Video Storms

This weekend was very theatreful. Friday was our performance of "The Light Princess" at the Provincetown Playhouse. It went very well- only a couple hiccups in pacing.

Nicole and I did a quick introduction before the performance explaining the devising process, and we mentioned that we had only been rehearsing for three weeks and that it was "a work in progress." Since then, I've been wondering if we were apologizing for the weak spots in the show (of which there were several). I don't like artists apologizing for their work, but somehow with this show it seemed necessary to explain where we were. Because of the lights and fabulous puppets and costumes and all that, it looked like it should have been polished and perfect, but the reality was that we hadn't gotten a full script until a week before and we were still actively devising. We weren't at a performance level- not for a lack of work but for a lack of time- and it wouldn't be fair to put that standard on ourselves when we knew all along we weren't going to meet it. We always knew that this performance was going to be a work-in-progress, and it seemed appropriate to let the audience know that. What do you think? Did I weaken the work by making excuses for it, or was I being transparent about the process?

We got some great feedback during the talk-back and Nicole and I are thinking about ways to take the project forward. Maybe submit it for some festivals or find some places around town with family programming. If anyone has any tips...

Tonight we went to BAM to see La Tempete, a French production of everyone's favorite slapstick comedy. There were some crazy three-dimensional video projections, used to great effect in the storm at the beginning and during Ariel's scenes, but a full seven characters only existed as projections, which was more distancing than engaging.


It was interesting to see how the technology is being used. I wasn't crazy about the show, but it was very different from anything else I've seen. Unfortunately, I think they relied on the crazy visuals to compensate for an otherwise lackluster production. I think the acting was bad, but it was hard to tell since it was all in shouted French.