Worst. Audience. Ever.

So I actually wanted to post last night but was waaaaaaay too depressed to even bother.

After two days (50 fun-filled hours!) with nothing much to do we finally got to go back to the turkeys last night and perform. All-in-all, I was excited to get back to it. I'm not really wired for a whole lot of down time and I'm the type of person who gets a whole lot more done and is a lot more productive when I'm busy. When there's down time...I'm a slug.

Aaaaanyway...we had the worst audience so far last night. They hardly ever laughed, they weren't responsive in any way at all, they just acted as if they hated it. About half-way through the first act, I decided that I couldn't deal with it any more. So I started just plowing through the script. The timing was getting all thrown off because of the lack of laughs and it was distracting us up there on stage which, I was thinking, translated to the house. A couple of the other actors got the hint and joined me in the rain pace. SP got it. So did JF. The others...not so much.

At intermission I said what I had decided...that we could make it through the second act in 15 minutes if we tried hard enough and I'll be damned if we didn't come pretty close. We shaved all kinds of time off the act AND actually got some laughs. And everyone ended up playing along as best as they could!! If nothing else, it showed me that you can't allow the show to get caught in a groove you think works because it's that much harder to switch it up if it needs to go in a different direction. Also...it told me (and, hopefully, the rest of the cast) that when we go for broke in terms of pace on this thing...it's a funny show. If we pause and take it slow in the hopes that the audience will follow along, we lose them. They want to have to try to catch up if for no other reason than it's that much more of a pay-off when they find that they are ahead of the action on stage (JF going to get the much-talked-about coat to go home towards the end of the show).

So we have to plow through this thing. We found a decent rhythm for a while there but last night the awful audience paired with the awful performance proved that we needed to mix it up a bit. Because when we get compacent, we get REALLY lazy. Last night proved that.

After the show last night was my group's turn at the "beggars line" outside the theater and we were all so worried walking out there that there was a lynching party or something waiting for us. Villagers with torches and pitchforks, perhaps. But no. We were greeted with big smiles and nothing but compliments (except the guy who said that I was good and should play Frankenstein someday...argh!) much to our collective surprise. I even made sure I was standing kind of in line but also kind of behind the other two...in case we needed to run they could act as "acceptable losses". But it wasn't needed. They loved it.

Just goes to show how much we know. At least we were smart enough to, eventually, pick things up and maybe pull out a victory by a slim margin.


Now...today. Ugh. Today we have two scheduled shows. Then SP and I are high-tailing it back to Chicago for the holiday weekend. Problem is, according to all indications we have less than a dozen people reserved for tonight's show. If we were to cancel that show (because I estimate the break-even point to be about 25...I'm told Turkeyville considers it to be 20 people) then SP and I could leave the BC by about 4:30PM and be in Chicago by 7PM. Let me say that again...on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I could be in my apartment before dark! I could potentially go see a show tonight if the timing works out! I could go hang out with friends and still get a decent night's sleep before the Duncks' all-day party tomorrow! How awesome would that be!?!?

So SP and I (and every other actor in this thing) are praying to whatever god we want to that the plug is pulled on this show sometime this afternoon while we stumble across the boards in the matinee. Please...if you end up reading this on Saturday afternoon...keep your fingers crossed for us. I need that extra night in the city. God, I need it so badly...

I hope y'all have a great Memorial Day weekend and get the much-needed chance to relax a little bit. I'll post when I'm able.