INTENTIONALITY & TRUST: FAMILY DINNER IN DIVIDED TIMES
Time flies when you’re having fun.
Somehow, even with an extended process, a production sneaks up and is here. It feels quick. That’s not to say we’re caught unaware or in a mad-dash-panic. We’re ready. We are SO ready to have the conversation of this play with an audience. But still, it feels like it arrived quickly.
I think there’s an aspect of any creative process that the time is going to move fast. In creating something new, there’s virtually endless possibilities - each possibility worthy of at least some degree of discussion if not full blown exploration; and in the experimentation of trying out each little life of a newly conceived scene or moment, time flies by quickly.
Despite knowing this, our director does a really thoughtful thing: he schedules into our rehearsals some extra time for a family dinner. For this production, we did it nearly once a week after the process weeks were finished. Once a week, despite this group's ability to intellectualize, probe, and verbally process to infinity and beyond, we would call it quits a little early one night of the week, find a local spot nearby, and grab a drink or a bite together.
Of course SOTP didn’t invent the cast hangout - so long as there has been a late night venue (be it My Friends, Steak n’ Shake, Denny’s, Perkins, etc.) a group of creative minded people will find good cause for festive fare consumption. However, what I have found striking about these family dinners though are a few things:
This is a weird and challengingly structured play. I won’t get too deep into it when you can check out the post about the play’s General Beauty Statement, but rest assured, it’s tricky. Trickier yet is how the themes of this play converse with the world evolving (devolving?) around us and trying to suss out how it informs our mode and goals for the production. There's plenty to get into the weeds on when it comes to this play - time is a precious resource and easily the dance card could be considered full…
As a company who does process (have we mentioned that?), and therefore we build in time to play with techniques new and old in rehearsal. There’s no shortage of playable exercises and technique to flex, AND YET…
This rehearsal has demanded a lot of trust across this company. Trust to have each other’s best interests in mind. Trust to take care of each other. Trust to explore some dark and heavy subject matter…sometimes with humor. Trust that these characters do a lot of things that challenge every natural human instinct we may have on a personal or cultural level. And Trust that there’s a time when we’ve done all we should, and trust that being with each other in an informal space - doing life together - is the best possible use of our precious resource of time. Trust that our connection to each other as a company is more important.
These gatherings haven’t been mandatory or anything, and not everyone can attend every time, but when there’s a quorum, some quietly beautiful things tend to occur. Right now in life and in the state of the world, being in a space where there are easy and surprising laughs holds a SUPER high value. Getting to hang out with this cast - having some trusted time dedicated for us to be able to just…vibe - I find myself inspired not just by their art, but by what absolute kings of and queen of humanity they are. Movies I’ve never heard of, episodic anecdotes of life’s earlier chapters, games of questions and hypotheticals, advice and counselling for navigating __[insert toxic thing here]__, philosophies and proclivities pertaining to pizza preferences, areas of discomfort and friendly confidences. Anything and everything finds a brave space in this company.
As the news and the world begins to feel more and more overwhelming and [profoundly] disappointing, I’m becoming conscious of how I spend my time. I get caught up in mindless scrolling on social media, absorbing microblows to my dopamine levels, feeling more and more distant from a sense of connective belonging. It has meant the world to have time like these family dinners where the phone stays down and the connection is tactile, audible, personal. It’s time well spent.
In a play about a world where people are DESPERATE to belong to something, it’s been gratifying to have space where we as a cast can belong to each other. I’m very grateful to this cast and this production team and the time we’ve entrusted to each other. It’s been a really great part of this process that I’ll carry with me long after closing.
I hope you can come see our play. It’s a weird and cool sort of coincidence that we’re getting to experience the sort of connectivity in action that the play is championing, and I think that makes a difference. I think you can feel that in the art-making.
WE OPEN THIS WEEKEND!
