Months gone

Ugh, I hate that realization too many months later that something could have been done better. Timed tests blow, as it were. I woke up this morning, looked to my left and one of those unanswered questions clicked like a light switch. It looks like I'll need to direct this one again; do it better. That'll be much to the dismay of many. I'd probably use the same cast again, maybe switch out an actor or two just to mix it up. Actually, if the options were there I'd probably recast the lot, save one. It's not that I didn't like their work, in fact I loved it. All four of them will always have a spot in my heart, they helped put a piece of me together, reaffirm my love of directing.
I think I'd like to do some Shakespeare. Usually I'm not a fan, but I've been reading a lot of him this summer and I think I'd pick up a nice chair and hat to look spiffy in, because that's what it's all about, right? Making pretty.

directors notes

With some time past, I've decided to post my notes. They've been sitting on my netbook here, collecting dust and much like reading old notes from acting, I think reviewing these could serve as a nice refresher. I think I'll only post the notes from the final rehearsal... when I sort of lost it a bit. I'm actually surprised it didn't happen sooner. Enjoy:
"What was I supposed to do?" -- give head.

I'm dancing back here.

Nick, Stop raping natalie. Now.

House coat down.

IT"S THE HULK!!

I've been dancing back here.

Now nate and i are singing the 3s company theme.

OH! Your director has snapped like the verb form of snapple but without an 'L'.

Wow, nick cleans up nice.

We want to give Nick a superman curl in his hair.

HI HANK! WE MISS YOU
Oh, miss the rest of the cast, too.!1111!!

Nikki, careful with strong arm movements. You're a strong character who doesn't pick at their clothes.
Dude, I'd LOVE a big cup of copy right now.


"...wHhat?" <3

Great "IF! i do this..."

"You should have been swallowed." (Audience lets it sink in) "Pffft ahahah"

"Any other secrets?" OMG! YOU FOUND YOUR SCRIPT! E>

"Call me if you need me" ... How did Rob Gretta get on my stage?

Fall passes.
(Springs forward)
(Winter Behind)
(Summer... of our discontent)

Nick, button the next button if you can on that shirt... you're still a bit too 70's porn star -- I let's try buttoning to where we can't see the wifebeater

Natalie, wait for laughs to stop between "Champion" and your "...what"

They love it! I'm smiling back here.

I just realized there's a wire coat-hanger on set... I LOVE IT!

Nikki, great strength!

Nikki, Let's try more confusion of "Crushed cup" you weren't there for that conversation. you were naked somewhere, crying.. probably in the shower... waiting for the tears to wash away. Wash away quickly.

Nikki, great backing away.

Hank, we'll probably want to work on that last scene between you and Reese. Less flippant, and some concern needs to be seen.

Natalie, the ghetto hand wave made me giggle. I'm ok with it.

lol, Walt totally, "Ooo"ed slap. i giggled again.

Hank, you know she's good as soon as you see the Grey Goose bottle. It's just concern.

