Bannerman Bloggination Redux

What is it about this play MISSING that keeps us all on tenterhooks? It's two weeks today since we opened (after three preview performances), and only NOW are the insistent voices in my head beginning to fade. Like a successful jingle heard over and over again, or the tune from a musical you're working on that won't let your mind rest, elements of our production keep popping up in those anxiety-inducing dream visions that occur in the twilight between sleep and waking.

Recently I dreamt that I received a phone call while pounding rock music filled my home (which happens in MISSING, but not to me). I was offered the lead in a production I suddenly knew I had read for the week before (in dreamtime). Just as I was trying to explain that I was already committed, my wife urged me to "get the dates", because another actor could take over my present duties.

How does this relate to MISSING? Simple. In our play virtually every character is caught in a paradoxical, morally ambiguous trap, subject to equal and opposite emotional pressures. In my dream, the two overriding prerogatives of my life, work and family, are at war. What do you do when there's no right answer? Each character in MISSING tries to find a suitable personal solution.

Further, I would argue that this tension is manifested in the structure of the play as well, in the opposing challenges offered to the actors. As we began our work, we were all concerned with our characters, while taking peripheral note of certain choral sections of the script. Within two days, playing a character seemed a snap compared to the rhetorical demands of the choral set pieces. Sometimes linear, more often fragmented and chaotic, these lines defied logic and resisted memorization. Yet it was virtually impossible to stage them effectively until we were all off book.

Ultimately, all was well --but our varying attitudes and approaches to this challenge were instructive. Some performers found these words unnecessary and intrusive, and yet mastered the technical demands quickly. Others felt these interludes were an integral part of the piece, and should be considered as part of a dance that included many different steps and rhythms.

This dichotomy of styles, I think, enriches and informs ALL of MISSING, while also representing PHYSICALLY the PSYCHIC tensions of the characters. And THAT'S why live theatre is for experiencing, and not just for reading.