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Opening Weekend
Dec. 15th, 2008 05:57 pmSo, my show opened Friday. I got there around 7:30 and hung out backstage. Several of the kids in the cast gave me little birthday gift bags, which was totally unexpected and adorable. I received three different candles, two boxes of dark chocolates, and a Christmas ornament. How sweet! I also gave a few last-minute notes and worked a slight change with Ignorance and Want. Eventually Shawna called 5 minutes, then I did my St. Crispin's Day speech to the ducklings. I said we've done all this work--we've rehearsed and done our research and now the fun part comes. Now you actually get to go out and BE these people--you get to go on a journey and take the audience with you. And that's why we become actors.
I watched the first part of the show from the balcony. It was all going fine until the Marley knocker effect didn't happen at which point I started to freak and then had to leave the balcony to chill. I would be a terrible Olympic parent, I simply can't watch when I'm not in control. I spent the rest of the show wandering in and out of the balcony, noticing at intermission that Jason, Alex and Don were there. From what I saw, the show went fairly well--not great, but well enough. I can never trust my own assessment of how well it went--I tend only to notice the mistakes, like Tess (Tiny Tim) singing "stood a lowly cattle shed/where a mother raised her baby" instead of "where a mother laid her baby." I've given her that note several times now--"Tess, you know, they did move out eventually! Joseph and Mary weren't *that* poor!" And Niki (Mrs. Cratchit) keeps messing up "and we haven't ate it all at last!" which she did again on Friday. Niki said after the first Cratchit scene (when both these flubs happened) she and Tess looked at each other and said "Clara's gonna kill us!" Which I did, after the show :)
Jason, Alex and Don came up to me in the lobby afterwards and said some very nice things. Jason said he could tell my directorial touches and he liked how my adaptation flowed. Don mentioned how interesting it was to watch it, as opposed to being in it. I was a little shaky (opening night with such a tech-heavy show is very stressful to me). The cast wanted to go somewhere where the entire cast (including the kids) could fit but there really isn't any such a place in Hoboken (especially on a Friday) so they went off to the Dubliner and I joined Dave for a quick drink at Court Street. The quick drink lasted longer than I thought and the cast kept texting and calling me, so finally I left Dave and walked along Court Street (all those cobblestones) to the Dubliner. The cast had gotten me a bouquet of flowers, a card and two Starbucks gift cards (they are all well aware of my coffee love). How sweet! I love my cast. They're all awesome. Someone bought me an Irish Car Bomb (my Xmas Carol drink--I discovered them last year at Court Street when Pia introduced me) and I mingled with various cast members, dissecting the show and the experience.
Niki said I was the best director she'd ever had--I said well, I love directing and I'm passionate about it. I love the work of directing--I love thinking about the blocking and the themes, I love bookwork and research.
Saturday after the show, we went to Benny Tudino's. Rebecca (Want/Fan) had gotten an illustrated version of CC as an opening night gift and she was marveling at how much of it was familiar. I said that's because I tried to make my script as authentic as possible. As it turned out, a couple sitting nearby had been at the performance and complimented us. One of the mothers said "tell her--she's the director and wrote the script." The woman of the couple said that she'd cried--I was all "excellent..."
Check us out!
Playgoers who enjoy having the Dickens scared out of them should find it worthwhile to make their way out to Hoboken this holiday season for the historic DeBaun Center for Performing Arts' production of A Christmas Carol. Adapter/director Clara Barton Green has taken great care to see that her text is accurate to both the spirit and letter of the great Charles Dickens novel and that includes an appreciation for its appeal as a good ol' fashioned ghost story.
But that doesn't mean it's not appropriate family entertainment and, quite frankly, with the way things are going these days ticket prices of $20 for adults, $15 for students & seniors and $10 for children seems pretty family friendly, too.
I've enjoyed DeBaun productions in the past, including last year's A Christmas Carol, so if you plan on taking that mere 15 minute bus ride from Port Authority to the theatre keep an eye out for me making a return trip. Just don't tell the driver my coffee cup is really filled with smoking bishop.
Thank you, Michael!
I watched the first part of the show from the balcony. It was all going fine until the Marley knocker effect didn't happen at which point I started to freak and then had to leave the balcony to chill. I would be a terrible Olympic parent, I simply can't watch when I'm not in control. I spent the rest of the show wandering in and out of the balcony, noticing at intermission that Jason, Alex and Don were there. From what I saw, the show went fairly well--not great, but well enough. I can never trust my own assessment of how well it went--I tend only to notice the mistakes, like Tess (Tiny Tim) singing "stood a lowly cattle shed/where a mother raised her baby" instead of "where a mother laid her baby." I've given her that note several times now--"Tess, you know, they did move out eventually! Joseph and Mary weren't *that* poor!" And Niki (Mrs. Cratchit) keeps messing up "and we haven't ate it all at last!" which she did again on Friday. Niki said after the first Cratchit scene (when both these flubs happened) she and Tess looked at each other and said "Clara's gonna kill us!" Which I did, after the show :)
Jason, Alex and Don came up to me in the lobby afterwards and said some very nice things. Jason said he could tell my directorial touches and he liked how my adaptation flowed. Don mentioned how interesting it was to watch it, as opposed to being in it. I was a little shaky (opening night with such a tech-heavy show is very stressful to me). The cast wanted to go somewhere where the entire cast (including the kids) could fit but there really isn't any such a place in Hoboken (especially on a Friday) so they went off to the Dubliner and I joined Dave for a quick drink at Court Street. The quick drink lasted longer than I thought and the cast kept texting and calling me, so finally I left Dave and walked along Court Street (all those cobblestones) to the Dubliner. The cast had gotten me a bouquet of flowers, a card and two Starbucks gift cards (they are all well aware of my coffee love). How sweet! I love my cast. They're all awesome. Someone bought me an Irish Car Bomb (my Xmas Carol drink--I discovered them last year at Court Street when Pia introduced me) and I mingled with various cast members, dissecting the show and the experience.
Niki said I was the best director she'd ever had--I said well, I love directing and I'm passionate about it. I love the work of directing--I love thinking about the blocking and the themes, I love bookwork and research.
Saturday after the show, we went to Benny Tudino's. Rebecca (Want/Fan) had gotten an illustrated version of CC as an opening night gift and she was marveling at how much of it was familiar. I said that's because I tried to make my script as authentic as possible. As it turned out, a couple sitting nearby had been at the performance and complimented us. One of the mothers said "tell her--she's the director and wrote the script." The woman of the couple said that she'd cried--I was all "excellent..."
Check us out!
Playgoers who enjoy having the Dickens scared out of them should find it worthwhile to make their way out to Hoboken this holiday season for the historic DeBaun Center for Performing Arts' production of A Christmas Carol. Adapter/director Clara Barton Green has taken great care to see that her text is accurate to both the spirit and letter of the great Charles Dickens novel and that includes an appreciation for its appeal as a good ol' fashioned ghost story.
But that doesn't mean it's not appropriate family entertainment and, quite frankly, with the way things are going these days ticket prices of $20 for adults, $15 for students & seniors and $10 for children seems pretty family friendly, too.
I've enjoyed DeBaun productions in the past, including last year's A Christmas Carol, so if you plan on taking that mere 15 minute bus ride from Port Authority to the theatre keep an eye out for me making a return trip. Just don't tell the driver my coffee cup is really filled with smoking bishop.
Thank you, Michael!
