Underground reading

The reading of my short plays is over.  I'm not going to lie -- I have very mixed feelings.  The reading itself went quite well, but I couldn't round up an audience at all.  Of the 12 or so people who said they thought they could make it, only 2 showed up (one from work and one other actor I know but none from my block).  This is going to be a sore spot for me for a while, and I think I'll just refuse to discuss it with the people who bailed (regardless of how valid their excuses were).

Fortunately, the actors brought a few friends, and my family was there.  I guess we had twice as many people in the audience as actors, but still, it was a huge disappointment, given the number of people I had started counting on.  (If 5 or so more had made it, it would have really helped to fill up the theatre.)  I realize Tuesdays are a tough sell, but essentially every other date would have had some conflicts.  Thank goodness I didn't try to go the full production route!

Of the people who actually turned up, two older couples left at the intermission, presumably because they thought it was a full production, rather than a semi-staged reading.*  But otherwise, people were very complimentary, including liking the music that we picked to start the show.  Even the manager of The Red Sandcastle thought the pieces were quirky, written with a unique voice.  And one of the actors asked if she could keep the scripts to work up a monologue for future auditions.  I probably should have tried to record the pieces, but it would have taken away from my overall enjoyment of the reading (and I did think the pieces went over well despite the poor turnout).  I did attempt an audio recording of the last rehearsal, and I'll see how well that came out.

We were able to get all the pieces done in 90 minutes, including the intermission. Then I hung out for just a while afterwards with the actors.  Good thing too, since we were sort of hustled out and I had forgotten my laptop in the rush.  The manager tracked me down outside and handed it over.  That would have been quite a disaster had I left it there.

The actors and I talked a little bit whether I would take the pieces to the next level, and the answer is probably not, though they did think that The Re-Up could be expanded, perhaps with the AIs conspiring to keep their respective owners together.  That's not such a bad idea, and I could work it up a bit more.  If Seven Siblings does another SF-based festival, I might submit to that.  But I think I learned my lesson to not attempt to produce a piece on my own, since I clearly do not have enough of a fan base.  I'll only do something in collaboration with another company or through the Fringe.  And now, I think I'm done talking about these pieces, and I'll move on to the next thing.

* On further reflection, they might also have thought that Eric Peterson (the Billy Bishop actor) was involved one way or another.