Monday, September 11, 2006
Into the Woods: Performance Number Nineteen
Our second matinee, and the house is building slowly (much aided by 20+ students from Rollins, including my RCC class--I may have loaded the deck a little in terms of the vote today!) The set up was a little smoother today as well. It was nice to be able to breath backstage before the show, and not to already be sweaty from an 8:00 Duel of Fools. This would be my ideal way of running the show... alas.
Charles, Jay, Robyn and I stepped up to the plate for the never-decreasing challenge that is FourPlay. Charles was Jason (one of my Rollins students) who worked reluctantly at Applebee's with Fernando, an asian chef with anger issues, and "Hostess Clowny," a peppy young woman who liked to make balloon animals. Mrs. Ruth--recently divorced--a regular customer who was clearly interested in more than Jason's pot stickers, rounded out the family. In a fun twist, Charles used his solo to declare that he was going to date both "Hostess Clowny" and Mrs. Ruth at the same time as that was simply what he wanted to do! Then there was Rodney (Jay pictured left), an angst-ridden young man who was attempting to plan a birthday party for his mother, Irene, with the help of a party planner, Ty-Lin. When Rodney's Dad returned from sea, he was faced with the difficult decision of picking one parent to please. Next came Robyn's Dottie, who was inexplicably living in a kennel with a bunch of dogs and cats, and assisted by Sherry, a woman who apparently spoke "cat," and Slow Jerry, a disadvantaged youth who used sign language. Her ex, Pete, clearly had remorse about their breakup, and Dottie had to face whether or not she wanted to continue her life behind bars. Finally, I was Daniel, a young man with a great backyard that was full of trees and perhaps something a little more sinister... Jeremiah, a less-than-loyal latin friend, and Samantha, a choir-robe-wearing-tomboy, provided his less-than-supportive peer group, while Jay was Big Bart, the confrontational Ren-Faire owner who lived across the property line. Jeremiah suggested that the sounds beyond the trees were coming from a Chupacabra (sp?), and set Daniel on a course for discovery.
As noted above, I had a bunch of students in the house this afternoon, so Daniel took the vote (although, I feel that we all had made particularly strong story choices for this character as well.) Daniel was forced to go "Into the Woods" (opening shortly at OSF!) to discover the source of the very Star Wars-esque sounds that were terrifying him and keeping him up at night. While Big Bart, at first, had seemed to thwart his efforts, the Ren-Faire owner soon helped Daniel safely traverse the dangerous terrain. After gaining strength from stuffing his pockets with his Star Wars collectibles, Daniel returned to the woods one final time to discover that the noises were coming from Jeremiah's amorous actions with Daniel's current love interest (thereby breaking their brother bondship pact for the critical fourth time). Fortunately, an electric fence strategically placed by Big Bart, shocked Jeremiah back to his senses, and the two friends reunited, joining their forces together as one.
There were a lot of fun moments in the show. Jay led a great physical escape sequence through the woods with Charles and I in tow (with great Mission Impossible accompaniment from the booth.) Charles had an hysterical all-but a capella solo as his Latin Jeremiah in the second act in a wonderfully playful dynamic with Jim (barely) on the keyboards. After a slightly rocky lead on my part, Robyn and I found a fun musical duet near the end of the second act, and Jay gave us one of our more memorable show-stoppers as of late as Slow Jerry. Jim, Keith and I also crafted an original Star Wars parody as a solo, which had some strong moments, and the booth gave us some great wild forest sound effects throughout. Act two kept on pace, and while the very end is always an unavoidable act of faith, we made it through with a good amount of grace.
There were a couple of slips. We had a character endowed as "slow" which is not a choice we generally want to follow as it tends to make it difficult to even gently play against stereotypes. I let a mild curse slip in a moment of rapid wit, although it seems to have slid under the radar. We also were a little sloppy with our environments overall in act one which gave us less fruitful options for the second act. That being said, however, this felt like a really successful run and had a good general balance of playfulness, energy and story (and Jay nailed his act one duet!) So no real complaints here!
Six shows to go... Then it's off to the land of Shakespeare!
Your nearing-the-finish-line Director, David C.
