Monday

I saw two odd things coming back from New Bern this weekend.

1. A (I suspect) dead bear off the side of the road
2. A guy riding his motorcycle while laying on his stomach - face down, just zipping down the highway, feet over the back of the bike like they were hanging over the end of the bed.

And it wasn't one of those crotch rocket ones either, where  it looks like they are laying down, it was a regular bike where the rider is upright.

I saw Sweeny Todd for the first time, it was a community theater production and like all productions ever staged it needed two more weeks of rehearsal. But for real. Missed cues, bad sound, lighting instruments that weren't focused on the stage  or the actors or stage pieces - the house does not need to be lit! Why are you lighting the audience?! body mic issues, actors who couldn't ennociate or project even with mics, lack of explantation of where the characters were several times, there was one  bit of business at a mental hospital what was handled in a very interesting way but the AUDIENCE DIDN'T KNOW WHERE THEY WERE, do not confuse the audience it takes them out of the story! we thought maybe we were going to have a moment of Indian Puppetry , it hadn't been explained to us that we were at the mental hospital. We had to figure it out for ourselves. Bad director.

There was limited set pieces, they had a clever set designer but apparently that person left town early in the process. Limited does not mean bare, set dressing is key, if there are trees mentioned, paint some card board up and make some trees! slap some christmas trees up, do something to differentiate this place from the last place. It is not hard to make the same place look different.

Also, there was no crew, the actors did all the set changes. Somewhere, Equity had a cramp.

I did enjoy the show though,  I liked the two leads and it was enjoyable. Even with its gross over use of a smoke machine.