Senior Project 2005 summer

It's all over but the shouting.

The second weekend of "Black Comedy" was not as good as the first. We had very disappointing audiences. I think we averaged about 60 every performance with the high point being 120 on the Sunday Matinee July 24.

The performances were off as well. I don't know why but the acting seemed very flat on Friday. Particularly Miss Furnival, who normally turns in a focused performance. The other performances were slightly forced which is never good for a comedy. The audiences responded with polite laughter. Some really enjoyed it. Others, I'm sure, did not.

It's a problem in community theatre: no one wants to critique your work constructively. You rarely get any feedback but the positive kind. There doesn't seem to be many people willing to tell you how to improve.

However, there are a couple of things I think I would have improved.

Timing: The pace of the show was slow at times. I don't really know how to correct this. I could have given more notes on pacing, but then I could have been adding to the communication gap. Sometimes I think shows go too fast and meanings are missed. I don't really know how to solve this. It's an individual thing, I think.

The line problems seemed to lessen as the dress rehearsals and performances wore on. But I heard from some of my actors that other cast members weren't getting their lines verbatim. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is when it is your cue. I could have pushed harder, but I felt like my individual relationship with each actor was more important as we neared performances. Perhaps I should've looked at the situation more closely. Although I truly don't know what I could've done.

Technically the show suffered a great deal. The set was good but the set decoration was atrocious. It didn't fit the show in any way. It also distracted from the show in some ways.
The lighting was well done, just not what I had in mind. I couldn't complain (Even though that is my right as a director) because I felt my relationship with teh lighting designer was tenuous. He was a high schooler. WHo was looking to add to his resume. He got to add, but he really only had a week to prepare. In the end, the light was not the real issue that kept the show from being a masterpiece. The real problem was publicity. There wasn't very nuch. Despite having a billboard on Washington Street, the support of a pretty large organizational board, and community calendar announcements, our turnout was dismal, in my opinion. It's very tough to do theatre to a small audience, especially in our big house at Ben Davis that seats 450. Small audeinces are harder to get laughing. Small audiences are more difficult all around.

We never got a newspaper review, which upset me. It seems like the local newspapers (Indianapolis Star and Nuvo) could've been supportive. At teh same time, I wonder whether the show was good. I mean I think it was, but maybe I am biased. Sure, there are places the show could've improved but for a community theatre production of a very professional play, I believe it was well worth the $10 admission and made for a very nice evening.

Next year ---- Shakespeare!

Well, the audience reactions have been varied and I'm not sure why. After a successful but unenthusiastice opening on Friday, we dipped to the depths of hell on Saturday. The crowd of about 65 just sat there. No laughter at all. It was very hard to get them to laugh at any verbal jokes.

I checked to see if the actors could be heard and there wasn't a problem with that. On Sunday, I talked with my parents who were in the audience with my uncle and they said they couldn't understand anything. It was the English accent.

Wow! That threw me for a loop. They said that they couldn't understand all the words because of the accents. I worked really hard on the accents. I even brought a person in during the fifth week to see if the accents were good or needed some work. The consultant said for the most part, the accents were very good. He was particularly impressed with our Brindsley and his Liverpool accent.

I struggle with the accent. My theatre professor, Arthur Feinsod told me in an e-mail later that he rarely uses accents because of the comprehension gap. I still feel like we had to use an accent, but I think we could have flattened it out and made it closer to our own language. We would have lost some of the colloquial jokes but people would have been able to identify with the characters and situation easier.

There is nothing I can do at this point in the process. I cannot tell the actors to cut the accent because that could ruin the rhythms of the show, make them self-conscious, and lose me a lot of friends. Their confidence is more important than my vanity. So I keep the info to myself.

On Sunday, we had the best time, and the best audience. Nearly 120 people came to see the show and they laughed almost all the time. It was amazing and quite satisfying.

After the Sunday performance, someone came up to me and asked where I got the play because they wanted to do it somewhere else. That's very nice to hear.

This is what makes theatre and all the hard work worth it.

Well we finally opened! I can't believe that it is basically all behind me.

My primary communication with the actors are notes after the run throughs, but I'm done with all that.

The paintings were hung at the last minute, but everything went down OK.

It was a sparse crowd of about 60. The laughs were difficult. I'm not sure why. One guy laughed the entire time, but I understand that he does that at every show.

I'm too exhausted to care. I will analyze the show later. Now I will enjoy my accomplishment and sleep for a very long time.

Well the rubber is finally meeting the road. All the work that has been done up to now, begins to gel and a performance is born!

There has been lots of communications between me and the cast; me and the crew; me and the executive director of the Wayne Township Education Foundation; me and my family; and me to me. Each one of these relationships must be fostered with appropriate communication of expectations and an honest assessment of the outcomes. I am primarily concerned with the communication between the play and the audience. It is a comedy so I want the audience to laugh and have a good time.

We have polished the show but there are still some rough spots. We are staying after to correct the problems. The other issue is getting all the props and making sure the set is painted and decorated. This is falling in my lap because no one else is doing it. I've had help from the actors but they need to focus on the show and their lines. This is my problem and I will deal with it.

