Performances are well under way! As you can see from the production photos, the show is looking phenomenal - and you'll have to trust me that it's sounding and feeling just as wonderful as it looks. I truly could not have asked for a better result to my four weeks up here (or better people to share it with.) And it's only getting better and better with each performance.
So far we've had about 700 people see the show. The experience of sitting in an audience as a writer and being relatively anonymous is pretty amazing. You truly can feel the pulse of the room as the show goes on. Each audience is different - Thursday night's preview had a pretty guarded feeling, while Friday's opening was very vocal, and this afternoon's matinee was incredibly attentive and invested. At intermission you hear so many things - some unsolicited praise, some private scrutiny, some big questions - that you never get to hear when the audience is made up of mostly friends and family. It's hard to notice empty seats at intermission (although not wholly unexpected given the challenging subject matter and language.) But it's even harder not to glow when you feel the audience getting it - when you hear the knowing laughter at the beginning of "This Is It" and the gasps at the end of "Let Me" and the shock at Maddie and Brynn's confrontation. That thrill matches the intensity of all of the other wonderful milestones we've had during this process in Weston.
And that thrill wouldn't be possible without the eager, brave, and thoughtful audiences here in Weston. I'm so thrilled that the Playhouse staff decided to put a talkback after every performance. We've been lucky enough to participate in all of them so far, and each has included a wonderful guest. Ralph Remington, the Director of Theater and Musical Theater with the National Endowment for the Arts (which awarded Weston with a $60K grant for this production), was the opening night guest and discussed where Pregnancy Pact fits into the world of contemporary theater. After the Saturday matinee Julia and my professors from the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Program, Sarah Schlesinger and Mel Marvin, were on hand to talk about the development process and what kind of life a new musical can have in store (and how wonderful it is that Weston is devoting itself to new work.) Saturday night's guest was playwright Dana Yeaton, who is on the faculty at Middlebury. This afternoon we were lucky enough to have five of Weston Playhouse's student ambassadors - area high school students who develop a relationship with the Playhouse over the course of the season - and a local high school guidance counselor on hand to discuss the show's real-life implications.
The talkbacks themselves have been rich with the personal stories and honest reactions of audience members - from an obstetrics nurse turned midwife to social workers and mental health experts and teachers and, of course, parents. Everyone agrees that the subject of the show is not the most comfortable to watch or think about (and we certainly knew that as we wrote it - it's one of the things that attracted us to it.) But we've had healthy groups of 30-40 people staying for the talkbacks who really want to discuss the issues the show raises. Apart from compliments and questions about the writing process, the talkbacks have been incredibly personal. The parents in the audience have wondered what they can do to be better parents. The community members in the audience have wondered how they can continue to discuss what's raised in the show. People have shared their own hardships and experiences and teen parents and parents of teen parents. And while people might wish that we could tie the story up a little more tidily in the end, so many have recognized that this is a story that both sings and doesn't end easily or definitively. They've recognized that this isn't a show that's just about teen pregnancy - this is about the adolescent feelings of loneliness and the need for love, family and identity. Yes, our story follows girls who take those feelings and translate them into extreme actions, but having an audience that allows themselves to see past the salaciousness and into the emotions of these characters has let us feel like we're doing something right.
And just when we hit the heights - it's time to leave. I've got to head back to my day job this week, though I'm counting the hours until I can come back for the closing performance on Saturday, September 8 at 7:30pm. And I've asked the cast to send me reports for the blog all week - especially after Friday morning's student matinee performance.
You've got 5 more chances to see the show. It's really good, but I know I'm biased. Come see for yourself!
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