"Art" Isn't Easy
Since I like live theater, I tend to go to a lot of plays and musicals. Last weekend, I decided to go see a play put on by a theater company that I had never heard of before.
My original plan was to go Saturday night, but circumstances interfered and I spent most of the evening doing absolutely nothing. They were also doing the show on Sunday night, so I set off for the theater, a beautifully renovated former movie theater in a nicely restored, largely Hispanic neighborhood in North Fort Worth.
I've been to several productions that didn't attract a large audience, but I've never been to one that attracted so few patrons as this one. There were, at most, nine people in the auditorium--the sound/lights guy, the 3 actors, and 5 audience members.
I could understand the low turnout if it was some avant-garde play, but it was a mainstream, Tony-winning play--Art, by Yasmina Reza. I don't know what a non-union, professional actor working for a low-budget theater company earns per show, but I'm willing to bet that ticket sales and concessions combined didn't even pay the night's salary for one of the actors. At least the show doesn't appear to be expensive to mount--there's just one living-room set and three actors.
It's a shame that hardly anyone else showed up, because it is a good play and a well-done production. They did make one significant change from the original production. On Broadway, all three parts were played by men. In this production, one of the parts was played by a woman.
They obviously changed the personal pronouns from masculine to feminine (even though she kept the name "Marc"), but there were at least a couple of other things that I'd like to compare to the original. At one point, during an aside to the audience, one of the actors calls the female character a "cunt". Since men rarely call other men that, I'm curious about what the original script calls for. In addition, late in the play, a character goes into specifics about why he doesn't like Marc's boyfriend, implying there are behaviors that normal men, like the character, have that the boyfriend doesn't. That really got me curious, since, while I can see the character insulting Marc's girlfriend in the original production, the comparison between the character and the boyfriend seem to drive his point. That makes me wonder if Marc is gay in the original production, or this was just some invented business by the actor.
It's been a slow week at work, again. Sigh. I guess I shouldn't complain, but I'm getting a bit bored. Oh well, when there's stuff for me to do, I'm sure I'll get plenty of it.
John and I made it to Gotham City yesterday, and I have to say the movie lived up to the hype. My only real complaint is that they really shortchanged one villain, with the last half-hour being so rushed. It's weird that I actually wanted a 2 1/2 hour movie to be somewhat longer, but I did. I'm already looking forward to Part 3. However, the audience members who showed up wearing Joker makeup--someone shoot me if I decide one day to dress up like a character of the movie I'm seeing...unless I get invited to the premiere of Quantum of Solace, and I dress in a tux. Other than that...
And that's about it. If anything of interest happens, I'll be sure to post it. Otherwise...my life seems to be on summer hiatus.
My original plan was to go Saturday night, but circumstances interfered and I spent most of the evening doing absolutely nothing. They were also doing the show on Sunday night, so I set off for the theater, a beautifully renovated former movie theater in a nicely restored, largely Hispanic neighborhood in North Fort Worth.
I've been to several productions that didn't attract a large audience, but I've never been to one that attracted so few patrons as this one. There were, at most, nine people in the auditorium--the sound/lights guy, the 3 actors, and 5 audience members.
I could understand the low turnout if it was some avant-garde play, but it was a mainstream, Tony-winning play--Art, by Yasmina Reza. I don't know what a non-union, professional actor working for a low-budget theater company earns per show, but I'm willing to bet that ticket sales and concessions combined didn't even pay the night's salary for one of the actors. At least the show doesn't appear to be expensive to mount--there's just one living-room set and three actors.
It's a shame that hardly anyone else showed up, because it is a good play and a well-done production. They did make one significant change from the original production. On Broadway, all three parts were played by men. In this production, one of the parts was played by a woman.
They obviously changed the personal pronouns from masculine to feminine (even though she kept the name "Marc"), but there were at least a couple of other things that I'd like to compare to the original. At one point, during an aside to the audience, one of the actors calls the female character a "cunt". Since men rarely call other men that, I'm curious about what the original script calls for. In addition, late in the play, a character goes into specifics about why he doesn't like Marc's boyfriend, implying there are behaviors that normal men, like the character, have that the boyfriend doesn't. That really got me curious, since, while I can see the character insulting Marc's girlfriend in the original production, the comparison between the character and the boyfriend seem to drive his point. That makes me wonder if Marc is gay in the original production, or this was just some invented business by the actor.
It's been a slow week at work, again. Sigh. I guess I shouldn't complain, but I'm getting a bit bored. Oh well, when there's stuff for me to do, I'm sure I'll get plenty of it.
John and I made it to Gotham City yesterday, and I have to say the movie lived up to the hype. My only real complaint is that they really shortchanged one villain, with the last half-hour being so rushed. It's weird that I actually wanted a 2 1/2 hour movie to be somewhat longer, but I did. I'm already looking forward to Part 3. However, the audience members who showed up wearing Joker makeup--someone shoot me if I decide one day to dress up like a character of the movie I'm seeing...unless I get invited to the premiere of Quantum of Solace, and I dress in a tux. Other than that...
And that's about it. If anything of interest happens, I'll be sure to post it. Otherwise...my life seems to be on summer hiatus.