Another Thespian Home Run

Eleemosynary

This is the quirky name of the most recent play directed by Jim. He also directed The Vagina Monologues which was one of the best plays I have personally attended. He has the unique ability to pull greatness out of his actors.

I was expecting greatness once again.

I knew that the rehearsals were gruesome. All the actors, the producer, director and stage crew are our friends so we had first hand knowledge.

This play has 3 generations of women: grandma, mother and teenage daughter played by age appropriate women.

The grandma, a wonderful actor in her 70's, was struggling with the memorization of all the lines. I don't think about this much, but our ability to memorize and possibly learn diminishes with age. I hope it does not discourage her from future rolls because she is amazing.

The teenage had no problem with memorizing the lines. She did struggle with the acting as a first time actor. She had to learn the basics such as "stand still."

The mom, a good friend of ours, was struggling with the character who was angry and pissy, something she is definitely not. She is a lot of fun and likes to laugh.

So the rehearsals were grueling.

To top it all off, the play was held at the Fundadores Hotel, one of the oldest hotels. The play ran over 4 days. The hotel booked the room for other parties and meetings so the ENTIRE set had to be taken down and rebuilt for each performance. What a job!

Then to add insult to injury, a meeting on Sunday morning ran late and the matinee had to start 2 hours late. Only in Panama!

We went on Saturday night. It was sold out.

The play was memorizing, engaging and thought provoking. It was extremely well acted with 2 out of 3 parts played to perfection. The other part was really good.

In a town of 1000 Expats, who would have thought we could get this level of highly professional entertainment.

Maybe there is an unusual amount of talent here because you have to be half crazy to move to a 3rd World country. Or, maybe we are simply lucky.

Either way, I am grateful. I also now have some appreciation for the considerable work required to put on a play.