The Bigger the Better For a While

It seems lately that many of my posts here relate to what I miss, or hope to return to in my near theatre future. Yet this is a place for such thoughts, so I won't hold back.

I sort of miss huge shows.

Most of my theatre for the last few years has been done in a tiny, black box type of venue, and that's great. But before I had a falling out with the manager, (an very unpleasant gentlemen), I did most of my acting at a medium-sized 300 seat theatre. Which meant that from time to time, huge production, (usually musicals) with nearly unwieldy casts would by staged. And I would be in them.

Those type of shows have their disadvantages. More chaos. More to rehearse in less time. Greater likelihood for screw-ups.

Yet there are advantages as well. And I don't just mean having a better chance of getting in because there are more roles. I mean once I am in a show like that, I have a greater chance to sort of vanishing into the background when I am not doing my job on stage. Yes, sometimes there are people everywhere and you can't escape physically. Yet still, with so much going on, and with so many jobs being done by so many people, one can more easily fade out of the attentions of others, and fade back in when desired. As long as you don't miss your cues, (and I don't), one can sort of float away on the sea of humanity that tends to make up such large productions.

And everyone tends to have their own group. If you don't like those five guys that always talk to each other, good news-there is another five guys and a girl you like to talk to that hang out elsewhere in the theatre.

And in venues large enough to put on such shows, there are, literally, more places to hide...

You can't step out of yourself as easily when you are in a cast of five, in a theatre where a flushing toilet can be heard anywhere, including the house.

For years I had grown weary of the nebulous theatrical blob that large productions in big venues would become. The not knowing how things are going on stage because it is so far removed from where you are and what you need to be doing right now. The sheer humanity. But sufficient time has passed that if I could find a good show, with a director I liked in a venue that could handle it, I'd head back to the undulating mass of a cast of 30.

So long as I could switch back to the small shows at will.

Do you like being in smaller shows, or huge ones?