Performance #2 was SO much better and smoother on Friday night than our opener. For starters, the cast was a THOUSAND times more relaxed prior to and during the performance. On Thursday, everybody was backstage taking deep deep breaths, doing push-ups, anything to shake off the nerves. One of my acting teachers at THE BARROW GROUP, Seth Barrish, used to say that many times, an actor is doing his or herself more harm than good when you start doing all these exercises, movements and methods to try and relax because the brain associates those actions with the very thing we are trying to eliminate, Anxiety. So we end up further aggravating the situation and working ourselves into and even higher state of anxiety and stress by executing a sense-memory exercise that conjures up feelings of doubt, fear and uncertainty.
Friday night all the actors properly warmed upand just chilled out until showtime and I think the show greatly benefitted from that approach. I cant speak for everybody, but the anxiety factor for myself was virtually non-existent.
New Jersey's STAR LEDGER published a great article in Fridays paper introducing THE MANAGEMENT COMPANY as a promising new theater troupe based out of Jersey City. The article prompted ABC to contact us to request an opportunity to come tape a few scenes from the play for a special interest story on the local news. Very cool stuff. With ABC airing a story about our show and The STAR LEDGER coming to review on Saturday night (Tonight), we could get some great exposure.
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