OPENING NIGHT!!!! Thursday, September 21, 2006

Suddenly Last Summer opens!

We've had an intense three weeks of rehearsals. We had a really great final dress rehearsal (one of the theatre superstitions I don't buy into is that a really bad final dress means a terrific opening night).

It's time for that big test - doing the show before its first audience.

Some of us are really tired -- coming straight from work and all. Some of us are really "up" despite a similar schedule. But we all get into the spirit of opening night as the stage manager calls "15 minutes to places."

Then "ten minutes."

Then "five."

Then "places."

Before "places" we've been chatting about anything and everything. One thing I love most about the theatre is the intense conversations you can get into backstage. We've also been giving and receiving opening night cards and gifts. (I've long since absolved myself of the guilt of not getting it together for opening night gifts. I give closing night gifts.)

But when the call of "places" comes, we all tune in to the stage. All but two of the actors have a good twenty-minute wait before we go onstage. So, although we keep up the backstage talk, very quietly, it dwindles to infrequent whispers as we each get closer to our cue to enter.

I have a very brief "through the window" appearance - a one-liner - before I actually go onto the stage. My "son" and I appear at the window, part the curtain, and call to "Aunt Vi," who is onstage. The two of us - mother/son team - try to part the curtain.

It doesn't part.

Hmmmmmmmmm. We weren't told that the curtain was now going to be unpartable, and we wouldn't be able to do that little bit of stage business.

Not to worry - a minor, technical glitch. No big deal.

About 8 minutes later, I make my entrance. The audience seems to like us (the mother/son team, going in to see the daughter/sister they haven't seen since she's been sent to a mental institution.)

We're in for a fun, somewhat comic, and meaty scene. But after this part, when there is another entrance and all seven of the play's actors are onstage, I have only a few lines more and then have to do most of my acting as an onstage observer.

The play seems to be going well. During the last quarter of the play, one of the two main actors makes a major shift in the emotion of her character, and the other main actor has to make an adjustment in her character that changes the shape of the ending a bit.

But it seems to all work out fine. Then, there is an accidental early blackout three lines before play's end. The lights very quickly come back on, and we finish the play.

What starts out as a play that provides the audience with a lot of laughs has them on the edge of their seat at the end.

But I don't get a chance to get an objective view from an audience member on this opening night. By the time I'm out of costume and in the lobby - quite a while later - the few folks around to talk to all have some connection to the theatre or show (mother of a technician, sound designer, etc.)

Perhaps tonight - the second night - I'll get a chance to get a objective view.

Will tonight play into the old theatre curse of "second night slump?"

I hope not.

For more information, pick up a copy of this week's Alibi. The Alibi published a very nice spread on FUSION Theatre Company and The Cell Theatre. Check out the links I just added.