Tonight is the first read through for Moon Over Buffalo. I'm terribly excited, anxious, nervous, amped, and mildly nauseous all at the same time.
My experience so far has been about half wonderful, half terrifying. Prepping for getting into rehearsals, in essence really getting the show moving, involves a lot of what-ifs, 'oh shit' moments where some small but crucial detail needs to be written down RIGHT NOW before I forget it. (Like a production staff. I keep needing to write THAT one down.)
The board of the group has been unconditionally wonderful in dealing with me and letting me know that there are plenty of people who are experienced and willing to help. In fact, they keep reminding me. Throughout the audition process there were always several board members hanging out in the theater office just in case I needed something.
Speaking of auditions. Woa. MOB has eight parts, four men and four women. Over two nights of auditions I had twenty three actors read.
I was hoping for six.
Out of the twenty three, easily eighteen could have been cast. In fact, most of the actors were so good I went home the last night with a raging headache and a burning need for a stiff cocktail. I realized I could pretty much pull names out of a hat and assign actors at random. Admittedly, in terms of crises, this was pretty low on the terrible scale. It did mean disappointing a lot of people I really respect, if not consider friends. Hard choices had to be made, and as a new director I chose the cast I could be most comfortable with, that had the experience or talentto hit the ground running. In essence, a cast that could cover where I make mistakes.
Thankfully, everyone is thrilled about doing the show. Even those who weren't cast liked the audition process, which was different than most. People are already getting themselves off book, and ready for an absolutely crazy rehearsal process.
One unenvied job of being a director is scheduling the rehearsals. What's often impossible is taking ten adults who have jobs, children, volunteering, and whatever other obligations that naturally supercede theater and putting them all into one room at the same time. This script also has no great stretches of three or four actors. Lightning entrances and exits, separated by enough time that rehearsing all of that would be difficult. So I took the script and diagrammed all the actors entrances and exits. Then I sliced the script into twenty five segments. Yes, folks, twenty five. Combining the two I carved out a schedule that actually might work. Then I did it again.
This is what it looks like...
