Play by play

On Saturday evening, we had the first part of the Franklin Players One-Act Festival. The Franklin Players put on three productions:

• The Survivor by Randolph Potter – Dir: Randolph Potter
• Bar and Ger by Geraldine Aron – Dir: John Atkinson
• Illinois Jane and the Pyramid of Perilby Colorado Tolston – Dir: Dylan Moss

We invited three adjudicators for the festival, and they gave constructive feedback for all three.

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In my case (The Survivor), this was the first play I have written, the first play I have directed, and I had a cast including young people with little or no acting experience. The major criticism was that the younger cast members couldn’t be heard (projection! breathing!), a problem I experienced during rehearsals. Also, apparently I shouldn’t write AND direct, and I understood the reasoning behind that comment. That said, I thought it was well received by the audience.

This is my official thanks to Hennie Greyvenstein (Lawrence), Tamara Penstone (Helen), Mark Vosloo (Sean), Keshia Drzewicki (Rita) and Anthony Vosloo (Tony) for their commitment to the production. The latter three are still in school, and we had to work around school camps, exams and illness to get The Survivor produced. Thanks also to Anthony Bantham, Ronel Fortune and Kathy Clayton for originally auditioning for the roles of Lawrence and Helen, but who had to drop out for various reasons. Kathy Clayton decided to take on the role of “Ger” against my “Bar”, in Bar and Ger.

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Bar and Ger didn’t leave a dry eye in the house. Even I battled to contain my emotions until blackout, at which point I consumed a chocolate and Coca-Cola in about a minute flat. This was possibly the best performance I’ve given on stage, and the atmosphere was amazing. No one clapped until the final strains of the song “Everybody Hurts” by REM, a fitting end to an emotionally exhausting play. Geraldine Aron is my hero.

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Illinois Jane was very well received, being the comedy of the evening, and with my sugar-high I was able to play all the sound cues admirably (in my eyes, anyway). Well, no one complained about it :-).

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This coming Saturday, three outside companies are performing, and afterwards we will have the award ceremony. We shall see what happens. I’m holding thumbs for Bar and Ger.