Down the Stretch
So, although the festival has been going for a couple of days now already, Instructions for Use is still finishing up rehearsals. Our tech day is Tuesday, and our shows are Wednesday and Saturday, so we still have time to finish up before going onstage. We did our first complete run with props, costumes, and transitions just over a week ago, and have been doing them since. So I feel like we're in a pretty good place with the show.
I was the the Paprika show last night. Both shows of the night were great, but one that stuck with me was the reading of Mature Young Adults, by playwright-in-residence Wesley J. Colford. It was phenomenally well written and the acting/reading was also superb. Seeing something so amazing at the festival just a few nights before I'm going onstage was a great inspiration for me. The effect that it had on me, and I think the rest of the audience as well, served as a reminder of what we're aiming for as a company with "Instructions".
The three or four days from now until our show are a short amount of time. Quantitatively, there's not too many changes we can make at this point; the play on Wednesday is going to be very similar to the run we had today. However, the small changes that can be made in that little time, a little extra work on your character, the little bit of extra time trying to find the play's arc, can be hugely important to the effect the play has on the audience. So, with the knowledge firmly in hand that a play is never going to turn out quite how you want it to, we're going to keep pushing ourselves, and seeing how effective we can make this piece.
Instructions for Use performs on Wednesday the 7th at 8 pm and Saturday the 10th at 2:30 pm. Come check it out, we'd love to have you in the audience.
Instructfully (and Usefully) yours,
Instructions blogger