In the right direction…

Tonight we met with our director for Oedipus for Kids! It was a long meeting and even involved the three of us reading the script together (which I always feel weird about doing, since I’m not at all an actor). But we were able to address a lot of the “open questions” that still remained in some earlier versions of the script.

We’re planning on doing a fair amount of re-writing to the Oe4K script to get it polished up for the festival. Which is reasonable, since it only took us about 4 weeks to write the whole thing. In fact, this is probably Gil’s favorite story to tell (the story of how we came to write this thing in the first place).

Along with the revisions, we’re also looking at a summer filled with press reps, general managers, contract signings, advertising, and musical directors.

That also means a summer filled with fundraising. Oy.

Finally found a man…

And he’s going to be great. I’m very pleased. He’s reading the script and will come for his first rehearsal on Monday.

Also, the postcards for Absence arrived. I’m actually pretty pleased with them, considering that they were at a bargain price.

Things are slowly coming together. And then tomorrow night, we have our first official meeting with the director for Oe4K.

And he shall be called Oedipus…

“It’s Greek for ’swollen foot.’”

Oedipus for Kids! will have its WORLD PREMIERE performance on
Tuesday, September 12th at 8:00pm at the Sage Theatre
(no, we’ve never heard of it either).

Other performances (in addition to the WORLD PREMIERE) on:

Thursday, September 14 at 8pm
Saturday, September 16 at 8pm
Sunday, September 17 at 4:30pm
Wednesday, September 20 at 8pm
Sunday, September 24 at 4:30pm

You’ve been warned.

Workin’ 9 to 5

I’m certainly hoping that the IRS will consider this to be a small business when I file my taxes next year: I’ve just spent the last 8 hours working on theater stuff.

Had a great rehearsal this afternoon with Sarah (of Absence); it was especially nice because we went and sat in the park in the sunshine and reviewed the script and discussed her character.

Spent the rest of the afternoon working on the postcards… waiting until the last minute is, in fact, not the best way to get things done. Still, I had some lovely (read: sarcasm) experiences creating files in Photoshop and looking forward to the nice, glossy printing job.

Hey, when you have a shoestring budget, you get what you pay for. What I can pay for is real printing, but not a real graphic designer.

And they’re off!

We had our first rehearsal for Absence on Thursday night and it went really well. Granted, we didn’t have a man actor, but we had a stand-in who did a great job. Mostly, I was really impressed with how well the two ladies did with the very first read-through.

Maybe I’ll give a little background on the production… it’s happening at the Midtown International Theater Festival (MITF) in late July. The show is part of their Studio Series, which basically means that I give them a little bit of money and they give me a little bit of space, and we’re all very happy. They get a small percentage of my box office gross and I get some marketing assistance, plus a performance space with a rep plot.

It’s a really great way to put on a small, simple show… especially one that doesn’t need a big set or fancy lighting cues. I like doing shows there because I still get a lot of control over the production (I was allowed to choose my own performance dates). It becomes a really simple way to make theater and have great learning experiences.

Plus, MITF — being titled the “Midtown Festival” — is terribly convenient to my midtown office. So it’s really easy to take a few minutes out of the work day to run over to the space for whatever reason.

An "Oedipus For Kids" introduction

Kim’s been doing all the writing, so I figured I’d pipe in.

Hi.

Since most of Kim’s writing has been Absence-related , which I keep misspelling, I figured I’d do a little bit of explanation of our upcoming NYMF musical, “Oedipus for Kids!“

If Absence is the deep garden hoe of Rake Theatre, then Oe4K is what I’d call the Fisher Price Rake:
You know… doesn’t plow as deep, but very colorful.

Oedipus For Kids’ premise revolves around three members of the Fuzzy Ducks Theatre Company, whose purpose is to bring the classics to children via theatre. For some reason, after recently acclaimed productions such as Walden: Thoreau Takes a Time-Out and Uncle Tommy’s Cabin, the artistic director has decided that this week’s classic should be the Greek myth of Oedipus.

As the children’s production goes down into a Charybdis-like whirpool of suck, the performers
remain confounded by the question of how the hell you portray such a screwed up myth to elementary-schoolers. Meanwhile, we hope that you too will be confounded by the question of how the hell you portray such a screwed up myth to elementary-schoolers.

In fact, we’re hoping you are confounded enough to want to come. For more information, check us out on NYMF.

It’s not exactly raining men…

Still no man actor. My replacement lead panned out too. I guess because I have a specific idea in mind about who this character should be, I’m wary of searching in too many places. I don’t want to have to turn people down just because of someone who doesn’t have the right “look.”

Except that rehearsals start the day after tomorrow. Maybe there’s time to rewrite the entire show into a 2 person piece? No, that’s truly insane. I’ll email a few people tomorrow with possible leads. Worst case, I’ll have someone fill in for the role during Thursday’s readthru.

But on the happy news front, Oedipus for Kids! has a real director! A real, grown-up director!

Time Management

Ok, so scheduling = not fun. You know how hard it is to find time to do all of the things you need to do in your own life? Try adding two more people to your calendar, plus a currently-non-existent 3rd person who may or may not have a lot of free time. Well, since I’ve already started making the rehearsal schedule, the actor’s ability to commit to most of the dates on there is going to be a key factor in casting him.

I’m grateful that I don’t have to worry about scheduling on an Equity Showcase contract. There are all sorts of rules about how many rehearsals there can be, for how long, etc. These are all very important rules, but just won’t apply in this case. Everyone involved in this production works… several people work full-time. So we’d never come close to running the type of rehearsals that would overtax our actors.

Thank god for a short running time too.

Of course, this also means that the man actor I find should not be Equity. Hmm… now seeking non-union man in mid-thirties with no social life. Great.

Actually, I do have one serious comment about the whole Equity/non-Equity casting thing. I often joke about how I hate using Equity actors because I don’t want to pay for insurance (note to those involved in current production: yes, I will be getting us insurance. Don’t worry). But it’s also really nice to give opportunities to people who are actors in addition to a day job, or who are still building up enough stage credits. It doesn’t mean they’re not talented, and in fact, I’ve seen some pretty crappy actors who still manage to get the * next to their name in programs. Just that we all have to start somewhere… and that we do it because it’s fun and it makes us happy.

Except when deeply immersed in the muck and mire of scheduling.

An Absence Absence

Finally have the dates for the production at the Midtown International Theater Festival (I’m on the “choose your own adventure” plan), but ended up losing my male actor. Better to find out about it sooner rather than later (and he was a total gentleman about it), but it was not exactly the news I was hoping for. Rehearsals start Thursday night, and I’m missing 1/3 of the production. 1/4 if you count the peacock.

Since I’m still making last minute rewrites to the script, I actually contemplated just writing the character of John out completely. Change from a drama about grown-up relationships to a total family piece. Then realized that the idea was insane. I guess I mentioned that rehearsals start Thursday night?

I think I have a few good leads on a replacement. Wait, it’s not a replacement if the person never actually started, is it?

Kick-off Party

Tonight was our first big gathering as a theater company… a highly successful event. With the two shows coming up, it seemed like a good chance to put everyone who will likely be working together in the same room. We did the whole “mingle” thing for a while, but it seemed like there were very definite groups forming. Forming and not budging. So about halfway through the evening, we called everyone together to talk a little bit about what we had hoped to accomplish as a company and shared some info about the productions. Afterwards, interactions seemed more fluid.

Worst case, if the shows don’t turn out to be commercial successes, we will sell chocolate cupcakes and “Butterscotch Nibble” to sustain ourselves.