So, after I lost all the work I did Sunday (yesterday) morning, I decided to drive down to Terra Ceia (an hour plus south of Tampa where I’m flying out Monday) and spend the night with my cousin Bill (son of Bill, father of Will).

Since I’m not doing the interstates (or toll roads) it is a five hour drive from Tallahassee. A few hours later I stop to stretch my legs and look to see if there is a community theater nearby. Yes, there is one and they have a matinee at 2:00 for the play “Always a Bridesmaid” by the Wooten, Jones Hope. Playwrights who also wrote Mama Won’t Fly and The Dixie Swim Club. I look at my watch: 2:15. I rush over to the theater, get there at 2:20 to find out the show has already started and it is sold out. I told them I had driven all the way from Tallahassee (true) and I wanted to see the show (mostly true) and could I stand up in the back to watch it? They told me that since I had driven all the way from Tallahassee, they would get me in and not charge me for the ticket.

The theater was a 60 foot (long) by 35 feet (wide) by 16 feet (high) block of concrete. About 160 seats. The stage was about the same size as Orcas Center. Nice set, good costumes, mediocre play, poor acting. The acoustics were terrible. With all the concrete, the voices just kept bouncing off the walls. The actors stood or sat in a line facing the audience and shouted their lines with super heavy southern accents that would have been hard to understand in a place with good acoustics.

No character arcs. The character who was depressed at the start was depressed at the end. The character who screamed at everyone at the start was screaming at everyone at the end.

The play had six scenes spread over 20 something years. Each scene takes place just before a wedding of one of the four main characters. The scene changes were interminable because the four main characters had major costume changes. The Director tried to cover it by having the stage crew in costume and changing throw pillows, minor rearranging of the furniture and so on.

I would consider doing the play except for the costumes and scene change times – would need to find a solution for that first.

As soon as I post this, I’m heading to the airport to fly to Seattle. Home tomorrow (Tuesday).

On Saturday night I saw “Lucky Me” at Theatre Tallahassee. I dutifully got up Sunday morning and spent over an hour typing the report into my laptop but when I went to copy it to an e-mail it all disappeared. Ugh!!! Since that put me in such a wonderful frame of mind (sarcasm intended) I decided to . . . . But first things first:

When I first started going to this theater, it called itself “Tallahassee Little Theater”. Then it dropped the “Little”. Two years ago the name was “Theatre Tallahassee” (notice the ‘re’). Some time back they undertook a major renovation to the main theater: New seats, made major changes to the stage and updated the tech. They also turned the existing lobby into a “Coffeehouse Theater” and built a new lobby for the main stage on the other end of the building. They have raised over $1,400,000 of a $1,500,000 goal and are nearing completion of the renovation.

I haven’t seen a show in the main theater since the renovation. Both shows I’ve seen recently (“Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike” and “Lucky Me”) were in the coffeehouse theater. It’s a strange stage: The only access to the stage is through the audience. The stage is a little less than the width of the room, it is raised 16 inches off the floor and is less than 10 feet front to back. For both plays I’ve seen there recently, they have built a small room on the stage for actors to hide in when they are not on stage. For Lucky Me, it was a combination hall to the bathroom and bedroom and had a door that served as the front door. It worked.

There were 100 stacking chairs to sit on – arranged in ten rows of ten chairs. The first row was right up against the stage.

Lucky Me was well directed and well acted but not a great play. The play is a RomCom about a young woman who lives with her blind, crotchety father and has chronic bad luck. Her light bulbs keep burning out, she keeps injuring herself and so on. As the play opens she has fallen off the roof and broken her foot and is helped in by a nice young man who works for TSA (the airport security people). The TSA is always good for a laugh. They did a good job blocking it – I never felt that the stage was cramped considering how small it is – particularly front to back. The upstage wall is right against the outside wall of the building.

The play had a cast of four – the three mentioned plus Yuri the Russian Building Supt who is only in Act II. He was always funny. One of those actors who takes a small part and makes something special out of it.

The play was light and fun but didn’t interest me enough to do it.

Another winner.

This one at the Lemon Bay Playhouse. About an hour south of Sarasota on the west coast of Florida.

There were ten rows of seats, some with 8 and some with 9 seats in a row.

The ceiling in the theater was low, probably about 10 feet above the floor. That made each riser just 2 inches higher than the one in front of it. The stage was about one foot above the floor which didn’t give them much room for lights over the stage. The stage was a few feet narrower than ours and the layout was the same: A box with permanent walls on the left and right with a door in each and a screened entry way up left.

Lesson learned: There was a sink with a window above it just right of center. There was a tree just outside the window so you don’t have to worry about the scene out the window. They lit the tree with sun during the day and a dark blue at night. A lot easier than trying to build a back drop.

