Loft Theater: Abigail and Percy

New place, new season, thought I’d write a play. This weekend marked the first performance of Loft Theater, the only wholly original living-room performance in Dallas East of Central Expressway. Lots of thanks to Kristi Daniel, Stu Tidball, Becca Dixon, Chris Cole and Paul Hamilton for being the cast. Abduction, violence, inheritance, romance, swordplay – the usual sort of thing for a melodrama. It’s kind of tricky to write for two stages in succession; the logistical trick is getting the players up and down the stairs without tripping over each other.

Considering the abbreviated script and twenty-minute rehearsal it went very well. The innovative swordfighting by Percy and Snidely was a nice treat. The lighting cues need to be far better worked out; the poor stage manager wasn’t able to tell when the scene ended without a line of dialogue to listen for. Other than the curtain failure during rehearsal the technical issues seemed to go pretty smoothly. How to work out entry through the lower stage maybe is one to ponder. The cast-to-audience ratio came out at about 8 to 5, which is about right considering the size of the venue.

Good times had by all.