Prophecy & Honor

Last night we went to see this play. It's the story of the court martial of Gen. Billy Mitchell who was basically the father of the Air Force. Actually, the Air Force came to be 10 years after he died, but he was the one pushing for it as far back as 1919. It's a good story.

It was written by a local newscaster who is very into plays and acting. He does lots of stuff all the time with the local theatre. He also knows a lot of famous people and he got Richard Dreyfus and George Segal to appear in this play with him. Since this play was a fundraiser for the Pacific Aviation Museum, I'm guessing that Dreyfus and Segal appeared for free or darn cheap.

The problem I had with this production is that Dreyfus and Segal read their lines. Dreyfus carried a book with him the entire time and read his lines out of books. Segal had cards. Another actor also read his lines. Now I'm an actor. I have been in a number of productions. I know how hard it is to learn your lines. I know it takes hours and hours of work, especially if you are one of the main characters. I got it, no problem there. My problem is, these guys are actors!! This is what they do for a living!!! I know for a fact they were here last Friday. They could not learn their lines in a week??? They are supposedly professionals. Come on guys, at least pretend like you care. I have been in productions where 2 nights before opening they have changed entire acts. We've had to scrap the dialog we've been learning for 2 months and learn something new in 2 nights. As amateur we all did it. Why can't these guys, who are professionals, who get well paid for what they do, learn their lines in a week??? Granted they read the lines with excellent feeling and emotion and all that good stuff, but they still read their lines. I'm really surprised they remembered their blocking what with looking at their notes all the time.

Okay, I'm done. It was interesting and overall a good play. It just could have been better.