Rubber Room #1: Introductions

February 9, 2011 7:00pm show

Larissa:     Kari Swenson Riely
Alan:   John Calvin Kelly
Sinclair:     Scott Davidson
Daytona: Kristine Niven
Patti: Irene Longshore  

The actors have never seen the room before, just like anyone entering a room for the first time.  The actors have never seen each other before, just like people encountering each other for the first time.  Remember, they did not rehearse together -- this is the "reality" dimension of the experiment.

Like any audience member, I have never seen the play before.  This is the least experimental part of the experiment, but it will be short-lived as I'm writing in the nearly empty theatre in the time between the first and second performances.

I want to find out what I find out by seeing something for the second time.  What persists, what changes?  Which choices made by the actors will carry from performance to performance?  They represent five different directors like strangers coming from five different families; the next five roles will represent five different directors.   

I'll never give away any plot details.  I was extremely impressed by how the one character who finds herself alone in the room gives life to the silence and palpably discovers the room.  The audience, in on the experiment, laughed at spots they might not otherwise have when the characters meet each other for the first time (because the actors are meeting each other for the first time).  Don't ask me what I mean by this, but that makes the meeting three dimensional; otherwise it's closer to a snapshot of a meeting, a rehearsed meeting.

I'm rushing this a little bit as the second audience assembles.  The actors in Rubber Room #1 were excellent; more about them all as I see the roles played by others.

I'm not alone, at least tonight.  I see some members of the audience returning for the second show.  "You see one performance," I hear someone say, "it's like seeing a play.  You see a second one and it's 'Whoaa.'"

As the audience left after the first show, the stage hands replaced a light, moved the furniture back in place, discussed their weekend plans.  I had to charge my cell phone and began to look for an outlet.

"Did you lose something?" one of them asked.

"I need an outlet."

"You know," she said, "I think they're behind the wall."

"You mean that's not a real wall?"

They looked so pleased, having so expertly constructed it for the play.