Directapaloozed
It's over.
At 2:49 a.m., Sunday, May 25th, I exited the Guys & Dolls cast party, and that was it. The show was done and, with it, Directapalooza '07/'08. I am not eager for another Directapalooza again.
Billy Aronson's "Bleep This Bleep" for The Earl Hamner, Jr. Theater's 6x6: A Festival of Hamner Playwrights
to
Leanna Brodie's The Vic for Mary Baldwin
to
Suzan-Lori Parks's In the Blood for Live Arts Theatre
to
Jo Swerling, Abe Burrows, and Frank Loesser's Guys & Dolls for Play On! Theatre.
Four shows,
back to back.
If I'd gotten paid for all of these, I'd be in good shape right now. Sigh.
To say Guys & Dolls was well received would be an understatement. Audiences loved the show. It started breaking attendance records for the two year-old Play On! in the first week and was responsible for Play On!'s first sell-out crowd (though it was on a pay-what-you-can night). We did some nice work, but our re-imagining of "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" was a high point. It did what that number is supposed to do. It literally stopped the show. I've heard of show stopping numbers before, but never in my whole theatrical career have I actually seen it happen before now, an instance where the audience just clapped and clapped and clapped and the show stopped while the applause went on. This didn't happen in the last week of the run. I think the word had gotten out by then, and people walked in with expectations. Still it was nice to see it happen multiple times in the early part of the run.
I am pleased and I am proud that I made it through and didn't let anyone down professionally. And now that I've done such a load, I'm not in a rush to do it again. I think two shows back-to-back is what I can comfortably do, and that is what I have lined up next season.
Next season I start the year with a production of Nunsense for the college and then I go into directing a version of A Christmas Carol for Four County Players and that's it. We'll see what those will be like.
For now, I am cleaning my apartment, bit by bit, recovering from what I now suspect is an allergy attack and not just random sinus trouble, sleeping more than I ever thought I could (when not coughing and blowing my nose) (having the weirdest and grandest dreams), and looking toward the playwriting class I'll take in Roanoke that starts the week after next.
I thank everyone for their patience, support, and tolerance of this mad enterprise. In the end, those shows ended up entertaining a lot of people, and that's not a bad thing at all.
At 2:49 a.m., Sunday, May 25th, I exited the Guys & Dolls cast party, and that was it. The show was done and, with it, Directapalooza '07/'08. I am not eager for another Directapalooza again.
Billy Aronson's "Bleep This Bleep" for The Earl Hamner, Jr. Theater's 6x6: A Festival of Hamner Playwrights
to
Leanna Brodie's The Vic for Mary Baldwin
to
Suzan-Lori Parks's In the Blood for Live Arts Theatre
to
Jo Swerling, Abe Burrows, and Frank Loesser's Guys & Dolls for Play On! Theatre.
Four shows,
back to back.
If I'd gotten paid for all of these, I'd be in good shape right now. Sigh.
To say Guys & Dolls was well received would be an understatement. Audiences loved the show. It started breaking attendance records for the two year-old Play On! in the first week and was responsible for Play On!'s first sell-out crowd (though it was on a pay-what-you-can night). We did some nice work, but our re-imagining of "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" was a high point. It did what that number is supposed to do. It literally stopped the show. I've heard of show stopping numbers before, but never in my whole theatrical career have I actually seen it happen before now, an instance where the audience just clapped and clapped and clapped and the show stopped while the applause went on. This didn't happen in the last week of the run. I think the word had gotten out by then, and people walked in with expectations. Still it was nice to see it happen multiple times in the early part of the run.
I am pleased and I am proud that I made it through and didn't let anyone down professionally. And now that I've done such a load, I'm not in a rush to do it again. I think two shows back-to-back is what I can comfortably do, and that is what I have lined up next season.
Next season I start the year with a production of Nunsense for the college and then I go into directing a version of A Christmas Carol for Four County Players and that's it. We'll see what those will be like.
For now, I am cleaning my apartment, bit by bit, recovering from what I now suspect is an allergy attack and not just random sinus trouble, sleeping more than I ever thought I could (when not coughing and blowing my nose) (having the weirdest and grandest dreams), and looking toward the playwriting class I'll take in Roanoke that starts the week after next.
I thank everyone for their patience, support, and tolerance of this mad enterprise. In the end, those shows ended up entertaining a lot of people, and that's not a bad thing at all.
posted by - caj at 10:36 AM
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