My opinion? I agree that the fourth play, well, was just not good. I'm afraid it was doomed for a good while due to an overall lack of planning, no time to do the necessary script revisions, and whatever personal reasons required the original actors to drop out of the scene. The play was read all four performances as a kind of hybrid reader's theater. What had originally been a powerful monologue had been expanded and diluted through the too-many-cooks principle. I can't say it was the fault of any one person, yet the end result was not what it should have been.
The Bingo piece in which Kit provided the - ahem - climax of the show was a hilarious little script. Matt thought it was hilarious, and I agree Kit was awesome. I felt did not go well for me at all on Sunday - I felt all out of rhythm and incoherent, and I was fairly annoyed with myself because I did not want to end the show on that note. I had that part down cold, and this is not something I'm used to, d*mn it. (Okay, it was the last piece for me on a matinee after a late cast party at which I consumed sufficient quantities of Jaegermeister. But I did the rest of the show just fine. Must work harder.) I'm glad to hear Matt felt it looked just fine from the audience's POV. I guess if they found it hilarious, and no one could see my brain frantically churning to find the next line, I should just keep my mouth shut and take my bows.
That said, the rest of the play went quite nicely. The first piece was well-written and well-acted, though I agree it doesn't have much of a point. It was just an ironic little vingette with a wicked sense of humor.
The piece I did with Pat and Joe was an incredibly well-written short drama, and it was so cool working with such talent and such fun people. Fun at parties, too. There was a bit of a mini-crisis for this piece on Saturday night, but in the end, as Chris says, all was good. Sunday's performance was the best yet: everyone could be heard well and the scene just clicked.
I was in four of the six, but I should point out that this was basically via last-minute necessity and my "why not, I'm here anyway" philosophy. I had a good time, though I do feel like apologizing for hogging so much stage time. As an exercise, it was interesting to stretch myself in an effort to keep the characters well-differentiated from each other.
In the end, I'd recommend writing this one off as a decent beginning for the experimental use of new/local material, learn from the mistakes, and do it again next year. Anytime you try something completely different there's bound to be a bit of roughness that will be smoothed out in time, and the concept of using new material from local writers - gee, does IC have a few of those to go around? - well, it's just too good to pass up. An ambitious, entirely original effort from a very talented group of people. I'd add special thanks to Jason for basically taking over as uber-director for the scene transitions and such. Incredible dedication. And also quite fun at parties.
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