A Director’s “Insight”

So we had a couple of reviewers out to the show this week. Reviews are a funny thing. I know some performers who don’t read them at all – in fact, despise reading them – or won’t read them at all. I’m the exact opposite. I love reading them. Even when they’re not the greatest. The thing I hate is unintelligent or uninformed reviews.

We’ve had two reviews published so far. One is here and one is here

The first review really attacks the script, and focuses very little on the performances. The second review – while detailing Larson’s life also talks quite a bit about the staging, performances and the band.

So my question is this – what is the job of a critic? Is it to critique the script or is it to critique the performances? Is it both? If the play is terrible and the performances wonderful – what type of review should it be?

We started rehearsal last night for one of our next shows. We’re doing two Neil Labute shows in rep. I’m directing some girl(s) and to the best of my knowledge it’s at least the British Columbia premiere – maybe even the Canadian one. Let’s go with “Western Canadian Premiere” for now. It went well. The story centres around “Guy” who is getting married and going back in time to visit five ex-girlfriends. Because there are five scenes and each female is only in one of them the other women won’t know what the other scenes are about. It’s an interesting way of rehearsing – but, as with all Labute, there are twists and turns, and I think it’s better that the other women don’t know what those are – makes things more interesting I think.

Starting rehearsals on a new show is always a bit scary for me. I’m 27 – almost 28 – and with this show in particular a majority of the cast is older than I. I always wonder if they question whether or not I know what I’m doing — and I think I question that sometimes too. I direct because I love collaborating with people and I know we’ll always end up with a stellar project – it’s just getting there sometimes that can be tricky. So far so good though. Last night’s rehearsal went well. I’m looking forward to meeting with, getting to know and working through scenes with the other four women.

There seems to be a lot of discussion around audience demographic right now in Vancouver… how do we as producers/companies get younger people out to the theatre? There’s not really a right answer. I have a day job with a large theatre company in town – and this company has been around for 45 years. About a year and a half ago we had a company forum and one of the things that was said was that when the company was started – it was still largely a bunch of grey-hairs coming to the shows – and that the 20-30 set “go somewhere else” in that time. It doesn’t answer the question, but I think it’s a start.

Where does that age group go? Do they start families? Do they hang out at bars? Are they in university? Is there a way that instead of consistantly trying to bring them to us – we can perhaps bring theatre (in whatever form possible) to them?

Randie Parliament used to have a company here in Van called Pickled Productions – two of their biggest shows were done at the Media Club (Hedwig) and the Odyssey (Debbie Does Dallas) – I think the idea of setting up shop in a location like that can only be a good thing. These are places 20 somethings are used to going. Unfortunately I don’t think the Jericho Arts Centre (where tick… tick… BOOM! is presently playing) is a place that 20 somethings are used to going.

Fighting Chance did a party a few weeks ago – it was mostly theatre people – but we had a whole subset of people who came and loved it. We did some scenes, some songs, and had a lot of alcohol available… people came – and loved it. And we had a large group of those 20-30 types we all want so badly.

I have many more thoughts on this… so perhaps I’ll have to write more when I have more time.

Last night tick… tick… BOOM! opened. What to say? We had a healthy sized audience there who were generally very receptive… the most amazing thing was the demographic though. I would say most of the audience was 35 and under (and only a few above.) Just incredible to watch – and see them enjoy it. I’m sure the free wine/food after helped, but people stuck around after. Congratulating the cast, telling me how much they enjoyed the show. Someone who’s opinion I highly respect was there last night and she told me how she thinks i’m just a great director. A little ego inflating. The girlfriend had to deal with that on the way home.

More importantly though – the support was felt – by everyone. And that’s what I was so happy about. There’s a few of us “smaller newer younger” companies – and I sincerely hope we’ll all be able to start working together. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to survive. Rebecca wrote a nice little blog about us. It’s very flattering. We got a review – not the best, certainly not the worst. I disagree on lots of it though… but I guess that’s what makes reviews fun.

The final thing I’ll say is how fascinating I find it to have people compare the piece to Rent. More than one person told me they thought it was better than Rent – then there’s the people who love Rent so much that nothing could be better. I’m on the fence. I love both shows – and the end of TTB just makes my heart ache. Hopefully you’ll be able to check it out!