On the Dark Side of Twilight: East Park Retirement Community

Ten years ago, Great Lakes Theater produced my first outreach tour "On the Dark Side of Twilight."

Friday, February 19, 2010

Successful evening at East Park Retirement Community Center. But first:

HYSTERICAL CAMPY FUN! 
- Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer

Also, I am "beady-eyed" and at my "perverse best." Thank you. Tonight some of the ladies remarked at what startling and creepy eyes I have.

And what a night! The folks at East Park were really up for a vampire show this evening. Just before the show started, one of the audience members got up on the stage and lay down on the chaise lounge, inviting women to come up and suck his blood.

Blew a fuse on the fog machine right before the show ended, so we lost the Edwyn Collins tune, which was a bummer, but at least that was all they missed.

Lisa ran her first talkback for this production this evening. Point: When asked, teenagers admit they want to live forever, even or especially if it means being a vampire. Senior citizens to do not want immortality under any circumstances. Discuss.

Source: "Vampire play 'On the Dark Side of Twilight,' performed by Great Lakes Theater Festival, is campy fun" by Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer, 1/19/2010

Double Heart: Clague Playhouse

This afternoon we brought the tour to Clague Playhouse, which was entirely full. On Friday night we visited East Park Retirement Community in Brook Park. Though the audience was not strictly of-a-certain-age as was our friends at East Park, life experience was greater there than say, our fans at Elyria Catholic High. And while the high level of approval has been constant, the reaction to different parts of the production can vary greatly, and I feel largely based on this particular demographic.

In the original draft, the clown Pene disappears partway through, you know, like the Fool in Lear. Daniel told me we needed to see him again, and this should have been obvious -- he acts as comic relief near the end of the show, we need to see him again. However, though the tragedy is not his fault, sometimes pee and puke jokes just can't bring about a smile to an audience who finds the course of events to have been a little near the knuckle.

Talkback at Eastpark Retirement Community
(Thanks, Vern!)

The post-show discussions have been really interesting, a lot of personal reactions to the decisions the characters make. One of my favorite today, however, was when Margaret asked me to share some of the allusions to other works from Shakespeare. I threw out a few, but I couldn't remember all of them ... so here's a (partial) list:

• Much Ado About Nothing
• Romeo and Juliet
• Henry V
• Othello
• Julius Caesar
• Macbeth 
• Several others which inspired a word or phrase, that I can't even recall.

... also, too: Molly Ivins, the Firesign Theatre, Groucho Marx, Gilbert and Sullivan, The Tall Guy and Radiohead.

Tomorrow we travel to Kendal at Oberlin, performance at 7:15 PM. Please join us.

Styles: East Park Retirement Community

I love bringing the tour to East Park, it's like putting on a play in someone's living room. We've done that, too, in the past, but in this case it looks like someone's rather large living room, on a stage at the far end of a well-appointed dining hall.

They always take good care of us there, those of us who could arrive a little early were treated to supper (thank you!) and this event is annually part of a larger event for the community, so there are speeches and dinner while we set up and then we get to perform for a large appreciative audience who happen to be well-fed and in great spirits.

The public is welcome, and this evening there was a family which included several teenage girls who were excited to see a live performance and had a lot of questions afterward about how you get into theater. We gave them a tour "behind the scenes" after the Q&A -- I warned them, "You will not be impressed!" But of course, they were, seeing all the tricks we use to keep this set together, the big pile of costumes and how simple the sound system is. And so on.

This venue provided the biggest backstage area we have had to-date, which made everything, especially the quick costumes changes, run much more smoothly. In addition, we were all much more aware of diction and taking our time with the lines. We knew there may be folks in the audience who might require careful delivery, and the room was wide and deep and quite full. It added a few minutes to the performance, but seriously, no one minded.

Tomorrow ... a day off! An honest-to-goodness day off! I do not mind saying I am exhausted, and I am not even the guy who does much of the heavy lifting. Michael and James have a very good system going, loading the large wall pieces (seven large wall pieces) into the van without scratching of damaging any of them, I would hate to get in their way. You know?

Sunday is 2 PM at Clague Playhouse in Westlake. We will entirely fill up, I have no doubt about that at all, and the space affords no standing room. So if you are planning to attend, it would be wise to arrive early.