“It is one of those instances where the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the latter has missed the one little point which is the basis of the deduction. The same may be said, my dear fellow, for the effect of some of these little sketches of yours, which is entirely meretricious, depending as it does upon your retaining in your own hands some factors in the problem which are never imparted to the reader.”

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893)

Lake Country Christian School's production of "Sherlock Holmes"

It had been a long while since I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying a good play production, and tonight was a special treat. Not only did I enjoy seeing a friend act, but the play concerned one of my favorite mystery series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes”. Everyone’s favorite hero and protagonist of the series was based off of, not Doyle’s, but William Gillette’s own Broadway adaptation from 1899 when the famous actor added a witty and humorous demeanor to Sherlock, taking the attention of the audience from the darker, more mysterious Holmes that Doyle had originally invented.

I quite enjoyed listening to the recent movie’s original soundtrack that frequently played during the set’s change-outs and intermission. It constantly reminded me of Robert Downy Jr., and I now have the craving to go waste $10 on the soundtrack CD – maybe I’ll do so after I make my first car payment on that G6.

Overall, I must give a round of a applause towards the set crew. In all plays there will be the obvious mistakes that the audience will kindly ignore for the sake of being polite. My eye for detail couldn’t help but spot just about every mistake, but what I noticed more so was the improvisation that the acting crew put on to effectively cover it up. The stage crew knew that they were going to get it from the director after the production, but I would have to disagree entirely on reprimanding anyone for anything that happened. A mistake was made, yes, but it was quickly and effectively fixed.

For instance, the most noted mistake was that the crew was attempting to bring out Dr. Watson’s examination table for the final scene in his office while the lights were still out. Suddenly, the lights turned on when the two taking out the table were practically half way on the floor (keep in mind, we’re in a black box theater, not on your traditional stage – so the whole room can see what’s happening as clear as day). The students rush to get the table back behind stage with bright-red faces and panicked expressions. So now we have a doctor’s exam room with no exam table and only a chair, window, door, and cabinet. What does Watson do when his patient arrives? Why he grabs the chair of course! Without any second thoughts the actor smoothly slides the chair to center stage and our “patient” takes a seat, ready to be examined.

Not bad improvisation at all!

During my team’s military tactical ambush training at Camp Bullis/Fort Sam Houston, my squad’s instructor (who was former special forces and former security forces) taught us a key lesson in tactical warfare: “I’d rather it be ugly and effective, than neat and pretty.”

His point: neat and pretty gets you killed. Ugly and effective gets the job done, and it works. If we look at the play, would the acting have seemed any more real if the examination table was out there? Heck no! It didn’t improve the realism of the play either way. But it did prove the acting ability and kept the audience’s full attention. Later on, I had completely forgotten that there was even supposed TO BE an exam table.

Actors are not trained to follow every que; for that would simply be parroting, not acting. They are trained, instead, to improvise and work with what they’ve got. That is how we’re trained as Warrior Airmen. Nothing will go 100% to plan. When that happens, drop the neat and pretty, and break out the ugly and effective. It works, it gets the job done, and you come home alive. In this case, you end up with a wonderful production.

Two thumbs up to the astounding performance put on Lake Country Christian School! (And a shout-out to Daniel and Adam Harrison! xD)

~Agenda