The play Anna and the tropics was a wonderful entanglement of love and truth, and denial and loss as well. . The cast were young, yet very dedicated to their individual character and the perfection of that part. The audience for each evening would change and vary, and the play would reflect that in turn. When the crowd was very into the play and would make noises, or comments, or laugh, the actors would feed off of this and perform better or more aware of themselves in their part. When the crowd was silent threw what was expected to get a response the cast would be less responsive in their roles and tend to throw lines more easily, as if they were distracted by not preforming the way they thought they should. The stage was the same each night, and the costumes were the same as well, but the actors played their roles slightly different each night, whether they were tired from the party the night before, or the long day in class, or the night job they work at all week.
The first night of the play was interesting for sure, and the cast were really psyched to get out there in front of the crowd. The audience was varying in age and the laughter was apparent to all of us behind the curtain that the audience was paying attention to the action they were witnessing. I noticed the actors were going really fast threw their lines, since i had seen the rehearsal beforehand, and i attributed this to nerves. The audience didn't seem to notice anything and were hanging on every word waiting to find out what happened next.
The show ended with a critic to pick the brains of the actors, and give instruction and criticism, as well as compliment the actors on a great production piece in the making. The cast members were slightly down about some of the comments, and yet were still in high spirits about the play itself. Someone planned the cast party on opening night, which on Broadway would be extremely bad luck, but they all had a good time and made it back the next night with only one sick, hung-over cast member to show for it.
The next few nights had a few different mishaps that happened, like a book getting slid back onto the stage from under the curtain, because the lector died and his book wasn't left where it should be. The lector giving merella a notebook instead of the book, and she was really mad about this behind the scenes, and she even huffed at him, it was amusing. The mother lost her seat one night because they forgot to give it to her, but i didn't notice from behind the curtain, she kept going like a trooper and finished her scene without complaining.
There were a few wardrobe malfunctions through the production, and since Kim asked me to take over her spot as head of wardrobe, it was up to me to fix them. We had shoes that didn't fit right and material had to be glued into them. Che-che lost the heel of his shoe from throwing it on the ground, hence glue again. Dresses had to be repaired three different times, and the lectors’ pants had to be hemmed four inches up. The clothes all had to be starched and ironed each evening, and we ran out of starch for the last two nights, so lots of ironing yeah! The hairdresser took off the first weekend run of the play, and this left everyone frantic trying to get their hair and make-up done the way they had prepared in rehearsals. The cast really pulled together trying to help one another and it all worked out in the end.
The audience came up close and personal , and actually started walking into the dressing area behind the curtain on one night, which was strange in itself, let alone uncomfortable for the actresses trying to change quickly, and it was brought to my attention in class today that members of the audience were touching props on stage as well during intermission, which i would have never expected them to do. The actors handled themselves as professionals and kept going with cell phones ringing, babies crying, and 15 people walking in a half hour into the production, and i am sure this is where the term, the show must go on, came from.
Something in the script that i never noticed before jumped out at me, a few lines seemed to be conflicting and i had not noticed it prior to that night. I also found myself asking merella why she runs off stage in a scene because i never paid attention to what was being said in the scene, and she clarified that she was the third wheel in the room and discussion was weird to her character. I really enjoyed being able to be helpful to the cast behind the curtain, as well as being able to solve problems for them. I made a few new friends and will always remember lighting up that cigar outside the back door with the cast after the last show ended and cleanup was finished. We celebrated a job well done with an ice pack, a cigar, and new friendships, all because of a small college production in Daytona Beach Florida, and i think we are all better for the experience.
