The Dining Room at Theatre in the Round

The dining room! Such resonance!
So, this play and I go way back.  We put on this show when I was in high school, where I was the prop manager and entire back stage crew. Now my sister and I are taking turns running the light board for the current production at Theatre in the Round. I have seen this show many times from a variety of perspectives, whether it be sitting in the house, booth, or backstage in a proscenium stage or round. So here are my thoughts on the play itself and the current TRP production in particular:

I do not even want to try and count how many times I have sat through this production with all the rehearsals and performances. However, not until recently have I grown to appreciate this play. In high school I found the entire show to be utterly boring. I must admit, I am typically a fan of musicals, so I usually do not find dramas with long scenes of dialogue between two seated people to be as stimulating as a rousing song and dance. There is a lot of sitting and talking in The Dining Room... Anyway, I like to think I have grown as a theatre goer, as well as a person, since that first run of the show.

The play depicts many everyday scenes that happen in a dining room. It is a play very much about people and the importance of the dining room as a gathering place of family, friends, lovers, and acquaintances. It can be the heart of the home and bring people together as well as be a cold place with family meals straight from the first season of Gilmore Girls. Each scene has a universality to it. The play often has you wondering how many of the scenes are actually the same characters from previous points in the show because each part seems like it could be the same family or a completely different one.

I think the actors in the performance at Theatre in the Round do an excellent job. They are able to successfully change themselves into a new character for each scene. An actor can appear as a child at a birthday party one scene and a moment later appear as the crotchety, wheelchair-bound grandfather. I may be a bit bias, cause I get to hang out with these people backstage, but I feel like they do a wonderful job.

The only questionable part of this production is the staging. It does not seem to have been staged ideally for being in the round. I have not seen the show from the opposite side of the theatre, but I have a feeling if one is sitting on the far side from the booth it would feel like you were seeing a lot of the action from the back.

Otherwise, acting, props, costumes, lights, etc. are all well done. (And I'm having such a blast being a part of it!!!!)
So come by and see us! Running at Theatre in the Round until December 18th. More info here.