The First Time Chasing Enough Met an Audience

If you've been following me, you know that I am currently writing a one-woman show. Last week, I did the read-through of it, and today I'm sharing what happened the first time my play, Chasing Enough, met an audience.

This is something that kind of terrified me. My piece is not yet finished; it's not polished. The funny thing is that the character in it, Barbara Overwork, is an overachiever. Being that people are seeing this without it being perfect, finished, or fully developed is a bit of a risk, a bit of a gamble, and very, very vulnerable.

I'm going to share why I chose to do it early, what surprised me, and some of the lessons I learned.

What Is a Read-Through?

A read-through is when you take your script and literally read it aloud. There's no lighting or sound or anything.

I was supported by Louisa Fung, who is also in the Creative Hub with me at Presentation House Theatre. She read what act we were in, what scene we were in, any description of the scene, and talked about the things that aren't seen because I'm not acting it.

I decided to take an even bigger risk and act out parts of it, just because I felt like those parts would be more fun for my audience to see. 

At the end of a read-through, you do a feedback session with those in attendance, asking them questions like:

• What was your favourite moment?
  
• What things are you confused about or need some clarification on?
  
• What moment stood out to you?
  

For me, I wanted to know: is it landing where I need it to land?

A lot of people actually don't do this stage until maybe a year in, or even further on. I didn’t know this until two days before my read-through. The fact that I'm doing it now was brave, but I wanted to do it.

Why I Chose to Do It Early

I really just wanted to hear the script out loud. It's just me in this show, as it's a one-woman show. It might change later on once I start working with my director, but as I was talking to Louisa about it, she said, "You have so many characters. Because you're not acting, it's might be confusing for the audience, and it's going to be tiring for you." She had a good point.

I read all the characters that came from Barbara, while Louisa read all the characters who were not Barbara Overwork. Barbara has three saboteurs and one supportive character, all internal characters who come out and are personified. 

While theatre is meant to be experienced, not just read, and yes, I'm going to be acting it later, and I'm going to have a director helping me, to be able to read it at this point gave me so much great feedback from the audience.

Who I Invited

I did not want to make this a public thing. I just wanted friends and connections in my network who I felt would be supportive. I put it out to a few different communities I'm a part of:

• CAPS (Canadian Association of Professional Speakers)
  
• My soccer team
  
• My church
  
• My local networking group
  
• Friends and neighbors
  

I had a nice assortment of people there. Some from North Vancouver, BC, some from further away. They came for this two-hour event.

It was so nice to know they were cheering me on and wanted me to succeed. But rather than just handing them the play to read, I wanted them to experience the intended emotion and then get their feedback.

I needed honest feedback before moving forward because I had so many scenes—about 105 pages—that I needed to cut down to about 75. I needed feedback on: did I cut the right things? Are things now confusing because I cut parts?

For a one-person show that you want to do from start to finish without any intermission, you really do need it to be tight. 60 to 75 minutes, no more than 90. Because people can't really hold their pee for that long! They can leave and come back, but I don't want that either. Plus, it's me. Do I really want to do 90 minutes by myself without anyone else? That's a lot of work.

When I read it with Louisa, it was probably about an hour, but I didn't let anything breathe. It was really quick, literally just reading rather than performing. When I do perform it, there will be space to breathe, more emotive language, and more acting that has no words. I'm guessing we're pushing more toward 90 minutes when fully performed.

That honest feedback of "Am I hitting the mark? Is the message I'm intending what they're feeling?"—and also creating in public is uncomfortable, but incredibly valuable, especially if you have people that care about you and want you to succeed.

They gave me some really great feedback. It wasn't all just fluff and "you're amazing." They gave me some really honest feedback for the development of the script.

What Surprised Me

Some things were more powerful than I even intended and caused shifts, not just in who they are as a person, but they were starting to see it as who they are as a mother, or who they are as someone at a job, or who they are as a friend. They started to see, in different areas of life, how this show could impact them.

