One + 1 = Thr3e

The last week has been a bit odd, I feel all cultured and what not. I've been to Chapel Off Chapel twice in the one week, and seen two different plays. I love seeing theatre stuff, but haven't seen anything in a while so seeing two things in the one week is kinda big for me :P

The first thing that I saw was the National Theatre Drama school's certificate 3 drama performance. It was their opening night so that was rather exciting. I went with Sue, I was her fill-in husband for the night, and as most outings with Sue I had an awesome time. The plays were great, and we got to talk with the director and the cast afterwards which was also exciting. It was my first time at Chapel Off Chapel so that in itself was also exciting.

The second thing I saw was The Last 5 Years. This show was awesome. I'm still in awe after going to it. It only starred two people, whose voices were magnificent, and the set was simple but effective. I'd never heard of it before, apparently it was big in the US a couple of years ago, and was told before I walked in what to expect. Basically the story is about a couple, hence the reason only two people on stage, and they tell the story of their 5 year relationship. Now you may think that that sounds absolutely boring and crap, but you're wrong. The reason why, well the girl (Cathy) starts at the end of the relationship, and the guy (Jamie) starts from the beginning. So they basically travel through the relationship, only crossing paths at the middle, and then going down their trail. It was great, but it played havoc on my emotions!! I was so confused, I was basically sitting there at the end, all happy because she was happy at the start of the relationship, but depressed because he was singing about the end of the relationship and was all sad. I didn't know which one to follow.

It was good to go and see something after so long. I think I was a bit scared to go, mainly because I've developed a rather bitchy attitude towards anything done on stage. I get very picky when I see something dodge, whether it be about the blocking, acting, sets, lighting, or music queues, and it tends to ruin the performance for me. I don't know why I get so bitchy, I think it may be because I was trained by a 'perfectionist' when I started in theatre, aka Reggie my theatre teacher! I think I've just developed a high standard in my head of all productions, and kinda like to think that little mistakes don't happen, or well shouldn't happen.

It can be a pain sometimes, being so picky. Mainly because if something dodgy happens, I tend to focus on that and not any of the good things and it wrecks the whole performance. For example, I recently saw a show the had really bad spot operators. They were so bad that they couldn't hit their targets when they had to light them, so they would end up having to move across the stage to find their target. It made me cringe every time they had to spot someone, because I would hate to think where they would start, and the sad thing is, is that I loved the show they were doing, but kinda feel bad about the show now after that.

I'm kinda glad I went though, apart from the fact that they were both great shows. I think it helped me realise that they are some really good stuff out there, and that I should go and see more stuff, look into more stuff happening in the area, and even possibly auditioning myself for something. I live in St Kilda, there should be shit loads of stuff going on :P

Well I must be off, theatre companies to find!

AdamMac
Thespian!