Play Out the Play!

Beware of Precious

"The great thing about film is that it has a disposable element. You do it and it's done. That's a great thing to bring back to the theater, because sometimes it can get a bit precious. Just play it through, get rid of it. Don't play the grace notes, don't worry about them."  ~Brian Cox, Scottish actor

This is really something to think about in terms of making things compelling.  It may be the root of the feeling of complacency I often feel at the theatre-- like everyone up there is glossing things over, that things are a little too evenly orchestrated, too tentative, too pretty, precious. 

Don't get me wrong, a strong sense of style is an asset!  An aesthetic point of view that is complete and makes a statement is integral.  But when it comes to the acting, the best stuff is the stuff that has been polished so far down, you've taken the varnish off of the moment.  It shouldn't be shiny, it should expose the grain. 

I mean, precious.  Just the word brings up visions of my childhood bedroom with its pink walls and  eyelet canopy bed and white furniture with gold trimming.  How sweet!  How charming!   How Saved by the Bell!

Precious may be good for children, but adults need a more interesting diet.  Play a moment as a real thing, not a buttercream birthday cake.  But then, you'd have to be making theatre for more than juveniles to achieve such a thing. 

So remind me later:  Beware of Gollum Syndrome.  Beware of precious. 

All's Red that's Riding Hood

Well, the WSF board approved my proposed budget, so it looks like the green light is really green.  We're setting up a meeting with my producer ladies, the fabulous Debora Bolen and the vivacious Laura Vogt.  I'm super excited to get to work with them both.

Oh, if you missed the memo, this is for Woodward Shakespeare's entry to the Rogue Festival in February.  It's an original piece by local playwright Terrence McArthur, a fractured fairy-tale with a tragic twist, and spoken all in blank verse.  Really charming, whimsical, yet dark stuff.  Right up my alley. 

 

The cast is also set-- I'm mailing out scripts this weekend.  The cast as it stands:

DEWOLF:  James Sherrill (Richard Lionhart, Lion in Winter)

RED RIDING HOOD:  Alicia Buss (Princess Alais, Lion in Winter)

LORD WOODMAN HOOD:  Tom Nance (The Man, Turn of the Screw; Frederick Arnott, Enchanted April)

GRANDMOTHER HOOD:  Randi Saul-Olson (Costanza, Enchanted April)

I'm hoping to have the first meeting in early November.  Huzzah!

The Experience is the Thing

I've been talking and thinking for a few years about forms of 'experiential theatre'.  Since Turn of the Screw, I have felt that leisure audiences are seeking more than just a diversion, a story to be fed.  They can get that at home on DVD.  More and more, audiences want an experience-- a unique memory-- when they go out and pay money for entertainment.  (They may not know they want it, but they do!)

On Turn, I extended the theatricality outside of the stage area to include the entire space.  Made it a Victorian Drawing room complete with intimate seating arrangements, oil lamps, and black shades.   The whole atmosphere was charged as the audience experienced-- up close and personal-- the ghost story unfolding before their eyes. 

Many people had said they'd never experienced something like that before. 

I think that's what really hooked me with Ren Faire. . . the fact that it's an experience for someone coming in the gate.  Our presentation and interaction help to give them an afternoon's memory.  And if it is done well-- with focus, and story, and style-- it will be a memory apart from other faires they've gone to. 

Shakespeare Santa Cruz-- hell, even Woodward Shakes-- does the same thing.  It's outdoors, beautiful evening, enjoyable staff, good theatre, picnicing on the grounds, something to think about as you walk away.  It makes for some fabulous times. 

But I find that other theatres don't get this.  Not only is what's happening in the lobby, in the external experience, not very memorable, what's happening on the stages is less and less memorable.  They definitely don't leave anyone thinking about the experience for very long  It's unfortunate. 

I'm excited that instead of working in Visalia in 2008, I'll be presenting a show at the Rogue Festival in Fresno.  The Rogue gets the experience economy.  They provide an insane number of inexpensive shows, in a fabulous layout, packed into two weekends.  A group can map out three interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking shows in one day, and do some dining and have drinks along the way. 

To get people off of their butts and parted with their money, artists need to offer more than just their sweat equity.  The 'if you build it, they will come' mantra doesn't work in an experience economy, people. Get innovative!  Get out of the doldrums!  Get creative!  It's what you say you are, after all. 

The experience economy looks something like this:

• If you charge for undifferentiated stuff, then you are in the commodity business.
• If you charge for distinctive tangible things, then you are in the goods business.
• If you charge for the activities you perform, then you are in the service business.
• If you charge for the feeling customers have because of engaging you, then you are in the experience business.
• If you charge for the benefit customers (or "guests") receive as a result of spending that time, you are in the transformation business.

If you're offering leisure activities and you're not hitting in the last two categories, you're missing the mark. 

That's why I'm glad for this time to reinvent my focus.  I want to give people a great day in the park, a great evening in the space, something to think about as they leave.  Any animal can be diverted by bells and shiny things for a time and leave without a thought in its brain.  It's the memory, the thinking and the consciousness of true, engaged experience that reinforces our humanity.

Ditch the fragile ego bit

“While we as theatre artists may wish that our work be considered sacrosanct by virtue of our spent time and passion, the fact that we’re charging money for it makes it a consumer product, and as such we are accountable. So critics are invaluable to our audience, like it or not, and we need to develop a thicker skin about criticism. Be able to ditch the fragile ego bit and accept what is valuable in a review and discard what is not. It’s just an opinion anyway, and hopefully it’s an informed one from someone who loves the theatre.” ~Simon Ogden, theatreist.