Entertainment!
by John Zinzi on 02/04/11
Well, it's Friday morning... the morning of the start of our second and final weekend of our Spelling Bee. I'm hoping Mr. Adrenaline shows up at around 7p tonight--I'm sure he will; he always does. Big crowds are expected, I know, based on the show's reception last weekend. Word gets out quickly that this is a goody.
On a personal note, there were four people in the audience last Saturday night who came to see the show because they knew I was in it. And as it's not hard to imagine, these people were theater people. They were from a theater group up in Dover that I happened to have worked with in the past. They had never been to Possum Hall, and I did not see them in the audience during the show. It was during our "snack break" that Fior told me they were there.
I headed to the lobby after the show because I certainly wanted to see these folks and thank them for making the trip, and... well, they just could NOT stop talking about how truly wonderful the show was! Of course I know people say that in the lobby after the show--what else can they say, really?! But I do believe they were very, very pleasantly surprised. Not that they expected a bad show, but they did not expect one of the caliber they saw. Professional was what they kept saying. Every person in the cast--every one--was in character the entire time and all were perfect for the parts! And talent, talent, talent! Music, staging, the full package.
Now we've all known people who love us and because of that are either easily impressed or they say that things were wonderful but we know that they're not being objective. But I'll tell you...these people held no such pretense. I won't say that they came to the show looking to pick it apart, but you know how we theater folk are when we go to see a show in someone else's playpen--there may be a tendency to be, shall we say, overly critical. In any case, there was none of that at all last Saturday night. None!
And as it happens, our show was the talk of that crowd for days afterwards--as subsequent emails to me and Facebook chatter proved. And the clincher was that I happened to be in their company last night and once again without me bringing up the topic, the praise for our Spelling Bee was effusive and their memories of last week sharp and clear. "Such real ENTERTAINMENT," they said. Wow. What a deep, deep impression our Possum Point Players production made on some folks from "up north." I was, indeed, proud of us all.
And we get to do it three more times. Here's to another great weekend!! -JPZ
