BOTOC: Broadway! Overview
BOTOC: Broadway! Was basically the most fun a bunch of actors could possibly have without benefit of a barn. It was a complete experiment in madness and a whirlwind of excitement, all the result of the astounding hard work, dedication, commitment, and incredible creativity demonstrated by soooooo many of you. You dared to suck in a big way. And it wasn’t an easy assignment!
Each class had to:
- perform an ENTIRE Broadway musical or play (abbreviated versions were accepted),
- be off book,
- use background music or have an accompanist if you were doing a musical (no one could sing a capella),
- include everyone in the class in the performance,
- rehearse,
- not exceed 1.5 hours’ performance time,
- be faaabulous,
- be fun and moving for the audience and the actors,
- be extremely clear and NOT MESSY,
- be thoroughly costumed, propped, lit, with sound, music, make-up, hair, a semblance of a set – the whole shebang,
- create and provide me with a copy of a program with all credits listed, and
- provide me with a copy of the script as performed.
The prize? A donation made on behalf of the members of the winning class to Marine Corporal Michael Fox, who was seriously injured in Afghanistan. PLUS! A new first prize suggested by Tuesday Night Class: the winning class will get to put their play up at a theatre space in town!!!!
The problem? The assignment was no easy task as evidenced by the fact that every class managed to disqualify itself. Yup. Every class broke at least one rule. One class didn’t give me a script, another class decided it’d be a good idea to do their performance off-site. One class did a script from a movie as opposed to the Broadway play version, another class was missing members, another class didn’t even do a Broadway show. So, since y’all’re disqualified? NONE of you are. And that’s that. And if you weren’t disqualified (and I think Thursday Day might fit that description, you rock.)
Nevertheless, and as I wrote on the blog, I don’t think I can go back to life as it was before BOTOC: Broadway – when
- no one was singing in the hallways,
- beautifully costumed thespians weren’t roaming the hallways in character,
- the restrooms weren’t coated in pancake,
- the classrooms weren’t transformed into theatrical spaces,
- the kitchen wasn’t destroyed by party detritus,
- voices weren’t raised in perfect harmony behind closed classroom doors,
- crazed actors weren’t desperately running lines in every corner of every room,
- the office staff wasn’t overwhelmed by actors requiring space 24/7,
when, in short, there was no theatre at the Kahnstitute. I just don’t think I can do it. I cannot thank you all enough for that.
Stay tuned for the individual performance critiques…