We had a great night at the theatre tonight. The cast had drive and energy, we had a great size audience, and the audience had a lot of fun. There is not much more you can ask from a show.
I went into the dressing rooms after the show to congratulate the cast and have a quick chat about bump out and they seemed a bit glum and somewhat disgusted. I couldn't understand what the problem was. It turned out that they upset because the audience laughed so much and had a great time!
At first I was confused, and then had to talk to them about the journey for the audience. We talked about how all great tragedy is comic, and that for the audience to travel the journey to despair, we have to give them the fun at the beginning, otherwise the whole thing is a dirge. It's like appreciating the sunshine more by experiencing the rain.
This process has been an interesting illumination to how actors learn theatre. In what order, and which skills sets. My experience on this show has shown me that they learn basic turning out technique and processing each line very early. This is great. The real problem is that they don't seem to be aware that this is only beginning and there are many more layers of technique involved. Things like rhythm, and physicality, and subtext. The disappointing thing is not the lack of the skills, but the lack of awareness that they exist at all. Shame on all those who are teaching them!
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