Our production of 'Rent' fails
Level of Lucidity: N/A Level of Cohesiveness:
Rating:
Lucid Intent? No
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I was on a stage with some friends and other people, and I was told we were performing "Rent" that evening. I would be playing Roger, and Tim Vines was Mark. I think Anne was there, but I don't know who she was.
We started the show with Mark coming out, and the audience clapped. There was an "X" on the stage for him to stand, but there were tons of X's in a grid pattern all over, and I had no idea how anyone knew where to stand. When he started and said, "We begin on Christmas Eve," the audience clapped again. It was distracting.
We went through the first Voice Mails and got to the song "Rent." No one really knew the blocking for anything, and we kept messing up the lyrics. The audience didn't seem to care at first, but they started talking and moving around a few minutes in.
When "Rent" started, everyone, including me, started singing, even though it was only Mark's part. I had forgotten who sang the first verse, so I just joined in. The blocking was awful. People just ran around and stood on whatever X's they wished. When it came to my part, I tried my hardest to sing and do the blocking, but it was difficult. I could sing just fine. The singing wasn't the problem for anyone. But we constantly forgot lyrics and had no clue where to stand.
As the song neared the end, some stagehands just walked on stage to set up the next set. They came on stage while we were still performing. They put up a wall between most of the stage and the audience. We wrapped up the song trying to be seen outside the walls and through a window.
The next song, "Light My Candle," took awhile to start. I knew it was a big song for me, and I was really nervous. The Mimi character knocked on the door on the new set piece. She was on the audience side, and I was behind the wall. When she knocked, I immediately forgot the line. I stood there like an idiot and just decided to open the door. I said, "The door" after remembering the line and after opening the door.
The music started after an awkward pause, and we started singing. Mimi tried to walk inside the door, but I pushed her out so the audience could see us. A lot of the audience had left. Some left in such a hurry, they left their popcorn.
Mimi forgot the lyrics and just stood at a sink in the window. I stood there like an idiot and tried to improvise, but I couldn't think to improvise during the song. I missed my cues because of it.
One guy from the audience who had been making gestures and angry sounds walked on stage to the sink. He loudly said: "Look. You guys are doing terribly, and you're not doing 'Rent' any service. Just give up." He left the stage, but I walked out the door to face the audience, and I addressed them directly. I angrily shouted that we were doing our best. Jerks like him didn't appreciate our effort. We are just a bunch of friends who adore "Rent" and wanted to perform it.
Additional Comments:
The theater seemed similar to my high school theater, but the audience seats were huge. They were like the big movie theater seats that recline and have individual cup holders.
The woman who played Mimi was a stranger, though she sort of looked like Rosario Dawson.
