I have quite the weekend planned and it started last night. I attended a production of “The Last Five Years” that was put on totally by students from the University of Montevallo. Tonight I am going to see “Jersey Boys” and Sunday (after Saturday off for football) I am going to see “To Kill A Mockingbird”. In the midst of all of this I realized one of the things I felt like I did the most of in college was writing response papers to productions. Some semesters I had to write multiple papers about one show. I was always able to write different papers focusing on different aspects of the play and thought I usually did a good job. My professors always seemed to have really good things to say. I have come to the conclusion that I could write all day long and be perfectly happy! In fact most days I have to stop myself from writing!
So I have decided to start writing about the plays I see. Not a review exactly, but a response like I did in school. I remember the first one I did for school, I turned it in way early so I could get some feedback before it was really due. It was my first paper after returning to college and I had no idea what I was doing. My professor told me that she knew the play I was writing about very well and did not need a synopsis or a review. She wanted to know what I really thought and felt while watching the play- a true and honest response to some aspect of the play that would be unique to me and my perspective. So that is what I learned to do. And that is what I plan to do here. In college the papers were only for the professors’ eyes and a grade. Here they will be for everyone to see. It is added pressure when the people involved are friends of mine such as last night, but I believe in honesty and think we can all grow from constructive remarks about what we are doing on stage. So here goes!
When I was about 19 years old I went to work for a dinner theatre in Vestavia, a suburb of Birmingham, as a hostess. It was a fun place to work and eventually I became the office manager by day and the wait staff manager by night. In between I ran the box office for about an hour. I was making lots of money doing three jobs and I got to be around the actors who came in from out of town to put on a play for a month before packing up and moving to the next dinner theatre on their “circuit”. I longed to be one of them and talked to them and went out after the show with them and it was a good experience. The people that ran the theatre knew absolutely nothing about theatre, they were business types who only saw the bottom line and therefore made lots of mistakes that finally made me move on and eventually led to their demise. But somewhere in my heart I have a soft spot for the concept of a dinner theatre.
Last night was an experiment of sorts. It was a collaboration of several students who worked with one of the restaurants in town to put on their version of dinner theatre. They set up in the back room of the Tavern, a nice size space for such an endeavor. The buffet they served was kind of a strange conglomeration of items that in the end made a pretty nice meal. Being that the Tavern is also a local watering hole, drinks were in order for the evening and helped to set up the rather casual and relaxed atmosphere I felt all night.
I have to say seeing old friends from school and a couple of my teachers was an added treat. When I heard one of my former classmates yell from the door, “There’s Marietta! I am so excited, this has made my night!” I have to say my night was made too! As she approached me she blew off others with “I love you, but I have to see Marietta!” How can you feel down listening to comments like that!! But now about the show.
The two actor’s were on stage sitting at a table the whole time we were eating. I couldn’t help but notice them though out dinner and I thought they looked rather uncomfortable. I can’t say that I blame them, sitting together up there on display with only a glass of water each as we stuffed our faces and talked loudly. Then the play began. The acoustics in the room were alright, but I felt there were times the keyboard (the only accompaniment they had) overpowered the singers.The noise coming in from the other side of the bar/restaurant made hearing and concentrating on the performance really difficult. In the future spending the time and money to make some sound proof panels to replace the curtains for the several openings between the two spaces might be a good investment. I could also see where a larger band and then perhaps miking the singers might be an idea.
Mary Kate McLaurine was at her best, singing with true emotion as well as being spot on vocally. She has grown so much in the past year and she was really in her element here. I felt that her “co-star” was not as comfortable. Brandon Caruthers seemed to have more trouble convincing me on his character, possibly because I could not hear him as well. Since I have always thought of him as an actor rather than a singer, I really expected him to sell me the songs with his character and I was let down. The one exception was “Nobody Needs to Know” where I could hear Brandon better since he was standing right next to me and he seemed more emotionally connected to his performance. Jenna McCown, the director, did a nice job of staging the show using not only the stage area but one side wall of the room. I almost wish she had put them in several different locations around the room instead of just that one area on that one side. I realize that it was difficult with a buffet set up on the other side of the room, but I felt that as long as you had broken the line between stage and audience, why not put us in the action more. Not that there was a ton of “action” in this show. I have not seen it staged before so I am speaking with nothing to compare it to, but since the characters were almost never really together I had a hard time relating to them as a couple. I guess that was what ended up being the catalyst for their eventual break up- they were never in the same place at the same time. They were pursuing their own careers and dreams and never really got it together, something I see as a surmountable problem, but one that many couples can not work through, including the composer who based this on his own break up.
I do think it was a fun night of food and theatre and that the Awk Production group should be pleased and continue to pursue this idea and put on other shows. I can only speak for myself, but I certainly left happy and encouraged to see their idea come to fruition and be successful. I know from experience how hard it is to try something like this on your own and I think they should feel proud to have succeeded so nicely. I hope to see more of their work soon. And now I must get ready for more theatre tonight!! A totally different show and a totally different situation in that tonight I will be watching a professional touring company in a huge venue. I will report on it tomorrow.
