Okay, Iolanthe is now over.
Nov. 22nd, 2004 03:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasAnd it was great. I got home from the strike party like half an hour ago. I should go to sleep, but I want to write while I'm still thinking.
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navrins has been mentioning that he might want to post things about what he wished he'd done differently, and, well, I'd be interested in that, but I'm more interested in thinking about and trying to nail down exactly what it was that went right. rather than what went wrong. Because very little went wrong. Oh, sure, Saturday night, ALL the violas were out sick, which meant that that bit in the Lord Chancelor's song where the only thing which is playing is the viola section sounded kinda weird, and Sunday afternoon, the celioist was out sick, so one of the bassoons played the celio part, and every once in a while, someone slightly muffed a line, or didn't go far enough stage right while going into a circle or little stuff like that -- the sort of thing that gives directors ulcers, but which audiences really don't notice so long as they're having fun, which these audiences were.
So what went right?
Before we went on stage today for our last performance, Brian came in to give us his usual "you'll be fine, you'll be great, you'll have the whole world on a plate" speech, and mentioned how much he'd enjoyed working with us, because, basically, as Mike-the-baritone put it, "We're all amateurs in the GOOD sense -- we're doing this out of love." We're the kind of amateurs who therefore demonstrate a real sense of professionalism. And we realized that a lot of the credit -- a HUGE amount of credit -- goes to Brian for creating a show that we felt that proud of. And I found myself shouting, "Hip hip", and the green room exploded with "HURRAH!". Three times.
That was totally spontaneous, totally unrehearsed, and totally heartfelt and sincere. Is it maybe a little bit hokey to give three cheers for the director? Oh, yeah, I'm sure it is. But we totally meant it, and Brian totally deserves it.
But it's not just Brian. Not even remotely. And that was driven home during strike when I happened to notice that I was carrying a big ole heavy object, and Lyman was carrying the other end. Lyman played the Lord Chancelor, which is really the starring role -- he's the guy who came out last for curtain calls, and got the loudest applause, and deserved all of it. And I started thinking -- from what everyone else was saying, there exist theater troupes where the stars don't even really socialize with the chorus. But this is college theater, community theater. And here, the chorus, leads, orchestra, conductor, vocal directors, director, producers, and the set crew were all wandering around with power tools taking the set apart.
That's good. That's damn good, and that's certainly related to why this show worked so well, and why this show was so much fun.
Several people mentioned that this was just about the most fun they'd ever had in a production. Tony said that he HAD had this much fun in other productions, but that he'd never had MORE fun. Other folks called this just plain the best experience they'd had.
And, well, that had to come out on stage. People seemed to really like the production. People seemed to have fun. People laughed at the funny parts. I think the smallest crowd we had was like sixty people in the audience, which was on a Thursday night. I heard vague rumors that the show broke even on ticket sales alone -- we may have paid for our own sets and makeup and costumes. Which is like $3000 or something like that.
So, that's what I'd like to think about -- what made the cast and crew gel like that? Why did we all have so much fun? What convinced us that we were in a damn good production of a really fun operetta, and that we were going to go out there and knock the socks off of the audience? And what actually led to the actual existence of said socksless audiences?
And what parts of it are repeatable?
I admit, I'm almost reluctant to try out for Yeoman of the Guard next semester because it couldn't possibly be as much fun as this production was.
Almost reluctant. If my work schedule permits it, I think I will.
navrins has been mentioning that he might want to post things about what he wished he'd done differently, and, well, I'd be interested in that, but I'm more interested in thinking about and trying to nail down exactly what it was that went right. rather than what went wrong. Because very little went wrong. Oh, sure, Saturday night, ALL the violas were out sick, which meant that that bit in the Lord Chancelor's song where the only thing which is playing is the viola section sounded kinda weird, and Sunday afternoon, the celioist was out sick, so one of the bassoons played the celio part, and every once in a while, someone slightly muffed a line, or didn't go far enough stage right while going into a circle or little stuff like that -- the sort of thing that gives directors ulcers, but which audiences really don't notice so long as they're having fun, which these audiences were.So what went right?
Before we went on stage today for our last performance, Brian came in to give us his usual "you'll be fine, you'll be great, you'll have the whole world on a plate" speech, and mentioned how much he'd enjoyed working with us, because, basically, as Mike-the-baritone put it, "We're all amateurs in the GOOD sense -- we're doing this out of love." We're the kind of amateurs who therefore demonstrate a real sense of professionalism. And we realized that a lot of the credit -- a HUGE amount of credit -- goes to Brian for creating a show that we felt that proud of. And I found myself shouting, "Hip hip", and the green room exploded with "HURRAH!". Three times.
That was totally spontaneous, totally unrehearsed, and totally heartfelt and sincere. Is it maybe a little bit hokey to give three cheers for the director? Oh, yeah, I'm sure it is. But we totally meant it, and Brian totally deserves it.
But it's not just Brian. Not even remotely. And that was driven home during strike when I happened to notice that I was carrying a big ole heavy object, and Lyman was carrying the other end. Lyman played the Lord Chancelor, which is really the starring role -- he's the guy who came out last for curtain calls, and got the loudest applause, and deserved all of it. And I started thinking -- from what everyone else was saying, there exist theater troupes where the stars don't even really socialize with the chorus. But this is college theater, community theater. And here, the chorus, leads, orchestra, conductor, vocal directors, director, producers, and the set crew were all wandering around with power tools taking the set apart.
That's good. That's damn good, and that's certainly related to why this show worked so well, and why this show was so much fun.
Several people mentioned that this was just about the most fun they'd ever had in a production. Tony said that he HAD had this much fun in other productions, but that he'd never had MORE fun. Other folks called this just plain the best experience they'd had.
And, well, that had to come out on stage. People seemed to really like the production. People seemed to have fun. People laughed at the funny parts. I think the smallest crowd we had was like sixty people in the audience, which was on a Thursday night. I heard vague rumors that the show broke even on ticket sales alone -- we may have paid for our own sets and makeup and costumes. Which is like $3000 or something like that.
So, that's what I'd like to think about -- what made the cast and crew gel like that? Why did we all have so much fun? What convinced us that we were in a damn good production of a really fun operetta, and that we were going to go out there and knock the socks off of the audience? And what actually led to the actual existence of said socksless audiences?
And what parts of it are repeatable?
I admit, I'm almost reluctant to try out for Yeoman of the Guard next semester because it couldn't possibly be as much fun as this production was.
Almost reluctant. If my work schedule permits it, I think I will.