A New Direction

Walking into the theatre through the back door transports me to a world of creativity and excitement. Back stage buzzes with the energy of psyched actors and actresses; colorful props and costumes light up the walls, and tension of an upcoming show clogs the air. The chairs and the signs and the batons and the bandanas and the fog machines and the boxes and books seem to spill off the walls. Walking through backstage requires me to carefully meander through a minefield of fallen props, distracted actors, and a devil’s snare of costumes. From above, it looks like a line of busy ants hustling and bustling back and forth. A musty odor fills my nose as a venture deeper and deeper into the building. I pass a bathroom better known as a changing room, a mini-fridge that pretends to be a freeze fit to feed thirty, and a box of random clothes that dreams of being a walk in closet. I say hello to my fellow cast members as I pass them by, each person having as much character as the theatre itself. When I finally reach the other side of the treacherous cave, I emerge into the harsh dramatic light of the stage.
The small stage, with its floors painted to look like wood and reeking of spray paint, is my world for the upcoming months. Though it has simple décor, the stage, every weekend, takes the shape of industrial factories, baseball fields, and the scene of a riot. The hollow sound of my footsteps on the stage fill the small room. Dust, lights, smoke – the room resembles more a classic jazz house than a modern theatre. The black wall behind me, dividing the hectic world of backstage from the ever-changing world of center stage, is hardly twice my height. The lights that shine down blind me from anything farther than the edge of the stage, anything else is an unknown world. I venture to the edge of the stage and jump off.
Performing in a smaller more intimate theatre could possibly lead to a cluttered and condensed experience, or may be an adequate and a cozy way to open for a new musical. Backstage was disarrayed: costumes were scattered across the ground and loosely hung up on coat hangers. These conditions could easily have lead to props being lost and cues being missed throughout the chaos of quick-changes, traffic passing through the proscenium, and the crowding around mirrors. Opening in a tiny theatre may also be a positive impact for beginning actors. Warming up to a small audience may be easier than the following weekend with two hundred seats in the theatre. I feel the small theatre had pro’s and con’s, however, it was a delightful direction to push the musical towards.

~Shawna J. 3rd Period