On Apr 16, 5:16 pm, "Harlett O'Dowd" <chris.conne...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> On Apr 16, 4:24 pm, New****tsRe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Steve New****t) wrote:
> > Let's start doing them in three acts.
>
> Not a chance. Producers are terrified of a show running over 2:30, let
> alone over 3. Even in opera houses they're cutting intermissions to
> get the shows over quicker.
Yeah, maybe if I called intermission 'halftime', it would be more
readily apparent.
On Apr 17, 12:16=A0am, dgsweet <DGSw...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > I'll have to check exactly how Sondheim put it, but in the little
> > interview piece tagged onto the recent TV COMPANY, he commented about
> > the non-plot of COMPANY, saying something to the effect that many
> > people weren't sophisticated enough to appreciate the plotless
> > structure.
> Actually, it doesn't have a plot but it DOES have a structure. =A0The
> show is framed as an argument Bobby is having with himself. =A0In the
> first act he conjures up all the negative images of marriage he can
> come up with. =A0In the second act, the loneliness of his life begins to
> become more insistent as the compensations of marriage being to
> predominate.
To me, that is a sign that COMPANY is more related to what David said
about FALSETTOS. Two related one acts form a didactic, episodic
structure, rather than the familiar dramatic structure of Aristotle,
Lajos Egri, etc.
This reminds me of the time when an acting troupe I was involved with
decided to lump ALL of our skits into a two act dramatic structure.
The results were: clearly episodic, the first act was WAY TOO LONG,
took too much to set up, and there's no real connection to be made
between ripping off Tarantino and John Woo, and a play about childhood
*** abuse. I was changing the camcorder tapes at the end of the first
act and heard someone groan, "There's another act?!"
Unfortunate for me, because as the newbie, my skit was in the second
act. Mine was a sweet ode to puppy love (with a cliffhanger), and
paired with a farsical superhero skit, we can say that it went better
than the first, but it wasn't a dramatic structure at all. I can't
even remember what character won the storytelling contest that was
supposed to be the structure of the plot.
So I think to qualify, the first act must CAUSE the second act to
happen. Switching the scenes around in COMPANY reveals that the show
is more of a revue of the list of reasons why Bobby is the way he is.
However, I did do that TiVo rewind thing, so it must have been good.
But Steve was right about the weakness of the book.
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