hi! it’s me. theatre ghost*1 hallie again.

in the past month, i’ve gotten to see three shows. (perhaps a fourth this weekend, but performances are weather-dependent and these summer evenings of 99+ degree weather & 100% humidity have not been conducive to outdoor shakespeare in the park when the heat thunder and dementor clouds rumble sporadically through the mountains, if you see what i’m saying.) ;)

alas, i digress.

here, in chronological order, are the shows (and feelings) i’ve had at theatres recently.

this page doesn’t allow for proper footnote formatting, but i’m gonna do it like this throughout: follow? :)

1* although i DID see one person i knew at theatre number one; and dad sat next to me at theatre number three. otherwise, no one else in the audience or on stage knew i was ever there. :)

and because i’ve lived in this town for too long and have had multiple, many jobs, a number of faces in the theatre do look moderately familiar. are they also just regular-attending-theatre patrons? or are they actors i’ve seen in other shows? have you been in the movies, or did my bestie once have a crush on you? i know you from somewhere, but not somewhere that you’d know me back.

MURDER, PLAIN AND SIMPLE

by meghan reimers

performed at: centre stage, greenville, sc

the internet really is full of too much information and things flying at you all the time. that’s why when a postcard that looked this good arrived in my snail mail box it actually prompted me to go online and snatch a ticket before the show completely sold-out! :)

this play won the “new play festival” at greenville’s center stage last year. so i got to see the world premiere— a sold-out three-week run!

and it was exactly what i needed.

i honestly didn’t expect to laugh so hard. or for it to be such an in-on-the-fun comedy. especially since i could hear the fight call*1 through the theatre doors as i waited in the lobby for the house to open.

it was a “farce,” as in, it was over-the-top, and the actors were in on it.

(one of my fave bits was when one of the guys went to chase down a witness and came back with “her” —that is, a dummy in a body bag flung over his shoulder— who became the actress again when the lights came up for act ii. trust me, it was brilliant.)

the actors would look to the sound booth when a sound effect was mis-timed (again, for comedic timing purposes, and not because the crew didn’t know what they were doing), and even broke the fourth wall with the audience once or twice.

it was so funny that even one of the actors alllllmost (nearly, i’ll say she did) broke*2 when the actor she was tied to was trying to escape their shared binds.

did i have a cOUPLe tiny story things i might have “edited” were this still being “workshopped” before a performance/debut? sure. i’ve been studying story too long and too hard for me not to have notes. but overall: the audience ate it up. the actors did their jobs (some above & beyond what would have gotten us into the scene and in on the fun), and everybody walked away with smiles on their faces.

aside from the brilliant use of props (the fake sandwich! the funniest old lady with a rope stage-business gag i’ve ever seen!) also, please behold the beautiful set design.

*you* know how i love how theatre sets look like tiny dollhouse rooms when photographed.

centre stage lured me in with that great poster design (see above), and i’m so glad i got to see the show.

brava.

especially to anna brown and drake king. (the actors who played the doctor and the lawyer.)

and if you’re a fan of a slapstick caper [ex: ARSENIC & OLD LACE, or THE 39 STEPS (the comedy play based on the serious hitchcock film based on the novel)], i hope you have opportunity to produce/stage/see this NEW play*3 for yourself. :)

some favourite lines i scribbled down in my notepad in the dark:*4

“you haven’t been to law school.”
“but i have been to prison.”

“i heard something mighty strange before you were resurrected.”

“it’s my specialty.”

“i can’t believe she said it! it’s the title of the play!”

footnotes to murder, plain & simple:

1* fight call: if there’s a big fight scene— complicated choreography with stunts or sword fights etc. a company will rehearse that before the show— just to make sure no one gets hurt during the performance. especially if it’s been a few days since the last show. get all that muscle memory back, make sure everyone’s up to speed and on cue and hasn’t forgotten where to throw a punch and how to duck and that the couch (or cushion behind it) is on its mark for falling onto.

it all sounded V. dramatic from the lobby, which made me wonder what i was in for. thankfully it was way more silly than violent. but it did make me wish for a bigger theatre or sound-proof doors so as to prevent the unnecessary anxiety for the audience before the show.

