Monday, March 08, 2004
Ticket Update: Seriously...BUY NOW
"Candide" is on a roll. Every performance has been selling out since the 2nd weekend.Remember, this house seats 126 only, so once word-of-mouth (and word-of-keyboard) got rolling, along with the release of good reviews, it was only a matter of time.
The latest info is:
There is one weekend left, with performances this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.
Of those performances, Saturday Night and the Sunday matinee are essentially sold out, with no more online ticket ordering allowed.
That mean there are three performances left that you can order online (and get your $3 per ticket discount.) The Friday evening performance has only a handful of tickets remaining.
Since the Saturday matinee is an added performance, it and the Thursday evening are your best bets right now.
But if last weekend is any indication, ordering tickets by end of day Tuesday is probably all the time you have left.
You can still call the box office and check whether they have any seats left to release for performances that are unavailable online. 650-949-7360
If you've been lollygagging, now's the time to take action! We hope to see you there.
Can a Bit Get Too Creative?
Okay, I know I just got done writing about how cast members keep it fresh and all; and how bits can develop over time as everyone gets more comfortable. But this may take it too far:-The three ladies-of-the-evening (and any other time of day) in Cartegena are making progress in their attempt to seduce one of the sheep as it is being led away to the Santa Rosalia. The sheep is looking pretty interested, but so far the flock-mentality has kept it following its fellows and the ladies have to settle for seducing Candide.
There are a lot of places I could go with this one, but i've managed to keep it relatively clean throughout the show, so I won't dive into the gutter now.
(I'm just saying, though, are we sure Pangloss got his syphilis from Paquette?)
Overheard During a Recent Performance
Some performances seem to be more "fresh" than others...which is a polite way of saying that the little snafus seem to abound. A recent performance featured these unexpected moments:-The third-best Baronial falcon demonstrated why it is only third-best when seconds after soaring into the sky in search of prey, it came crashing to earth instead of its prey.
-Cunegonde wreaked some small revenge on the Barbary pirate who carries her off to his ship. After throwing her over his shoulder, instead of boldly striding off with his helpless victim crying for rescue, our hapless pirate toppled to the ground and once disentangled, was reduced to herding his apparently not-so-helpless victim to his ship.
Of course, the beauty is, usually when such snafus occur, the cast may think they're obvious (and hysterical) but the audience often thinks they're planned. And these were no different.
Sunday, March 07, 2004
How Do Actors Keep It Fresh?
People wonder how an actor can do the same role in the same show night after night for weeks on end.The answer is that it is rarely exactly the same show.
Every audience is different, for one thing, so every performance has its own rhythm. The laughs may come in different places, and certainly at different levels. And of course sometimes the audience can be audible. And I don't just mean cell phones going off, but audible gasps or comments as the action occurs.
You'd be surprised how often as an actor you can find some meaning or nuance to a line you've performed many times. If you're on your toes and, in actor-speak, in the moment, then it can really feel like each time is the first (or at least NOT the 102nd) time.
The four-week run at Foothill doesn't rank among the longest runs out there, so it's not hard to keep it fresh for such a short run, particularly with so many cast members on stage doing lots of little bits throughout the show.
There's a whole other show happening around the show!
And that gives the show its energy, its life.
