Experts, Almost

Since last week's performance, we have all become aware of the pitfalls of performing live. Of course, I can only speak to the dragon actors. The problem of making our cues was largely mitigated by the fact that we were performing indoors this time. Thank God. Once again, we ran into that problem of fourth and fifth graders somehow finding themselves above the humor of the performance. Throughout the performance, I found more kids interested in tripping the dragon as we weaved through the audience as opposed to paying attention to the plot of the performance. But then again, we are dealing with short attention spans. In a sense performance then cannot be wholly judged upon the audience's reaction. Actors are the only ones who ever know what went wrong and what went right. The audience will never pick up on this unless they have seen the performance numerous times, which is often not the case. As a cast, with insight into the rehearsal process and all the work it took to get to this moment, we knew that our performance was an achievement, despite the lack of audience response. The most important thing is that the cast knew what they were capable of and were satisfied with the product they put out today. That is all, I feel, we can ask for in the changing world of theatre. You are only as good as your last performance.