Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.
This is one of my favorite scenes from Shakespeare in Love. Mostly because over and over again it proves true. This summer has taught me an immense amount about the actual mechanisms of getting a play produced. And that’s within a festival setting. I’m sure if you’re truly starting from scratch, the obstacles seem even more insurmountable.
Watching Gabrielle work and create the characters that she plays throughout Bongani was a mesmerizing experience. I’ve never watched an actor create such full, complex, characters through improv. She paired the character improv sessions with actual writing sessions to nail down the story and work out the details of the plot.
What was so fascinating about seeing the play in the development stage, was that there are so many possibilities for how the story could unfold. There was so much that was explored and then cut from the final product. We saw about at least 10 different versions of Bongani’s story – there were so many different ways his relationship with Corrine could succeed and fail. How on earth could you pick? How do you decide which betrayal hurts the most? Which moments of sexual tension to include? Each one pulls at your heart in a different way. You get enormously attached to the characters and want to do justice to their story.
While all of this wonderful creativity was happening there was also the flurry of activity that came with the actual production side. There were training sessions with the Fringe, venue day, one too-short tech session for the whole run, email glitches, ticket sales, last minute prop acquisitions, getting programs in a hurry and I could keep going but I won’t.
With the stress of the last minute things and the scurry to fix things (including the light board for opening night), the anxiety was building, it seemed certain that something was about to happen to derail the show. How on earth would this come together?
And then it did. When disaster seemed ready to strike, when it seemed like none of the details would fall into place in time, they did. I'm still not sure how we managed to accomplish everything in time. The show came together. Gabrielle gave amazing performances. When the audience came out of the theatre, lamenting the fact that they had to leave Bongani’s world, and raving about the journey they just went on, all of the worries from before seemed trivial. Because suddenly they were.