It's also interesting to see where people laughed and where people didn't laugh. Thankfully, I had the whole thing recorded. 

There were also emotional moments. Some people said afterwards that there were moments where they almost wanted to cry because it was so sad. Other moments when they felt anxious due to the intensity of the scene.

What I realized is I came out with a big bang at the start, which I might actually soften so that people start to like the character before they see her in full show mode. Also surprising was that the ending didn't land emotionally where I wanted it to. People were kind of wanting more of a change.

These are the things that I now get to go and develop. Some things didn't work as well as I had hoped:

• One scene I'm fully cutting because it just doesn't make sense
  
• One scene I might put right back in because the audience was really wanting it
  
• Some scenes they want to make longer
  
• Other pieces that weren't as clear that I need to edit
  

I need to cut before I can add, if I want this to work out as my intended ending and impact.

It's funny because when I do keynotes, I just do my keynote. I practice it, but I don't have read-throughs. I just do it. But my amazing CAPS community, if you do a talk in front of them, they will give you constructive feedback. They will be honest with you, not just whitewash or boost your ego. To know where my ideal audience felt it hit the mark and where it didn't is massive.

The Biggest Lessons

Audiences Are Smarter Than We Think

In theatre, we need to show them, not tell them. A lot of the stuff I was doing was more TED talky, more workshop sounding. Me telling them what I feel, telling them what they should feel, and the reasons behind it.

Less Explanation, More Experience

I attempted to do a lot of stripping back to “show and not tell,” but by stripping it back so much, there wasn't enough explanation, which left them confused in some parts. There needs to be a really nice balance of explanation and experience so that it's really clear to your audience.

Granted, other than a few scenes, I'm not acting it; there are no props, no music, no movement, though there was a little bit of voice-changing because, even in a read-through, I wanted to emote a little.

Sometimes the Scenes You Love Aren't the Ones People Connect With

And that's okay. The tweaks people are saying, "I wanted more of this" or "this felt off." It’s great to know it now, because now I can adapt it.

The plan: get it done, do a read-through by the end of June, use the summer to tweak the script, maybe do one more read-through. Then, in September, do rehearsals with a director, and a private preview where I'm now acting in it, with sound, lighting, props, set, and costumes. Again, the audience can give feedback after, so we do some more tweaking before the big grand opening of the show.

The Script Became So Much Clearer

The last lesson is that the script became so much clearer because people experienced it. While I'm now learning that I really should have filmed from the front to see their faces:

• Are they on the verge of tears? 
  
• Are they shifting in their seat? 
  
• Are they bored? 
  
• Are they laughing, and is it a big belly laugh or a little laugh, some people but not everyone?
  

These are the things that are going to help me really to lock in this play.

I'm just extremely grateful. It was such a blessing to have 22 people who care about me come out to support me and give feedback. The show is already elevated, already being fine-tuned. Even the night before I did it, I changed one scene to make it more interactive with the audience, and I heard they liked that interaction and found it very profound.

That's part of how the show has become better, because the creative juices of doing it and coming up with last-minute ideas and now new ideas for the next one. It's amazing to have finally read Chasing Enough to an audience. Even though it was a private audience, it still was in public. It felt extremely vulnerable. Some parts felt risky. But because I had my friends there, I knew they wanted me to succeed.

What's Next

In the next blog, I'm going to talk more about what I learned by letting people see my work before it was ready. If you have perfectionism, that will be a really great blog for you.

If you would like to be at another read-through or get an invite to the private preview, sign up on the Chasing Enough landing page to get updates and special invites. 

Looking at the bigger picture: some workshops and previews for private audiences in September and October (depending on when we've locked it in), and then looking at 2027 to take it on tour across Canada. Stay tuned; maybe I'll be coming to a city near you.

If you would like to be a local ambassador connected to the show, or to sponsor, support, partner, or collaborate with me in some way, please reach out: [email protected]. While I can't lock anything in now, it's just good to know who is where and in what city so that you would be the first one I reach out to.

Until next time, stay dynamic!