New Poll - Half baked
Wed, 9 July 2003, 02:47 amcrgwllms7 posts in thread
New Poll - Half baked
Wed, 9 July 2003, 02:47 amNew poll, prompted by a recent controversial one-man show where the actor didn't really know his lines, almost requiring more prompts than not. Also, thinking back to a show last year that copped a lot of flac for delaying the opening and recasting the lead players rather than presenting an unready show.
If your production is not quite ready by opening night, should it still go ahead, regardless?
The Poll-tergeist.
[%sig%]
If your production is not quite ready by opening night, should it still go ahead, regardless?
The Poll-tergeist.
[%sig%]
Re: Par-boiled
Wed, 9 July 2003, 03:54 pmStuart wrote:
>
> At the risk of being labelled negative, can i suggest that
> the current poll is, of itself, half baked.
Quite possibly. You're entitled to rip it to shreds. But please read to the end...
> If a play is at such a poor stage of preparation that it
> needs to be pulled on opening night, it should have been
> noticed by someone at least three weeks prior! I, for one,
> would hate to stand at the box office and tell our audiences
> that they have come out on a wet night for nothing!!
>
Okay...so if you actually can see three weeks in advance that your production is not going to be ready for opening night, do you go ahead anyway, or do you delay the opening? I imagine the time frame for rescheduling wouldn't be left until the actual night, but similarly you're not likely to realise the show will be under par until the final production week.
Overwhelming response so far seems to be that 'the show goes on, regardless'.
Yet in practise, I believe I see a lot of opening nights that I would have enjoyed a lot better had they given themselves more time to fix problems, and opened a bit later.
> Besides that, I cannot conceive that a company would allow
> such a situation to develop, and therefore, to me, the poll
> makes no sense
Not only HAVE companies allowed such a situation to develop, but one professional company I probably don't need to name has done it SEVERAL times....so yes, perhaps it doesn't make sense, but no, it IS conceivable.
Thanks for contributing to the debate.
The Poll-tergeist.
[%sig%]
>
> At the risk of being labelled negative, can i suggest that
> the current poll is, of itself, half baked.
Quite possibly. You're entitled to rip it to shreds. But please read to the end...
> If a play is at such a poor stage of preparation that it
> needs to be pulled on opening night, it should have been
> noticed by someone at least three weeks prior! I, for one,
> would hate to stand at the box office and tell our audiences
> that they have come out on a wet night for nothing!!
>
Okay...so if you actually can see three weeks in advance that your production is not going to be ready for opening night, do you go ahead anyway, or do you delay the opening? I imagine the time frame for rescheduling wouldn't be left until the actual night, but similarly you're not likely to realise the show will be under par until the final production week.
Overwhelming response so far seems to be that 'the show goes on, regardless'.
Yet in practise, I believe I see a lot of opening nights that I would have enjoyed a lot better had they given themselves more time to fix problems, and opened a bit later.
> Besides that, I cannot conceive that a company would allow
> such a situation to develop, and therefore, to me, the poll
> makes no sense
Not only HAVE companies allowed such a situation to develop, but one professional company I probably don't need to name has done it SEVERAL times....so yes, perhaps it doesn't make sense, but no, it IS conceivable.
Thanks for contributing to the debate.
The Poll-tergeist.
[%sig%]