An examination and homage to sustained attention, Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready is the story of a troupe that is really a tribe struggling to be an ensemble. A group of actors come together to prepare for a show, and in their attentions to themselves and each other, they weave the fabric of their determination to make something happen on the stage. Taking place in the 60 minutes before the performance, the actors inhabit the space in ways that become evidently theatrical, moving from individual actions to group actions, and revealing the conflicted eros of collaboration.
Some actors are born ready; they come in with all the energy and focus they are ever going to have. Others have to slowly put on their decided bodies, a step-by-step transformation from person in the world to person on the stage. In Still in Play, whether they play ductball, mutter into a camera, rehearse a monologue, enact a song, groan, or simply sit and wait, the actors all seek the moments of heightened awareness that emerge when someone participates in their chosen art form.
