(no subject)
Yesterday was my first time as a conductor for a playback performance. And I'm still shaky.
I must have explained this before but in playback theatre the conductor is the intermediary between the public and the actors, helps the public share their personal stories and chooses the forms in which this stories are going to be acted. Plus he or she also has to control the time of the performance.
During one rehearsal las year where we all took turns at conducting i suddenly found myself quite comfortable with the conducting and have been trained as one since january.
We had been asked by one evangelical church to perform at one of their "café concerto" they have on saturdays and we decided I would do the conducting. It was supposed to be a small audience between 16 and 30 years old and we were supposed to be the only act.
Well, it rurned out we were something like 5th on the list. We managed to be the second act but we only had 30-40 min to perform when a performance should last circa an hour. There must have been around 50 people, and a lot of small kids. And the audience didn't seem to know it was going to be interactive.
So it was a hell of a fight to coax stories out of them. And boy is it hard to deal with the silences! We ended up mostly acting for the kids at bthe beginning of the performance. The theme was "When our world collapses" and at one point I asked: So, what is it that helps you when your world collapes? And alleluia, everybody staterd saying Faith and God and then I had them talking. So we managed one long story and at that point one of the organizers whispers in my ear we should end the performance.
It wasn't supposed to be such a challenge, but after this, I think I can do just about anything!
I must have explained this before but in playback theatre the conductor is the intermediary between the public and the actors, helps the public share their personal stories and chooses the forms in which this stories are going to be acted. Plus he or she also has to control the time of the performance.
During one rehearsal las year where we all took turns at conducting i suddenly found myself quite comfortable with the conducting and have been trained as one since january.
We had been asked by one evangelical church to perform at one of their "café concerto" they have on saturdays and we decided I would do the conducting. It was supposed to be a small audience between 16 and 30 years old and we were supposed to be the only act.
Well, it rurned out we were something like 5th on the list. We managed to be the second act but we only had 30-40 min to perform when a performance should last circa an hour. There must have been around 50 people, and a lot of small kids. And the audience didn't seem to know it was going to be interactive.
So it was a hell of a fight to coax stories out of them. And boy is it hard to deal with the silences! We ended up mostly acting for the kids at bthe beginning of the performance. The theme was "When our world collapses" and at one point I asked: So, what is it that helps you when your world collapes? And alleluia, everybody staterd saying Faith and God and then I had them talking. So we managed one long story and at that point one of the organizers whispers in my ear we should end the performance.
It wasn't supposed to be such a challenge, but after this, I think I can do just about anything!