March 19, 2012

  • And Now On To Directing

    And as soon as one show opens...

    I am directing a production of D.L. Coburn's classic two person play "The Gin Game."  It will be opening at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre's River Street Theatre the weekend after "The Drowsy Chaperone" closes.  It's technically my directing debut, but I've directed before. 

    My first time directing was in high school.  I wrote a short play called "A Day In Elizabeth's Court."  It was about Queen Elizabeth I 1/2 (she wasn't quite a whole) and a day of her presiding in judgment over denizens of her kingdom.  It was a bit of a political spoof - her first court case was ruling over the peasant Howard Jarvis (look him up - California property tax history) and it went on to be a murder mystery where everyone had a reason to kill the queen and they'd thought they'd poisoned her.  But she was actually alive and able to solve the case.  It was a lot of fun.  We even got a cardboard Burger King crown and crossed out the word "King" with a Sharpie and wrote "Queen" instead.

    But the 2nd time I directed was only a year ago, when I was co-director of "Scream Queens".  So this will be my first time full-on directing.  And already I don't think I like it.  I didn't realize how much needed to be done before you even have your first rehearsal.

    I asked my friends Linda and Steve a year ago if they wanted to do the play and when they said "yes", I submitted my proposal to do it.  You don't get paid to direct at River Street, but it's your chance to try your hand at directing before possibly directing at the main theatre where you do get paid.  Although I'm sure I will enjoy doing this, my focus is about acting on stage - even though in community theatre the actor does not get paid.

    I also managed to convince the board at the theatre to turn what is normally Free Preview Night into a fund-raiser for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  We are going to charge $25 a seat to see the "sneak preview" and all proceeds will go to the NBCF.  I've already spoken with the NBCF to get their approval as an official fund-raiser for them.  Not only am I helping a great cause, but I'm helping to create a lot more publicity for the show!

    I am still without a phone.  They get in the new digitizer either tomorrow or Wednesday, which means it may be as late as Thursday before I get my phone back.  And since I don't have a land line, it's been very weird to be "off the grid" as it were.  Not really completely off the grid because I still have my computer, obviously.  But I have found that with each passing day, I miss Facebook and Twitter less and less.  Facebook even more so since I haven't posted anything on it for two weeks now.  Only a couple people have noticed enough to post anything.  Just goes to show that I wouldn't be missed all that much if I were to truly go COMPLETELY "off the grid."

    Working a later shift today.  There is some new software that went down and techs across the country going out to our locations to install it and the dept for whom the techs work is asking that someone stay later in our dept just in case West Coast techs run into any problems.  So we are trading off working the 11am - 7:30pm shift.  We each have to do so once every two weeks so that everyone gets a turn.  And this will go on through April.  Steve and Linda can't rehearse Monday nights for now, so this is the only night I can work that later shift.  It was VERY nice to sleep in the extra 2 & 1/2 hours this morning.  Although Fazio was freakin' out by the time the alarm went off.  I thought it was because he needed to go potty - until I heard the other dog collar rattle outside and I knew it was just that he wanted to see who was out there.

    It's also nice to be able to leisurely type this instead of rushing through to get out the door, PLUS I'm having a cup of coffee at home while I'm typing, too!  Usually the coffee has to wait until I get to work.

    VERY dense fog outside this morning.  It was so warm last night I slept with just a sheet.  Finally had to pull the comforter back on this morning about the time the fog came in.  It's going to be ridiculously warm for this time of year the next few days - considering it should still be very snowy, we are hitting 75 - 80 degrees (24 - 27 C) the next three days.  Mind you, I'm not complaining that we've had maybe a total of 5 snow days this Winter, it's just so weird to have the extremely warm temps with it, too.  But it is officially the first day of Spring tomorrow, so it's only appropriate it be so nice!