Friday, July 21, 2006
That's a LOT of People: Performance Number One
What an amazing house tonight! Thursday nights are often a little light at SAK in terms of attendance (but not excitement). Tonight, however, we were quite packed indeed! So much so that we got off to a bit of a late start. It was exciting and a little nerve-racking as it clicked up all of our own internal expectations. We had gathered earlier for a publicity photo shoot and to play with our new microphones - Dave worked a minor miracle to get us upgraded for this weekend. Chase, Ron, Robyn and myself were enlisted for the evening, and off we skipped into the land of improv...
We got some fun starting points tonight: Chase was a music teacher who craved for more meaningful student growth and institutional support (can anyone say "ripped from the headlines...") and gave a great solo at the top of the show; Ron was an aging wrestler who wanted one more bout in the ring, but whose wife was less-than-happy and best friend (an odd fortune-teller bowler) and manager (a poor dietician) were less-than-helpful; Robyn escaped onto a boat with her young daughter, only to have her custody challenged by her high-voiced former husband; I was a muscle-bound gym-addict in love with my jazz-a-size instructor but thwarted by my childhood rival and overly-amorous mother. The audience elected my character as the focus of the second act, and we followed Ken as he lost muscle-mass, his love-interest and his mother's affections.
The show was received really well. Ironically, we've set the bar so high for ourselves as a company that when we have an essentially solid show, such as tonight's, it can feel less satisfying personally as we've also experienced several magical ones. A couple of important issues did surface that we need to address. Our content was a little off-color in places. SAK is a family-friendly venue and we need to truly honor this. While FourPlay will generally fill the later slot where things can be a little more racy, we always want it to be a show that the whole family can enjoy. Tonight, we stepped away from clever winking to outright stating in a few places, and we need to pull this back. (Not to defend, but I've often found this to be the case as a show such as this moves into its opening weekend - the nervousness can tend to encourage the players to go after the easier laughs, rather than develop a more complex playfulness with the audience.) We also stumbled a little in the second act in terms of truly complicating the star's journey. While there were several offered plans, they were rarely realized in onstage action. Gina, our Assistant Director, had some good observations which I've emailed along to the company so that we can learn from tonight's slips. (Yes, I send out long Director notes as well as write this blog - this explains my lack of sleep...)
While we should have high standards for ourselves, and strive to hold ourselves to these, it's also important to gain perspective from the audience's response. A well-meaning (and appropriate) comment regarding some atypical content slips aside, there was a great energy in the lobby after the show, with many younger audience members getting cast signatures on their programs or show t-shirts, and a lot of big smiles and congratulatory remarks (and I got to meet John Carollo - our designer's - parents too!)
If old show business cliches hold true, a solid preview with some minor difficulties usually suggests a great opening...
We've nearly sold out for Friday's show, so if you're reading this and haven't got your tickets yet, don't say I didn't warn you (and this is a real warning, not one of those wishful thinking ones!!)
Your investing-in-a-bar-of-soap-for-content-purposes Director, David C.
What an amazing house tonight! Thursday nights are often a little light at SAK in terms of attendance (but not excitement). Tonight, however, we were quite packed indeed! So much so that we got off to a bit of a late start. It was exciting and a little nerve-racking as it clicked up all of our own internal expectations. We had gathered earlier for a publicity photo shoot and to play with our new microphones - Dave worked a minor miracle to get us upgraded for this weekend. Chase, Ron, Robyn and myself were enlisted for the evening, and off we skipped into the land of improv...
We got some fun starting points tonight: Chase was a music teacher who craved for more meaningful student growth and institutional support (can anyone say "ripped from the headlines...") and gave a great solo at the top of the show; Ron was an aging wrestler who wanted one more bout in the ring, but whose wife was less-than-happy and best friend (an odd fortune-teller bowler) and manager (a poor dietician) were less-than-helpful; Robyn escaped onto a boat with her young daughter, only to have her custody challenged by her high-voiced former husband; I was a muscle-bound gym-addict in love with my jazz-a-size instructor but thwarted by my childhood rival and overly-amorous mother. The audience elected my character as the focus of the second act, and we followed Ken as he lost muscle-mass, his love-interest and his mother's affections.The show was received really well. Ironically, we've set the bar so high for ourselves as a company that when we have an essentially solid show, such as tonight's, it can feel less satisfying personally as we've also experienced several magical ones. A couple of important issues did surface that we need to address. Our content was a little off-color in places. SAK is a family-friendly venue and we need to truly honor this. While FourPlay will generally fill the later slot where things can be a little more racy, we always want it to be a show that the whole family can enjoy. Tonight, we stepped away from clever winking to outright stating in a few places, and we need to pull this back. (Not to defend, but I've often found this to be the case as a show such as this moves into its opening weekend - the nervousness can tend to encourage the players to go after the easier laughs, rather than develop a more complex playfulness with the audience.) We also stumbled a little in the second act in terms of truly complicating the star's journey. While there were several offered plans, they were rarely realized in onstage action. Gina, our Assistant Director, had some good observations which I've emailed along to the company so that we can learn from tonight's slips. (Yes, I send out long Director notes as well as write this blog - this explains my lack of sleep...)
While we should have high standards for ourselves, and strive to hold ourselves to these, it's also important to gain perspective from the audience's response. A well-meaning (and appropriate) comment regarding some atypical content slips aside, there was a great energy in the lobby after the show, with many younger audience members getting cast signatures on their programs or show t-shirts, and a lot of big smiles and congratulatory remarks (and I got to meet John Carollo - our designer's - parents too!)
If old show business cliches hold true, a solid preview with some minor difficulties usually suggests a great opening...
We've nearly sold out for Friday's show, so if you're reading this and haven't got your tickets yet, don't say I didn't warn you (and this is a real warning, not one of those wishful thinking ones!!)
Your investing-in-a-bar-of-soap-for-content-purposes Director, David C.