2** it’s like outtake reels on your favourite dvds; or when an actor or celebrity breaks on snl. it’s too funny for them not to laugh, too. we all love it even if they’re not sticking to the script. we know they know it’s funny, too and it’s tough not to react. :)

3*** i still bemoan not having a paper program for my hoarding and scrapbooking tendencies, but should you like to see it digitally online, i happened to find the link again:

https://issuu.com/centrestagetheatre/docs/mpas_program_draft?fr=sN2IyMTg0NDA1Nzc

4****if you saw the show, these may make you laugh AgaIN. if you haven’t, don’t worry, they’re out of context and won’t spoil anything. they’ll just make you wonder. ;)

play no. 2:

TWELFTH NIGHT

by wm shakespeare

summer shakespeare performed by the greenville shakespeare company

at the performance hall on the bob jones university campus

the title of shakespeare’s play “twelfth night” refers to the twelfth night of Christmas— nothing about the show as staged was Christmas-y or winter-y accept for a few oversized ornaments hanging over the aisles. costumes were yacht-summer-beach-or-sock-hop ready… #disconnect

it’s a black box theatre.

theatre-in-the-round.

the set is in the center of the room and comprised of three benches*1 ; the kind you might find in someone’s garden.

the audience was surprisingly 50% (just a guess; felt like more) under the age of 20. (the 4 year-old*2 behind me chomping her gum the whole time or asking her mom questions surely more than accounted for the absurd amount of minors.)

anyway: the play (sorta) opens, and a large duke orsino comes out and pines over the framed photographs of (we presume, if we already know the play) lady olivia that encircle him on the floor. he weeps; he kisses one; he eventually falls prostrate as someone from the theatre welcomes us to the 25th season of the greenville shakespeare company. (duke orsino remains in the middle of the floor.)

i mean, sure. TWELFTH NIGHT is a comedy. it’s silly. it has slapstick moments and humor.*3 and the directional signs to the show (the acting company’s logo?) is a shakespeare bust with a red clown nose on. this isn’t pretentious sit-in-the-dark-and-clap-when-they’re-done-literary-high-fallutin’ shakespeare.

*the signs leading from the entrance gate to the performance hall behind the dorms were very helpful. and very spot-able.*

which, again, i’m mostly (usually) fine with. nearly all of the actors wear converse. they’re in modern/90’s beach garb (although mary is in a 50’s soda shoppe/sock hop waitress outfit?). it’s well-acted. and well-abridged (90 minutes including a 15 minute intermission).

i am a BIG fan of theatre, as you know.

i am more than willing to SUSPEND MY DISBELIEF.

BUT, here comes my one BIG complaint:

this show was (clearly, dumfoundedly, brutally) miscast.

sir andrew and sir toby (whom i typically ignore and wait to get to the duke orsino/viola/olivia scenes) were the highlights. comedic and physical without being unbelievable as lady olivia leeches of nepotism-required hospitality and hopeless wooing.

but viola and the duke?

ew.

no.

the acting company has been together for 25 years. congrats. you all know your shakespeare.

but if you cast a COLLEGE STUDENT WHO LOOKS 15 as the romantic female lead, you CANNOT cast a duke orsino who was there 25 years ago and DEDICATES THIS PERFORMANCE (according to the paper program) TO HIS GRANDKIDS.

even viola’s twin, the actor playing sebastian, looked 10-20 years older than her.

again: i can almost suspend disbelief on the twins. sure, they were both caucasian. both wearing white pants and a flat cap and had a pink scarf somewhere and striped shirts. i know not every acting company has access to actual look-alike fraternal twins to play viola and sebastian.

BUT, in a town with five full-time professional theatres and plenty more acting troupes (like yours Right HERE; with a full year to do casting if you only perform during the summer), you had to of had casting options other than this pairing of duke orsino and viola.*4

so that’s my vegetarian beef.

cast someone else.

give your young actress a chance at the lead, but find an actor who’s her equal, not her grandfather, who makes the whole sold-out audience cringe at the finale when they can reveal their love for each other.

(also, maybe some assigned seats? or require people to show up on time? it’s awkward to ask your audience members to change seats so a parent doesn’t have to sit separated from their kid(s) during the show. sigh. is my enneagram one showing again?)

