Crawling towards the next thing

Bad blogger. No treats.

I could tell you how exhausting the whole process of Moon Over Buffalo turned out to be. I could tell you how amazing it is when you get amazing actors playing realized characters. I could tell you how inspirational it is to sit in the back of a dark theater and watch those actors create moments you never thought of, never rehearsed. I could tell you how wonderfully painful it is to just let go of it when you sit back there and release all control.

I could tell you how we were supposed to operate at a loss. How we were told that it was OK to operate at a loss, it was expected. I could tell you how we eventually profited over a thousand dollars and that was almost what I wanted to happen. (I wanted at least two thousand.) I could tell you how we tried new promotionals to get younger crowds to start wanting to see theater again. I could tell you how all of that was rolling a boulder uphill. I could tell you how new ideas are not welcome, and directors who are ready to roll through inefficiency wears out his welcome. I could tell you how I never bothered to say, "See? I was right."

But the truth is I'm too tired, and ready to move on.

For all those reasons and more I'm stuck in this cycle of contemplation. Why aren't I doing more? Why haven't I done more? The concentration I fall into doing these things turns out to be a trap.

I had this image on my head last night. I was in some gigantic space, sitting on the floor. I was building something. Something small and beautiful and fragile. Something that needed nothing less than all of my concentration. My vision became tunneled, everything else swept away. I never noticed the gigantic machines rolling around behind me in the darkness. Giant steel doors with massive locks closed behind me, I never heard. I sat back finally, this thing I made finally complete. I watched it melt away, drift apart like it had to. I stood up and found myself cut off. Again.

(Apologies. We remove ourselves from the land of emo and return you to our regular programming.)

Anywho, houses were rocked, actors had fun, money was made. It was a winner in all respects. The next thing? Who knows. I still have a shitload of writing to do and now the time to do it. Maybe next year another thing (keep looking for good plays, suggestions are welcome). As a matter of fact, you tell me your favorite play and I'll read it, how's that?

Wow, what a time...

Hi...hopefully you're still around and checking this blog. I'd apologize to you if you aren't, but then you're not reading this anyway.

We're nine days away from opening.

Directing Moon Over Buffalo has been pretty much unparalleled in its positivity. I guess the early decisions, the tough ones, are the most important you can make. You put the best people you can in the most appropriate places and the ship basically runs itself.

I won't say there have been no frustrating moments. There have been a few. Differing opinions and all that. Most of it has been organizational or administrative. The cast clicks and works in a way I haven't seen pretty much ever. It makes me wonder, this show in the end will not really be a measure of my abilities as a director. There've been no difficult actors to work with, no obstacle that wasn't worked around relatively easy. If I can take any credit, I guess it would be for two things...

The first is scheduling. Most of the time in community theater you're basically told the few evenings or weekend times you'll be rehearsing. You're pretty much expected to be there for that time whether you're needed for fifteen minuted or three hours. When actors can't be there, someone stands in and the rehearsal proceeds. It works to a certain degree, but this is not what I did. I broke the script into 3-5 page segments, 26 in all. I took every actor's availability and which scenes they were in and scheduled them to be there for the hour that scene would be rehearsed. This might sound simple. It took three passes on the schedule, a couple hours each time, to build a workable plan that got each scene rehearsed twice, room to do full act runs, and leave room for the inevitable cancellations.

It ended up looking like a film shoot schedule, completely out of order. But in the end it worked. Each actor knew that when they walked in for that hour's rehearsal, the attention would be paid solely to that one scene, no matter how long or short. Some were trickier than others to eventually get blocked and designed, but there was always room to run it a dozen times before moving on to the next scene. The repeats were even better. Retention was excellent and eventually I could let them explore a bit in a script that doesn't allow for much improvisation. I thought the first attempts at running the acts would be a mess, nothing had been done in order. It was actually more consistent than I'd ever seen. The performances are already at show level.

The other thing was a new marketing approach. I might be repeating this rant, but no one comes to see community theater anymore. There was a time when each show was well attended, big events that drew large audiences. That was done by the time I arrived in the area. Sure, people will come out for the big ones, Oklahoma, Grease, Jesus Christ Superstar, they're all big productions that people love. In the case of Oklahoma, I have no idea why. But no one takes chances on something they don't know. So our job is to introduce them to it. That's why I shot a trailer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av2uGxrfEik

If you search the internet for theatrical trailers, the first thing you'll see are poorly produced high school plays. Then you'll find some community or small professional theater doing something similar. Usually they take rehearsals (uncostumed, no props, sets, etc.) and give you a slice of them. Or if they're further along in their production they'll do something on their set. The problem with a theater set is that the closer you get, the more it's obviously artifice, and cameras pick that up. We went for a less conventional approach, and that's what you see here.

I don't have any more time at the moment. Directors get busy!