A Reflection on Fools

Fools was a great first impression for the new and running drama department. The actors worked very well and became very dynamic with their characters. A lot of hard work was but into this production, and as my role was to assist Ms. Morrison with anything that she needed, I wanted to make sure that the director and the actors were as ready and comfortable as possible. The first night of the performance was a huge energy booster as the audience laughed at the hard work that the actors demonstrated on stage. It started off really well, with a slight hiccup with a missed line and some thunder, but the actors where able to quickly recover and continue with the performance. However, the extended intermission left the actors to think about the audience's response and the laughter seemed to get to their head, and they started Act II with less energy and less unity than they had during the first act. This was a result of a missed line and the lights and sound crew waiting for their cue. The actor was left on stage with nothing to do for a few minutes and the light and sound crew should have reacted faster to the situation than they did on the first night of performance. If we had had the chance to do more rehearsals in center stage, than this could have been more easily prevented. But because the Spanish play was scheduled to show only two weeks before the Fools production, this wasn't possible. But the hiccup was quickly recovered as the characters worked together to great the dynamics of the story. Actors where able to connect to their characters as we got closer to opening night. They had a lot of trouble with this during rehearsal because they were worried that the jokes and their acting wouldn't be funny. This is something scary for any comedic actor because their is nothing worse than putting a lot of effort into a character or plot when the audience doesn't find it funny. But when the actors heard laughter on the first night, and every night after that, they connected to their characters almost instantly. The second night brought more problems than the first, though. Because Operation Smile did not show up, their was no need for an intermission. And I wasn't able to grab the props off the stage without the audience noticing. And since there were no black outs in between the scenes, I simply had to grab the book off the stage, along with the White Flowers that the vendor had forgot to grab before the play started. I did not notice the flowers on the table, so I wasn't able to remind her of the flowers.