Last night was our first rehearsal - five talented actors, the world's best stage manager, and two scene-stealing cats joined me on a partially-painted set in a cool-but-dry tin shed and together we brought five short plays to life, and began the process of seeing how they could coalesce into something special. There were lots of laughs, lots of smiles, and a few profound silences as we read through the plays. It was the first time in months that I'd been back in a rehearsal hall, and it felt great. I slept like one of those aforementioned scene-stealing cats:
This morning life struck back with a vengeance. I woke up with terrible headache that just wouldn't quit. My attempt at taking a day off work didn't pan out. Lots of technical issues mysteriously cropping up. And when I finally did get home I found out that one of our actors had a family member test positive for Covid, so no chance at a rehearsal tonight. All in all, you could say that this day got my goat:
But I push on. I've waited months to get back into rehearsals, so surely I can wait a couple more days. And it's not as if there aren't other things that I should be doing. Actually I'd like to ask you for some help with one of them.
As the regular readers of this blog are well aware, I've actually got two back-to-back weekends blocked off at the Library this summer. My plan all along has been to have two back-to-back productions, and I was even able to work out a rehearsal schedule over the winter that would have allowed me to rehearse both sets of shows over the same time frame and not go completely crazy. However, as is always the case, things don't go according to plan, and it turns out that I've been unable to attract enough of the right kind of actors that I need to stage the plays I had planned. I was looking for women of a variety of ages, and I did find one, but the only other interest came from this ravishing beauty, a Grinder alum from season's past who was all too eager to play the part of a fresh-faced ingenue:
Alas, I had no part for this mighty
tour de force that local audiences know and love. So that leaves me with a dilemma - I have dates in a venue, I have a stage, I maybe even have an audience (a few people are starting to get intrigued by this thing), but I do not have enough actors to fill out a cast, and barely enough time to rehearse them even if I did, without doing detriment to the other show. I've waited all year to do this, and I don't want to simply release the dates and let the opportunity go to waste - I know that one weekend in Ennotville is not enough for me. What am I to do?
I honestly don't know, so I thought I'd ask - what do you think? What should I do to fill the stage for my second week of shows? Maybe I could just do one or two small plays, make it a short night, and squeeze in rehearsals around the other show. Maybe I could perform myself (or use it as dress rehearsal for my solo show in August). Maybe I could do some staged readings of my plays, or plays by other playwrights, workshopping them by day and performing them by night. Maybe I could do an Improv night, or an open stage, and invite anyone with a talent to come and perform. Maybe I could go out and find someone who's got a finished show that's ready to tour, or the run of a show that would like to carry on for a couple more days.
Maybe, maybe, maybe - the possibilities are endless, but I'm stuck at the limits of my imagination, so I'd really love to hear your ideas. Send me a note or leave me a comment - I'll need to make decision soon!
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