Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Thoughts on Autopilot

So I saw Autopilot yesterday.  :)

I thought there were a lot of really cool concepts incorperated into the performance:

-The cast started in seats among the audience members, and did their opening lines from there.  I was actually sitting next to one of the girls, and she turned and told me her story like we'd been best friends since third grade.  I really enjoyed it, and it pulled me from the very first beat.
-There was also a lot of unison dialogue (a la Charles Mee) which, in my opinion always makes the text being spoken a little more universal... all of these people believe this line, and say it, AND all at the same time, which kind of makes it unifying- earth shattering.  Maybe that's just me.
-All of the relationships represented in the piece revolved around one guy, who made quick changes to become each other character's significant other.  I'm a big fan of having one actor play multiple parts, and thought that Bryan did a really good job differentiating the characteristics of each of the guys he was playing.  So yeah, it was the same guy every time... but within each given situation I felt like he was different every time and was completely enthralled in that scenario with those characters.  Applause.

While I really did completely adore these aspects, I felt like a lot of the writing was either predictable or really unrealistic.  Two actresses in particular (Jenna and Chelsea) did a really good job of pumping that cliche text full of emotion.  Their monologues were spectacular.  Seriously, I had to check myself, because I felt like my face was slowly melting to match the anger in theirs, and I was becoming really, truly enraged for these girls.  

Overall, I enjoyed it.
(P.S. I heard that Footprints show opened last night and was amazing....)

More later.  Hope everyone is having a great festival week!

1 comment:

  1. If this were Facebook, I would "Like" your post. Especially after making that Footprints comment. :)

    ReplyDelete