Word: showing
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...stood then, the opening-night version of the show was almost half gone. Some of the new material, introduced since the premiere, has even turned out to be quite funny--especial a bit in which an emancipated nun feverishly embraced her lover, suddenly paused, and then panicked, "Has the angel come? Am I with child?" Yet, the total effect of all the sketches remained erratic. One element of the show, the Lenny Bruce ballet, for example, aimed at slightly obscene visual non-sequiturs. On a more abstract level, Leven had inserted stylized mood scenes on topics like the mechanization...
LEVEN'S approach to comedy is much more cerebral than The Proposition's frenetic mimickry would suggest. Having left behind the simplicity of his first show, Leven sought in The Light Company a "synthesis of every kind of movement in the theatre: non-objective, abstract, futuristic, surreal. We are to say--look this is a piece of stage, it is not real life. So, let's treat it in a context void of emotional restraints. Let's treat it like a cubist treats a piece of canvas. The Light Company should be a collage- type theatre, allowing a person...
...ways from it all on a Saturday night. Leven and his backers never did figure out where those first few audiences came from. Largely in the 25-30 year old age group, they weren't from the local student population, which the backers were counting on for the show's real success...
ANOTHER problem was that The Light Company simply didn't go far enough in the direction that it did take. Leven's original cast and crew walked out in December, charging excessive demands on the part of the director. Their replacements had only eleven days of rehearsal before the show opened. Little use was made of most of the auditorium's electronic equipment. There was no one around who really knew how to utilize all of it. During its first few weeks, the show began to exploit the many available effects. They introduced polarized light; original films would soon...
...last Saturday night Leven had not yet totalled up the week's receipts and the show was still on. He was beginning to admit many of his original conceptual decisions were mistakes. He was already planning an entirely new shown. For one thing, the solo piano accompaniment could not adequately serve the relatively large theatre; Leven would have to experiment with recordings and tapes if the whole audience was to become involved. If only the money lasted, the current revue would become a testing ground for new material and techniques...