 The Chicken Whisperer. Photo by Robert Schulz From Brian Oglesby: A week of rehearsal, and She Gets Naked in the End was up and down at the Grange Performing Arts Center in Sacramento. A week. Saturday was our first rehearsal. A week. The valiant Alicia Hunt swept through the script with the philosophy, "Get it wrong," to stimulate creativity and invite risk-taking. And we got it wrong again and again, and it was beautiful, and then we got it right. Actors memorized lines like champions, created characters instantly, found the human and the absurd. A pressure cooker. A marathon. We got it right, shared it with an audience, a second audience, then put it away. It was intense. Theatre is in the moment. Art in time. Blink, and it’s gone. Blink. So now, we head out to the barn. In two weeks, we got another show. Blink, and that one will be gone, too. Barnyard Theatre is an Ironman; She Gets Naked was a marathon, and the rest of the race is out at the barn. The barn is my theatrical home. So, of course, the first thing I did when I got out there was catch the damn chicken. I am the Chicken Whisperer.  L-R: The chase is on; Headed off at the pass; Lured into the trap; The snatch and grab. Photos by Robert Schulz Brian Oglesby is Literary Manager and member of the Board of Barnyard Theatre, and is Author of She Gets Naked in the End. |