The Play is the Thing!
This past Saturday was blistering hot, which is typical for our little town's main summer festival. It's always either super hot or raining. Never seems to ever be in-between. But it's almost become a tradition to suffer for your fun during this event. If you had it easy, how would you know you were alive?
We did plan for the heat this year, though. That was half the reason for writing the play in a modern style in the first place. When you set these plays in the historical period in which they typically take place, that means wearing multiple layers of heavy wool clothing for a costume. I made that mistake about 10 years ago and my cast paid the price. One of the lead actors had it so bad that he got sick in a trash barrel between performances and my stage manager never said a word until she broke down in tears from heat exhaustion.
I'm honestly not a slave driver, but I just get so driven myself that I don't think about things like eating and rest when there's a show going before an audience in just hours! I've been working on that though.
This year the costumes were more appropriate for summer, although there were a couple of suit jackets and a black dress. I only said it was better, not perfect. We're still working towards that. Not that anything could have been entirely comfortable in that tent in the middle of a sweltering afternoon where the air was as still and heavy as it could possibly be.
We went up at 3 in the afternoon so I was in the park assembling the 'set' at about 1:30. It consisted of only a backdrop wall (8' tall by 12' wide) with an arch that would be covered by a makeshift curtain. The curtain was never used, and the whole thing was just meant to kind of set off the space rather than being functional. Four wooden benches that acted as makeshift pews in this chapel setting rounded out the picture.
The reason I had to assemble it was that we were re-using a set that I used on a touring summer show my wife and I did about 10 years ago. In fact, I wrote that show and we performed it when she was 8 months pregnant with Robo. I was pulling the set out of the garage a few months ago Robo asked me when the last time we used the set was. I was going to say something like 4 years ago because that's how it felt. When I thought for a second, though, I said, "Well, how old are you?"
Consequently, since the wife was acting in that last show, I wrote a pregnant character into the plot. It worked real well till we revived it 2 years later and had to come up with pregnant tummy padding and that meant more costume rental cost.
At any rate, when we were doing that show, I had to design this back wall set so that it could be torn down and transported in the back of at 1991 Chevy Cavalier mini-wagon. So the largest piece could only be 4'x4'. I ended up making an interesting puzzle piece design that went together quite well at the time, but it was a bit of a mystery putting it together for the first time in 10 years after dragging it out of the garage. I did finally figure it out, and so on Saturday construction was a smooth step by step process.
We had a good write up on the front page of our small town morning paper that morning, so the show was well attended. It was difficult performing in that space---outdoor theater is always a brutal endeavor. The more people that attend, and the hotter or more humid the air, the more sound gets sucked up. So it ended up being difficult to hear toward the back. Not to mention that keeping people's focus is a challenge while all around there are 4000 noisy distracting things going on.
Near the end of the performance the Civil War re-enactors felt the need to fire off their field cannon not even 100 feet from the tent. That of course scared the holy-hannas out of everyone in the audience AND the cast. After which, of course, the audience just started to buzz, talking to their neighbor about how much that freaked them out. This caused a whole scene to be pretty much lost. And just when things were calming down, they shot it off again!
That kind of took the wind right out of the sails, but the stalwart cast finished as a matter of principle, ending to enthusiastic, appreciative applause.
And just like that, it was history. One performance after 6 weeks of rehearsal and we're done. I would have liked to have seen the performance in a more controlled space so I could understand what parts of the show worked with an audience and seen how to tune the show a little to tighten it up. I couldn't gauged this audience reaction at all, not being able to hear if they were laughing and when. And to be honest, I didn't even get to really see the show except in pieces because I was doing laps with the little bear in the stroller to keep him from getting antsy and vocal.
I did have a couple of local people come up afterward to eagerly ask if I might be interested in writing something for little drama groups that they have, so they must have thought the quality of writing was passable. I'm considering their offers.
In the meantime we're figuring out how to spend all the free time we have together now. I'm back to putting in as much overtime as I can muster at work. But for tonight we'll be all together as a family watching "Lost" for the first time since last seasons finale.
And in 6 weeks school starts. Where has the summer gone?
We did plan for the heat this year, though. That was half the reason for writing the play in a modern style in the first place. When you set these plays in the historical period in which they typically take place, that means wearing multiple layers of heavy wool clothing for a costume. I made that mistake about 10 years ago and my cast paid the price. One of the lead actors had it so bad that he got sick in a trash barrel between performances and my stage manager never said a word until she broke down in tears from heat exhaustion.
