{"id":2610,"date":"2012-09-01T19:15:09","date_gmt":"2012-09-01T19:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=2610"},"modified":"2012-09-02T18:59:33","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T18:59:33","slug":"second-time-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/second-time-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Time Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

I would not by any stretch consider myself a \u201cdirector\u201d of theatre, no matter how small.\u00a0 My own experience is very small, but I must confess I have felt it grow this afternoon in ways I would not have anticipated.\u00a0 The call came from a friend, an amateur playwright who had penned a two-acter some years ago, based on true events in her own life.\u00a0 This was to be \u201creaders\u2019 theatre\u201d by non-actors in a community centers, with three rehearsals (and I would have to miss the first) one week apart before curtain.\u00a0 As I was the only one among her circle of friends who had any<\/span> directorial experience (see above), I was tapped and with a few misgivings and prequalifications, accepted.<\/p>\n

As noted, I missed the first rehearsal.\u00a0 At the second, two of the eight actors arrived without their scripts.\u00a0 All but one had NO acting experience.\u00a0 Neither a good sign.\u00a0 But things improved by the third.\u00a0 As \u201cdirector\u201d I must make do with what I had in hand, and hope for the best.\u00a0 By the end of the dress rehearsal\u2014lost scripts, missed cues, a general dearth of relevant emotion given the incipient deaths of three of the characters and the actual deaths of two, a different actor each time for the role of\u00a0 \u201cthe stranger,\u201d all compounded by the complete ineptitude of the \u201cdirector\u201d\u2014it seemed clear that only the most modest of aspirations were likely to be met.<\/p>\n

The audience would be shanghaied from among those departing community center lunch in the early afternoon.\u00a0 Not likely to be terribly critical, if they were at least mildly entertained.<\/p>\n

And here is what happened:\u00a0 All of the \u201creaders\u201d became by miraculous osmosis \u201cactors,\u201d and assumed that wonderful generosity arises when cues are missed, props fail, actors don\u2019t show up, pages are missing from the script.\u00a0 We had a full house who caught all the humor in the playwright\u2019s lines and the cast\u2019s delivery and laughed all the way through it.\u00a0 By any measure except box office, the show was a huge success.<\/p>\n

And here is what else happened:\u00a0 One of the cast came up to the director, and thanked me for all that she had learned from me.\u00a0 I found out it was the other way around.<\/p>\n[Special thanks to Anna Boothe, playwright (Six Months to Live<\/span>)<\/em> and stage manager, and to: Tom Sullivan, Lydia Benetiz, Gus Tjgaard, Joyce Sorce, Jeanne Angle, Karim Kiram, Manuel Sequeria, Dick Moody, and Camincha, and Janice at the Pacifica Community Center]\n

by David Hirzel\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/davidhirzel.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would not by any stretch consider myself a \u201cdirector\u201d of theatre, no matter how small.\u00a0 My own experience is very small, but I must confess I have felt it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":2611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-guest-review"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"