The little ones left out about 20 pages of the first act... but they kept going and stayed in character. They kicked butt in the 2nd act and had the audience in stitches. They received a huge standing ovation.
Teenagers melted down in the last 15 pages of act one. Major reason... they don't know their lines and no matter how hard I stress it, demand it, promote it... there are always a handful in every play that don't know their lines... killing the play in the process. In the 2nd act, again, they kicked butt, had the audience in stitches and received another huge standing ovation.
One funny thing... curtain call... We devoted an hour to learning it and going over it (it's not hard... order of bows) I said to the teen-agers, let's go over curtain call right now. Oh, no, we don't need to. We know what to do. No, they didn't. It was chaos. I just finally shoved everyone out to take a bow. Panic is contagious. Once one person panics, everyone panics. If one forgets, everyone forgets. If one argues about cues, they all argue about cues.
The little ones get a 9 out of a 10 and the teen agers get a 9.5 out of 10.
My music teacher once said about working with kids... "as a teacher, you couldn't ask for anything more. As a director, there are things that could be fixed. But as an artist, they are killing your stuff."
That is true. The teacher in me is so pleased. The director in me wants to do it again so certain things can be fixed. But the writer in me grieves... they kill my stuff. All the lines, the timing, the rhythm, the pace...
I don't mean that to be critical because I'm not being. I am very happy. But just once, I would like to see a play done the way I wrote it to be done. But for that to happen, I would need to use professionals and pay them... and I'm not that good of a writer.
That’s nice that your husband could get the time off to watch the kids for you. What is he studying? I am going to school as well so I can understand what life must be like for him, having to juggle work, school, family, and whatever else is going on in your life.
Carton: Sorry to hear about the first act blues you had to endure for both nights, but it does sound like the audience enjoyed the productions anyway.
As far as getting the final production to be faithful to your work, I hear that Peter Jackson may be a good one to bring on board to help translate your vision. ;^)
So what’s next?
-Kevin