Our second matinee, and the house is building slowly (much aided by 20+ students from Rollins, including my RCC class--I may have loaded the deck a little in terms of the vote today!) The set up was a little smoother today as well. It was nice to be able to breath backstage before the show, and not to already be sweaty from an 8:00 Duel of Fools. This would be my ideal way of running the show... alas.
Charles, Jay, Robyn and I stepped up to the plate for the never-decreasing challenge that is FourPlay. Charles was Jason (one of my Rollins students) who worked reluctantly at Applebee's with Fernando, an asian chef with anger issues, and "Hostess Clowny," a peppy young woman who liked to make balloon animals. Mrs. Ruth--recently divorced--a regular customer who was clearly interested in more than Jason's pot stickers, rounded out the family. In a fun twist, Charles used his solo to declare that he was going to date both "Hostess Clowny" and Mrs. Ruth at the same time as that was simply what he wanted to do! Then there was Rodney (Jay pictured left), an angst-ridden young man who was attempting to plan a birthday party for his mother, Irene, with the help of a party planner, Ty-Lin. When Rodney's Dad returned from sea, he was faced with the difficult decision of picking one parent to please. Next came Robyn's Dottie, who was inexplicably living in a kennel with a bunch of dogs and cats, and assisted by Sherry, a woman who apparently spoke "cat," and Slow Jerry, a disadvantaged youth who used sign language. Her ex, Pete, clearly had remorse about their breakup, and Dottie had to face whether or not she wanted to continue her life behind bars. Finally, I was Daniel, a young man with a great backyard that was full of trees and perhaps something a little more sinister... Jeremiah, a less-than-loyal latin friend, and Samantha, a choir-robe-wearing-tomboy, provided his less-than-supportive peer group, while Jay was Big Bart, the confrontational Ren-Faire owner who lived across the property line. Jeremiah suggested that the sounds beyond the trees were coming from a Chupacabra (sp?), and set Daniel on a course for discovery.As noted above, I had a bunch of students in the house this afternoon, so Daniel took the vote (although, I feel that we all had made particularly strong story choices for this character as well.) Daniel was forced to go "Into the Woods" (opening shortly at OSF!) to discover the source of the very Star Wars-esque sounds that were terrifying him and keeping him up at night. While Big Bart, at first, had seemed to thwart his efforts, the Ren-Faire owner soon helped Daniel safely traverse the dangerous terrain. After gaining strength from stuffing his pockets with his Star Wars collectibles, Daniel returned to the woods one final time to discover that the noises were coming from Jeremiah's amorous actions with Daniel's current love interest (thereby breaking their brother bondship pact for the critical fourth time). Fortunately, an electric fence strategically placed by Big Bart, shocked Jeremiah back to his senses, and the two friends reunited, joining their forces together as one.
There were a lot of fun moments in the show. Jay led a great physical escape sequence through the woods with Charles and I in tow (with great Mission Impossible accompaniment from the booth.) Charles had an hysterical all-but a capella solo as his Latin Jeremiah in the second act in a wonderfully playful dynamic with Jim (barely) on the keyboards. After a slightly rocky lead on my part, Robyn and I found a fun musical duet near the end of the second act, and Jay gave us one of our more memorable show-stoppers as of late as Slow Jerry. Jim, Keith and I also crafted an original Star Wars parody as a solo, which had some strong moments, and the booth gave us some great wild forest sound effects throughout. Act two kept on pace, and while the very end is always an unavoidable act of faith, we made it through with a good amount of grace.
There were a couple of slips. We had a character endowed as "slow" which is not a choice we generally want to follow as it tends to make it difficult to even gently play against stereotypes. I let a mild curse slip in a moment of rapid wit, although it seems to have slid under the radar. We also were a little sloppy with our environments overall in act one which gave us less fruitful options for the second act. That being said, however, this felt like a really successful run and had a good general balance of playfulness, energy and story (and Jay nailed his act one duet!) So no real complaints here!
Six shows to go... Then it's off to the land of Shakespeare!
Your nearing-the-finish-line Director, David C.
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LOL! I would hardly say that CLEARLY stating the "S" word in full voice was a "minor slip" and "under the radar"...hee hee!! Hello, blatant?? Are you there??
I choose to believe that it went unnoticed since it was a statement of fact and not used gratuitously.
M Cross, Esq
Scum Box & Associates
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M Cross, Esq
Scum Box & Associates
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