SUA, Montevideo
For one night, the soon-to-be-renovated basement and courtyard of SUA were transformed into a theatre space. The space was crammed to the gills. All the seats were taken and people stood at the side of the space or at the back of the courtyard. Claudia had laid out 'espirales' to combat mosquitos. It was the first performance and the first time we had worked at night. We were also unsure how the audience would react to the dual space. In practice the evening flowed better than I could have hoped. Having observed the reaction to Fosse's writing in London, I was worried the audience might not engage with Winter's two unorthodox leads. In this instance and subsequently, the opposite was the case. The night was warm and welcoming and the Brechtian break between scenes helped to puncture the drama, ensuring the audience re-engaged for each of the four scenes.
Casa de Cultura, Libertad
The Casa de Cultura is a 150 seater theatre. There was no secondary space available. The backstage of the theatre is something of a booby trap and Claudia sprained her ankle tripping on a stair. Shorn of our dual space option, we had to find a way to mark the change of scenes. There space contained a white screen for showing video. This has to be manually "wound" down, a process that takes thirty seconds. Tiko, who was assisting, came on stage between scenes, whilst the music played, and wound down this screen. The fact that it seemed to take forever was a great advantage. It punctuated the scenes as well as the screen acting as a bed for the Hotel scenes.
La Sala, Las Piedras
I have written extensively about this performance here. Suffice it to say that the evening in Las Piedras proved to be the one where, the actors growing in confidence, the play really took off. From the moment of the Woman's entrance, the audience was engaged in their game. The two spaces were provided by using different parts of the theatre: the stage and a back wall. The audience were requested to angle their seats between scenes in order to change their perspective.
For one night, the soon-to-be-renovated basement and courtyard of SUA were transformed into a theatre space. The space was crammed to the gills. All the seats were taken and people stood at the side of the space or at the back of the courtyard. Claudia had laid out 'espirales' to combat mosquitos. It was the first performance and the first time we had worked at night. We were also unsure how the audience would react to the dual space. In practice the evening flowed better than I could have hoped. Having observed the reaction to Fosse's writing in London, I was worried the audience might not engage with Winter's two unorthodox leads. In this instance and subsequently, the opposite was the case. The night was warm and welcoming and the Brechtian break between scenes helped to puncture the drama, ensuring the audience re-engaged for each of the four scenes.
Casa de Cultura, Libertad
The Casa de Cultura is a 150 seater theatre. There was no secondary space available. The backstage of the theatre is something of a booby trap and Claudia sprained her ankle tripping on a stair. Shorn of our dual space option, we had to find a way to mark the change of scenes. There space contained a white screen for showing video. This has to be manually "wound" down, a process that takes thirty seconds. Tiko, who was assisting, came on stage between scenes, whilst the music played, and wound down this screen. The fact that it seemed to take forever was a great advantage. It punctuated the scenes as well as the screen acting as a bed for the Hotel scenes.
La Sala, Las Piedras
I have written extensively about this performance here. Suffice it to say that the evening in Las Piedras proved to be the one where, the actors growing in confidence, the play really took off. From the moment of the Woman's entrance, the audience was engaged in their game. The two spaces were provided by using different parts of the theatre: the stage and a back wall. The audience were requested to angle their seats between scenes in order to change their perspective.
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