I got my first real look at The New New News last night. I’ve been part of the high-level talks on the project, which was inevitable given my penchant for pontificating on media issues anyway, but have had to step back from the script meetings and workshop as producer duties (read: all the paperwork Paul and Dawson hate to deal with and hired me for) have demanded my time.
So, when I sat down for last night’s reading having caught only the last five minutes of rehearsal and a few minutes of director notes, I felt very much like I was looking at this from the outside. A well-informed witness to a moment deep inside the development process, but on the outside nonetheless.
And, as I told Paul and Dawson afterwards, I was at times more compelled than I thought I would be, and at times more detached and outside the narrative than I thought I would be. Which is really perfect for this stage. All the potential is there, and we’re at the right stage to trim away anything that is preventing that potential from reaching actuality.
A brief and purposely obtuse collections of my notes from last night: found Pete the most engaging – he’s the noble “should”; Art’s guru misadvice = SEO; desire for Robot Chicken static jump-cuts disturbing; [name redacted]’s transformation is beautiful and perfect and the arc to which all other character arcs should aspire; not sure Paul has his numbers right; sometimes yet-to-be-written scenes should stay that way; Terence McKenna on X, nitrous and 72 hours of Powerpuff Girls (I think this had more to do with what I wanted to see than what I saw); failure doesn’t die to live another day.
The clearest thought I walked away with, though, was that this form, the Living Newspaper, has a place in the present day and the present conversation. Theatre and journalism are struggling and failing in such similar ways, it seems natural they might find similar solutions, and I’m putting my money on local.
Special thanks to all the actors that spent their weekend working on this piece – you did an amazing job and we can’t sufficiently show our appreciation for you volunteering your time. Thank you Holly Arsenault, Noah Benezra, John Bogar, Betty Campbell, Becky Chong, David Gehrman, Stephen Hando, Amy Love and John Q. Smith.
Jim, thanks for the comments. My only complaint is that I want more of them.
ReplyDeleteYou are right that this was the right time for an airing of the script. The fresh views from all of the audience members were extremely helpful. People who are willing to watch the sausage-making do have to endure a few more pieces of grissel, but I hope that their appreciation of the final product - knowing that they helped get rid of some of those rubbery bits - is all the greater.
Hay dawson, you'll get more, don't you worry. I'm withholding the bulk of my notes for this week so that y'all can concentrate on driving event traffic.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually very excited about the direction - it feels to me like the workshop is going to be the steering point for this beast.