Posted: 21st July 2010 by cord in The Projects
Tags: Beckett, improvisation, theater, theatre
Artwork created by Alvin Felch
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On to Viroqua, WI
This town was “probably” named so after a Mohawk girl who lived “down east.”
“A Connecticut man saw her perform in a theatre, liked the name, and bestowed it later on the Vernon county
settlement. What better place to bring “Krapp” than a town that was named from a theatre performance?
It was in Viroqua that the experiment hit the skids, the slide, the whirlpool of undertows that drew us
down unexpectedly and quite nearly drowned us.
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Fifteen people attended the two performances; 9 on Friday 3 on Saturday. The press releases were all sent out a month in advance, Alvin had been playing at the local Farmer’s Market and Coffee House weeks in advance. Yet, so few people showed up in this community that carries the reputation of support for creativity and theatre in general.
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What happened?
It was some political, social, psychological, wind or winding that soured the community to “Krapp”, I guess.
You see, for three years I worked in Viroqua teaching improvisation and building a company called .
One day, about a year ago INTOIT had a secret meeting; one that I was not invited to attend. Late that night I received a phone call from one of the members to tell me that they were going out on their own. I was hurt, and that pain lead me away from communicating or wanting to talk to those who made the decision and then informed me with a late night phone call.
After the the show we learned that the new company “Raw Milk” (spun from INTOIT) had changed the date of their show to the same Saturday night of the Krapp performance. (They performed before an audience of over 40:)
Coincidence?
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This sort of stuff occurs in the theatre far too often. I really don’t know the reason for the poor turn out.
I am quite used to it.
Alvin packed his accordion and we loaded the stage to travel on to the Pump House Regional Art Center in La Crosse, WI!
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I was in that audience of 9 on Friday night in Viroqua and was equally shocked. I live in Appleton-WI, and if this performance had been in one of the small playhouses in this area of the country, it would have been well-attended and appreciated. I thought it was great!