Warriors for Change!

The past week, we've welcomed guest audiences to watch our dress rehearsal pre-previews, including educators from the Portland area middle schools, high schools and colleges, students from University of Portland and Mt. Hood Community College, and friends from Veterans for Peace. It's always scary to put a show up in front of an audience but this show is particularly unnerving because we're still in the process of creating it. The actors and stage manager have received new pages, notes, and a sheet or two of line changes daily! Kudos to the whole team for responding superbly, embracing the changes (which they often create) to create a stronger show every day.

One reason we welcome early audiences is so that we can get some feedback on our work while we're still in rehearsal. For example, one danger that goes along with making a show about revolution especially during a year of intense activity is that our story might be too didactic or preachy. Peppered with references to global and local events, including own Occupy Portland, Occupy Wall Street, and Occupy the World movements, we run the risk of sounding like a one very long slogan!

In our post-play conversations with our audiences over the past few runs, the word is good! They enjoy the references to real-world events and the integration of the present into a story from the past. Looks like all the singing, dancing, altar building and bilingual encounters with dead ancestors provides plenty of balance!

Opening night is this Friday, which means we have two more days of polishing our show before its big launch. Thank heavens our team's approach to change is: Bring it!