“’tis too late to go to bed now,” says sir toby.

yeah, because we’re having nightmares about duke orsino and viola.

good on ya for the rest of the show, greenville shakespeare company.

really.

everyone had a good time. you brought the diverse, multi-generational crowd to a 400+ year-old play. but those of us who know our shakespeare? it was 87 minutes of cringe once we’d met our silly, pining duke, and were then presented with our shipwrecked (v. young, v. not yet born when you started this acting troupe) viola.

sigh.

here’s to a palate cleanser***** for twelfth night soon, eh?

footnotes to twelfth night:

1* it’s often said that all you need to perform shakespeare is a bench. it’s true.

2** not that theatre isn’t for kids. or that kids can’t enjoy shakespeare. but as an enneagram type 9/type 1, it seems like everyone should be welcome IF they follow the rules/common courtesy? ;D

3*** even though it’s about death and sorrow and melancholy and misplaced love and gaslighting, too. people are complicated.

4**** even in my tiny high school i wasn’t cast in a show because of my height. i was too tall in comparison to the rest of the cast and the ages they were supposed to be. a “chemistry read” in call-backs isn’t just for whether or not you believe the friendship/romance/antagonism between the actors in their roles. it’s whether or not they FIT.

5***** fun fact: in ONE MONTH i’m going to see 12N in… nYC!!!! yes, i’m already nervous it’ll get stormed out, but i DO own a raincoat thanks to my denmark art residency back in 2021… also, my writing group gal-pal ruthie gets to see 12N at THE GLOBE in london this september! so we should BOTH have better 12N stories to tell soon. :)

and yes, STILL waiting for my agent to call/text/email with GOOD news that my 12N-sorta-retelling-inspired-theatre kids’ novel has found a publishing home…. annnny minute now. ;)

show no. 3:

LIFE OF PI

performed at the peace center, greenville, sc

traveling broadway performance.

*when my husband isn’t interested in seeing a show, i call dad. dad, who is the reason i grew up getting to see live (and usually musical) theatre. :)*

oh.

my.

golly.

i remember seeing stills of this show when it first opened on broadway. the life-sized animal puppets. the projections. and yes, of course, The Tiger.

once upon a time i worked at a bookstore. and i’d occasionally pick up a POPular title just to see what all the fuss was about.

so yes, i read yann martel’s book when it came out in paperback 20-ish years ago. i remembered the boat. the survival story. and the theory that the animals were actually people.

and yeah, the play got into all of that: but ALSO LEFT IT OPEN-ENDED.

“but doctor, which makes the better story?”

the actor was high-energy (he trained in parkour for the physicality of the role!) and the set was a 3-sided box. it became the hospital room, the steamer at sea, a patch of sea with a lifeboat. and a tiger.

it was EVEN MORE OF A SPECTACLE than i could have imagined.

and i have a V. vivid imagination.

i was nervous walking into the theatre as there were posters in the lobby with content warnings (violence, some disturbing content); and i asked an usher for spoilers. that was a V. good move on my part, for my anxiety, as she could assure me that the worst was not coming. (the content was some animals being “ripped apart” — done with ribbons; gross, but less gross than real blood & guts — and the reference to possible cannibalism — which, honestly, in this day & age i find odd is a content warning? have you SEEn the news? it’s a mess out there.)

anyway: the show was splendid.

the puppets were mesmerizing. the acting incredible. the stage lights and sounds and all of it: absolutely immersive storytelling and artistry in so many disciplines.

and golly-gah the actor playing PI has to be emotionally (and physically) WREcKEd at the end of EVERY single show. the range of sorrow and rage and love and survival was overwhelming even from the third row of the balcony.

so while it was nearly the opposite of where this blog post started: a conniving sorta-related nephew trying to off his aunt for her money, botching the job, and having an old gangster friend set her on fire to destroy the evidence of his poisoning, resulting in another failed murder attempt, well: LIFE OF PI is the other extreme of how great communal storytelling can be.

to invite us, the audience in the dark or nearly sharing the stage, into the storytelling: using our imaginations to go with the actors to where the animals and sets are what they pretend to be on stage.

to show beauty and the full range of human (and animal) emotions.

to let artists do their best work.

to sculpt, to light, to move.

to show beauty and sorrow.

to tell a tale with all the elements: weather and wind and stars and hope.

i have no footnotes on PI, huh?

just my continued wish to have a baby pet tiger of my own.

because while i’d never survive at sea for ten months, i can certainly dream for longer.

xo,

your theatre-hopping ghostie gal,

*hallie

noisy fight calls; too awkward to mention (but i do); and a 3-human tiger.