More positive feedback from people that have seen the show...this time some very (in my mind) IMPRESSIVE names:
Yolanda Fleischer: "Oh lord there's HOPE! I feel like the mantle is being passed down to you guys...you young people that we've taught. As we're stepping down, you're stepping up. I feel so good about where theatre is going...where the young people are taking it. This show was great...I cried, I laughed."
Henrietta Hermelin (From the ORIGINAL Hilberry class...she was in Julius Caesar and she was Juliet in R & J): "About 40 minutes into the show, I started crying. You guys touched on something....and I don't know why and I don't know where it was from...but I was crying."
JT: "Really REALLY excellent work. I thought you guys did a great job. The Russian sense of JOY was there. You've got my email, send me an email and let's find a time to get lunch to talk about it. Just really great great work."
Alan Ball: "The chalk...awh! The way you guys used it...and then to mo it up...and then to have it be the "ice" in the final scene. I LOVE that kind of stuff!"
My mom: "I'm just so proud of you, Jo. It was just really really great. I didn't want to blink because I didn't want to miss a second. I was just engaged the entire time. It really left an impact...I'm still thinking about it this morning1"
My dad: "I'm so proud of you, son. It is really a testament to you guys for putting this up. The show is really sticking with me...even this morning. That's something that live theatre really does for you...it engages you and gives off this energy unlike tv or movies. I really really liked it. And kudos on the chalk. I remember you talking about it but not really understanding it until I saw it....great job. I think you have a real talent for directing."
We also had about five other comments about how people LOVED the chalk and the writing the titles of scenes on the columns and especially the mopping of the floor....THEN how it turned out to be ice. I hate to use the word VALIDATED, but it seems fitting. And that's not a big pat on the back for me...it's just nice to hear over and over how something that I was nervous "putting on" the show turned out to be so...right. People really liked it.
All of these comments mean so much to me....and I mean ALL. My parents mean a TON because they've always supported me and have been so encouraging. Alan's because we went to Russia together and saw the same shows and were in the same classes all three years at the Hilberry. JT's because, well, JT LOVED it...and he's not the type to really give out the praise, in my experience. He's not being mean, he's just a critical guy. And the fact that he's up for getting lunch to discuss it...wow! Henrietta and Yolanda's because they are former HILBERRIANS and because of the whole "passing the mantle on to us" comment. It was a general "us"...so I don't want it to seem like it was me....but WE were included in that. We talked also about how you have to learn from your elders and teachers and then move BEYOND that....make theatre YOURS and propel it forward...don't just try to recreate how your teachers taught. This was important to hear because it's something I've always believed. It's not an insubordination thing or not respecting how you were taught...it's about moving theatre FORWARD, not staying in neutral. This idea is a big part of my overall aesthetic.
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