This past week James and I hopped a plane and went to NYC for three days. Now that the craziness of our Ohlook summer is over we decided to take advantage of a little down time to get out of town and take in some different scenery. Not that New York is new to us, been there, done that, but the chance to see a few shows and wander through a couple of museums always gets the creative juices flowing again.
Having taken the creativity workshop with Susan Blackwell earlier in the summer, the thought that came to mind during this trip was "grounded, specific and self-expressed". These words come from Susan Blackwell herself and they/it/this phrase has been the theme of my summer, or at least the last half of my summer. Susan Blackwell was a co-writer of [title of show] and as we were going through the rehearsal process for our little production I kept this phrase close by, repeating it to myself whenever I wasn't sure what path to take. Keep it simple! This harder than it sounds. I'm happy to say that our "Little Show" turned out beautifully. James and I were so lucky to get the AMAZING cast we had in Marianne Galloway, Jennifer Pasion, Marshall Warren and John Davenport. From day one their performances were focused, self-aware, and incredibly honest and real. I ran the light bored for all 8 performances of our too brief run and for all 8 I sat there with a huge, gleeful grin on my face! What a wonderful gift to be given this cast and this show. As a result of the wonderful cast and their deep understanding of the characters, we got lots of WONDERFUL comments from our audiences and managed to get a fantastic review from a local critic. Our plan now is to take the show to the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival next summer. We have a lot of money to raise to make that dream a reality but I know we can do it. The cast is totally behind us and I think we'll discover that there are a lot of folks who believe in us and what we want to do. Crossies!
All of this recent activity came to mind during our trip this past week. While in NYC two of the four shows we saw reminded me specifically of Susan Blackwell's words. We FINALLY saw South Pacific at Lincoln Center. We were lucky enough to get to see Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot reprise their roles only a week before the show closes. A large number of the original cast were still with the show so it was as though we were seeing it soon after opening. We all know what a hit this show has been so I don't have to tell you that it was STUNNING to look at! Michael Yeargin took advantage of the vast stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater and created both intimate and wide open spaces within the same production. Most impressive! The show sounded amazing! It was such a refreshing change to see a show that didn't hit you over the head with amplified sound and which had actors who SING OUT with big, booming voices! WOW!!!!
But what really impressed me was how REAL Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot were in their performances. There were no histrionics, there was no "I'm a big, big star playing an iconic role so I'm going to over-do everything and be self-indulgent" performances. Just real, connected, grounded, specific and self-expressed. Inspiration!
The big surprise of the week and what really brought Susan Blackwell's words home to me in a big way was the off broadway revival of Our Town at the Barrow Street Theater which is also closing soon. This production was performed in a small, makeshift space on a very, VERY intimate thrust stage, so intimate that you could easily, at any time, reach out and touch the actors. Everyone on stage wore only rehearsal clothes and a bare minimum of props and furniture were used. The house lights never went down and, in fact, it seemed as though no stage lights were used although there were times when the lights seemed to get brighter and in the third act the lights were definitely dimmer than in the previous two.
Basically, this is a play about small town life. I have seen it twice before. the words boring, soporific, long, dull, excruciating, inconsequential come to mind. This was anything but! There was such an incredible focus and urgency in the performances, such a depth of understanding and connection between the characters that it was palpable. We, the audience, felt what the characters felt. If they cried, I found myself crying. If they laughed, I laughed. The first and second acts seemed to go by in an instant. They weren't dull or slow or boring at all! I was riveted, hanging in every word.
BUT, the most profound and moving moment came in the third act. Emily has died and is in the graveyard where she encounters the other characters who have also died. She asks the stage manager if she can go back and experience one day from her life. He finally agrees and draws back a curtain that I for one had not really noticed before this moment. After all the rehearsal clothes and rehearsal props, the curtain revealed an amazingly detailed set of a turn of the century kitchen. Emily's mother was fully costumed, hair done, make up on. When she went to cook bacon it sizzled in a VERY hot cast iron skillet! We could smell it! She then scrambled eggs in that same pan. The coffee had steam rising from it. The water pump pumped water! The point was made by Emily and driven home by this moment in the production. As we go through our lives we don't pay attention to what we do on a day to day basis. We don't see and observe. At this moment, after Emily has died, she sees everything clearly.
My question after seeing this production was this: Why aren't we doing this in Dallas? Every production, every performance could be just as immediate, just as moving, just as deeply felt and understood by both the actors and the audience and yet we don't seem to get that here. Instead we are forced to settle for work that doesn't trust it's material, misses the point completely and settles for simply "good enough" rather than "right".
Trust the material! Understand the material and what point it's trying to make! Don't settle for "good enough"!!!
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