Yesterday, I put on a reading of my work. The evening looked like this:
Related Strangers: An evening of new work by Samantha Cooper
at Seattle Center House Blackbox
Featuring three one acts:
The Last Tree
There Were Butterflies (working title)
The Weight
I put the whole thing up myself (with the help of amazing friends and colleagues of course). I booked and paid for the space for rehearsal and performance. I lined up the actors. I rehearsed the work with them. And then we put it on for an audience and had a talk-back at the end which I facilitated. It sounds simple. It sounds like exactly what, as an artist, I should be doing to get my work out in the community. And I did it. Here's what I have to say about it:
It.
Was.
Awesome (Scary).
Why it was "Awesome":
The ultimate goal of the reading was to figure out if the scripts were ready to be produced. The short answer is: Yes. The longer answer is: Yes, with revisions (as always). There is nothing like hearing your work out loud from other people's mouths to really understand what you've been saying all along. Addendum: there is nothing like feedback from people you don't know (or don't know well) to really understand what you've been saying all along. This particular post show talk-back was perfect for that. They are the audience that will be the most honest with you. They don't know you. They care significantly less about your feelings than your friends. That's why I like that portion of the audience.
I also had the advantage of having some very talented actors in my corner, actors who have lots of experience with new work. Bonus points: almost all of the actors have had quite of bit of experience with my work in particular. These were the type of actors who know the right questions to ask to help their performances and to further the work. Awesome.
Why it was "Scary":
When your work is produced with a specific company, there is a certain amount of responsibility that that company then assumes with regards to the production. In other words, for better or worse, there is a name to work under and/or hide under. In some cases, that is great because the work is great. In other cases...well, you can guess. In the case of self-production, you only have one name to work under/hide under -- your own. That's the scary part. But that is also the necessary part. As artists, at some point, we can hide under a production company, a theatre, a director, etc. We must assume all the responsibility for our own work and strive to create something that we can artistically believe in and stand-by no matter what anyone else things. Of course, there's always financial aspect to...well...anything but we can save that for a future post.
And maybe you can tell by now, but the evening went really well. I may have been writing a different post altogether if it went poorly.
