From the Inside Out

After doing some early birthday shopping at the Galleria, Gary and I headed to the Garland Civic Theater to meet up with the young married’s group from ALC. The GCT was performing Murder on the Nile, a play based on the famous Agatha Christie detective novel.

When I was younger, I was an avid Agatha Christie reader. I loved her murder mysteries. In fact, one of her stories (Ten Little Indians) provided inspiration for And Then There Was One. Agatha Christie could weave a thrilling mystery with many unexpected twists and turns. It was rare if you figured out the mystery before it was revealed.

Since I’m such a big fan of her work, I was looking forward to the play. We entered the theater ready to be transported to Egypt. The stage looked great. The mood was set. We were excited.

Unfortunately, GCT’s adaptation fell flat. They replaced the famous detective, Hercule Poirot, with a priest. That was disappointing, but it could have been forgiven if the rest of the play was good. It wasn’t. The characters were one dimensional. Each actor seemed to be trying to outdo the other with his/her dramatic interpretation of the character. Don’t get me wrong. I love drama, but when each character delivers their lines in the same overdramatic fashion throughout the entire play, it becomes loathsome.

Some of the actors had problems with their accents. We overheard a couple of people talking during intermission. One of them said, “I can’t understand anything they’re saying. Maybe we’re not supposed to?”

Hmm…not good.

I think their biggest mistake was not knowing when to edit. The play clocked in at 2 hours and 45 minutes (including intermission). It was waaay too long! There were many things that could have been cut out to make the play flow better.

We were begging for it to end. That’s the last thing you want your audience to be doing. Know when to say when.

All in all, it was a memorable evening. We had a good time hanging out with our friends, and that’s what these nights are all about.

The City of Dallas is participating in this year’s Free Night of Theater program which campaigns to attract new audiences to live theatrical performances — absolutely free of charge.

Dallas is one of 120 communities across the country participating in this event from Thursday, October 16 through November 10, 2008. More than 3,000 free tickets to more than 26 Dallas-area theaters will be up for grabs starting at noon on Wednesday, October 1, 2008. Mark your calendar now because tickets will be passed out on a first, come first serve basis.

Tickets can only be reserved online. Each participating theater will set a reservation ticket limit for their productions. Once tickets have been reserved through the website, patrons will be able to pick up their tickets at the will-call window of the individual theater’s box office on the night of the show.

Participating Theaters in the Dallas Area are:

• African American Repertory Theater
• The MET Theatre
• Charles W. Eisemann Center
• One Thirty Productions
• The Company of Rowlett Performers
• Pocket Sandwich Theatre
• Contemporary Theatre of Dallas
• Repertory Company Theatre
• Dallas Children’s Theater
• Shakespeare Dallas
• Dallas Hub Theater
• Teatro Dallas
• Dallas Theater Center
• TeCo Theatrical Productions
• Echo Theatre
• The Black Academy of Arts and Letters
• Garland Civic Theatre
• Theatre Britain
• ICT MainStage
• Theatre Three
• Jubilee Theatre
• Uptown Players
• Lyric Stage
• WaterTower Theatre
• MBS Productions
• WingSpan Theatre Company

If you love the theater, this is your chance to check out a new show at no cost. In fact, the organizers encourage participants to go to a theater they’ve never visited before.

If you aren’t a patron of the arts, then this is a good time for you to give it a shot. At this price, there’s nothing to lose and you just might find a theater you like.

Gary and I wrote a play last year for the ALC Drama Players. And Then There Was One is a “whodunit” murder mystery. Ten strangers are snowed in, out of power, and no one can escape. One by one people start dying until there’s only one person left.

The play was a big hit at ALC, and I was approached earlier this year by a church in Denison that wanted to use it for a dinner theater production this summer. We made a few arrangements and voila! It was done.

Tonight we went to see the show. They made us feel very special from the moment we arrived. We got the best seats in the house and were recognized by the organizers of the show. I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers at the end along with a gift card for dinner. It was such a nice treat!

We had a fabulous evening. The food was great, and the cast did an outstanding job with the production. I really enjoyed watching what the directors and actors did with the characters. That’s the great thing about a play. It’s a living entity. Each actor brings a bit of their own personality to a character, so it’s always a little different depending on who is playing the part. In addition, the cast threw in a few surprises which had me laughing out loud. Below is a picture I snapped during Act One.

Watching the show was a neat experience although it’s difficult to explain exactly how I felt as others performed my work. I’m having trouble putting it into words. I guess I’d have to say that it was a mixture of joy, excitement and pride coupled with a sense of accomplishment. I’m so thankful that God has used us to reach out to people and convey His message through drama evangelism. Now that message is extending beyond the walls of ALC. Isn’t that amazing?

Rehearsals for ALC’s Saturday Night Life began three weeks ago. We meet weekly on Monday evenings to practice the comedy sketches and get ready for the show in October. Things are moving along nicely. I’m feeling much better about it than I normally do at this stage. Maybe it’s because we’ve already got one SNL under our belt. It’s not a total unknown ,and maybe that’s why it feels easier this time around. Compared to Pirates of Patmos, this show seems downright easy. That may change as we get closer to the performance date, but for now, I’m happy.

I’m really excited about the show. We have a great cast and an outstanding line-up of sketches. Even the few “controversial” sketches have turned out well. I don’t think they’ll get banned, so that’s a good thing.

We will be practicing the video sketches next week since they must be filmed on the 30th. Newt McNewsy will be back with more interesting character interviews, and we have some new videos that are sure to entertain the crowd. Now if we can make sure we don’t injure any cheerleaders this year, we’ll be in good shape. Wish us luck!

By the way, DVDs of Pirates of Patmos are now available. You can order copies at ALC. Also, And Then There Was One is being performed by Truth Tabernacle Church in Denison this weekend. It’s a dinner theater show. Performances are on Friday and Saturday nights. If you don’t have anything to do (and you don’t mind the drive), check it out.

Saturday Night Life is off to a running start!

We held auditions tonight. It was a closed casting call since we didn’t have a huge number of parts to cast. Also, we have an abbreviated rehearsal schedule this time so we felt it was important to cast skilled actors who can develop characters quickly with minimal supervision.

Most of our main drama players from Pirates are returning. We have a great group of talented people so not only will it be a fabulous production, it will also be lots of fun!

I’ll be reprising my role as Arianna (the cheerleader) and the Weekend Update news anchor. I’ll also be involved in a couple of new sketches. Rehearsals start next week so here we go…again.

“I love acting. It is so much more real than life.” Oscar Wilde