Theatre Updates
Well, the opening weekend of Cyrano de B. went reasonably well. The director did NOT list me as dramaturg (which he had promised to do) and I am now composing the polite request for a letter confirming that I did this work so that I have documentation for when I put it on my resume. The lead actor DID grow a lot in the part after the last dress; the show may be pretty good. We DID cut some time from the dress length of 3 hours; we are now running at about 2:50 with two short intermissions. Our SM (grace under pressure) gave everyone in the cast a small token on opening night (there are 33 of us; that's a lot of tokens, and they were all handmade). Some people ignored theirs, which was tacky in the extreme.
The show itself: Flow is much improved from final dress, energy is much improved from final dress, and overall work is much improved from final dress. I don't like the show; it's based on the idea that lying for the sake of love is an honorable thing to do. Our director thinks this is the height of romantic looooove, and I think it's a crock. But then, I have a history of being lied to and participating in family secrets, and every significant scar on my heart and soul was caused by the blade of a lie. So I don't buy the "keeping the truth from her" concept of romanticism. Truth often does hurt; in my own life, I know that lies hurt more.
But I think we are making the show work. I can't help but notice that as soon as the show was out of the director's hands and under the control of the SM, we all got better. I think this director deals with idealized human archetypes and does not know how to direct or note fully human characters. The actors I know who are really good are the ones who always bring a fully human sense to their work; these are the very actors who usually don't get notes from this director. This may be an oversimplification; it makes sense to me and helps me deal with the demands of this director.
Anyway, I now have Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings back for a while. And I'm not telling anyone to stay away from the show. Come and see it, and tell me what you think.
H.
The show itself: Flow is much improved from final dress, energy is much improved from final dress, and overall work is much improved from final dress. I don't like the show; it's based on the idea that lying for the sake of love is an honorable thing to do. Our director thinks this is the height of romantic looooove, and I think it's a crock. But then, I have a history of being lied to and participating in family secrets, and every significant scar on my heart and soul was caused by the blade of a lie. So I don't buy the "keeping the truth from her" concept of romanticism. Truth often does hurt; in my own life, I know that lies hurt more.
But I think we are making the show work. I can't help but notice that as soon as the show was out of the director's hands and under the control of the SM, we all got better. I think this director deals with idealized human archetypes and does not know how to direct or note fully human characters. The actors I know who are really good are the ones who always bring a fully human sense to their work; these are the very actors who usually don't get notes from this director. This may be an oversimplification; it makes sense to me and helps me deal with the demands of this director.
Anyway, I now have Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings back for a while. And I'm not telling anyone to stay away from the show. Come and see it, and tell me what you think.
H.