[rocky] Professionalism killed the Rocky star

[jrising]

There was a fantastic discussion at the Rocky party about the state of the cast. The vocal consensus was this:

There's an undercurrent of over-professionalism at the show. In small but definite ways, the drive for professionalism stifles some of the fun of the show and makes working at it a chore. Because the show isn't as much fun, it isn't as good, and the audience has noticed. Both directors, theater 3, and Acid's absence were blamed for these problems.

It's so tough to disentangle real harmful effects from nostalgia. So, tell me: do you agree? Have we gained the world and lost our soul (or raised the bar and broken our backs)? The drive for screen accuracy can push us to do better, but if it drives out jokes and connecting with the audience-- if our performance just duplicates the film-- do we want it? The cast members used to work up the audience waiting outside before the show. Does anyone do that now? We have such a great group, and we can fix these problems, but maybe not without big changes.

Feel free to post anonymously or email me separately.

Comments

[mals13.livejournal.com]

I can say that since I don't get to perform the preshow timewarp that often, it kills me to not know what to expect when it comes down to showtime. I feel awkward not really knowing the rhythm of the song or if the chorus beats have changed, etc. And that's from the stage point of view.
Looking at it from the audience pov, I feel like they all just kind of look at each other, wondering what's going on, sit back down and watch us make fools of ourselves. They don't do callbacks and they barely participate. I don't know if you saw my earlier post, but it really does hurt the morale of the crowd, both on stage and off.
Honestly, I like the idea of variety, but I feel like we should be more selective of which songs we choose to play...one night it's the Beach Boys (most awkward song ever) and another night it's the Roxy version. I think the song should always be an upbeat version that we can keep the audience involved in.
Also, we should have ample warning the week before the new song is played, maybe send a message and a copy of the song to the list, so people who want to be "professional" can actually rehearse the new song and look like they know what they're doing the night they perform. We are a cast full of people who need constant reminders, so just assuming that they should know we have a new song coming up and to go and check the castonly site is maybe a little too much to expect all the time.