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Week 2 begins

Posted by DCA Theater on January 20, 2009 in January-June 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Black Sheep Productions

by Vance Smith, Director

Steve and I entered the process with the feeling that most of the work that needed to be done on the script was in Act 2.  After the first read through a week ago, the response to Act 2 was largely positive, so we started thinking maybe it did not need as much work as we had thought.  Still based on what he heard at the reading, Steve came in with a new draft of Act 2 for all of us to read tonight (Thursday the 15th).  None of the changes were drastic.  So, tonight we sat around the table and read the act (which is less than half as long as Act1, so we are working it as one big scene for now).  After the reading there was silence around the table.  I think that spending a week digging into the characters and having so much fun staging the first act has helped emphasize to all of us that something is missing in the second half.  I must admit, that I also was at a loss as to how to start a discussion, but then Steve said, “All right, let me have it.”  Once we got going, an energetic, hour-long discussion followed that raised a number of important questions.  Most notable was that of stakes.  Part of the message (Ahhh!! Not a message play!)  Steve is trying to convey is that people’s apathy and passivity are the cause for many of modern societies ills.  So he had some of the characters in Act 2 embody this idea by passively going about their jobs.  While an interesting choice, the problem this created was a lack of dramatic tension at a pivotal point in the play.  The discussion ended with Steve ironically asking, “ So it sounds like what everyone is saying is that the characters need to care about what they are doing?”  The plan had been to begin staging Act 2, but Steve really wanted to go straight home and start writing, so we broke early.  It was also notable that the actors mostly seemed excited by the discussion and their opportunity to help shape the play during this workshop.  I hope that being a part of this process will give them a more personal connection to the project that they will bring with them when we head in to production in February.