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Originally Posted by Grog12
Here's my question Van....Do we as rank and file audience members know that Williams sister was commited? Do we need to know that for the script to be effective? The answer to both is no. Now do we need to know that for this particular production of the show to be effective?
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Some audience members would and if you put something in the program in the director's notes, then it would have an impact upon the audience members that actually read them.
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Here's another example: I did a production of Glass Menagerie last year where the actor who played Tom added a little...flamboyance to his accent when he was monolouging to pay homage to the fact Williams was gay and most people believe the "movies" Tom was staying out so late at were in fact gay clubs/bars/hangouts. Not a single person picked up on the fact.
I lit the thing and was told this 2 months after it closed.
When are we making choices for ourselves as members of the theatre and when are we making chocies for the audience?
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How would the audience know if this was in homage to Willimas or just that the actor playing Tom was normally 'that way'? This is a character choice made by the actor to get into the character's head. It doesn't really matter to anyone except the actor. To him, it is a necessary part of the process (or so I'm told - I'm not an actor)
Are we not at some point audience members as well as members of the theater community? And how do you make choices to suit every audience member? Each one has a personal frame of reference by which he or she is going to view the play and interpret each character. The best you can do as a SD or director is to choose what feels right to you and then to present the play as honestly as possible. You will never
strike the right chord with everyone in the theater, so you do the best you can. If that means a reinterpretation of the set, that's great. Some go too far, some don't go far enough, but neither would keep me, as an audience member, from attending a show.
Char5lie