The Only Thing to Fear is Fear Itself...

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With the Halloween at Nostell performance being a major feature of the last 7 days, this week has been dominated by fear and all things fear related…and as it turns out fear is a much more complicated issue than I first thought…Who would have thought, for example, in a group of actors volunteering to take part in a Halloween performance I’d have so many that are genuinely scared of the dark and all the imaginary things that might lurk in it…

In a production like this you find yourself applying a psychological view point as much as a creative one as a lot of your time is spent trying to predict how audiences will react to what you present them with…the answer to this, is of course, you never can tell…it’s dependant on so many things…so all you can do is make the performance you believe is the right one, the one that upholds your artistic values and suits the identity of the venue and the company…in this case a job well done I feel…

It’s hard to do a show where you aren’t guaranteed anything…where there is nothing certain and where these uncertainties include the temperature, the light, the weather, the audience numbers, the slippiness of the ground, the timings of different element…but all of those variables are nothing compared to the reaction of the audience…and just to make that challenge one step harder some of the cast have to be ridiculously up close to the audience…So on the down side I had actors prodded and intimidated and a few audience members who were badly behaved when they should have known better.  There’s a danger that you start to blame the performance or performers for those reactions when actually on this occasion it’s so much more to do with the spirit in which the audience receive the performances.  How willing they are to engage in what’s going on, a factor that is in turn affected by a myriad of other factors…you see where I’m going with this…it’s enough to entirely mess with your head.  How nice that as I was reflecting on all of this that Mr Thomas McNulty shared a link to an article in the Guardian which said exactly that…There is also a danger that you focus on the minority of audience that didn’t engage in the way you hoped they would in rehearsals…because as is often the case the positivity in response this week has far outweighed any inappropriate reaction…

One of the things that is brilliant in anything like this is watching people rise to the occasion making huge steps forward in their development as performers and indeed as people.  Whether it’s forming effective partnerships with people they have never worked with before or overcoming personal fears and phobias, or finding creative ways to solve problems or continually adding to the performance to make it better and better, any sort of development of this nature is a joy to behold.  I have observed so much in the way of individuals being prepared to get past their fears and uncertainties this week and in so doing they have created a unique performance event…so well done everyone that’s had a hand in it…you’re not bad as casts go…

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