Shannanigan's Search for More...

Well, the family & friends preview of the play was last night, and it seems to have gone decently. We had a little problem because one actor didn't show since he had an exam; if he had told anyone it might not have been so bad, but apparently no one knew until after the fact. It wasn't so bad for the body of the play, because the paly is a series of monologues, so we just skipped him. The opening and ending though, they invovle everybody, so there were a few awkward silences where he was supposed to be talking. Overall, though, the audience seemed to enjoy it.

My scene went very, very well. The first slap that hit me got a few laughs, which I expected because the play is mostly comic and laughter eases tension, so seeing "the white girl" get slapped might have seemed funny at first. But then Rodney slaps me twice more while I'm crying, and by then everybody is quiet. Then there's one more slap while I try to fight him, and for that one we heard some people saying "Oh my God" and "Oh no he didn't!"

Rodney really spiced it up by rocking his hips back and forth to insinuate...er....the action.... That was something he hadn't done in practice. It worked though. Everybody's jaw dropped and they were so pissed at him. Even when he said his funny line, "She just lied there, didn't even move. It still felt good to me anyhow," nobody laughed. That's how I knew we had done it right...when nobody laughed at the funny line.

It was so funny when we did the cast call and I came out and immediately went to give him a hug. He looked out at the audience and said "I'm not a rapist okay!?" and we laughed. That's the only way to do these kinds of scenes, is to have a fun, laughing relationship with the person off the stage and out of character.

Tonight is our first paid audience. I have a lot of homework to do before then, so for now...TTFN - Ta Ta For Now!