The actors all speak at once. Plays are shorter that way. The audience is pleased, because they never liked the plays this troupe produced, anyway. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“The Playwrong” / Memorable Fancies #1558
13 June, 2016 by Leave a Comment
She claimed to be a serious playwrong, a dramatwist, an intermissionary and a hacktress too, though seldom scene; but she was just a drama queen. [Book ad: The year’s hottest new TV series is a reenactment of a famous murder trial ... but was there more involved than murder? A plot to take over the U.S. government? Read Try Try Again.] … [Read more...]
“The Universe Show” / Memorable Fancies #592
23 May, 2016 by Leave a Comment
This is the Universe Show – how many seasons will we last? How are the ratings trending? What’s the buzz? Will we be renewed? Will the climax be different this season? (You know how the Producer loves to tinker with the plot!) <<try Random Post ... what will you find?>> … [Read more...]
“Explaining My Failures” / Memorable Fancies #1413
20 December, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“He had two systems of interpretation to explain his failure.” – Susan Sontag (quoting Sartre)] The first system explained his failure. The second system explained flaws in the first system, proving that his life had been successful after all. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: Four Christian Plays, available for church or other non-profit production without fee. … [Read more...]
“The e-Theatre” / Memorable Fancies #1038
30 November, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The e-theatre is open to all the world’s social media. We visit it often to see what marvels will assault us next, our eyes and minds. Sometimes the fare is creative and unexpected. That’s what we wait for, hope for, although most of the theater’s offerings are incomprehensible, crude, or grotesquely obvious. We wait to see who will next hijack the e-theatre’s data link, pour hatred onto our screen, or plead for amity among all nations, or advocate cleansing the world of harmful … [Read more...]
“Audience Response” / Memorable Fancies #809
24 August, 2014 by 2 Comments
[“Theatre’s functions of surveillance...” – Alain Badiou] The audience is scanned to see who is laughing when, when a lip wrinkles, when a fleeting look of disgust or annoyance or boredom crosses a face. These observations are fed into the next evening’s production, and the next. Eventually, perfection is reached and only a vapid pleasure survives. <END> THE SUNDAY PITCH If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, … [Read more...]
“Aside” / Memorable Fancies #748
20 June, 2014 by 1 Comment
In the theater, the playgoers hear the players speak with each other, sometimes also listen to their thoughts as they speak them aside, pretending that the other actors do not hear. Back home, a couple who had enjoyed the play speak with each other. Each imagines speaking aside, addressing their own imaginary audience. Each imagines that the other is listening. <END> THE FRIDAY PITCH If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment … [Read more...]
“Act Two” / Memorable Fancies #514
9 November, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At 7:30 the play begins. Actors come on stage and say their lines. A plot emerges, subplots. The dialog is lively and portentous, but it gradually becomes apparent that the great thing, the event that moves the plot, is never mentioned, only inferred by gaps in dialog, sidelong looks, alarm and despair. By the middle of Act II it becomes obvious that the plot actually concerns those in the audience; all and each of them. They have been hand-picked, call that self-selected if one … [Read more...]
“A Problem with Outdoor Matinees and 84-Word Sentences” / Memorable Fancies #470
25 September, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As any Athenian, I am partial to the theatre, especially to those final scenes where a god saves the day and resolves all those knotty plot problems. Any of the multitude of gods may appear, but for only one do we post a warning in advance of the show: Phoebus Apollo. If we were to look directly at him we would be blinded. At least, some people think so. That is why in our dramas the custom is to look away and hear only his voice. Ah, but this is surely just some old superstition from long … [Read more...]
“The Re-Enactment” / A Memorable Fancy #418
2 August, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[“...re-enactments. With actors recreating the postures, sounds, and ensuing mayhem ...” – Pil & Galia Kollectiv] The producer wishes to re-enact the famous play where there was a riot, with many injured and a few dead. “How realistic do you want this to be?” the director asks. “If we advertise it as a re-enactment, then ticket-holders will know that some of them, at least, may die. The original production wasn’t that way, of course; the catastrophe was a complete surprise. … [Read more...]
“Tragedy” / A Memorable Fancy #379
21 June, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It is an ancient time, the first time actors pretend that there is no audience. This is new. Always before, in all those past centuries, the actors declaimed toward the audience, addressed us. This new way of acting is both revolutionary and insulting. Audiences boo at it. After all, those actors are ignoring us, are saying their best lines to each other, not to us. We paid admission, so we should be acknowledged, spoken to. We are the ones, after all, who are expected to applaud. But the … [Read more...]
“The Tip” / A Memorable Fancy #377
19 June, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[Scene in a diner in the manner of David Mamet. Characters are: A, an unsuccessful criminal; B, a successful criminal; and Waiter.] (A enters and sits down across a table from B) A: Fries any good here? B: Thought about our deal? A: Yeah, or I wouldn’t be here – right? Waiter: Who had the chili? B: Maybe for the chili? A: Cut the crap. “Inside tip,” you said. B: Inside tip. Six figures. At least. A: Quite a deal. Waiter: Ketchup you … [Read more...]
“The Playgoer’s Dream” / A Memorable Fancy #059
12 March, 2013 by Leave a Comment
There is a prop or two on stage: perhaps a stool turned backward. Mist rises from under-stage machines. Experts have assured the theatre manager that no toxic chemicals are involved, or at least that none will, under normal circumstances, reach the audience. Nonetheless, physicians are in attendance. At last the house is full. The audience shifts uneasily in its seats. Coughs ring out from those who suppose, vainly, that by coughing at this permitted time no coughs will issue from them … [Read more...]
“The Actor Dreams – II / A Memorable Fancy #064
7 March, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The actor dreams: All the others on stage know what to say, how to move. Only the others know what to say, how to move. Perhaps he has rehearsed the wrong play. Perhaps he has come onstage at the wrong cue, or through the wrong door. Perhaps he has rehearsed a character meant for someone else. Perhaps it is not only actors who have fears such as these. … [Read more...]
“No One on Stage” / A Memorable Fancy #053
7 February, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In the great theatre of the capital there is no one on stage. Lights up, then dim. Three down-spots converge as if in conspiracy, then scatter as a fourth creeps in from stage left, tries to overhear. Voices are heard, soft then loud. There are heart-rending cries, laments and swearing, inexorable dissonances and insupportable music, lustful enumeration of body-parts shouted as if in a noisy bar. “What in hell is this?” one asks. Others merely nod. “Yes, yes.” [– after Piero … [Read more...]
A Memorable Fancy #47b: Unseeing a Play
1 February, 2013 by Leave a Comment
They attend the famous theatre and see the play. It begins. It ends. Months later, they still cannot get the play out of their heads – like a song but longer, more intense. Each audience member feels – knows – that the play was about him, his flaws, the miserable cheat he’s been, the sins he thought no one knew.... Finally, they return to the theatre. They demand to unsee the play, to take their fear and pity back. They are permitted this indulgence. Then they look at each other, … [Read more...]
“Unseeing a Play” / A Memorable Fancy #047
23 January, 2012 by Leave a Comment
They attend the famous theatre and see the play. It begins. It ends. Months later, they still cannot get the play out of their heads – like a song but longer, more intense. Each audience member feels – knows – that the play was about him, his flaws, the miserable cheat he’s been, the sins he thought no one knew.... Finally, they return to the theatre. They demand to unsee the play, to take their fear and pity back. They are permitted this indulgence. Then they look at each other, wondering … [Read more...]
Memorable Fancies 