CCPT Weekend 6 – The Season Finale

Well, this is the final weekend for the Culver City Public Theatre's (CCPT) 2007 summer season. And what a summer it has been; good plays and great audiences in the beautiful setting of Carlson Park. As we enter this last hurrah, a different photographic view, 2 shots that show the audience (from the rear) for one of the Much Ado About Nothing performances and provided by company member Laura Boccaletti:

This has been a memorable season for me. I have been privileged to work with an incredibly talented group of actors who not only perform but set-up and strike the set every performance day. The days are long in the park. Most of the actors arrive before 10:00 a.m. and are not finished with the strike until about 5:30 p.m. The season also has been special for me because I had a rare lead role in the CCPT's Popcorn Children's Theatre production of King Midas and I made it through my first venture into Shakespeare as the delightfully befuddled Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing. Anyone who saw my "pre-season" posts knows how I struggled preparing for both plays at the same time.

And I always have a special place in my memories for the audiences. I've talked about the interaction between the performers and kids during King Midas. Last week, there was even one young lad who was back for the 3^rd or 4^th time and decided that he would vocally call out what was happening next as new missteps appeared for King Midas. I talked with him after the show and he really was a nice kid who just got carried away, much to the embarrassment of his mother and annoyance of those around him who were seeing the show for the first time.

There are also fond retrospective memories of the distractions that abound when doing outdoor theatre. The planes overhead, the bell on the cart of the passing ice cream man, gardeners' leaf blowers in neighborhood yards, kids at a birthday party hooting and hollering as they swing happily away at a piñata. At least this year, no tree branches fell on unsuspecting audience members during performances as has happened more than once in the past.

Goodness, there is still a full weekend of performances and the season closing CCPT company barbeque ahead and I am already waxing nostalgic. But CCPT and the summers in Carlson Park are such wonderful aspects of my life. Well, on Monday I can start thinking about 2008.