Stay on Course
I just climbed onto a bus at the Moncton Acadian station. In about fifteen minutes, i'll be homeward bound, having brought an enjoyable week to a mildly aggravating conclusion.
I had previously mentioned how relieved and happy i was to find that our Director has been approaching this play like one would any piece of theatre; i.e. from the perspective of someone trying to tell a story as well and as engagingly as possible, not simply using an arbitrarily-constructed narrative peopled with paper-thin characters to deliver a "message." And she has, bless her heart, and as a result we've got a nice little play going here. Turns out that ensuring the play is a message-conveyance mechanism first and an interesting story second was someone else's job.
And so, today we met with the representative from the organization i think of affectionately as the Money People. It was a fascinating study in pain-tolerance, and an object lesson in what happens when people who know nothing about theatre attempt to control it. I never realized how much i knew about character and scene study until i found myself taking direction from someone who apparently understood next to nothing about it.
Fortunately, the play seems to have survived her contributions more or less unscathed, and we can continue onward from here.
And when we get back on Tuesday, when we dive right back in again, it'll be in French! If you see me this weekend, do me a favour and make me recite a monologue or something en français. I'll need the practice.
Hey, the bus just started moving. I'm on my way home.
I had previously mentioned how relieved and happy i was to find that our Director has been approaching this play like one would any piece of theatre; i.e. from the perspective of someone trying to tell a story as well and as engagingly as possible, not simply using an arbitrarily-constructed narrative peopled with paper-thin characters to deliver a "message." And she has, bless her heart, and as a result we've got a nice little play going here. Turns out that ensuring the play is a message-conveyance mechanism first and an interesting story second was someone else's job.
And so, today we met with the representative from the organization i think of affectionately as the Money People. It was a fascinating study in pain-tolerance, and an object lesson in what happens when people who know nothing about theatre attempt to control it. I never realized how much i knew about character and scene study until i found myself taking direction from someone who apparently understood next to nothing about it.
Fortunately, the play seems to have survived her contributions more or less unscathed, and we can continue onward from here.
And when we get back on Tuesday, when we dive right back in again, it'll be in French! If you see me this weekend, do me a favour and make me recite a monologue or something en français. I'll need the practice.
Hey, the bus just started moving. I'm on my way home.
posted by alex at 6:14 PM
2 Comments:
salut alex,
si je te vois cette fin-de-semaine, je te promets que nous parlerons en francais. car moi aussi, il faut que je pratique... meme si je le parle a chaque journee et je travaille avec des francophones. c'est bien ca, parler une deuxieme langue!
oh, et bravo sur ta part dans la tournee du theatre et tout cela, que je suis certaine que je t'avais deja dit, mais maintenant je doute moi-meme.
I wish I'd read this sooner! I would have put you on the spot in the park yesterday. :) Sorry I didn't stop to chat, I was on route to a turkey dinner.
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