Y Generation E-val

My show Voices from the Y Generation will close tonight after what can be termed, I suppose, a successful run at CSU Pomona. I always feel as though I ought to hedge my bets when a show opens, always feel dissatisfied with what is going on and nervous about my audience's reaction to the work. And then, my family cannot be trusted chiefly because they have bad taste and secondly because they are so rarely honest with me. I think they picture me as some sort of über-sensitive artiste who might fly off the handle and into a rage or retreat into self-loathing and despondency at any moment. Nothing could be further from the truth, but then, families always believe they have a grasp on their kin and so often we understand our relatives much less than we understand people to whom we are not biologically linked.

But last night, all the playwrights were present, as was their writing teacher, and all were pleased. Audience reaction was wonderful. There was laughter from the first ten seconds of the first show and it continued through the end of Act I. Some of it was nothing short of uproarious and there was, occasionally, applause at this or that actor's joke. It's as though the audience is its own element of the show, needed as much as light or music, for the show to become what it is intended to be. This is, obviously, not a new theory about theatre, but it was certainly driven home to me last night. Friday night's show did not differ from last night's hardly at all from our side of it, yet the audience was hugely different in its response. Tonight's show will be different, I think, as the actors will feel residual success from the feedback they got last night.

Best of all for me, what I do as a director is showcased really well by this show, and all of the faculty will have seen it after tonight, securing me a job again for next year: a good thing, as I have nothing lined up after the summer. Perhaps I should try to get A.D. work somewhere... or not. That time could probably be better spent reading, writing or otherwise improving my scholarship.

Thank you to all of my friends who came out to see the show. I appreciate your constant encouragement and support. Especially my peeps on LJ: Elizabeth, Tito, Kirsten, Ashley, Allan, Danny, and Kim. Thank you, guys.