Second Preview

Again, sitting in the dressing room for 12th Night, more than halfway through our second preview performance. The crowd this time around is not as vocal as the crowd last night, and our director popped her head (literally, just her head) into the dressing room at intermission and said that we needed volume and clarity. Well, that explained why we were getting very few laughs. They couldn't hear us and they couldn't understand us. Infernally logical...

Curio Theatre performs in a very unique space - the sanctuary of an old church. As a result, the high domed ceiling plays havoc with any sort of "big sound" that you want to give as a result of stage training. The bigger your voice, the more impossible it is to hear anything due to the echoes. But you also need to support yourself enough to be understood, as it is possible to talk too quietly. We got some feedback on the volume issue about a week and a half ago, and we haven't heard of any problems since, so I thought I was doing pretty well. I actually felt really on-point tonight in terms of clarity and focus. This time through is a valuable experience; I have some friends in the audience tonight, and I am very curious to know what they think of tonight's show.