Invited Dress Rehearsal

Last Thursday I was invited to the dress rehearsal of "La Derniere Nuit De Moliere". It was written by the same person who directed and starred as Moliere. Obviously this wasn't going to be very good-it very seldomly is when you have youur hands in many different jars. So, one of the French professors invited me to her classroom since this man was going to be giving a presentation on the play, his process, and theater. First, I was shocked when he asked the students who had ever been to a theater (there's 1 professional one 20 minutes away from Sedan and a few 1 hour away). ONLY 4 out of 28 had ever been to a theater, and these were Sophomores. I couldn't believe it! It made me glad that I grew up in a city with an excellent Arts scene. The presentation wasn't very interesting (I would never give an actor 55 minutes to speak without prompts). 

Later that night, I went to the theater expecting a half full house. Instead, I quickly realized this was an invited dress- there was me, the theater teacher, two French teachers, and the staff at the MJC. I had no idea what I was in-store for...

Thank goodness for theater history and music history! There were so many inside jokes and historically relevant notes that will definitely go over the kids heads. It was 90 minutes with no intermission, NO MASKING (meaning, you could see the one person stage crew leaning again the wall the entire time), and NO PROPS. There was however, a one man orchestra/stage manager. That's right-the stage manager was the conductor and orchestra. Often times using garageband or some music program (like Sibelius) to play the music....from his Macbook....on stage.....

Occasionally he was also used as a messenger. 

Let me move on to the costumes-this tech/music guy's costume was period correct as was Moliere's. His wife/daughter's (they're the same person, he married his daughter after the death of her mother/his first wife) costume was 1950s large polka dot skirt with black top, and Moliere's doctor wore a lawyer's robe. Clearly, they didn't have a budget. But yet, the few scenery pieces they had consisted of early 1900s womens undergarmets and hoop skirts on a rment rack. Why wouldn't she just change into any of these more appropriate clothing pieces.....

The set was just some pipe and drape seperating the main playing space and "Moliere's room" which was seperated by a red curtain hanging from the pipe and drape system. 

Since the only thing it really had going for it was the lighting, there were times when it became a light show. But, with nothing interesting happening on stage, I was glad there was something good about this production.

Overall, it was a sad effort, I don't think I could ever sit through that piece again.