Theatre Mess

The first week I was in Texas, Kathy described someone as, "She is just mess." In this context, "mess" means they just create mess wherever they are in terms of relationships -- think drama queen, gossip, pain in the butt all rolled into one.

After tonight, I've decided theatre at it's worst is caused by mess.

There is a difference between "messy" theatre and "mess" theatre. Messy is a stage that theatre goes through, mess is an actor issue. We Ain't the Huxtables had both tonight.

A messy scene can be cleaned up and polished by new direction, new blocking, new interpretations, new energy.

A mess actor can be cleaned up only when he or she decides to pull their crap together.

But until this happens, it is impossible for a messy scene to be cleaned up. When a mess actor shuts down, no longer accepting any direction, the scene is ruined. The energy remains low, the frustration grows, and everyone wants to walk away and give up.

I love the actors I am privileged to work with, but tonight the majority of them were frustrating. I don't know what's going on with all of them personally, if they had an awful day or if they didn't sleep at all the night before. But even if that was the case, a boss wouldn't take that as an excuse. It is so frustrating to sit in my seat next to Stevie and see a scene that was beautiful, maybe not perfect, but beautiful the night before be trashed tonight.

Being human, we aren't good at taking criticism. No one wants to hear about how crappy they are doing. And though Stevie and I try to be very positive and uplifting (which some directors are not), when they can not take the constructive criticism and run with it, we get frustrated. Shutting down and not trying anymore doesn't make anything better.

This is my venting process. Please do not take anything that I'm writing the wrong way -- I love the people I get to work with every night at rehearsal, all of them are very talented, very lovely people. Tonight was rough, but tomorrow will be better. Our cast seems to have an every-other rehearsal pattern of awesomeness. We just need to get rid of our mess.

Until next time, rid your life of mess, take a deep breath, and start again.