I had a nice little day out today. I definitely find that things tend to be feast or famine, all or nothing. I can try and get things together with my friends for ages and they'll be busy, or they'll flake. Then all of a sudden everyone suggests doing things at once. So today I had a brunch date with my cousin and sister, followed by a theatre and dinner date with a friend of mine. Both were thoroughly delightful.
We went to see the play that goes wrong at the Duchess theatre this afternoon, and oh my goodness I had a good time. It wasn't a terribly original play, and I bet you can guess the premise. A theatre troupe is trying to put on a play, and absolutely everything goes wrong. But goodness, did the comedy work! And that sort of slapstick comedy is so hard to pull off, especially for that length of time. It was relentless. From the moment the curtain went up, to the moment it went down the show just did not stop. Everything from every type of bad amateur actor to the set falling apart around them. And I was not expecting to like it as much as I did, or find it nearly as funny. You could see most of the jokes being set up ahead of time, but just watching them unfold was brilliantly funny.
And all of this started from before the curtain went up. Two of the actors were playing the tech crew, who were getting things set before the show started. This covered everything from laying down floorboards on the stage, to asking audience members if they had fur coats or pets they could fetch to stand in for the dog in the second act. Then the woman playing the stage manager approached me in the audience and pulled me up on stage. Now normally I hate audience interaction. I always feel like if I am not actually in the show I don't want to be on the stage. But they handled this quite well. I got to be part of the on stage business ahead of time - they had me hold things together, and try to sweep the stage with a broom that then fell apart. At one point I was sent to pick up the tool box which was magnetized to the stage (so I could not), which got a huge laugh both when I attempted to pick it up, and then when the stage manager was able to pick it up without any problem. It was all very slick and lovingly crafted I think. The whole way through I actually felt that way. These were all people who were enjoying what they were doing. And there were some wonderful comedic moments. Really too many to touch on here.
I went in to the show with a lot of skepticism. I can be rather jaded when it comes to this sort of thing, because so often it is done poorly. In then end though I was very pleasantly surprised. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
It was then followed by an equally lovely dinner out with a very good friend, and then a nice long chat with my parents. I even managed to spend some decent time on my self taping. I didn't learn a new piece today. Instead I put one of my audition monologues on camera. I was decently pleased with the results. Tomorrow I dedicate to my audition on thursday - memorizing, breaking things down and making some choices. I can't wait.
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