Friday, January 10, 2014

Chaos and Cheese with Play #5

The only games that I'm seeing in BJ Smyth's Boxed Wine are of the Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf sort, with a loopy cartoony sort of comic energy.  Albee meets Coward?  

Director José Amador is stopping and starting the cast as they work through the script.  He reminds them to think about how the tiny corner of the lobby where they are rehearsing will be different from the much bigger Falls Theater.  Every so often they remind themselves of where they are in relation to the platform and the audience.  Thinking ahead, folks.

The energy is intense, until someone mentions cutting the cheese. Nothing breaks the tension like a good fart joke, right? Fortunately, José reminds the cast that "grotesque is what we're going for."  The Albee is slipping away as the choices get bigger and sillier and they get ready to stage a big chaotic mess.  There is an elaborate dicussion of how to fit a spit take into Show 5 with a big mess to clean up and two shows to follow.

This team had better be really nice to the stage managers and run crew.




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