Now about the play: It’s by Neil Simon and written in the late 80’s to mid 90’s. It’s still on my shelf at home in the someday stack. It moved a lot higher in the stack after tonight. Three people in the cast: Herb (around 50) is a divorced father living in California trying to make a living writing screenplays. Herb has an off and on girlfriend (40). His daughter (19) shows up unexpectedly to see her father after 16 years.

It’s a Rom-Com with the trademark sharp snappy dialog. The humor is not the usual belly laugh but sweet humor that makes you smile and laugh quietly. At the end there were several women wiping tears away.

The direction was great and so was the acting – just a couple false notes.

Tomorrow I head towards Tallahassee to see a play I haven’t read “Lucky Me”. I think I’ve heard good things about it so I am looking forward to seeing it Saturday. Not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow – it’s my last empty night – don’t know whether to leave it empty or see if I can find a play.

Back on Orcas on Tuesday.

I’m using my laptop this morning. I was so irritated (and tired) last night when I lost a full hours work on my phone.

Besides I’m 3 or 4 times as fast on my laptop.

First I have to tell you about the Manatee Performing Arts Center. Easily the nicest theater I’ve ever been in. It has two theaters, a small theater that is sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club. Didn’t get to learn how big it is. The main theater has 300 to 350 seats – all with great views of the stage. Ticket was $30 6th row center. The further back or off to the sides you sit, prices are less.

The theater is clean, modern, elegant and makes you feel good just to be there.

The lobby is long and wide with lots of tables to sit at, a beer and wine bar at one end and a guy playing songs from musicals on the piano at the other end. I have a photo of the lobby on my phone.

The theater is magnificent. A full fly lets them lower and raise sets, tons of lighting and lots of room on the wings. There were probably five times as many big prop pieces as we had in Spamalot.

Now to The Full Monty: I really liked it but it was long : 7:30 to 10:20 with one 20 minute intermission.

The humor was funny, there was very little dancing and what there was was more like basketball moves than choreography. Most of the songs helped to move the story along but some just seemed to be just stuck in to fill the time.

The location was changed from England to Buffalo. It lost a lot in the change: In the movie, the mine had closed down, leaving the whole town in trouble. In the musical, a factory had shut down leaving a bunch of guys out of work but they didn’t want to take lower paying jobs to support their families. Made them seen kind of whiny.

The show had 12 men and 7 women with a little doubling of the smaller roles. One has to be a body builder who can pull off being a professional stripper, one has to be black and the others can be whatever. Among the 6 principals, three had good bodies, 2 had not good bodies and one was very obese.

At the very end, they are standing facing away from the audience, naked (When the Calendar Girls did it they were nude, these guys were naked). They take their hats off, cover their privates and turn to face the audience then drop the hats. As they drop the hats, the lights go out and four very bright lights blind the audience so all we could see of the guys was like they were cut out of paper – we could see the outline but no detail.

As a director, I thought the last moments went too fast. From the time they started to turn towards the audience until the final blackout was just 2 or 3 seconds. I taught it could have been slowed down considerably without the audience seeing something they shouldn’t have.

All in all a fun show.

Heading South in a few minutes to see a Neil Simon play tonight.

Still having fun.

Doug

Later that night:

Yep. Same theater

Interesting point before the show starts: They have both a Board of Trustees and a Board of Directors.

The trustees are more honorary positions and are expected to donate/raise money. The directors run the business. There are 6 trustees and 11 Directors plus 4 officers listed with the Trustees. I need to find out how the Trustees are selected. (Elected or appointed).

Very heavy smell of incense. The lady next to me or somewhere else???? During the show it changed from incense to licorice.

The play tonight was written by Joe DiPietro. Several years ago we did one of his plays “Over the river and through the woods” with Bill Gincig, Bill Hagen, Bev Leyman, Jan Claussen and two younger actors who have left the island. The script was very good. He also wrote “I love you, you’re perfect, now change” which was a musical they did at orcas center. Melinda was in it. “The art of murder” isn’t one of his better scripts. I have a copy if anyone wants to read it.
Opening night 100 people in a 264 seat theater.
At first I thought they were doing it as a melodrama – everyone was over the top. But it wasn’t. The acting was just not good. I blame it on the director. The blocking was far better than Dixie Swim Club (which I saw there two years ago) but there was still too much chorus line: the actors stand in a straight line facing the audience and saying their lines.

The audience seating is 11 rows of 24 seats with a large aisle right down the middle of the audience and on each end so you have a lot of people sitting past the sides of the stage.

The stage is probably 40 to 45 feet wide but no deeper than the Grange stage. They used old fashioned muslin flats that shake when someone opens 0r closes a door.

There were very few laughs during the play. Even lines that were meant to be funny didn’t come across as funny. Part was the delivery but I find it hard to laugh when someone is murdered.

They had an opening night reception with free wine and munchies but I didn’t stay.

You get tomorrow off – I’m visiting several cousins then back to it on Sunday. I’m going to the early bird dinner theater sunday – dinner at 4 then show at 6 so everyone can be home and in bed by 8pm. I’ll be one of the younger people there.