The preview process at Court Theatre is my favorite part of working here. If you’ve ever seen a Court show twice, once in early previews and once later in the run, you may understand why. If a Court show doesn’t change wildly during previews, it’s an anomaly–I can’t remember the last Charlie show I saw where the ending at the second performance was the same as the ending at opening. The first ten minutes of Titus were completely rethought in response to the first audiences’ experience (if you caught that show in early previews you saw a glitzy party of decadent youths, which by opening had transformed into a highly ritualistic military exercise), and the ending of Arcadia (and thus that show’s final communication on the subject of its themes) was different almost every night during that first two weeks (I’m personally still dubious about the dramaturgical justification for the two eras’ dancers connecting so directly in that moment, but of the choices we tried, it was the strongest by far).
I wonder sometimes if preview audiences get how necessary to the process they are–some patrons look on previews as “less-than” or incomplete, but actually I think they should be considered a totally different experience from seeing a show after it opens. Audiences during the run are, of course, directly participating in the creation and sustenance of a piece of live, four-dimensional art, and the theater does not exist without them. But preview audiences are participating in the building of the piece, teaching the cast and designers how the show works. When you’re bored, or engaged, or offended, or moved, we know it just by being in the room with you. And the audience is never wrong.
Caroline starts previews in just under a week. And to encourage you to think about preview performances as not just a less-expensive ticket for a less-polished show, I am going to give away a pair of tickets to a first-week preview (Sept. 11-14). In order to get these tickets, post a comment with the names of the seven Court Theatre productions represented at the top of this page. That’s right: A CONTEST!! The first reader to get all seven will get two free tickets to help us figure out the ending (or maybe the beginning, or maybe the big Channukah party scene) of Caroline, or Change. TO THE COMMENTS!
I hope these are all correct!
1 – “Mary Stuart”
2 – “Fences”
3 – “The Glass Menagerie”
4 – “Thyestes”
5 – “Hotel Cassiopeia”
6 – “Endgame”
7 – “Cyrano”
Thank you!
Almost–can anyone else catch the two Justin got wrong? Let’s give it til five o’clock on Monday. If no one else gets them all, Justin, the tickets are yours.
Is #2 First Breeze of Summer?
Let me have a go at it.
If we jump “Fences” and add “First Breeze of Summer” and noogle in “Arcadia” for “End Game”. Will that make Justin’s brilliant list any brighter?
THE ANSWERS:
1. Mary Stuart
2. Fences
3. The Glass Menagerie
4.The Iphigenia Cycle
5. Titus Andronicus
6. Endgame
7. Cyrano
Justin got the director of #4 right, and #5 was a wild guess. But he got the closest, so the tickets are his!