Second Friday

The short version is, I think both Sunday's matinee last week, as well as the pick up rehearsal went better this this performance. No, we did not crash and burn, but I personally had to ad-lib my way out of several mistakes that were made else where on stage during two of my sketches, and the audience of about 15 did was not particularly responsive. It had its moments, but not even Preble got them chuckling much, and that has always been my best and favorite scene.

A Thurber Carnival continues to be a weird experience for me. Thank heavens the major stresses of bad rehearsals and dancing issue are behind us, but a detachmernt remains. Not from my commitment to do my best. That is always there. But from the potential emotional attachment to the outcome. One should never beat ones self up over the ups and down of a given evening's audience, but the crowd is feeling distant from me in this show. Almost as though they happened to walk into a rehearsal, as opposed to having paid for a performance.

Is it the stress that led into the performances? The smallness of the crowds? The relative obscurity of the piece, (by modern standards)? Some X Factor? If I knew for certain, dear blog reader's I should not have to pose the questions here on the blog. But as I am doing so, it should be clear to you all that I haven't put my finger on it yet, and with only two performances left, I doubt I will before it is all over. Perhaps not even then.

Other than some of the flubs by others during two of my skits, the performance did not stand out as being that different than most of the other three so far. Now that I think of it, that may be part of the oddity; each performance simply feels like the last one. Consistency is good, but stagnation, (for lack fo a better term) isn't.

It's not from want of trying. We were told by the director to make sure to "have fun" with each other more during the opening dance last night. And we did, to the best of our ability. As far as that goes, the dance does continue to get a little better, compared to our final rehearsals of same, but we still lack sparkle during it. Noble efforts, but the material, and, let's face it, the choreography doesn't help. And time was never really on our side. The best we can do is allow ourselves to have some silly fun with it, and hope for the best. (As in most cases the audience has not seemed to get much from it.)

Both audiences and casts tend to be more relaxed on Saturday nights than on Friday nights. And second Saturdays tend to be more relaxed than first Saturdays for those in a show. Perhaps that will lead to something different tonight. But as far as last night, I just don't have that much to describe that would be of particular interest.