3rd and applicable assignment

Now that my show has ended and I’ve had some down time to process the
whole process, I’m here to mention some surprises I’ve encountered.
Foremost, my opening night didn’t go as well as expected.  It wasn’t so
much that anything went wrong, but their energy was fairly low and a lot
of the genuineness went out the window.  Maybe I should have mentioned
something about it before the show or perhaps I shouldn’t have ran it
twice each rehearsal in the two days prior.  Actually, one of my goals
was to not run the show twice a day; I’ve been in productions in which
that was asked of us and it was much more a hindrance than a help.  I
think that it has a much greater possibility to run the show dry.
However, at the time I knew we weren’t where we needed to be. 
A pleasant surprise though, was my cast.  They all went above and beyond
what was expected of them.  Natalie was a godsend during tech, as well
as spot on with lines and (along with Nikki) wonderfully professional.
At the get-go, I was a bit skeptical of casting a 17 year old in such a
serious and dire role.  Also, most of Nikki’s experience fell into the
musical genre, and I was afraid that would get in her way.  To her
credit though, I thought she played the role in a very realistic
fashion.  Hank was in the same boat.  We all know and love his antics
and they play beautifully on the stage, on the other hand that wasn’t
what my show was about.  One of my first stylistic choices was to do a
real slice of life show.  At points I even let them speak up-stage
because in life, there isn’t an audience to play to.  It was a fun line
I had them balance between keeping the realistic bits in and still
getting their emotions across.  I thought they walked the line quite
fine.  A bit of criticism for Nick now, I had fairly low expectations of
him.  After casting him I heard the tales of his missing rehearsals,
“getting around” to learning his lines, and generally unprofessional
behavior.  At the start, that’s what I got.  He was often late or
getting there just in time, (like hank) he ‘Gist’ed his lines for a bit,
and seemed more concerned with wooing Nikki than for the rehearsal at
hand.  He also neglected to tell me about a prior engagement until the
day before.  Another shot at him: while the rest of the cast was willing
to cancel plans to stay a bit later, he was too busy (he had gotten a
girls phone number and wanted to give her a ring.)  With that said, by
the end he had notably improved.  He was off-book, on time, and very
gung-ho by the end of the rehearsal period.  I would have been worlds
happier if he had started off that way, but we can’t always get what we
want.  
To the question of the day though, there weren’t that many surprises I
didn’t see coming.  For instance, I knew my cast would need more time
than they were given for lines, so I gave them very little, asking to
have them off-book at the return from spring break, about 2 weeks
earlier than actually expected.  (With the exception of Nikki who was
completely off-book upon return)  They were right on schedule.  I was
pretty proud. 
Oh!  One surprise I should have planned for: the working toaster oven.
I probably should have had that in earlier instead of waiting till the
last minute.  Natalie, having never worked with it beyond the 2 shows,
turned it a bit too far when angrily shutting it off and taking out her
bagel. It turned right back on.  Long story short, I ran backstage to
let Nikki know to turn it off the second she was on stage again.  When
she asked her motivation: “You’re motivation is to NOT burn the theater
down with everyone in it.”  She took it well and quite possibly saved
the show. 
As mentioned before though, not many unforeseen crisis.  Would I do the
show again the exact same way?  Hell yes.

Post-show

In good news, the second show went much, much better. All the lines were remembered and heard, there was genuine emotion on stage, and I didn't burn down Waller hall. Wouldn't that be a great act to be remembered for? When I went into this production, my first goal was to not have the "Elijah" play of the semester. For a bit I was quite worried that I would fall into that category; I wrote and directed the play myself and at some points so much did not go according to plan half of the set and blocking was made up on the spot. Rehearsals were called off because a dire cast member didn't show, the acting wasn't consistent in spots, and i maintained skepticism in reference to my script.
Oh, and I almost burnt down Waller. Not sure if too many caught that, but I had a working toaster oven on the set and during Saturday's show, Natalie got a little overzealous in turning it off and set it to "bake"... Then the rest of the cast let it go until I finally found one back stage and asked Nikki to turn it off. "Listen, your motivation for turning it off is 'Ariel wouldn't want to set fire to a room full of people'"
Now, I'm starting on another show with the working title of "godless" wherein an atheistic astronomer peers into his telescope and accidentally finds God. With any luck I'll get to put my directing chops to the test again next semester/year.

Post-open

What a let down. Really. Thursday night my cast was amazing. Near flawless... Now though, they lost it all. Lines were lost, jumbled, and all around shat on. The timing was off on the jokes, and i'm all around disappointed. This is what it feels like to work on something for months and have it all for naught. I have this feeling that the audience didn't take much, if anything, from the show. That's probably the worst bit. The good bits include: Nikki B in the second scene, Hank and the opening, Nat standing up at the end and Nick's monologue was alright. Of course, I'm probably being far too harsh, I still love my cast.
I can only pray tomorrow will be better. Too bad I'm an atheist.

For a while now, I've felt that my show was ahead of the curve. Now though, we're sorely behind. In worse news, the migraines are coming back. That's personal crap though, and I've been trying to compartmentalize the personal and the professional. For the most part, my show's going well but unfortunately, a bit of backtracking was done and I'm not sure it was all my fault for doing more tech work yesterday than actually rehearsing. Tonight blocking was wrong, lines were changed, and all the emotional work we've done was off. I think my one cast member is having issues keeping their outside life separate from the show. Namely, a fucking game. Now, I'm playing it too, and it's good fun, but when rehearsal time rolls around, my head is in the studio and studio only. I made note of it earlier tonight, but only in passing. He has one run to get his focus back, or I make no promises on the kindness of the words that will leave my mouth.
I mean, I've taken lengths to keep nice with my cast and it's served me well for most of them. In good news though, choosing Nate Moser as my stage manager was probably the smartest thing I've ever done since I've been doing things ever. He's on top of things, he catches technical stuff that slips under my radar, and keeps me sane. He's also just as enthusiastic to be involved with this as my cast.
Well, I've just taken actions to hopefully ensure my full casts' attention at rehearsals.
Fingers crossed it works.
ciao

A copy of my script

it's viewable at:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddr5krrv_0twf79zck