So, the first night of Arsenic and Old Lace was last night and I was pretty pleased how it went. What a difference with the technical side. I think the tech guy at the theatre took a lot of the criticisms to heart after the last production when the lighting and sound was wrong each night, and it's all been crisp and professional. Instead of the cast being nervous about the lighting and worried what was going to go wrong, we were all able to just concentrate on acting instead.
The audience was disappointing, only 55 people, but not disastrous considering how bad the weather was. Hopefully it will pick up over the next couple of nights. They were quiet at first, but ten minutes into the play were reacting and appreciative.
What's interesting is how differently some things play out in front of a live audience, especially with comedy. You get laughs on lines you might not have expected and my part, particularly, plays differently. The opening from the play is pretty different from the movie (there's no wedding scene, or rookie cop), so it's actually about ten minutes into the play before it's mentioned that my character believes he's Teddy Roosevelt and the audience clicks that he's not right in the head. I actually like the confusion in the audience during that first section, which was never apparent in rehearsals.
In terms of performance, it was a big improvement on the dress rehearsal and our weaker performers were actually very good when they got onstage and got through it without hiccups. Typically, a couple of the stronger parts of the play didn't play out as scripted, with lines skipped or out of order, BUT the actors all carried on with conviction, so it probably wasn't noticable from the audience. Certainly a couple of sections I'm in were all over the place and lines got missed out, but we all covered eachother by coming in if there was a pause or repetition, so I doubt anyone who didn't have the script in front of them was any the wiser.
Personally, I felt my parts went well - I gave a larger performance than I have in rehearsal and hammed it up attrociously, but all to the good of the role I think. Funnily, trying to get blasts out of a bugle have been the thing I've most worried about and it all went wonderfully. It was also pleasing to get compliments about how I was perfectly cast and most pleasing of all, the leading man said before the show how much he enjoyed playing opposite me. Good stuff.
I had a blast and hopefully the audience did too. Everyone I spoke to seemed to. My sister's coming tonight so I'll be able to get an honest opinion on how it went.
Second night later and the nerves have gone.
Oh, and I'm REALLY pleased with how the set looks. I put in a lot of work there.
( Pics of me in costume and the set lie below the cut. )
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