Post Gazette: "The third character in Steven Dietz's play, 'Shooting Star,' is you, the audience. Don't worry, there are no speaking parts or heavy lifting involved.
Early and often, the actors onstage address you directly, revealing their innermost thoughts, and you get to eavesdrop on their most intimate conversations."
5 comments:
This seems like a fascinating play to see. Well, either fascinating or it will fall flat. In this case, the script is close to everything for the show to be a success. With only two characters and "no fancy staging" as it was put in the article, the words are what will be interesting. No matter how good the execution of the play is by the actors and the director, if the lines are boring, the play will be, too. However, if it works out well then what a great thing to see!
I agree that this could be a really fascinating play. With just the two characters, it runs the risk of being far too talky of a play. I think that having the audience feel like they have a real part in this play will help counter this issue. Proximity to the characters, both physically and emotionally, will make this much more interesting, than as if it's just to people on stage having a discussion.
This is a slightly deceptive headline...
@Sarah - I don't mind the play being talky; ears may bleed by the end, but some of the best plays are intense character studies.
I have always had a pet peeve about plays which directly address the audience in a non-interactive experience. In these monologues, there are two scenarios: a) the character becomes wistful and nostalgic, which infuriates action-oriented audience members, and b) because the monologue is the character's "inner emotional life", suddenly audiences take their words at face value. No room for subtext or for unreliable narrators in audience addresses.
This is certainly very different for City Theatre in this season of some very out there plays, and I'm not entirely sure how it fits in with the rest of them. I understand the importance of a breath of fresh air in a series of dark and/or peculiar works, but this seems like a little bit too far from the precedent set earlier in the year.
Shooting Star seems like quite the endearing little play, though I'm still grasping for how exactly the audience has sway over the monologue and direction that the work takes. And I have to agree with Brian; asides are great every once and awhile, but establishing a connection with this all encompassing third character "the audience" feels strange to me.
It sounds like City Theatre has done a very good job at balancing their season with a variety of different productions this year. I personally am a big fan of character-driven stories, so hopefully I will be able to see this production. Inviting the audience in sounds like a good solution to the issue of whether or not such a low-key story will turn off some audience members; if the audience feels more invested in the experience, it is more likely that they will be engaged.
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