Wow.
Just wow.
I just got home from my first read-through of my new play. This project is pretty crazy. There was a guy working on his Ph.D. thesis in Communications who ended up recording all his phone conversations as his family was going through his mom's battle with cancer. These recordings were transcribed using conversational analysis (stress marks, intonation symbols, etc.) into about 500 pages of real-life conversation, that has now been cut down into a play-like form. So we have these completely real conversations, right down to the nuances of pronounciation, about this incredibly powerful yet simple material - it's really neat.
Anyway.
The first read-through, where they tell you not to bother putting much emotion into it and we really just are supposed to be seeing the shape of it, was tonight. And towards the end of it a couple of us (myself naturally included) were choking back tears, with varying degrees of success. And there's a scene in the second half between me and the dad where we both got caught up in the desperate hilarity of the conversation and could barely talk past our laughter. It was amazingly organic, and incredibly powerful. Just about everyone in the cast had a personal connection with at least something in the material.
OK, I'm doing a crappy job explaining this. I'm not gonna say I've never cried at a first read-through before *cough*Crucible*cough*, but this was something different. There were a couple of scenes in particular with Kym that were just... devastating. I swear I've had those exact conversations, and the stuff with the dad is so exactly the emotional content of what happened whem my Aunt Judi died, it's just... Wow. This is going to be an amazing amazing experience, and I think all of our audiences will come away moved. As will I.
SDSU, first week in October. It's called "listen".
I just got home from my first read-through of my new play. This project is pretty crazy. There was a guy working on his Ph.D. thesis in Communications who ended up recording all his phone conversations as his family was going through his mom's battle with cancer. These recordings were transcribed using conversational analysis (stress marks, intonation symbols, etc.) into about 500 pages of real-life conversation, that has now been cut down into a play-like form. So we have these completely real conversations, right down to the nuances of pronounciation, about this incredibly powerful yet simple material - it's really neat.
Anyway.
The first read-through, where they tell you not to bother putting much emotion into it and we really just are supposed to be seeing the shape of it, was tonight. And towards the end of it a couple of us (myself naturally included) were choking back tears, with varying degrees of success. And there's a scene in the second half between me and the dad where we both got caught up in the desperate hilarity of the conversation and could barely talk past our laughter. It was amazingly organic, and incredibly powerful. Just about everyone in the cast had a personal connection with at least something in the material.
OK, I'm doing a crappy job explaining this. I'm not gonna say I've never cried at a first read-through before *cough*Crucible*cough*, but this was something different. There were a couple of scenes in particular with Kym that were just... devastating. I swear I've had those exact conversations, and the stuff with the dad is so exactly the emotional content of what happened whem my Aunt Judi died, it's just... Wow. This is going to be an amazing amazing experience, and I think all of our audiences will come away moved. As will I.
SDSU, first week in October. It's called "listen".