved.

After numerous takes, you wonder how many more different ways they could possibly act out that particular scene.

It takes someone with a lot of patience and energy to be able to study every line and action in a scene, and FCC surely has the right man for that position.

Watching Erven playing fifty questions with the actors, you could see all of his energy and passion for acting pour out of him while talking.

By the way he uses his hands to explain his thoughts, to the way he enthusiastically suggests what he thinks should be done and then pulling himself away out of that moment, Erven projects his suggestions for each scene.

Erven emphasizes everything that has to do with the actors truly understanding their characters in the play, since them relating to their character means better acting. Of course that takes a lot of time and effort, which Erven and the cast is more than willing to do for the sake of a great play.

No doubt, the “Living Out” cast will be ready to deliver by the time opening night rolls around.