Stuck!

Since I just finished a busy weekend being involved in the Skeena Zone Theatre Festival, hosted in my home town of Prince Rupert, B.C., I thought it appropriate to start my new blog site with some comments on that.
In the festival, our club mounted my latest one-act play, "Stuck," which is about an executive at a social service agency who returns to his office late one Christmas night and finds a thief at his desk. From there, a verbal tug-o-war ensues as the thief tries to gain his freedom through words and manipulation. There are also two smaller roles: the wife of the executive and the friend of the thief.
Right off the top, I would like to thank the cast and crew for all of their hard work as we put this show together in a very short time of six weeks. It was rough in some places but, overall and judging by audience response (except for the middle show in the opening run - what was that?!) - it was pulled off quite well.
A special thanks to my good friend, Rod McNish, who directed the play. He had a number of unconventional ideas that were used in both the rehearsal process and in the actual production, which really allowed me to stretch my mind and acting muscles.
There were some who didn't get his set vision, with the three levels: the drunks being on floor level, the office being a couple of feet higher, and the home of the executive a couple of feet higher than the office. The festival adjudicator said if the audience doesn't get it, then the director has failed. I disagree.
In most cases, yes, the director should present something the audience will "get," but, sometimes you have to go outside the normal boundaries and even if the audience isn't consciously aware of what they are seeing, they may be "getting" it on an unconscious level and still be enjoying it. You know, kind of like a David Lynch movie!
Speaking of movies, I'll have a lot to say about that subject in this blog, starting with a review of Pan's Labryinth, which just came out on DVD.