Salt Lake Acting Company - God of Carnage Without An Audience....| GOD OF CARNAGE Actor Nell Gwynn

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Thursday, 20 October 2011 13:33

God of Carnage Without An Audience....| GOD OF CARNAGE Actor Nell Gwynn

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First of all, I'd like to say that going into rehearsals, l was a bit arrogant. I thought to myself, "A 4 character play that runs an hour and fifteen minutes? A brilliant playwright? No costume changes and/or musical numbers? A fabulous ensemble? This is going to be a BREEZE."

How wrong I was! Like any great work, there is much more going on than meets the eye. We all knew that this was supposed to be a comedy, but as rehearsals progressed we grew more and more thoughtful. The conversations triggered in rehearsals made us question our own parents, retelling stories from our childhood. It made us examine our own childhoods - I still have a hard time believing that I told this room full of people that at about 7 or 8 I had pushed my very best friend down the backyard stairs with a rake...

It made us look at parents and parenting as a whole and also explore the dark things we ourselves may believe about parenting. We would get up on our feet in the rehearsal hall and leave feeling like we had just been in a bar fight. Exhausted, in pain, sort of desperate...

We collectively began to worry that we were a miserable bunch of chumps and there was no way anyone would respond to this awful group of people. My husband would run lines with me and his comment always was, "These people should all die in a fire". That's some tag line for a play, right?

Until we had our first audience, we were terrified and had forgotten that the show really is a romp. It's hysterical. It's fun! To watch and to play. It's delightful to watch adults devolve and degrade themselves. Is that sort of sick? Yes! But it's also a great pleasure. The audience response reminds us on stage that these are humans. They are real. And we all love to see someone go nuts. As long as it's not us or our spouse. Or our kid.

I don't think I've ever been so relieved to have an audience join us (after the initial terror wore off, that is ). SO. THANK YOU, SLAC audience. For everything. You are brave. You are intelligent. YOU make great theatre happen here in this wonderful little city.

GOD OF CARNAGE runs through November 6, 2011. Tickets available online or by calling the Box Office: 801.363.7522.

First of all, I'd like to say that going into rehearsals, l was a bit arrogant. I thought to myself, "A 4 character play that runs an hour and fifteen minutes? A brilliant playwright? No costume changes and/or musical numbers? A fabulous ensemble? This is going to be a BREEZE."

How wrong I was! Like any great work, there is much more going on than meets the eye. We all knew that this was supposed to be a comedy, but as rehearsals progressed we grew more and more thoughtful. The conversations triggered in rehearsals made us question our own parents, retelling stories from our childhood. It made us examine our own childhoods - I still have a hard time believing that I told this room full of people that at about 7 or 8 I had pushed my very best friend down the backyard stairs with a rake...

It made us look at parents and parenting as a whole and also explore the dark things we ourselves may believe about parenting. We would get up on our feet in the rehearsal hall and leave feeling like we had just been in a bar fight. Exhausted, in pain, sort of desperate...

We collectively began to worry that we were a miserable bunch of chumps and there was no way anyone would respond to this awful group of people. My husband would run lines with me and his comment always was, "These people should all die in a fire". That's some tag line for a play, right?

Until we had our first audience, we were terrified and had forgotten that the show really is a romp. It's hysterical. It's fun! To watch and to play. It's delightful to watch adults devolve and degrade themselves. Is that sort of sick? Yes! But it's also a great pleasure. The audience response reminds us on stage that these are humans. They are real. And we all love to see someone go nuts. As long as it's not us or our spouse. Or our kid.
I don't think I've ever been so relieved to have an audience join us (after the initial terror wore off, that is ). SO. THANK YOU, SLAC audience. For everything. You are brave. You are intelligent. YOU make great theatre happen here in this wonderful little city.

Read 584 times Last modified on Friday, 04 November 2011 12:15