About Last Night


"It's a really hard time for applause junkies right now." - A fellow troupe member

Copyright
Chronically Fabulous, January 25th, 2020
Oh. My. Goddess. It felt so damn good having an actual audience to play off of. Even if I was under a bunch of personal protective equipment and keeping 6 feet apart. Like you do.

Wait, let me give a little more content. It was a solo show for the improv troupe, being the entertainment for the client's 40th birthday party. We create an immersive murder mystery dinner theater in public venues and for private clients.

Sure, there's a script that contains the skeleton of the mystery and the framework of the clues, prop lists, and a collection of suspects to create a reproducible mystery framework. Our improv is built around this script and because the show is immersive, the audience is an integral part of the productions. It should go without saying, the audience doesn't have a copy of the script. That makes every show unique and magical. Everything is a gift, including the curve balls that come out of nowhere.

Last night was no exception. They were such a great audience, make no mistake about that. The client, who received the Killer Birthday award, her boss who took home the Best Actor award, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. My favorite team out of the bunch--and it was really hard to pick a favorite--had to be the team named Threesome. Their energy was fantastic, they were so into it. Even if they didn't solve the mystery and had the most wrong answer of the evening, they owned it celebrating that wrong answer in all its glory.

It wouldn't be live theater without some technical glitch. In this case, that glitch was the face shield kept running up against my lavalier microphone. That made the mic practically useless for the evening. Fortunately, I'm a mouthy broad and I can project with the best of them.

This is was the first show I've done since early March, right before I had my surgery and it was the first time I've done this particular show since last December. I even mixed up a murderer from a different show with this one during one of my run-throughs. Whoops! It was a good thing I didn't do that during the live show. "I'm sorry," I can hear a confused hypothetical audience member say, "but who is REDACTED?" Yeah, that's a different show.

 

It was good to be back.


The Performer and the Corona Virus


Miss Violet DeVille on Doomsday. Copyright 2020, Miss Violet DeVille
Me and my favorite gas mask. It's handy given that the west coast on fire at the moment.
The last time I was on a stage that wasn't in my home was in February. Then I had surgery and COVID-19 lockdown went into effect the very next day. Every performance since then has been in my home studio. I've been making slow, incremental upgrades to it for live-streamed shows, recording acts for video, and so on. It's been an eye-opening experience, to say the least. I miss the feedback that only the stage and the audience can give. Tonight, I get to see an audience once more.

Tonight I have my first performance with the improv troupe before a live audience. I would be foolish if I wasn't nervous, and I was very nervous about this in the leadup to the client call for the show.

It turns out that the audience for this birthday show all work in the same medical center. That's a huge relief as there is not a COVID denyer in the bunch. This party had been planned since before the outbreak and they have rolled with the punches. For example, they shifted from a buffet meal to a 4 course meal because of COVID and I suspect that hand sanitizer will be abundant this evening. While it may be odd to perform under PPE, I am not complaining about it. Hopefully, the new lavalierr mic I bought for my wireless pack will does the trick tonight.

I cannot wait to get back on the proverbial stage. I mean, it'll be a careful and thoughtful approach but I am grateful none the less.


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