Good Times with the Grand Guignol

Last night we opened out production of The Lab: An Experiment in Grand Guignol here at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The audience reaction was great, they bought into the psychological aspects and reacted just as they should. Such a reward for all the hard work that has been put into this show! It is not easy to produce as show in three and a half weeks, but Lindsay Snyder and Kris Messer have done it, successfully. We have such a great team working on this show, a great cast, great crew, great designers. How could Lindsay and Kris have gone wrong, anyway? They're such smart, artistically talented people. And I'm very thankful for this opportunity to explore such an obscure artform, one that is seldom done anymore. Grand Guignol is such a melodramatic, overly-exaggerated way of theatre. It definitely goes for shock value, using realistic scenes of violence which result in puddles of blood all over the stage every show. Why would people like to see this onstage? I don't really know. It has been said that people enjoy watching this artform to live out their secret fantasies/nightmares vicariously. They can see onstage the unspeakable, bloody horrors they'd never imagine in real life. This can be backed up by the actual existence of the Grand Guignol Theatre itself, which began its decline after the atrocities of WW2 were witnessed by Europe. Nobody had need to retreat to the theatre to see these things, they were now part of real life. But at any rate, the reason for our audiences at the collegiate level is moreso because of the technicalities of the show. People are curious about how we make it real, and marvel at all the blood we do manage to use within a show. We could put The Lieutenant of Inishmore to shame. I am having a lot of fun with this show, something that this particular character allows for. I am really able to get into the show each night, focusing on listening and using my body. If I could just get rid of this tension...

We had class auditions on Friday and I have an audition for Grad Student Directing scenes tomorrow, which I'm currently slapping a monologue together for. I may fall back on a stick monologue if I can't get a new one to presentation level tonight. I will be filming for National Treasure 2: the book of secrets on Saturday April 7. I'm very excited! I get paid, plus it look nice to have Jerry Bruckheimer on ones resume. Then on Sunday, April 29 I have an audition for Spring Awakening in NYC! I'm so looking forward to this! I don't expect anything from the audition, but I promised myself if an audition for the show ever came up, that I would go. So I have to go. And I'll have fun with it.