Great Caesar's Ghost

I had my first rehearsal for Julius Caeser last night, and the rehearsal space is if anything even spookier than an old haunted Opera house. It's located above the State Police headquarters on Soldiers Field Road. It's an entire second floor of abandoned offices and wharehouse space...it's decripit. Old furniture and books piled up everywhere, long ago screens fallen off windows and left to rot in place, the dust of many years lying undisturbed, the ceiling falling down, just general crap piled up here and there. I wandered along the dark hallways listening vainly for the sound of human activity, beginning to think I must be in the wrong place. Finally I heard a tittering chatter, and came to a large space with the cast and crew gathered around a long table sitting in odd, musty upholstered chairs.
Other than that, it all felt very professional, if not quite as immediately chummy as my community theatre production. It's a talented cast, Brutus in particular came off very impressively in our first reading. The director, who had seemed a bit dismissive and intimidating during callbacks, was all smiles and charm. Everyone seemed to know someone else so I was odd man out starting off, but that will change after a few rehearsals. I was a little overwhelmed by it all but managed to do ok. We were shown the set and costume design (key word: colorful). The costume designer is a friend of someone I used to work with who is a budding playwright, so I am beginning to make connections.
All in all, a good start.