Entrances and Exits

I was fascinated when I heard of a diptych* of plays written by Alan Ayckbourn, entitled "House" and "Garden." The two plays are designed to run simultaneously, on adjacent stages. After exiting a scene in House, actors have only a few moments before their entrance into a scene in Garden. (If nothing else, it's a great marketing ploy - intrigued audience members will need to shell out money for two tickets to see both shows and learn what happened when the character left one play and joined the other!)

The idea really captures the imagination. (Sadly, most reviews of the work can be summarized as "good idea, weakly written"...) As an actor, it sounds like a tremendous amount of work: scurrying from one set to the other, remembering lines, blocking and a set for two different shows. Trying to keep everything straight must be a daunting challenge.

Then it occurred to me that, in fact, constant exits, entrances, and set changes are actually a rather true to life sort of experience... a very pronounced one for some of us at the moment. Costume and even role changes aren't unheard of, even when the same character is maintained in real life.

Performances of a show are often referred to as the "run." "Run" is also an accurate description of my current schedule. Forget House and Garden -- I am currently appearing in House, One Play, Another Play, Office, Additional Work, Volunteer Gigs, Classes, and a small, under-funded little improv show called Social Life. (Unfortunately, that leaves time for few performances in Blogging, so the script has been cut significantly this week.)

Take that, Alan Ayckbourn - and run with it!


* I am not ashamed to admit that I had to look up the word diptych. The basic meaning is "two things hinged together." You can get lengthier definitions at dictionary.com's entry, or Wikipedia's entry, or in your thesaurus of choice.