Another Fishing Line

Thus far, I have been working as a line catcher for celery soup, reeling in the best stories in hopes of an exciting tale. Usually I am collecting stories from locals in order to write them into a future play. This week, I spent time line catching from the play actors themselves.

          This past Saturday Touch and Go became the first community production on the stage of the Dr. Philip’s Center in downtown Orlando. 

In between their performances this Saturday, I had the opportunity to ask the performers and stage crew questions. How did you get involved with Celery Soup? What has been your favorite scene to perform or watch? What would keep you from working with Celery Soup in the future?  What do you hope this play will teach the actors, the audience, the Sanford community? Several of these conversations stayed brief and to the point because the speakers were busy with their families, preparing for the show, or unwilling to share very much. Fortunately others were very willing to talk and our conversations brought about both laughter and tears.

I also got another perspective of the stories when I talked to several audience members. They did not let me record their interviews, but I did learn from them. Like many of the actors, they were amazed and delighted the bonds between actors and stories despite the actors’ background, origins, or ethnicity. Like many actors they congratulated the play at both promoting that and living it out.  

Conducting these interviews will help Celery Soup through the rigmarole of paperwork. But that is not all it will do. Because of their testimonies I better understand what sorts of stories the community is interested in and what aspects of those stories make them fascinating and engaging for both the actors and the audience. As I transcribed this week I continued to think about this. What stories would be best in a play? What themes might be prominent in the next play? What keywords should I highlight to make that more possible?