What's the deal with a Preview?

What is a preview?

We get this question a lot. Folks want to know if they'll see a whole performance, or if a preview is really a rehearsal that will stop and start.

A preview is simply one of the first (or in some cases the first) performance for an audience. In most cases, just like in New York, previews are priced less than the later performances, starting with the official "opening night."

So, to answer those common questions:

• YES! You will absolutely see a full production.
• NO! A preview is not a rehearsal that will stop and start. Seeing a preview is seamless to an audience member.

For a locally produced show, it is often the first opportunity for the actors and crew members to gauge audience reaction -- when are people going to laugh? When are people going to applaud? Should that light cue come a half second earlier? Should that music cue be one second later? Large touring Broadway shows also may choose to have previews. These shows already have a good gauge of audience reaction and their technical needs since they have probably performed their show hundreds of times, but they are adjusting to a new space. So, they might need to cue a scenic element to fly in a few seconds earlier or later than they did in their last city, because it has to travel a longer (or shorter) distance.

These minor behind-the-scenes adjustments are to make the cast and crew more comfortable in their new surroundings.

Any comments or questions about previews (or anything else)? Let us know and we'll be happy to answer!

Final Jobsite Theater play of 0607: Hurlyburly

Jobsite Theater, resident theater company at TBPAC, previews the final show of their 0607 season tonight - David Rabe's Hurlyburly.

Hurlyburly is a gritty comedy-drama about some bit players in the Hollywood scene circa 1984. From Jobsite's release:

Eddie's world exists at the very juncture where Hollywood meets the mountains, where the almost-rich and not-yet-famous live on cheap thrills and heady ambition while searching for true love and redemption. Here, Eddie and his three best friends engage in a wild life of witty repartee and snappy come-backs, of ex-wives and future lovers, of hard partying and late nights, of sex, lies and self-obsession.

Hurlyburly is a scathingly funny and touchingly human story about the quest for meaning in our modern times. Eddie and his friends continue their entertaining and manic pursuit of sensation – until a series of encounters with destiny, decadence and even death convinces Eddie to plunge beneath the surface and discover his soul.

In more than one way this play takes us back full circle to where Jobsite began the 0607 season with Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman. Like Pillowman, both plays are darkly comic and nearly three hours in length. They both, due to all manner of adult content, are intended for mature audiences only. Steve Garland and Ryan McCarthy, who respectively played Katurian and Ariel in Pillowman, also star in the lead roles in Hurlyburly.

Tonight's preview tickets are dirt cheap. If you're a student, senior or member of the military they are even cheaper. This is for a few reasons - we like getting an audience in before we have all of our season ticket holders and the critics to take the nerves out, and the preview audience helps us better gauge the plays overall and moment by moment effectiveness. Win-win, really.