Racheal - Production Date: 08 September, 2001
- Production Company: API Theatre Company, Brisbane
- Playwright: David Tristram
- My Role: Director & Stage Crew
In 2001, the API Theatre Company decided to hold a one-act play night as a fundraiser to be able to send two of the one-act plays performed to the Norfolk Island Theatre Festival. Whilst I never did get to go to the festival over the many years the API Theatre entered, this fundraiser event was my directorial debut!
Joining the Club is a short, two-person comedy about a couple both needing to share some news with each other and doesn’t go to plan for either of them. I was excited to be able to work with two performers whom I had acted with previously – Fiona Young (whom I met in the Cinderella pantomime) and Darren Lutton (whom I met in The Great American Backstage Musical).
I don’t remember a lot about the show other than holding rehearsals downstairs at my home at the time, and also that the script involved a slap (Fiona had to slap Darren). There was no guidelines around intimacy and I wasn’t overly familiar with stage combat techniques, but I do remember having a conversation with them both about how the ‘slap’ should be handled and they decided to actually do the physical action – albeit a pulled version. In hindsight now, I know a lot more and would have choregraphed it differently if I did the show again.
As the show was a one-act play, we may have performed it at a festival or two, but I don’t recall – and I don’t have any record of doing so. It appears this was a one-night only performance. I also ended up working backstage as crew for the other one-act plays on the night. I don’t remember any of those either. I guess the downside to getting older – this was nearly 25 years ago!
