Filed by Bil at 2:53 pm under Shameless Plugs, The Arts

Last Thursday night was Theatre Thursday at the Dream Theatre, and instead of a talk-back, we offered our audience a little more show.

A little burlesque show.

Part of the current production, “The Black Duckling,” involves a house of burlesque and Madame Purdie, who runs it. The extra show was like a bonus look into the world of this burlesque house, performed by some of the cast members and some actual, real-life burlesque dancers from here in Chicago.

One of the cast members from “The Black Duckling” involved was me. I dressed as a priest for a dance number about a naughty bride-to-be…I think. I mean, I know for sure I was dressed as a priest, but I was behind a confessional wall, and I barely saw any of what was happening on the other side. I had not been to a rehearsal, as I was brought into the routine on very short notice, and I had no idea what she was going to do, other than one audio cue to let me know when to comically drop the Bible I was holding. (The cue was this: she leaned in closely and whispered, “Drop the Bible.”) I was, in a very real sense, acting blindly.

And I LOVE stuff like that. That kind of reckless, off-the-wall-and-on-the-fly performance thrills the crap out of me. It’s like when things go wrong during a well-rehearsed live performance - you adapt as quickly as you can and try not to let the audience know how scared you are. And when you succeed - when the audience is right there with you and you can tell they are enjoying themselves, and you get yourself back on track and see it all the way through – that usually produces a release that I can’t really describe any better than this: it’s like watching a really good horror movie. Scary as hell, but you can’t get enough of it. Pure adrenaline for the performers, pure entertainment for everyone.

You gotta know that this description does on the page here does NOT do this feeling any justice. It’s so much more than that.

The best part was that this came on closing weekend. There was a chance we could have all gone into this final weekend of “The Black Duckling” thinking we’ve done it so many times that we’ve got it down to a science. But for me, this bonus show feels like it made everything new again. It was like a reminder that there is still the possibility something can go awry during a performance – even tonight, closing night, the last show of the run.

It’s not that I hope for things to go wrong – quite the opposite, in fact, but you know how it is…sometimes the urge to get creative needs to be satisfied, and what better opportunity to get creative than when you have to improvise a solution to a problem with an audience watching? But I think I’ve been satisfied by the thrill of the burlesque show. For the last couple of shows, I’ve felt as confident as ever and as eager as ever to get out there and give “The Black Duckling” everything I’ve got.

And tonight we perform it one more time. I intend to give it one hell of a send-off.