BASKING IN THE STAGE LIGHTS: TAILS FROM FINAL DRESS
OPENING NIGHT IS HERE!
What a relief and a joy it is to get to this point in a production and just look forward to having an audience (speaking for the cast - meanwhile our brilliant stage manager is running more boards than she has hands, and is absolutely killing it - we should do a video of that for a future post, note to self).
In earnest, this play is about a lot of things, and trying to sift through the layers of this play will probably only feel totally settled when we learn how it plays on an audience - which may be different from night to night (part of the added fun). The last few night’s there have been some new and “hiccup-y” kind of things with new props or costume changes, etc. and for all of them, the cast and team navigated through and picked right up without major conflict. It’s the beauty of getting a little extra time with a script and a company - we’ve got a good sense how to support and pick up with one another while keeping the script driving forward. I feel like I’m walking into a playground where there is a bounce-house ike perimeter - safe, fun, ready to play.
For our final dress we had a couple of our ensemble members join us - and with just two new voices to laugh, sigh, gasp, or choke at various points in the show, it made for such a different energy in the receiving of it being onstage. Throughout the rehearsal process, we have been generously hosted in a fairly intimate space at Franklin Circle Christian Church. Over the course of our weeks of rehearsal, we naturally got acclimated working in that intimate space. Having moved to the much larger and much more open space at LatinUS Theatre (also super generous and wonderfully kind to SOTP), there has been an adjustment curve in trying to adapt what felt so full in a small space to hit with same kind of impact in this bigger space. Without an audience to gauge the in-the-moment kind of spybacks of “Can they hear me?” or “Did the delivery of that line land the way I hoped - was my action and quality clear?” or even “Is my tempo changing now that I’m trying to exert more energy into my volume?” can feel unsatisfyingly un-tested. Tonight felt so great to have even just two fresh audience members to be that sounding board.
[A quick thanks to Truman, Craig’s Boston Terrier, who attended our final dress and was astonishingly silent and attentive to the production-good boy.]
Catching up with our two ensemble members post-run, here’s what they had to say about the show after getting their first look (I promised I would not make them accountable to my rushed interview tactics while on a 10-minute break right after the run):
Ensemble Member 1: I don’t know my thoughts to tell you the truth - you’re not going to make this verbatim are you?
Michael: Nah, I’ll clean it up or keep it anonymous (internally realizing it’s already late at night and this post will only make the most sense if it’s posted in the next 20 hours).
Ensemble Member 1: I had looked up some things about the show, and I kept seeing it described as a comedy etc. etc. - and it IS funny. There are clearly parts where there is a lot of humor. I found myself laughing and surprised at the absurdity-of it all-
Ensemble Member 2: But it’s a dark DARK irony that is running through the whole play--
Ensemble Member 1: YES! Dark irony more than “drama-dy” - there are very decisive moments where it is not comedy, and those moments are …well they’re devastating -
Ensemble Member 2: What happens with [omitted for spoiler] was devastating.
Michael: Having just watched the show, are there questions that come to mind?
Ensemble Member 2: I guess my biggest question is for you (looking at Michael), how do you justify doing a role like this …because I don’t know you to be like this character at all.
Michael: Yea, it’s a bit uncomfortable at times, but ultimately I think this is a real person and they exist and they have to be there to set the tone. In ways he’s rough, but I also think he’s there to set the goal posts of expectation for how this town exists. He’s not a villain -
Ensemble Member 1: No one is ever the villain in their own story-
Michael: Yea, he’s just a guy - or at least in his own mind, he’s the hero of the cause he thinks is just.
Ensemble Member 2: I thoroughly enjoyed this comedic irony of it all - I can see why people may call it a drama-dy or whatever. As a black woman, There is a joy that I’m getting seeing people get their just desserts, it feels right in the era of F* around and find out. The irony…I’m finding it… a little delicious.
Ensemble Member 1: I love that - I love the way you talk about art-
Michael: That’s the new sub-title: Amerikin: A Little Bit Delicious
Ensemble Member 2: Also the way this play opens up issues faced by new mothers and the major lapses in compassion for those issues across gender.
Ensemble Member 1: Well, and the other female character in the play too. Even among women, there are biases that come to the forefront. The consequences of all this stuff going sideways - it’s all such high stakes.
Ensemble Member 2: It’s that delicious irony.
Ensemble Member 1: I’m thinking about my home town, a small town, I’m thinking about myself and the work I’ve done on myself - there’s a lot going into this play.
Ensemble Member 2: I’m still thinking about the lengths people will go to feel heard or to be seen. Each character has such a specific journey that’s tied into that delicious irony.
Ensemble Member 1: Yes - whooo those are my thoughts - I have lots of other thoughts, but they're still in process.
Ensemble Member 2: I don’t know either - I’m still processing everything.
Michael: Well, we love that. In fact we’ll make a blog post about it.
[end scene]
We’d love to chat with you next - grab your tickets and we’ll see you there.
Running three weekends starting today!
