What Now?

So you've done the lesson plans, workshops and rehearsals. It's opening night. What now?

Talkback

A talkback is a dialogue between the cast, crew and audience. Any performance of "The (Sexual) Liberation of Mammy" (whether it be a readthrough or a full-on production) should have a talkback.

Here is a sample of questions that we used during our talkbacks:
- What are some moments (lines of text/images/etc) that stood out to you?
- How did the use of black memorabilia affect you?
- Have you been able to identify images like this before? And if so, where?
- Do you think the themes of this play relate to our community?

The key to a talkback is to not overwhelm an audience with prepared questions; they will naturally end up asking about things they want to talk about. These questions should be seen more like prompts.


Reflection


During the talkbacks, I realized that our cast and crew had a lot to say, in some instances, more than the audience members. Even though the cast was constantly reflecting in journals or on their own, we hadn't had much time to talk as an ensemble about what the work was bringing up for us. I encourage you to set aside a day to reflect as a cast and crew about the script as a whole once the full production is over. You'll be surprised what wonderful ideas will be brought up.