Theatre from an unexpected source...

I have been away for a while, I know….

This week I have been super busy working Comic –Con. Comic – Con?, you ask. Why am I there? How could I possibly connect theatre and comics? These are usually the questions that the other reporters ask of me whenever I sit at their tables.

Very easily, but those articles will be out soon enough.

At one roundtable people are firing questions at the actor and he was responding pleasantly, probably having responded to these questions a bajillion times over the course of the day. At a brief pause I asked him about his most previously theatre experience. He immediately responded with “Thank you for asking!” and launched into a 4 minute answer about how much he misses theatre and told his managers that he had to do some theatre on his next break from his show. He talked so much that the publicist had to interrupt him twice before he stopped talking and left for another table.

The other reports all looked over at me (hopefully with new found respect for my theatre questions).

Next actor approaching the table, I told the person next to me that I hoped I had a chance to ask him about a new play he wrote. The actor sat down and immediately started talking, in a semi-monologue about the show he is on.

At a brief moment in his tirade I said, “A bit off topic of the show, but I had a question about the new play that you wrote…” The actor sat up straighter and talked for about 10 minutes about his play, when it opens and how excited he is about it. As the interview came to an end, he stood up and thanked me for the very interesting question and how much he appreciated me knowing about it and asking about it.

At this point every reporter looks at me and starts asking me question about theatre. I chuckled to myself and was saved from answering any of them because the next person sat down for their interview.

For the next hour and a half every reporter at the table, peppered the table with questions about theatre. I didn’t have to ask one question and they all did the work for me. Their questions were a fun way to see how these people, whose lives are steeped in pop culture, video games and television, thought about theatre. The questions were mostly about Shakespeare and what working in front of an audience is like, but still, they were theatre questions!

I love that these reporters are going to go write their articles and their readers will get the information, using information they got from questions about theatre.

More people learning about theatre from unexpected sites with the words “TV” and “Monsters” in their names? That makes me very happy