Love Letters

My apologies to all for the day late update. But I am happy to report the reading went well.

I actually had quite a bit of fun.

Not that there were no snags. The management of the cafe was not always certain what we were doing, and there had been several crossed wires between the two parties. Some disorganization in regards to ticket purchases and a bit of scrambling to find enough furnishings for us to perform the reading in the space provided all were part of the first half hour we were there.

Yet in the end, we did what I think lends itself perfectly to such a reading...we threw some chairs and a table on the tiny stage, got ourselves a light, and improvised a performance space.

The very simplicity of our surroundings, and the limitations of the venue forced us to work extra hard on projection and expression, which, in the end, the play is about. Simplicity. We performed a one night reading in a crowded cafe in the greatest tradition of the starving artist.

The audience got a little restless when the intermission went long, and we lost a few people, but those that stayed, (31 in all) were very expression in their applause at the end of the show. They also gave us plenty of laughs during the reading, some of which I would not have expected.

And I think we attained the coveted balance for the most part, as I have been discussing in previous entries.

I have had some issues with the script, and the venue was not 100% conducive for what we were trying to do, but it worked. The improvising, the reading, the champagne, the holiday, and the arts centered atmosphere of a coffee house all conspired for an informal evening of highly successful entertainment for myself and my partner, as well as the audience.

We may take the reading to other similar venues. That would be fun, I do believe, if we can find any such places. Good for publicity, and good for me...as when I read it in performance, I came to realize that I had to alter my previous views about the piece to a small extent....giving a bit more emotion to each letter than I previously had thought was necessary. Other venues may require different amounts of emotion, and I would enjoy learning how the play can work differently in different places.