Hi Friends,
My solo show, How to Be a Successful Teacher, was accepted into the 4th annual United Solo Festival at Theatre Row Studios this year. My performance on October 29, 2013, left me with excitement, relief, and appreciation for an opportunity to perform in an Off-Broadway space among professional talented staff and festival participants. The festival brings together actors, writers, and directors from all over the world to present engaging and innovative solo performances. As I sat backstage and heard my audience shuffling into their seats, I reflected back to the day I began the journey of writing this show, and felt so blessed that the material had made it to Theatre Row’s stage. I thought back to all the cold mornings of wanting to hide under my sheets in fear of what temperament my students would be in, never realizing that it would eventually turn into insightful material for my return to solo performance.
My last run with solo performance was during my undergraduate days where I performed a solo show for one of my last acting classes. I loved every moment of the devising process and it marked the starting point of my journey as a writer. Years of taking acting gigs, touring, and going to grad school were excuses as to why I stopped writing. However, after I began teaching in Trenton, New Jersey, the characters and experiences I encountered as a theatre teacher inspired me; I knew it was time to return. The reason why solo performance is so near to my heart is because it allows me to take a piece of my life that is of importance, and display it through a distorted lens. It is not reflection the exact situations in my classrooms or my life, but it is portraying an altered version, one that hopefully will affect the audience’s viewpoint. Once I started writing my script, meeting with my fabulous dramaturge, and revising, I became hungrier and hungrier to get it produced. Finally, the day came when I received my invitation to United Solo.
Although festivals can be costly and a bit overwhelming to take on as an individual, I realized after the festival was over that this opportunity is very rare. Many theatre companies, even if they list that they accept solo shows, are very hesitant to produce them due to questionable ticket sales. Often solo shows can have tendencies to drag on, be monotonous, and flat; it is very hard to keep an audience’s attention, not lose your breath or physicality, and stay connected when you are the only one performing the material. The audience demands you to keep them entertained the entire time, there are no moments for disengagement, if you lose their attention even for a second you have lost their “buy-in” of solo shows. It is even more challenging if you wrote and are performing the piece. I tended to get distracted while in character to see what lines worked and didn’t, making sure I would remember them for later revisions. It was an adrenaline rush to feel the audience’s reaction and to see how they connected to elements of the play that went deeper than ‘teaching is hard’. The final scene of my show, which I had changed a week prior to the performance, stated that my main character, Ms. M, felt she had failed at being a successful teacher but that it was ok because as long as you love doing what you’re doing that’s all that matters. A simple enough statement but I thought for the time being it was a better ending than I had prior. Surprisingly, it made the most connection to some of my audience members. A friend of mine brought his mother, who is a nurse, and she said that she connected to the ending as a mother. I thought that was interesting and helpful as I continue to revise the show so that the story is relatable beyond those in education.
United Solo offers most of their participants one performance night, which is intimidating, especially when trying to build an audience on a Tuesday night. However, I felt that the one evening did some justice in growing the foundation of my show. United Solo is a prestigious, globally recognized festival that gives artist a highly artistic qualified umbrella from which to portray their story, leaving the participant feeling privileged to be chosen. I enjoyed my experience with United Solo, their awards ceremony, and the opportunity to have my script published on Indie Theatre Now. I look forward to submitting more shows with United Solo and hopefully more solo show markets will begin to emerge for solo performers and writers.
Live, Love, Learm,
Michele & The Write Teacher(s)