The Show Must Go On Cast Blog: Adrienne Wong, Jan 8

January 12, 2010

By Adrienne Wong, performer in The Show Must Go On
Day three of rehearsals

Hey Max and everyone,

I’m glad we’re going to dia-blog about The Show Must Go On. We’re coming from interestingly different perspectives as I have no previous knowledge about the show and have only heard hints here and there about what I was getting myself into.

As you mentioned yesterday, the “something else” – beside virtuosity and spectacle – the audience is invited to watch is us, the performers. But with the addition of the next five songs today (we got a lot done!) that relationship of watcher and watched is really changing. I see how the performer and audience in this show are like acrobats who, holding each other’s ankles, can somersault forever. Each taking a turn supporting the other or diving forward.

But really, as I think about it, the audience-performer relationship is not that equal. We know (or will know) what is going to happen next, even if we pretend we don’t. When performing, we are willingly suppressing that knowledge in order to keep ourselves rooted in the present, available to react authentically – with the ideal response – to new information. But there are ideal responses for the audience, too. On more than one occasion tonight, Henrique used the phrase “when it works…”, going on to say that usually it doesn’t because the audience does something that doesn’t fit inside the intention of the piece. It’s not wrong. It probably doesn’t stop the show, but it doesn’t work.

I’m feeling a bit scattered with these thoughts, writing them as I am after Friday night’s rehearsal.

I’m very much looking forward to the Skype conversation with M. Bel organized for Saturday’s rehearsal.

See you soon,
Adrienne

The Show Must Go On is part of the 2010 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and is presented with SFU Woodward’s and The Dance Centre. Jan 20-23, 2010 at 8:00pm, The Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, SFU. Click here for full details.