Gabriola Players kicked off its 2019/20 season at the Cultivate Festival with SCENE THREE WAYS, a workshop designed to illustrate how many different interpretations there can be for the written word. One scene played three different ways.
Here’s the scene: Two people (gender unspecified) at an airport. Person A is leaving. Person B doesn’t really want Person A to go. They talk. The flight is called. The scene ends.
Who are these people? What’s their back story? Answering these questions was the challenge for the director and actors.
In the first version, Janina Stajic and Ray Appel were an on-again-off-again couple who were about to be off again permanently. If she can’t get him to stay for her, perhaps he’ll stay for Ellie, their cat. In the end he stays, although it’s not for the cat.
In the second version both characters were male. Dave Innell and Marshall Mangan were lifelong best friends, driven apart by the affair one has had with the other’s wife. Exactly the same words, but a completely different situation.
In the third version, Susan Yates and Jeff Malmgren are brother and sister. She’s come to stay to help him and his daughter out after his wife abandons them. Now she needs to get back to her own family. He doesn’t want her to go, but she does. Exactly the same words.
After the three versions were performed, audience members were asked to suggest a fourth scenario. Someone asked for Person A and Person B to be bank robbers and voila Dave was making his getaway at the airport. Exactly the same words.
We’ve had very complimentary feedback on the workshop, both from the festival organisers and from audience members, one of whom wrote to tell us:
“We found the presentation by Gabriola Players at the Cultivate Festival informative and entertaining. One scene done three ways with three sets of actors and directors gave us real insight into how the words on the page can be interpreted. It was the highlight of the Cultivate Festival for us. Please do more of this!”
Our thanks to everyone who came out to the workshop. We think it’s safe to say we’ll be back at Cultivate next year.