From the Playwright, Carol Dance
The theatre I most enjoy is when I get to use my imagination. If the set is obvious, with every flower in the vase and every book on the shelf clearly in place, there’s nothing to imagine. However, if a rug in one scene becomes a yoga mat in the next, a blanket in another scene and a shawl in yet another, amazingly your mind believes in the mat, rug and scarf in about two seconds. This production of Kiss of the Gallery Guard is what theatre-folk call minimalist style. This just means that you, the audience, get to have the fun of using your own imaginations. And in so doing, we hope you enjoy the play all the more.
Part of the fun of Kiss of the Gallery Guard is the interjection of jazzy and classical music by concert pianist Philip Eames. All the scenes are set in art galleries and it’s logical the galleries might have a pianist playing in the foyer. This gives our directors, Murray Lambert and Anna Greig, the chance to experiment how to use music in the play effectively. The piano playing is dominant on occasions and subliminal other times with the audience not aware that Philip is indeed playing.
Many of us wonder what the people guarding art works in a gallery are thinking. Are they concentrating on watching the gallery visitors, or, when there aren’t many people around, are they thinking about what to cook for dinner or what they are going to do on their day off? Maybe they are pondering the meaning of the paintings they guard. Maybe they are memorising the labels. Maybe they are inspired to take art classes and paint something themselves. Being a frequent visitor to galleries, I often watch the guards and wonder what they are thinking. This curiosity inspired me to write Kiss of the Gallery Guard.
The theatre I most enjoy is when I get to use my imagination. If the set is obvious, with every flower in the vase and every book on the shelf clearly in place, there’s nothing to imagine. However, if a rug in one scene becomes a yoga mat in the next, a blanket in another scene and a shawl in yet another, amazingly your mind believes in the mat, rug and scarf in about two seconds. This production of Kiss of the Gallery Guard is what theatre-folk call minimalist style. This just means that you, the audience, get to have the fun of using your own imaginations. And in so doing, we hope you enjoy the play all the more.
Part of the fun of Kiss of the Gallery Guard is the interjection of jazzy and classical music by concert pianist Philip Eames. All the scenes are set in art galleries and it’s logical the galleries might have a pianist playing in the foyer. This gives our directors, Murray Lambert and Anna Greig, the chance to experiment how to use music in the play effectively. The piano playing is dominant on occasions and subliminal other times with the audience not aware that Philip is indeed playing.
Many of us wonder what the people guarding art works in a gallery are thinking. Are they concentrating on watching the gallery visitors, or, when there aren’t many people around, are they thinking about what to cook for dinner or what they are going to do on their day off? Maybe they are pondering the meaning of the paintings they guard. Maybe they are memorising the labels. Maybe they are inspired to take art classes and paint something themselves. Being a frequent visitor to galleries, I often watch the guards and wonder what they are thinking. This curiosity inspired me to write Kiss of the Gallery Guard.