night’s « Theatrical Musings

It feels like it has been forever since I updated this site and with good reason. First, I was in Las Vegas at the Catersource/Event Solutions conference at the Las Vegas Hilton and then I had tech week for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Needless to say, it was a exhausting 2 weeks which I am only now recovering from.

Midsummer has gone exceptionally well and in many cases better than exceptionally well. It had a better opening weekend than any show over the last two seasons. Normally, I would be doing jumping jacks and cheering, but I’m actually not very surprised. See, I have realized something very interesting about this show

The Universe has been working for the last 20 years to get this show in place.

No, I’m not crazy. Yes, I realize I sound like a New Age crazy person, but just go with me for a second……

So, orginally I was to direct Accomplice by Rupert Holmes which was to open on March 6 of this year. We had everything in place (except actors) but it just didn’t feel right. Our theater needed a hit and something low cost and Accomplice was probably not going to be that (especially not with the BEAST of a set that it required). My wife came up with a great idea to do A Midsummer Night’s Dream and I approached my Artistic Director with it….and she said yes. So, 100 days ago, we completey changed the show.

That required a whole new list of designers, adding a dramaturg, figuring out how to fit 18 actors into our little space (we eventually dropped it down to 15) and a whole other slew of problems which, with some creativity, we solved. We cast the show, it opened to a great audience, it was a hit….and cheap to do.

But looking at all the crazy things that happened…I can’t help feel that the Universe set this show into motion YEARS ago.

Have you ever had a show like that? I mean all shows have some feeling of comraderie attached to them, but it’s usually a, “Hey this is pretty cool! I’m sure glad I got to work with you!” kind of feeling. Not so here. Everything fell into place and I often wonder if I’ll ever have a show like this again.

I think we all work to ward having that feeling, where everyone gets along and everyone looks forward to going to rehearsal. Where you almost don’t want to open because that means the end of play time with the director and the actors. Where people you cast have random connections to each other that you didn’t even know was possible.

For example:

– I asked my wife to co-costume design and help me cast. I asked a friend of mine to do the set design. The set designer was in a show at his college. He told a fellow cast member about the auditions and that gentlemen came to read for the part of Lysander. The guy who came to read Lysander went to high school with my wife and they hadn’t seen each other in years.

– My producer found my dramaturg who was in Romeo and Juliet with me year prior. My producer had no knowledge of that…and my dramaturg and I both forgot the other one was in that show until midway through auditions

– I was in Romeo and Juliet with another person who founded a Shakespeare only troupe with the gentleman I cast as Oberon. Had no idea they knew each other

– The gentleman I cast as Oberon works in the same department I used to work in at a local Casino….we know the same people but never worked together

– The lovely lady I cast as Titania went to the same church in Chula Vista I went to as a kid….never met each other.

-The guy I cast as Lysander (the one who knew my wife) has a best friend who was my wife’s high school boyfriend….is now “hanging out” with girl who plays Titania

– My dramaturg brought me my awesome Assistant Director, who also randomly is an acquaintance of my set designer….and I hadn’t met her until auditions

– 2 of my actors started dating (not unusual, but still pretty cool)

I’m sure there are more, but the amazing coincidence are just astounding. Which makes me realize the power that theatre has. Everyone got along, everyone is friends with everyone else. We hang out outside of rehearsal, for fun. The creativity was astounding….every element just perfectly fit and got what we were doing. I have never worked in any other medium where that has happened.

Theatre truly is more than the sum of its parts and this show proves it. This is why we do it and I know I will spend the rest of my life trying to find another show that works like this one does.