Thursday, May 23, 2013

Take two

I just wrote a whole thing and then realized it wasn't true, so I erased deleted it (isn't it quaint how I still accidentally say things like "erase?") and now where are we? Nowheresville. Hmmm.

All right. I'll tell you this. I saw eight (for your future reference eight is actually more than enough. Eight is too many) student-written one acts yesterday. They went pretty well, in fact, but, what with the set changes, it was almost interminable.

One play has a sort of prologue courtship montage. You know the sort of thing. A voiceover narration and little glimpses of the couple picnicking, skating, driving in a convertible, attending a sporting event, etc. (What? I like romantic comedies. I'm not ashamed.) In the play, the montage is mostly achieved by the actors standing in front of various projected backdrops (for instance, "They went to a soccer game." Actors stand in front of projection of a stadium and say "Yay!") But there was also, "They attended the amateur wine-making festival." Projection of a vineyard. The actors move to a barrel stage right; the boy, almost twice the height of the girl, lifts her straight up and sets her the barrel. She begins stomping.

Theatrical gold.