This is a short passage written based on my observation, and my point of view.
After Dangerous Liaisons ended around 5.20pm for the matinee show, the audiences walks out the theatre. From the staircase where i walk down, i could see the reception table, where a man in his 30's was sitting on the reception table, looking out for the response of the audiences who catch the play. He was none other than the producer of DL, Rabil Lian.
'Hi.' I greet to him.
'You are...' he asked, with a puzzling look.
'Sam Ding, the guy who requested to buy the student's ticket.'
'Oh hi!' We shake our hands together.
and that began our conversation.
From the short conversation, he asked for my feedback on the play, and we talked about the cast, being in drama society and so on...not much, cos this is a short conversation which barely lasted about 3-5mins. As i was about to leave, we shake hands together again and again, and in the end, we shake our hands 4 times. And we say bye bye to each other.
This may seem to be nothing, but i personally feels that it is worth to talk about. Why? I am now supporting my stand with 2 points:
1) Rabil leaves me a very friendly and kind impression. Though he won several awards related to drama productions in acknowledgements to the contributions he puts in, he do not put up any air on others, or sometimes what my friend says, very 'diao.' (aka one was so proud of himself that they do not even bother to greet people.) Yeah, he was nice enough to ask for the feedback of his play politely. His friendly personality has won half a battle in his next production. Why ? Take Cameron Crowe as a very good example. He do not really bother to interact with his audiences when he was here in S'pore few years back for the gala premier of Vanilla Sky. He walks up to the theatre after giving away a few autographs. In the end, it was Tom Cruise's friendly personality who saves the day.
2) Do not see much producers or directors asking for feedbacks on their production from the audience. Even so, it would be done on stage for drama plays, and cocktail reception for movie gala premiers. Rabil was one of the few who would walk to the reception table and wait for the feedback. Why at the reception table? No one would ever walk on to the stage when the show comes to an end, cos they want to leave the theatre. In fact, in my own view, most would not even bother to provide feedbacks. To know how's the production like, go and ask from the crowd. And where is the best place to ask? Most of the time it is located at the theatre's entrance. And it just happened that the reception is at the entrance. So, this is a good chance to ask for feedback. If one is going to wait for the audience to walk up to the stage for feedback, they should jollywell stay at the backstage, cos no one would really bother to tell them, 'hey, i feel that this play...' by walking up to the stage itself.
That few minutes might seem to be unimportant to the audiences, but it means a lot to the people behind the stage. This is a chance for them to know what the audience expects in their next production. And yes, their personality also plays a part in it.
Hope to see Rabil's next production in future. : )