T(r)oy's Marbles
a new theater group
I'm a little nervous and excited at the same time right now. Tonight at 8.30 I'm having a handful of people over to our place to host the first meeting of a new theater group I'm trying to start. I've actually had the idea to do this for quite a while now, but never had the guts to go ahead with it. Initially, the idea struck me as I thought about joining a theater group that already exists here called The Madrid Players. But, every time I decided to check them out and see what they were up to, nothing ever appealed to me. For one, as a North American living in Madrid, I found their selection of plays a bit alienating, since the Madrid Players is mostly composed of Brits performing British works of theater. Fair enough, but I just found the prospect of auditioning and performing in that context a bit daunting, personally. So, I decided to step out on a limb and try to form my own theater group that would provide opportunities for folks to read/work at/perform some pieces from the North American scene. I've dubbed it the North American Theater Group so as to make it clear from the outset what unique niche this group will occupy for internationals living in Madrid. Seriously, as I've looked around, there isn't really anything going on like this that caters to that particular group of plays/actors.
Anyway, to get the group going, I decided to put a free classified ad in two international print publications in Madrid. In addition to that, I made small posters (see the pic at the top) to put up in various places where ex-pats tend to pass by or hang out. And, of course, I've just tried advertising by "word of mouth", asking friends to talk to their friends, to see if anyone is interested.
In many ways, putting the ads out there involved a "step of faith", since I didn't know if anyone would even respond to the ad, and, if so, what kind of people would respond. But, I did it anyway just to see what would happen. Plus, it was all free, so...what do I have to lose, eh?
As I said, tonight is the first night, and I've prepared to read a variety of scripts to pique interest and get to know the group a bit. One of the cool things about the group is that it is made up of a couple people from church and a handful of people I don't even know. So far, two Spanish women expressed interest and it looks like four students from St. Louis University are coming too.
Tonight, I'm hoping we'll be able to read through some bits of a play called "Eleemosynary" by Lee Blessing and, perhaps, a couple of plays by Horton Foote ("A Nightingale" and "Spring Dance"). In the future, I may also have a couple of the girls read a play called "Collected Stories", which is about a student of writing and her famous mentor.
We'll see how it goes. Either way, it could be a hoot, and I'm looking forward to exercising my theatrical muscles again on something with more meat on it than Hans and Franz! If you think of it, say a prayer for me!
journal | Comments (0) | September 10, 2007