I'm honestly not a slave driver, but I just get so driven myself that I don't think about things like eating and rest when there's a show going before an audience in just hours! I've been working on that though.
This year the costumes were more appropriate for summer, although there were a couple of suit jackets and a black dress. I only said it was better, not perfect. We're still working towards that. Not that anything could have been entirely comfortable in that tent in the middle of a sweltering afternoon where the air was as still and heavy as it could possibly be.
We went up at 3 in the afternoon so I was in the park assembling the 'set' at about 1:30. It consisted of only a backdrop wall (8' tall by 12' wide) with an arch that would be covered by a makeshift curtain. The curtain was never used, and the whole thing was just meant to kind of set off the space rather than being functional. Four wooden benches that acted as makeshift pews in this chapel setting rounded out the picture.
The reason I had to assemble it was that we were re-using a set that I used on a touring summer show my wife and I did about 10 years ago. In fact, I wrote that show and we performed it when she was 8 months pregnant with Robo. I was pulling the set out of the garage a few months ago Robo asked me when the last time we used the set was. I was going to say something like 4 years ago because that's how it felt. When I thought for a second, though, I said, "Well, how old are you?"
Consequently, since the wife was acting in that last show, I wrote a pregnant character into the plot. It worked real well till we revived it 2 years later and had to come up with pregnant tummy padding and that meant more costume rental cost.
At any rate, when we were doing that show, I had to design this back wall set so that it could be torn down and transported in the back of at 1991 Chevy Cavalier mini-wagon. So the largest piece could only be 4'x4'. I ended up making an interesting puzzle piece design that went together quite well at the time, but it was a bit of a mystery putting it together for the first time in 10 years after dragging it out of the garage. I did finally figure it out, and so on Saturday construction was a smooth step by step process.
We had a good write up on the front page of our small town morning paper that morning, so the show was well attended. It was difficult performing in that space---outdoor theater is always a brutal endeavor. The more people that attend, and the hotter or more humid the air, the more sound gets sucked up. So it ended up being difficult to hear toward the back. Not to mention that keeping people's focus is a challenge while all around there are 4000 noisy distracting things going on.
Near the end of the performance the Civil War re-enactors felt the need to fire off their field cannon not even 100 feet from the tent. That of course scared the holy-hannas out of everyone in the audience AND the cast. After which, of course, the audience just started to buzz, talking to their neighbor about how much that freaked them out. This caused a whole scene to be pretty much lost. And just when things were calming down, they shot it off again!
That kind of took the wind right out of the sails, but the stalwart cast finished as a matter of principle, ending to enthusiastic, appreciative applause.
And just like that, it was history. One performance after 6 weeks of rehearsal and we're done. I would have liked to have seen the performance in a more controlled space so I could understand what parts of the show worked with an audience and seen how to tune the show a little to tighten it up. I couldn't gauged this audience reaction at all, not being able to hear if they were laughing and when. And to be honest, I didn't even get to really see the show except in pieces because I was doing laps with the little bear in the stroller to keep him from getting antsy and vocal.
I did have a couple of local people come up afterward to eagerly ask if I might be interested in writing something for little drama groups that they have, so they must have thought the quality of writing was passable. I'm considering their offers.
In the meantime we're figuring out how to spend all the free time we have together now. I'm back to putting in as much overtime as I can muster at work. But for tonight we'll be all together as a family watching "Lost" for the first time since last seasons finale.
And in 6 weeks school starts. Where has the summer gone?
posted by Will at 1:51 PM
2 Comments:
Where has summer gone?? It's only half over! :) Gee, I can imagine those cannon shots WOULD put a damper on things. But like troopers, the show went on! Glad to hear it went well (as well as could be expected given the heat and cannonballs). And you even got more writing gigs from it. Well done.
Congratulations, Will! You pulled it off ... despite all the things you couldn't control. You should feel very proud.
I wonder if there isn't a possibility of doing it again somehow ... in a more controlled environment. I mean, not *everyone* in town got to see the play, right? Just wondering if you might be able to find another venue and give an encore ... if you wanted to, of course.
And I agree with your brother ... the fact that you and your wife can do something like this and come out speaking in the end is something to be proud of for sure.
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