Getting It Together

Angela and I were reflecting on the process of putting our current production together after last night's excellent closed-door full run (for which we got a nice little audience.) We were both gratified to note how essentially smooth the process had been with everything seeming to slot into place at exactly the points expected. But we were both keenly aware of just how ambitious we'd been with regard to this show. I certainly had harboured one or two nervous doubts in the inception as to whether we'd be able to pull it off given the scale on which were going to be working.

The secret of our success is simple, in retrospect. The students involved have proved so amazingly mature in terms of their grasp of the processes involved, as well as talented in their various ways, that it's felt like working with professionals. Of course, we've had equally committed groups before, so this is nothing new, but it's the scale on which this has operated that has been remarkable.

In my comments the other day about the possibility of change in adults I wasn't really thinking of the changes we see in youngsters in terms of growth of personality since we take such changes for granted in terms of expected development, as it were. But I'm frequently struck looking at what can happen over time with our drama guys with changes that seem to go beyond what might normally be expected over the course of a couple of years or more. I'm thinking of two individuals now who are so incredibly different from when I first encountered them in terms of both their ability on stage and how they conduct themselves off it that it's difficult to grasp it's the same person.

Grounds for optimism in a sadly fallen world, it seems to me.