I seriously can't believe it's been three weeks already since we started rehearsals! The saying, "Time flies when you're having fun," seems to have been written especially for the experience of working on VOYEUR, and I think I've laughed harder and more often than any previous year...and they've ALL been GREAT!
As other members of the cast have already blogged, the process of VOYEUR is truly unlike any other theatre experience; both for the actor and, eventually, the audience. We (the actors) never know what the script will be or which characters we'll be playing until we start rehearsals. And the script and our characters (as with the news) evolve as the weeks of rehearsals fly by.
Having only moved back to Utah, after living in Southern California for years, it's been fascinating (and not just a wee bit disconcerting) to re-familiarize myself with the state of our state. More than once I've thought the various newspapers were written as HUGE April Fool's Day jokes. Alas...they were not. Although every state in our glorious little union is unique, Utah is, perhaps, the most uniquely unique of them all. Other groups of states at least share some broad-brush characteristics. Much of Utah, however, has definitely continued to march to the not-very-nice beat of a VERY different drum...though I'm not certain that many Utahan's want to know or believe it.
That all said, though, without the strange, sad, bizarre, ridiculous, wonderful and even inspiring (you can define "inspiring" any way you'd like...) events that find their way into our collective consciousness, Utah would be just another lovely place in which to live, and SATURDAY'S VOYEUR would be deprived of the BEST material any writer would salivate to get their hands on. And, as actors, we would be deprived of inhabiting the characters that so generously leap from the granite steps of our hallowed halls. Thankfully, politics and religion in our beautiful and quirky state continue to shock, appall, disgust, amaze and stir the imaginations of Allen Nevins and Nancy Borgenicht.
Through VOYEUR I've found home again; a truly gifted group of people willing to share their intelligence and talent with a hungry audience. And the fact that, during the rehearsal process, we (writers, actors, directors and everyone else involved in the process) are able to truly dissect and debate the issues does, seriously, stimulate the old gray cells. Every year that I'm lucky enough to be a part of VOYEUR, I feel like I'm attending the best (albeit disturbing) poly-sci spring semester EVER! (If only my professors had made poly-sci as fun as SATURDAY'S VOYEUR!)
As I said above; rehearsals have been a blast, so I can't wait to start week four and dig into the final chapter of this year's Beehive saga. But more than that, I can't wait for audiences to come be a part of this hysterical, thought-provoking journey through the land of Zion.
See you soon!!!
