Audience Response to DOG ACT
(Photo: Isaiah Tanenbaum. Pictured: Lori E. Parquet, Chris Wight)This is an open thread for our community of artists and audience to respond to Dog Act. We have tried this for both The Lesser Seductions of History and Jacob’s House, and the comments were very insightful. When you see the show, please take a moment to share your thoughts with us in the comments field below.
A few rules of the game: this is a safe space, so while respectful criticism is as welcome as joyful praise, snark and hostility are not. A good rule of thumb is simply to write things you’d feel comfortable saying face to face. While you can choose to post as anonymous, we encourage you to take ownership of your thoughts.
Our sincere thanks, and see you at the theatre!
14 Comments on "Audience Response to DOG ACT"
Flux Theatre Ensemble’s Dog Act was awesome! My two nieces attended with me and we talked about the show, the actors, lighting, staging, amazing set/cart, etc. during the entire train ride back to Philadelphia.
Keep up the fantastic work FLUX!
I really enjoyed how the streams of act I pooled into the lake of the play by act II in the “play within a play” sequence. I’m wondering if Midsummer nights dream was a structural inspiration for the playwright? Well done work FLUX! Special note to the direction (in particular) the fun Dance sequences!!! Hope to see more musical forays by flux in the future!
Really enjoyed opening night. Cast was great (special nod to Lori Parquet as Zetta and Becky Byers’ show stealing story telling/etch-a-scketching as Jo-Jo). Also have to shout out Kelly O’Donnell and AD Tiffany Clementi for their direction! I think the star of the show though HAS to be Jason Paradine’s cart! I mean that thing was total eye candy! The guy’s a friggin rockstar!
came on preview night with my beau and we both really enjoyed the ride. literal (omg that cart is AMAZING!!!!) and figurative.
great ensemble work and fun-having and balls-out boldness, and what a gem of a play! so many nuggets of wisdom and wonder hidden in that text, i hope i can see it again just to catch what i might have missed the first time around! bravo all y’all!
Mighty relevant topic, given what just happened in Cairo, Egypt on Friday!! Did you plan it that way?
I am happy to say I had the opportunity to see Dog Act the other night and to my mind it was your best production yet.
One of my favorite aspects of theatre was on display in the play. I usually refer to it as an aesthetic of poverty, but really what I’m trying to indicate is a spare and simple way on the stage. This is an aesthetic I think Flux shares with Knee-high and Target Margin and is typified by using (seemingly) handmade props and effects as the scaffold upon which the production hangs. While seeing Spiderman or Mary Poppins hurtling towards the balcony about to crush a vertebrae of two is undeniably entertaining, the gesture comes more from the cinema (at best, bear baiting at worst) than theater. A faded banner unfurled, a few banjo strings plucked, a marvelous junk cart pushed with some effort into the wings becomes magic on a stage that gives these things enough space to breathe. And, that more than anything else, is the essence of theater for me.
It is this along with Flux’s commitment to a more poetic language and the company’s penchant to provoke rather than agitate your audience that make your company one of the more valuable aspect of the theatre scene here in NYC. Keep up the good work.
P.S. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the cast of Dog Act. It is impossible for me to single out one performance over another, all were most wonderful. Congratulations all.
The goodly Maria Micheles was kind enough to say I could post her response to the play here – thanks Maria!
“What was most surprising about Dog Act was the level of contemplation it left you in once it was over, making your brain enter into a different wavelength to contemplate this interesting many layered work, and not being able to rest until it could configure it, though not an easy thing to. In a space of two hours, and in a place where nothing exists except for a wagon in the background, the interactions between the characters go beyond the expected contextual norm. There’s something carried over from our life, which keeps one wondering, as to the time and place and what kind of drama will unfold, but no one expects what unfolds, the gems that will hold till the end, the genesis in the post-apocalypse, and the triumph of good vs. evil. Post apocalyptic life as inferred here need not be completely annihilating, maybe we can become wanderers again, meandering around with whomever and whatever’s left with us, and spontaneously engaging along the way. But what was the greatest surprise was the triumph of theatre, that the thing that has managed to survive from time-immemorial and connect people through the ages is that people will never lose their ability to entertain others and themselves, in vying to escape any kind of predicament or existential crisis, as man is a subject of his physiology. This play turns our assumptions (from TV and film) onto their heads and restores our basic values.”
I went mid-week and thoroughly enjoyed the show. It was thoughtful while also being very entertaining. Who would have thought to devolve a person into a dog and almost back again! And the dog was played so well too! In fact everyone in the cast did a terrific job on a difficult script. Every aspect of the play, writing, directing, acting, set, and lighting were well done. I certainly hope to be back for more. Paul
Hello Flux, I didn’t know about your company or this show until I read the NY Times review. I noticed it because I have a friend who is obsessed with all things post-apocalyptic.
The cart is truly amazing. I could barely take my eyes off it. The costumes and props were also wonderful. I loved all the detail and care that had been taken with those specifics.
Becky Byers performance was great! I also enjoyed the physical work done by all the actors.
The story didn’t really grab me but there were some lovely moments and ideas in the text.
Well done! Bravo! Creative, well-painted, text. The whole canvas was captivating. Thanks for the laughs and the inspiration. Congrats to all!
Lynn~
I randomly found Flux theatre on Facebook while looking for something else, reading post apocalyptic vaudeville piqued my interest and at $20 i said why not. Having spent $120 a ticket on so called “top line” shows i can tell you this was the bext $20 i’ve ever spent.
W was enthralled, couldnt believe my eyes and when it was over the only thought i had (apart from wanting to run off with Liz Douglas and form a german punk rock band with her) was how amazing the show was.
Cant wait for the next Flux Theatre performance to see if this was a one off or they can deliver again.
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