Hello everyone!
The day of the show has been and gone and I wanted to take some time today to reflect on the final performance. I am unbelievably proud of my company and feel so privileged to have been part of it. This experience has truly been an honour. I want to thank everyone who came to our debut show The Truth About Bedtime… as our audience were so supportive and engaged throughout the performance.
I believe that the nature of our pre-set, where actors interacted with audience members, enticed the audience and made them feel completely at ease, which was our aim from the outset. Upon the entrance of audience into the performance space they were greeted by members of the company handing out sherbet lemons and directed to our drinks stand where cups of hot chocolate and camomile tea were provided. Originally, we were only going to use hot chocolate but had to think of a sleep related alternative for lactose intolerant and vegan audience members. Arts Council England state that they “encourage our funded organisations to be more focused on audiences – to reach more people, broaden the groups they come from and improve the quality of their experience” (Arts Council England, undated). I truly believe that we achieved this with The Truth About Bedtime… as we took all needs into account, including setting aside spaces for wheelchair access and offering to get hot drinks for those with accessibility issues.
The show proved to be a great success and our audience were sublime. They laughed throughout the majority of the show and seemed to be transfixed during the more serious, verbatim sections of the piece. All in all, I believe we successfully combined the sweet and the sour in our performance to create a show that exhibited how divergent experiences of sleep can be. It has been a delight to dramaturg The Truth About Bedtime… and I very much look forward to making many more hilarious pieces of theatre with an amazing group of women.
E.W.
Works Cited:
Arts Council England (undated) Arts Council: Engaging People Everywhere. Available from https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/how-we-make-impact/engaging-audiences-everywhere [accessed 22 May 2018].
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