The University of Tampa presents the production of Les Misérables. Over these past few months, the actors have been working extremely hard throughout the rehearsal process. I had the honor of interviewing Paul Finocchiaro, director of this year’s fall production of Les Mis and professor in the theatre department.
What inspired you to choose the playwrights for Les Mis?
PF: That’s a good question. Actually, Les Mis really wasn’t on my radar until we saw Mark Montalingens senior showcase last year. When they sang a whole bunch of songs from Les Mis, Michael turned to me and said, “Oh My God we should do Les Mis”, and I was like, “Okay.” So basically, we heard the music and went oh my God what a great choice for us, and went from there.
Did you plan out the blocking for each show or did you go along with each rehearsal?
PF: No, I always plan before rehearsal; you can look at my rehearsal book, and you will see little diagrams of the stage and where people go, on what line, when they enter, when they exit, where they enter, where they exit, all of that. I make sure I do that before the rehearsal because I can’t stand seeing people sitting around. I can’t stand to waste people’s time.
Is the rehearsal process going as planned?
PF: Yes and no. In some ways yes but we discovered we cannot block the barricade song until we have the barricade. So, until I see the barricade, and which we will do on Sunday; so, what happens right now is everything is blocked until the barricade point, so, we just sit there and sing the barricade and then everything is blocked from the barricade on.
Do you see the show as everything you envisioned it to be so far?
PF: When I envision things, I envision what they’re going to look like with set pieces and props; mostly set pieces and props, and I don’t have any of those yet. So, no, but, the acting that I see, yes. In so many ways. There are some people who are, I’m talking now about we already got the blocking out of the way, so, the blocking is just geography, the acting is what comes from the heart, the brain, and the intention of the actor. So, now we’re really talking about that aspect of the play. I’m definitely seeing that more, but I need to see more of it so it can grow.
What makes this production so unique from the others performed at UT?
PF: Oh, well, it’s an operetta. It’s really an operetta at heart, number one. Number two, it’s a popular piece of theatre which, we try here to expose our audiences to all genres, so, we might not do something that’s really popular but it’s artistically fulfilling. Now, we have something that is popular and artistically fulfilling, and, at this point right now, we have a little more than 2 weeks until we open and there are 161 tickets reserved already. That 161 would have been a really good audience for the major musical last year. We are ahead of schedule on many things.
Any final words you would like to say about the production and why people should come and see Les Mis?
PF: Well I think it is going to be a record breaking production as far as attendance goes for UT because, we are not really that audience driven. One of the things I’m trying to do is get a larger audience because, the actors work so hard for 6 or 8 or 10 weeks on what they do, and then if there is only two or three hundred people in the audience, it is really a letdown. What I’m trying to do is foster in an audience that will go to Les Mis, go to Experimental Theatre, and then go to Moon Over Buffalo. I’m trying as hard as I can to cultivate and audience that will continue to come back to UT. I think people should come see the show because many have only seen the movie and then they will get to see how it started in its raw form. I think that’s very exciting.
I happen to agree with Paul. The actors work extremely hard preparing for this production and it will be a disappointment if there is no audience. UT has a lot of extremely talented students, and I can’t wait to see how they bring Les Mis to life. The production’s showing November 20-23.