The process gets harder on my wife and my parents because they are taking care of Luke while I am taking care of theatre stuff. My classload is light this semester, but I just added to ISU classes, including the Comm 495 project. Things always get hairy during this period. It's expected but it can be stressful.

We open in two days.

This is very important to the process. We must keep repeating the acts over and over. During the process of running scens and acts, the actors become confident about the play and their part. This is especially important to Black Comedy because it is very physical. Each part or actor's performance hinges on another's. Especially the scene where Brindsley is moving all the furniture from his aprtment to Harold's. There is a lot of action that must be timed. Plenty of tining involved in the jokes and lots of "business" that neds to be discovered. As a director you can tell exactly where the cast is unsure of themselves. It is very easy to tell where things need to be worked. Notes are very easy in this period.

At the same time, it is a bit overwhelming because you must make sure that the actors understand that a lot of work is left, but give them the confidence to know that it will be achievable.

This week, we ran the acts and the shows. We paid particular attention to scene six (the moving scene) which I dubbed "What you don't see won't hurt you" to impress the blindness aspect on the actors. Black Comedy depends on audience supension of disbelief. Even though they know that the stage is full of actors that can see each other, it is important that they suspend that "truth" and allow themselves to believe that it truly is pitch black and that Brindsley is getting away with moving furniture from his apartment to Harold's apartment right under the noses of everyone. It truly is a lot of fun.

Notes were extensive and they are several actors that are struggling with lines. I truly don't know what to do about actors and lines. I understand that learning lines is a difficult process. It isn't made easier by work and family cluttering the actor's mind. Still, memorization is part of the process. Everyone knows it before rehearsals begin. SO there should be no excuses. But I am put in a touchy situation. If I complain about the lines too much, I risk spoiling a working relationship by turning it into a employee/employer relationship. At the same time, I am alienating the actors who do know their lines. They are concerned that they won't get their preceding lines correctly and then it will make them look bad.

This is nothing new in community theatre. I just wish I knew how it could be solved.

Here is a proactive blog. I'm contemplating my next speech to the cast.

We all have had a long weekend. Some had five days, most had four days off. I enjoyed my time off immensely!

I'm not sure how to proceed from here. I know that the cast will continue rehearsing to become more comfortable with the script and the actions, but there needs to be something more.

It's a touchy area because I feel I've already pushed them pretty hard to begin. But faint heart never won fair ladypegs, as Carol would say. But here is what they've already have going.

1. English accent.

2. Blocking (where the actors move onstage). The tricky thing about blocking is it must be motivated not just movig for the sake of moving.

3. Characterization -- This is the way a character moves, the way a character talks, the little quirks that makes everyone unique. In a comedy, these are usually exaggerated to the point of being funny. Each of these actors has some sort of character. Some are working and some need work. Some I'm not worried about, some I will be asking to separate rehearsals.

3. LINES!! For some reason this is the toughest part of community theatre, but something that is done in 99.9 percent of productions. I too have problems memorizing, but at least I know it. I work hard at it, but when I try to put all three together, I usually go blank.

Now, on top of all this, I want to add more comedy. This show needs to be funny all the time. The actors need to be trying all the time to be funny in a character/motivated kind of way.

There are some things the cast can do right now to make it funnier.

1. Increase the stakes exponentially. For these people, these are high stakes. For example:
*Brindsley -- This is his whole life flashing before his eyes. If he fails this night, he will probably view himself as a failure for the rest of his life. For Brindsley, It's NOW or NEVER!
*Carol -- She's young enough and dumb enough to believe that this is all there is. If this night fails -- in other words, her father does not approve of the marriage, then for her, life is over.
* Miss Furnival -- Scared to death. She is afraid of the dark and afraid of never having enough power to overcome her fears. That is why she drinks. She is driven because of her fear.
*Colonel -- He is losing his daughter. It's a sad night. He hates this, but he realizes that this is what she wants. However he is convinced that Brindsley is all wrong for her. He must prove it to her tonight or else lose his daughter to a coward.
*Harold -- Tonight, Harold's heart will be broken in several pieces. He will learn that his camp ways are not good enough for him. Something that has worked for so long will abandon him. He will be severely hurt to the point where he must hurt back.
*Shuppanzigh -- Is the smartest electricity repair guy in all of the world. Must maintain his customer service skills or risk losing his job. He must make them feel good, or else it's back to communist Germany for him.
*Clea -- She must have Brindsley. Sex with him is the best. She must return to the safety of the relationship or else risk going it all alone and that's not something she is willing to do. Therefore she must expose Brindsley for the fake he tries to be.

2. What if Carol had a funny way of getting through the dark? What if Miss Furnival had a silly way of going through the dark?

3. Add stuff to Scene six.

4. Miss Furnival needs to be more scared. Frightened to death. Holding on to things and not wanting to let go.

5. More bits!!! Must have more bits.

6. Brindsley should change speeds during the course of the play in navigating the dark. Most of the other characters should remain fairly static.

Telling the cast about these funny bits could put too much pressure on them and make them feel like we are never going to get it all done before opening night on July 22. But we have to make the show funnier!!

The show has to be hilarious on a lot of levels.

So I must craft a speech that is at the same time aware of the work ahead, but full of confidence and optimism.

That ain't going to be easy.