Sunday, August 06, 2006
Hello Cornelius: Performance Number Seven
Although we're three weeks into our run, Saturday was actually our last opening night for one of our own, Jay Hopkins, who joined us for the first time after wrapping up his obligations with Mad Cow's Constant Wife. (That's Jay with the fun "just-ache", or moustache of justice, standing in the foreground below.) It was neat to see his excitement and feed off his energy tonight. Along with Charles, Kate and myself, there was a good playful mood tonight, and a real sense of supportive ensemble. His lovely wife, Diana, also provided some much needed shirt drying during intermission...
A really nice show tonight. We ran a little long. Some of this was some old challenges with starting on time from the 8:00pm show and an intermission that can tend to get lengthy as we try to quickly recap our storylines before launching into act two. Some of this was, quite frankly, us enjoying ourselves just a little too much at times as performers, especially when it came to sharp starts and ends to scenes. Some of it was that we had some good story potentials to explore when we got into the second act. Our run time, once again, is actually within the ballpark of our goal, that is, approximately 90 minutes of performance. But when these factors make our end time creep up on the midnight hour, it feels long for audience and cast member alike, so it's something we need to keep an eye on. When you see the clock ticking close to midnight, the show is going to feel long even if it is, in fact, the expected actual time in terms of performance minutes.
Our new way of getting ask-fors from the audience is working well (although Jay's personal example may have added about 2 minutes here!!). Charles was a mortgage broker who found potential love when his trainee turned out to be a former high school crush. Jay returned to his former high school as the new principal, and sought advice from his old coach and mentor as to how to motivate the seemingly obtuse student body. Kate struggled with her dorm living situation when her roommate invited an elderly gentleman she'd meet online to join them as a third wheel. I enlisted my younger brother, Barnaby, to help me escape the control of my mother and over-critical grandfather. My character, Cornelius, with his brother (played by Jay) went into the second act as the stars. Can anyone say Hello Dolly!? We had some fun adventures as we tried to find and claim our manhood, only to discover, ultimately, that we needed our mother after all and that "home is where the sweat is" (the fitting title of our closing song)! It was a hot evening in more ways than one.
There were lots of strong moments. Charles' mother character was extremely strong and provided a great motivating force for the second act. He also provided a suitably nasty senior citizen internet stalker in Kate's storyline that got some great audience response. Kate had yet another stand out solo set to a Billy Joel parody in the second act as an over controlling grandfather (yet another brilliant stroke from our maestros Jim and Keith) and crafted some poignant moments as her torn student looking for some personal space as her major character in act one. Jim also pimped me into a very fast-paced jazzy number as Jay's high school secretary/adviser in the first act. This was one of those songs that moved so quickly that I didn't have a second to contemplate my lyric. A bit scary, but a whole lot of fun. Jay had a great opening night overall, but I was particularly fond of his Barnaby character that was so joyful and earnest. I really enjoyed playing alongside him as Cornelius' journey unfolded (particularly as he spun me around during a dance break!) He also had several unexpectedly quick costume changes offstage as he moved quickly amongst his four characters of the evening. Fun, fun, fun.
A really strong show overall. We had strong story elements which really can make all the difference.
I have my first pre-production meeting and a primer workshop for The Lost Comedies on Monday, and go into rehearsals for ImprOvientation on the campus of Rollins College on Wednesday, so I have to start to shift my gears a little...
Any one have any thoughts on the new way we elicit our initial offers from the audience? (Has anyone noticed that we've tweaked this?!?!)
Your soon-to-be-thrice-directing Director, David C.
Although we're three weeks into our run, Saturday was actually our last opening night for one of our own, Jay Hopkins, who joined us for the first time after wrapping up his obligations with Mad Cow's Constant Wife. (That's Jay with the fun "just-ache", or moustache of justice, standing in the foreground below.) It was neat to see his excitement and feed off his energy tonight. Along with Charles, Kate and myself, there was a good playful mood tonight, and a real sense of supportive ensemble. His lovely wife, Diana, also provided some much needed shirt drying during intermission...
A really nice show tonight. We ran a little long. Some of this was some old challenges with starting on time from the 8:00pm show and an intermission that can tend to get lengthy as we try to quickly recap our storylines before launching into act two. Some of this was, quite frankly, us enjoying ourselves just a little too much at times as performers, especially when it came to sharp starts and ends to scenes. Some of it was that we had some good story potentials to explore when we got into the second act. Our run time, once again, is actually within the ballpark of our goal, that is, approximately 90 minutes of performance. But when these factors make our end time creep up on the midnight hour, it feels long for audience and cast member alike, so it's something we need to keep an eye on. When you see the clock ticking close to midnight, the show is going to feel long even if it is, in fact, the expected actual time in terms of performance minutes.Our new way of getting ask-fors from the audience is working well (although Jay's personal example may have added about 2 minutes here!!). Charles was a mortgage broker who found potential love when his trainee turned out to be a former high school crush. Jay returned to his former high school as the new principal, and sought advice from his old coach and mentor as to how to motivate the seemingly obtuse student body. Kate struggled with her dorm living situation when her roommate invited an elderly gentleman she'd meet online to join them as a third wheel. I enlisted my younger brother, Barnaby, to help me escape the control of my mother and over-critical grandfather. My character, Cornelius, with his brother (played by Jay) went into the second act as the stars. Can anyone say Hello Dolly!? We had some fun adventures as we tried to find and claim our manhood, only to discover, ultimately, that we needed our mother after all and that "home is where the sweat is" (the fitting title of our closing song)! It was a hot evening in more ways than one.
There were lots of strong moments. Charles' mother character was extremely strong and provided a great motivating force for the second act. He also provided a suitably nasty senior citizen internet stalker in Kate's storyline that got some great audience response. Kate had yet another stand out solo set to a Billy Joel parody in the second act as an over controlling grandfather (yet another brilliant stroke from our maestros Jim and Keith) and crafted some poignant moments as her torn student looking for some personal space as her major character in act one. Jim also pimped me into a very fast-paced jazzy number as Jay's high school secretary/adviser in the first act. This was one of those songs that moved so quickly that I didn't have a second to contemplate my lyric. A bit scary, but a whole lot of fun. Jay had a great opening night overall, but I was particularly fond of his Barnaby character that was so joyful and earnest. I really enjoyed playing alongside him as Cornelius' journey unfolded (particularly as he spun me around during a dance break!) He also had several unexpectedly quick costume changes offstage as he moved quickly amongst his four characters of the evening. Fun, fun, fun.
A really strong show overall. We had strong story elements which really can make all the difference.
I have my first pre-production meeting and a primer workshop for The Lost Comedies on Monday, and go into rehearsals for ImprOvientation on the campus of Rollins College on Wednesday, so I have to start to shift my gears a little...
Any one have any thoughts on the new way we elicit our initial offers from the audience? (Has anyone noticed that we've tweaked this?!?!)
Your soon-to-be-thrice-directing Director, David C.
