Christmas Carol Diaries: Fantastic Opening Night and Recovery
Last night was one of those magical opening nights that all involved will remember for quite some time. We took Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to different places with our approach to telling the story and it worked wonders with our audience. Several things stuck out in my mind.
Several audience members last night remarked on how the story seemed fresh and new and how it hit home in light of the world’s current economic woes. I took a big risk during the obligatory curtain speech last night by making an appeal for support from the stage, but given our seriously our area’s economy is suffering and how that is affecting us, it had to be done. In terms of semiotics it set the tone for the story and the evening. People had long and earnest conversations with me afterwards and we’ll see how that moves us forward.
While nothing we did in the show as far as story telling is unique, it is certainly so to our audiences. It takes them a scene or two to get into the flow of the story with the combination of spoken narration and song, but once they get how this involves them actively in the story, it becomes infectious. Some of this approach was fashioned out of desire, some out of sheer necessity. We realized going in we were going to have to cut costs on production elements (scenery, costumes, special effects) and so our actors became our special effects. Simple moments like a match and a candle becoming Scrooge’s “low fire that night” and two actors lifting and flying a chair across a room, create a sense of wonder and magic that I hope translates well. That approach seemed to work well through the weekend, but the real test will be with our many student matinees that begin tomorrow. Young audiences can either be the most willing to suspend their disbelief, or the most cynical. We’ll see how this approach works there.
The joy of creation and the joy of performance flooded across the stage in waves last night. Our cast is blessed with an abundance of talent and an abundance of love for their craft. You can tell these folks are eager to tell the story from the get go, and when their desire reaches across the proscenium to the audience, only the coldest Scrooge can resist going along.
I’m very proud of all who were associated with this project and this creation. They gave their hearts and souls to the effort. When I look into the eyes of some of the younger children that participated with us that play Tiny Tim, Belinda, Turkey Boy, and others, I see the magic burn brightly, and I see hope for the future in our business of telling stories. That certainly keeps me going in tough times.
I’ll be posting some pictures up later today, but I’m mostly taking the day off to recuperate a little, as we’ve got some enormous struggles ahead to try and find the right path through a very difficult financial storm. Here’s hoping the audiences this weekend will be some help with that as the spread the word of mouth.
