Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready
By Jenny Magnus
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.
“ “Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready” is about the rehearsal process, with its own highs and lows. This isn’t the first piece the MCA has staged about rehearsal (notably Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes’ “El Gallo” last spring)—why do audiences continue to be intrigued by the rehearsal process? Magnus points out that “what’s most fascinating about rehearsal is the possibility of shaping your experience and then being able to do it again, to make it more satisfying. This doesn’t happen in life.” She laughs again. “As another example, I think a great video game would simply be a marriage, with two people trying to be married, and keep trying situations over and over again… rehearsing a situation that has rehearsal in it.” “
