One week later: July 12^th. The dresses, hairdos and makeup of the “Meet and Greet” first day are long gone, replaced by tank tops, bandanas and sweat. The rehearsal days are long and there is so much still to learn.

By 4:30, the director is still trying to explain the dance and stage movements for the jail scene and he keeps losing his place. The musical director waits with his head in his hands. Some of the actors stretch while they wait so they can stay limber; some just stand in place and close their eyes. Luckily, with all the heat lately, the rehearsal hall is air-conditioned. Not so in the theatre.

The name tags from the first day are gone as well. Now, director Russell Garrett calls the actors by their character names while directing them. They are becoming those characters, inhabiting their lives for the next few weeks. They are trying to learn how to move the stage props without actually having them there. Garrett explains that the jail cell bars from the “Big Doll House” number will be on wheels and during the scene some of the actors will have to move them in such a way that the slanted tops all line up the same way in reverse.

For now, music stands are the stand-ins for the bars. The actors are trying to follow his direction but are getting confused.

“I have terrible spatial reasoning” said Rebecca Gibel, who plays Velma Von Tussle. “You should have seen my SAT scores.”

“Okay, too much information” laughed Garrett. The cast peppers him with questions and suggestions. He listens, and asks the stage manager how much room there will be between the prop bars. Not much it turns out.

“And remember” said Yvette Monique Clark, who plays Motormouth Maybelle, “he will be three times larger in costume.” The he she is referring to is Tom Gleadow who plays Edna Turnblad. They decide to try the scene again and it goes well…until it doesn’t. The actors stop, looking confused, the piano trails off.

Garrett, who is choreographing the show in addition to directing, is now humming the song and dancing the steps to try to find a solution. He’s already added a drum fill in one place in the song and now he suggests adding a few beats to give them more time to move the jail bar props. Frederick Willard, the musical director, makes the notations to the sheet music and plays it out while Garrett goes through the steps.

“Does that make sense?” he asks the actors. Finally, in unison comes a resounding “Yes!” They run it through one more time. When they finish the scene Garrett says “Oh, my God, we’re going to make it! It’s not pretty, but it’s there.” There is only one week to go until dress rehearsal.

The rehearsal day is quickly coming toward the end and Garrett is trying to get the stage blocking finished for the rest of the prison scene. Some of the actors are still carrying their scripts and as the scene goes on the word “line?” rings out from time to time. Garrett is on his feet, directing the actors complete with voice and inflection and motions for each character.

When Velma Von Tussle lets out an evil cackle, he is delighted. “Oh, my God, yes! I love this, now walk them backward.” He wants Velma and her daughter Amber to walk toward Tracy and her mother and force them backward in the scene. It works. Now there is just enough time to run through the entire scene one more time. When they finish Garrett says “And that’s the end of our day. Thank you very much” Musical director Willard adds “That was a lot.” Garrett agrees. “That was a lot” he says.

The actors are done for the day, but Garrett and Willard still have a production meeting to attend. After a week’s time, Garrett thinks the cast is doing great.

“There is so much I have to stage, they have to learn and he [Willard] has to teach” he says. Willard says “The music is complex and the harmonies are tough. It has to sound right for the time period and it has got to be really clean and slick.” They will be tweaking the show right until the audience is in the seats.

The cast will not even get onto the stage at Theatre By The Sea until Sunday afternoon at the earliest. "Man of La Mancha," the current show, is ending on Saturday night and the set needs to be broken down so the Hairspray set can be constructed.

Once they set foot on stage, adjustments will be made in the blocking to bring everything they learned in the rehearsal space onto the main stage and make it work. Only then, will they get a look at the stage props like the jail bars and be able to practice with them. And they won’t have much time. Tuesday night is the dress rehearsal, the only one. Wednesday it’s showtime, ready or not.