Twenty plays later, Michael Whitehill still searches for the magic of community theatre, that moment when cast, script, and audience merges into a transcendent moment of shared experience…..or even fails to project the heart of the play beyond the stage.
After all, every moment of live theatre is an experiment performed by volunteers who willingly risk self-doubt to reach that moment of joy in their craft and the pleasure of drawing us into their story.
It takes an intuitive director like Whitehill to help community theatre actors discover their characters and how they move in concert to unfold a script into a live performance true to the author’s intent.
Church Hill Theatre’s God of Carnage is one of those plays seasoned directors love to get their hands on: it’s a high-wire act of four characters—husbands and wives— on a mission to solve an incident involving their children.
In fact, what is experienced is a complete devolution of manners and best intentions as they unmask their own painful issues. But don’t let the title fool you. The emotional bloodletting is a comedy, the way comedy can reveal our own truth and, in that moment of honesty, laugh out loud in recognition.
The Spy recently talked with Michael White about God of Carnage and working as a director with actors.
This video is approximately six minutes in length. God of Carnage plays through November 19, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and reservations, call 410-556-6003 or go here.
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