We have crested some sort of wave. The deadline today was huge for us. We prepared a full show run as well as a preview run. My dad came and we had the most amazing time with him. We showed him the preview run.
He was a unique perspective for a couple of reasons. For one thing, he is not a theater artist himself, so he is able to see the show from the eyes of a naive viewer. On the other hand, he is an artist and an expert in beauty, so he was able to articulate his experience as a viewer clearly and productively and he was able to provide unique surprising suggestions. He also has a lot of experience with event planning and was able to put a perspective on the night that went beyond just the piece itself. He had us thinking about what this event means for our lives and for the lives of our audience. THANKS DAD!
After the morning session with pops we both fell asleep for a much needed processing nap. In our night rehearsal we decided to shake things up a little bit. After spending some time tying loose ends on a couple texts I had talked about but never written, we abandoned everything in our library of material. We decided that after converging on a possible show we wanted to take this chance to expand one last time before we really don't have the time to do it anymore. We wanted to revisit our piece on a macro scale as if we were starting from scratch. So, Tina suggested that we improvise a version of the show from scratch, entirely new moments, but try to capture the essence of what we are actually saying. The result was amazing to watch (thank god we took a video!).
For me, improvising brought out my training in comedy improv. I felt I was able to let go of inhibitions and follow my instincts. I found myself tapping into emotional reserves that I had yet to inhabit until tonight. And I was reminded of a White Lotus line, mistakes will make us reign.
As for both of us, the improvised version of the show allowed us to uncover ideas that were brewing beneath the surface, unsaid. Watching the video, it seemed like we were seeing the ideas we have been working with revisited and re-imagined through a more developed lens. Thats not to say that our work until now should be scrapped, but I think we can now see more clearly what we have been going for this whole time. Or maybe its just that the show is making itself more clear as we go along.
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