Opening weekend of Bad Dates was exciting, especially playing to 4 sold out performances. It was great to have an audience and a set! Up until our tech rehearsals last week, I had been rehearsing in the Charleston Stage rehearsal studio in Mt. Pleasant where I only had a few pieces of furniture, taped marks on the floor to indicate where doors and walls were and where all those piles of shoes would be when we moved into the American Theater. Once we moved to the American, tech rehearsal was a fun and challenging experience. I now had doors to work with, mirrors, more piles of shoes, and had to adjust my volume and projection since I was in a bigger space. We rehearsed every night up until our Pay-what-you-will /Preview night, and you can imagine the crew, my director Megan Link and myself were pretty exhausted. Since I’m the only actor in the play I’m onstage by myself for over 90 minutes for each runthru.
But those rehearsals aren’t just for me, the lighting and sound technicians and my dressers worked very hard right up until the last minute to get everything just right. Thanks to Katherine, CJ, Kathryn, and Heather for all your help! PWYW/Preview night was my first audience and what a great one! How can I describe how much the audience affects an actor’s performance on stage? Their excitement and energy really help to feed an actor’s own energy on stage. It was the audience’s laughter and reactions which feed my energy and my character’s progression throughout the play. My character, Haley, talks to the audience throughout the show, so if I feel like she is getting support from the audience, this makes the show for me a very fun and exciting ride. I was so blessed to have such great audiences this first weekend! Director’s Circle was such a great night to perform for our Theatre Society members. Their support and feedback were much appreciated! Audience enthusiasm grew through opening night and the double Saturday performances and knowing that they were enjoying themselves, helped reassure me that the story of Haley Walker and her bad dates was connecting. I mean who hasn’t had a bad date every now and then? I can’t wait to get back onstage to see what’s in store for Haley this weekend.
Beth Curley, star of Bad Dates