The French Baby (first show.)

Live theater causes you to have to react to a whole host of unexpected occurrances. You can be 100% prepared, practiced, and trained and still...life happens. After our audience filed in yesterday (and we were thrilled to see that we had managed to attract a very large audience of tourists not connected to our company or AHSTF). The last group to file in was a French couple...and their children, aged 5 and 2.

I had never thought to put an age restriction on the show. In the States, saying a show is for 12 and up hints that the content is "innappropriate" for kids, rather thn simply being too talky. This family had loved our presentation on the Royal Mile, however, and were expecting to see more dancing and fewer lengthy converstations in English. It's part of the experience of the Fringe--"you pays your money and you takes your chances."

The parents of the French baby were quite keen on staying and listening to the show, although the little ones didn't like the whispers in the dark or the loud snapping sount of the scene-endings. The kids talked on and off through the show, wiggling around and creating a low-level distraction throughout the play. It wasn't too bad; the audience that was there was still able to hear the play and laugh and react. But the play didn't have that magical bind it sometimes does. Also, the actors were moving around a lot back stage, which was audible white noise that pulled my attention away from the quieter moments of the show. I love these kds so much, but this is something I've warned them about in the past and their response has been "I have to pace backstage. I can't and won't do it your way." Ah, teenagers. I'm going to try again to get them to be still tomorrow. Still, It was instructive to me to sit in the dark next to total strangers with no particular connection to the play. I thought they were pretty accurately attuned to the play; laughing at particularly clear lines and reacting to the moments that worked. When the toddler somehow managed to throw her pacifier onto the stage under Kathleen's skirt, a quick-thinking Elsabe fetched it back.

So it was a decent run through, but not our best. Not what I've been looking forward to. Playing an almost half-empty house is hard, and these guys are not especially good at it. We're going to need more Coach Taylor-leve pep speeches before tomorrow, because this is what Fringe audiences are like. It just isn't common to sell 75%+ of your house. So you give the best show even when there are lots of empty seats and a French baby is talking through the performance.

But that's live theater for you--the unpredictable happens. What has been lovely at the Fringe is the chance to be a part of and perform for audiences that are wholly engaged in the show at hand. Everyone wants every show to be terrific and for the performers to do their best possible work. It's an exciting, creative, generous place to be, and we are so thrilled to be a part of it all.