Angela Santillo performed her play, The Unfelt Wonder, at the Lounge at Dixon Place on June 4th and she was awesome enough to answer some questions about the experience.
Angela and her director, Lillian Meredith, do a double check on their props
How did this performance of The Unfelt Wonder feel?
Like being in a terrifying vacuum. The 40 minutes of performance are a blur and I have no recollection of anything I did. I don’t know if that is a good or a bad thing…it isn’t the best feeling cause I really don’t know how to assess anything. I suppose you can say that means I was acting in the moment. I will have to look at the performance footage to see if that statement is true.
What did you learn about the show/What would you change?
The show needs to be tighter. The multi-media elements felt too long and my performance of the characters can go further and be more distinguished from each other. One character, Fan, is going to get a major facelift. She was perceived as being too self centered and not actively wanting something from The Unfelt Wonder (aka the protagonist). Going to make her need more immediate and tangible…and I think she is going to become a bit of a troublemaker which will be awesome.
Also learned I need to spend more time memorizing my lines. It was strange to perform my own words, I don’t trust them the way I do other playwrights. I kept finding myself not holding myself to the same performance expectations. Usually I am fanatical about being word perfect but for this, I couldn’t get over the fact that I wrote them and that led to an unexpectedly difficult rehearsal process.
How successful did you feel the immersive theater elements of the show were?
Well, I was performing in said vacuum. So I’m not sure. I will say, it felt better as the performer to be that close to the audience. It was more disturbing to do some of the actions and that was really satisfying. I love hearing people gasp in horror at the stuff I write. What was interesting is I felt like I had more power cause I could manipulate the entire space and the audience was really responsive and cooperative.
How successful did you feel the multimedia elements of the show was?
The tech gods were not smiling on us that day. The projector didn’t work so we had game plan #2 which was Lillian (the director) standing with my Mac during the film sequences. I don’t think those elements had the same theatrical impact but still did their narrative duty. At certain moments, I could feel myself struggling to stay in character, which made it clear that the media needs to be edited and reimagined so that atmospheric intensity builds appropriately. I would say those elements did help the immersive experience cause it really emphasized that we were stuck in this world just like The Unfelt Wonder.
Do you know what you'll change in a future re-write?
I want an action sequence. I think Fan is going to break into the experiment. I know there is a cook character coming so I have to start writing that one. The interweaving of media (film and audio) with live performance needs to be reexamined and I am interested in working on the length and sound of dialogue to make it more dynamic. In general, I want to create a stronger more solid world for the audience to step into.
Are you going to be working on this show in the coming months or are you going to focus your attentions on a new project?
I am going to take a bit of a break to see what impressions linger. I learned so much from this performance, mostly that writing and acting in your own solo show is absolutely terrifying. It wasn’t till performing at Dixon Place, with a pretty large audience, that I felt so…naked? Yeah, I would say naked. There was a whole lot of Angela on that stage and that was really uncomfortable. Still trying to process the experience both on a personal and professional level. So I want to take some time away from the project so I can look at the next draft with less emotional eyes. Ideally, I would like to jump back into editing land at the end of July.
There are always new projects. That isn’t even a question. Two new plays are ready to jump out of this head of mine. I am also performing in Five Sided Triangle (by this blog’s own Gina Femia) at Dixon Place this July and getting ready to write, for the third year in a row, a play for Communal Spaces to be performed in September.
It never ends, I tell you what. And thank God for that.
