30. The Dog’s the Thing
Lessons of the 'Troupe 1931' Theater Ensemble
The original author of these essays was Ingeborg Franke von Wangenheim.
By the end of summer 1932, we were performing an edited version of “There Lies the Dog” to friends and allies, in closed rehearsals. All its “stage magic” played in our favor with these audiences — and, this time around, they refrained from writing about it.
There was one problem, however: The play was too long. There was also confusion about its many ambiguities. Wangenheim was forced to delete material, rearrange it, then delete some more. The director lacked the time he wanted to really work on the play, however. (If you’re going to write a short and succinct script, you need a lot more writing time.) Nevertheless, he ran changes through our rehearsals, right up until the final week.
How relieved we were to be able to stage the show — and be confident about it — in time for its premiere, on October 18 that year.
