We opened the show today. I'm in the Diary of Anne Frank for those who forgot, playing Anne's sister Margot. The crowd was kids, rowdy ones at that.
When the show opens, I'm the first person you see as the curtain rises--they sent Margot before the other Franks because she was called up by the Nazis (that's why the family went into hiding). I could hear the rumbling of youngsters on the other side of the curtain before it rose. They were pretty rowdy during the whole show, very vocally responsive during the scene where Anne and Peter kiss. I guess I didn't mind it too much be cause I liked to hear them express their reactions. Why do we have theater, anyway? So we can supress reactions? I found comfort in their hoots,really I did. "They are there,"I thought while sitting on the couch and pretending not to hear them while the scene was going on behind me. "They are there and they are alive."
I should say that at the end of the play they were completely silent. That said something too... In fact, if they weren't so rowdy for the rest, we wouldn't have seen the impact of the last scene.
Here's the funny story of the performance: The person that brings us things in the play, Miep, comes in and tells us about the British Invasion of Europe. SHe puts a map on the table and all the kids (anne, peter, and me) look over her shoulder at it. Today she couldn't find the map, so instead, she brought out a poster that had this huge picture of a puppet on it, a clown puppet. The girl who plays Anne, Sara, and I started cracking up. We just let the laughter out. It seemed appropriate to let the Frank gals get a good laugh in before the show was over. It was supposed to be a joyous occasion any how...
As a result of the missing map, we got this new piece of dialogue:
MIEP: Look! I brought a map!
ANNE: (Dead Pan): Yes, you sure did.
Well, that was the first performance. Maybe I'll have something to document from each one. Or at least a few more...
No comments:
Post a Comment