I will be appearing in my first dramatic (e.g. non-comedic) role in at least the past 16 years tonight at the Patrick Henry Theatre in North Minneapolis. This is my second play with the emerging Camden Civic Theatre, and I am playing the role of Joe Summers in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery."In this day and age, where people's sensitivities seem to get disturbed by all manner of daily affronts (all the while, the number of violent & vile images increases daily on their TVs), I am expecting a little shock and maybe even an unpleasant reaction from at least some of the audience to this quite dark play. Anticipating this, we will be doing a Q & A with the audience after the show in an effort to put the story and message in context.
My character is kind of the "head-man" of a small, rural village. Most likely one of the wealthiest figures in town, he holds a position of power and influence and coordinates the yearly "lottery." I really step outside of myself for the part (I hope). I play him, hopefully not over-the-top, as a smarmy, smiley gladhander that is aware that everyone in town works hard for a living so he doesn't have to. I pretty much model him after some sort of amalgam of my least favorite politicians. One scene I particularly enjoy is when he has a little argument, apart from the rest of the villagers, with his sister who resents and preaches against town tradition.
The promise of good theatre sponsored by Community Education should be enough to drag everyone away from the Vikings-Packers Monday Night game for a couple of hours, don't you think?
Understanding the various reasons my readers can't attend, I wish you all could be there.
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9 comments:
Good luck, of course - and break a leg.
My thoughts will be on your performance this evening. However, they will be during the commercials and at halftime. GO Vikings!
I'm as likely to pluck my eyebrow(s) as I am to watch Monday Night Football, but alas I will not be there for the performance either.
Wish I could say it was being podCast. Alas alak.
Someday.....
Someone vidoetaping it?
Was that done for your last bit of work at the theeayter?
Maybe we can mock it at some future time.
It was taped, but something I had forgotten in the 15 some-odd years since I was last doing theatre on a regular basis: videotaped theatre is unwatchable. Even for mockery.
why?
The whole point of theatre-the main advantage over movies or TV, is that nobody is controlling or manipulating where you focus. It's like an extra extra extra widescreen TV. No matter where you look on the stage, whether it's the person who is speaking, a background character in another spot on the stage, or just the set-it's all part of the story and all part of the experience. There's also the whole notion of it just being "live" that is really engaging.
With videotape (particularly with a single camcorder shot), you have this single, static shot where you can see nothing particularly well. In addition, the unidirectional audio recording makes everything sound garbled & tinny, and if you can make out words, you're lucky. Videotape takes all the minor disadvantages of theatre and magnifies them, while squelching everything there is to like.
In short, live theatre is energizing, videotaped theatre is flat.
I believe that it is still mockable. Even if our attention span is 10 minutes. However, I see your point.
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