Night at the Theatre

Tonight I saw a production which was directed by a colleague of mine, and while I wasn’t precisely sure what was happening throughout the entirety of the performance, I appreciated the work that was put into it. The piece was a patchwork of scenes and a monologues focusing on the Cuban experience. The show opened with an ensemble piece. I am ashamed to say that I left the program at home (FREUDIAN SLIP there…left it at the OOFICE) and so I cannot reference the piece by title but the language was poetic and fragmented and conveyed a mood and general sense of subject-matter but followed no recognizable narrative form. The blocking was balletic. Some of the performers seemed more at ease with the dance-like movement than others which made for a mildly clunky start. I found myself wanting the movement to have a stronger literal connection to the words but also became acutely aware that non-linear text would not be best served by overtly literal movement.

The second episode involved a monologue by an actor who I feel should get more stage-time. Ensemble members entered into his story in a similar way as Dr. Euba’s recent production of Brothers Size. This was followed by a female ensemble piece that was very similar in style and staging to the opening piece. The show closed with a two-woman scene. In this final piece, a screen was used to translate the lines of one woman who predominately spoke in Spanish and the vignette was book-ended with lip-synching.

The use of space was interesting. I found it to be visually stimulating. I felt there was a communal feel to it, gritty, broken and struggling.

I am interested to discuss this production with my Intro to Theatre students. Our discussion about Free Man of Color was particularly fruitful and engaging. My students seem adept at breaking productions down and really examining the input and work of collaborative practitioners. I am eager to see how they react to work that is so stylistically different to what they are accustomed to. I anticipate the discussion of the show’s technical elements to be fairly straight-forward but I foresee some real questioning happening in terms of theme, structure, objective and thought. Wonder if I could convince the director to visit our class discussion? I do LOVE bringing artists into the classroom.

On a side/closing note…I wish I had had the opportunity to really direct something of my choosing at LSU. I knew when we missed the notice about the call for directors and found out about it the day proposals were due that I had missed my chance to actually work on the LSU stage. Ah well, looking forward to the next work of art. Wherever it surfaces…