Chaos Attraction
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The Comedy of Errors (Online Version) 2020-11-20, 9:52 p.m. |
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I have nothing to say about work today, but I watched several things. I watched a "Chancellor's Colloquium" in which the writers of Avengers: Endgame had a chat with the chancellor of my alma mater, as they went here. Things I wrote down: * "Everyone seemed to like the America's Ass line, I thought it was fine...." Watching The Mandalorian, The Siege: Then I watched the Supernatural finale, which generally disappointed me. Dean dies 25 minutes through in a chump death, Sam has a kid and grows old and dies, heaven is fixed so you can hang out with your loved ones again. Sigh. I wanted them to go out at the same time, dammit, and normal life is BORING. That's why we watch television in the first place. Scott's mom sent out the mailing list: they are not changing anything due to going back to purple tier. Sigh. Tonight I watched "The Comedy of Errors." This was a production that I debated auditioning for for months, but figured I probably wouldn't be able to fit all of their requirements (brand new computer and a large amount of space in your house for green screen....I got the new computer, but the space was a problem). I'm rather sorry I didn't because this was an amazing production. I wish I hadn't seen one of the last ones so I could have emailed everyone to go see it. They had several activities for the audience to do at home: * They handed out "Comedy of Errors Bingo." From the email: "In keeping with the title of the show, we have created a bingo card of “Errors” that might be encountered during the performance. Please play along as you watch the show." * They asked people to send in a selfie and they would insert you into the show, which they did totally do with me, even though I barely realized it was me at the end of the shot, darn it. * They had a drinking game "word of the day" that was a different word every night ("fault" was tonight). The actors actually would stop doing the scene and go get a drink. One actor admitted his was cranberry juice. Another drank out of a very tiny tea cup. One girl was all "I've been waiting for this LITERALLY ALL NIGHT." They were playing the "I Hate Shakespeare" song at the opening, and all the actors came out and primped in front of the camera. There is a Shakespeare puppet that comes out and talks periodically. "We got the page on the Internets," it says. "You'd best get a piddle in now 'cause we ain't stopping for you." They had all kinds of Monty Python-esque art going on in this show, animation, what have you, in pretty colors and it was DELIGHTFUL. The different sets of twins--well, the visiting twins were in black and white compared to the locals in color. Only the opening was in traditional Zoom box format. At one point the top row held up clouds and the bottom row held up waves, and then they had a sinking ship scene, Python-style. They obviously used OBS, from the waist up, which looks beautiful and you can see faces and everything. They took an audience poll on what Antipholos should beat Dromio with--rubber chicken or fish? Fish it is! They covered it up with comic book BAM and POW drawings. They later did a poll as to what show to do next. Dromio points at his crotch while talking about "the great wart on my... left arm...." To put a chain on an actor, one of them disappeared/dropped down while the other stood in front of him, then the first one pops back up with the chain. They mostly had few issues with sound or visuals (a bit enough to mark on the bingo, mind you), but at one point they did pause because Antipholos's mike was cutting in and out. "Thank you, o Voice of God," he said. They used fuzzy handcuffs on Antipholous. At a few points there's an animated painting of him and at one point the painting has handcuffs too! There was a sword fight with rubber chickens. They managed to have both pairs of twins on each side of the stage, with the rest of the cast in the middle. While I am so-so on the plot of the play--yes, there was a bingo square for not knowing what was going on--this was a masterful online/OBS production. Really quality. I think this is even better than King Lear. It was true visual art. Amazing. |
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