Saturday, December 12, 2009

Reindeer Monologues at RTR



It is lovely to be back in Oregon for the holidays. I'm so enjoying seeing my family and friends, and, of course, some of the delightful holiday theatre that's happening around Portland.
In fact, these days, I've been spending my time on Santa's sleigh team in the dark Christmas comedy The Eight: Reindeer Monologues at Readers Theatre Repertory. This NOT CHILD FRIENDLY version of the Santa Claus myth is told through the eyes, hooves and antlers of his eight emotionally dysfunctional reindeer. It really is quite a scandalous tell-all revealing Mr. and Mrs. Claus' strained, alcoholic relationship, what really happened with the Rudolf foggy Christmas debacle, and why Vixen has accused Santa of sexual assault.
Come down to RTR and see me, Dancer, along with my seven teammates, Dasher, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen at 8:00 tonight! To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall! Now, dash away, dash away, dash away all!

2 comments:

Adamflo84 said...

Just saw a local production of this. How did your cast fare with the very unique problem of audience interaction?
A joke lands one night and the next is flat and is accompanied with blank stares...how do you get into a rhythm?
The actors I saw really struggled with this and it kept them from taking their performances to the next level.
Hope your show went well.

Heather Petersen said...

Our show did go very well, thanks. It was difficult though, as you say. The subject matter is quite tricky. Often, I think, the terrifying portrait of Santa Claus was too much for some audience members, but at least we got them to laugh at the silly reindeer word play.