Pianissimo

"I'm really not a control freak."

These are the words usually spoken by a true control freak, just before they tell you how they want you to do something. In directing, this can be time consuming, unproductive, and detrimental to the production. One thing Tom Eubanks has begun to instill in me is the ability to let go: I've got a producer, I should use him.

And use him I do. Jerry has been a wonderful blessing in this process so far. He's marched off and tackled all of my obstacles thus far, and he's done so with absolutely no reminders or second guessing. THAT is what a producer is for... a large, sharp machete to clear the director's path towards the Shangri La that opening night should be.

Case in point: my major fret this past week was in finding an accompanist who could guide us through auditions, rehearsals, and of course the productions. I can't play or even read music all that well, and I don't know ANYONE in the area who does. I don't even know very many people in MY area who do, and that's 30 miles away in Woodland Hills. So I bubble it up to Jerry and CC Tom, and viola! Within about 30 minutes, we have a GREAT list of potential candidates. Within a few hours, we'd even managed to find at least one person for auditions, and another few leads for rehearsals and performances.

So the major upside to this is that I can continue my dissection of the script, blocking, pacing, etc. so that Nuncrackers is the best show I can coax out of these performers.

We've mostly finalized the production schedule, only a few juggles of the logistics remaining. For anyone interested, the most current version is available in PDF format here or in Excel format here. Our second production meeting is scheduled tentatively for 8/29 at 6:00 PM in the basement of the McGrath House in heritage square. We'll update timelines and further delineate between costumes and props so that the appropriate groups of people can begin working on them. As with last time, we'll pass out scripts to anyone who doesn't have one, and arrange to get a CD with music to those folks as well.


- Sean