Plugging along

The "Conversations" progress is moving along nicely. The two missing tables arrived on the same day as the tablecloths that will cover all three tables. Some of the other fine details are getting worked out (venue, electrical matters, lighting and sound decisions and such like). Still a few holes to fill in and volunteers to locate, but it gets closer to a complete picture each day. We had production discussions earlier this week, and we regroup for another read-through next week. Then after Labor Day, we get down to the "real" rehearsal schedule.

In the meantime, Labor Day Weekend will include some labor. It will be move-in time for the KLT "The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon," and time to start setting up lights and programming of same. Plus hoping to grab and transport at least some of the flats and related items we need for our show. Busy weekend coming up!!

We are underway!

In addition to roughly a million little details of minutiae, trying to pull together the various pieces for putting this play on stage, we've now had the excitement of having the whole cast together in a room reading the script. Out loud. With laughter. If I'd had more sleep recently, I would be TOTALLY excited. As it is, I'm pretty darned excited, anyway.

The real revelation to me continues to be finding out that this is a funnier script that I imagined. I'm sure putting it in the hands of a great set of actors makes a lot of difference. Not that there aren't still some peaceful moments (as there should be) and a couple of touching moments (or at least I hope so) -- but both at auditions and last night, there was laughter among us. And that, for me, is a very good thing. I never wanted it to be TOO heavy, but I think current audiences want some humor when they go out.

We have a cast. We have a director who has clearly been doing ALL her homework (thanks, Myla!) We have a rehearsal space that should be ready in time if all the pieces come together in a timely fashion. Jim Lehman, who is a wood-working man and has done a lot of set-building for KLT, has most politely agreed to build the window units we need. And we have other volunteers coming on board who will help out so much. Not to even suggest I was ever a non-believer, but as these items come along, I believe more and more that we can really pull this thing off. Whew! That's a relief.

The cast is set.

We were able to have our final auditions tonight, and were able, after more tough decisions, to settle on the last role. The cast is complete, and we're only two days away from our first read-through. The pulse is undeniably starting to pick up.

And so, the very exciting cast of "Conversations in a Cafe" will be:

Kathy Anne Cissna (Susan)

Carson Elizabeth Gregory (Meredith)

Rebecca Clark Mills (Jenny)

Brad Phillis (Brad)

Cheryl Ann Roberts (Ellie)

Michael Shapiro (Joshua)

Scott Terrill (Carl)

Cameron Williams (Don)

Mary Lea Williams (Gina).

Well, very exciting to me, at the very minimum.

And off we go!

Auditions seemingly successful

I am very excited to report that our two nights of auditions for "Conversations in a Cafe," just completed, went very well, maybe even better than expected. We had more folks, especially men, than we anticipated, which made for some very difficult decisions about who might be right for which part. But ultimately, we were able to cast four of the five remaining roles at the end of the second evening, and we hope to do callbacks for the remaining male role soon. First read-through is a week from today, so we gotta get that finished!

Anyway, we saw and cast a good Don, Joshua and Carl from the first night's attendees, and found (to my great relief because, even though this is an ensemble show and everybody's important, I think of her as the glue that holds it all together), a fine Meredith on the second night. So we only need to nail down Brad at this point.

What was a great revelation and a lot of fun for me was seeing our pre-cast ladies reading with the candidates and starting to figure out that there is more humor and laughter in the show than I ever imagined. I've always said that yes, there are some funny moments, but we were coming across more in the short side segments than I thought could be found in the whole script. Seeing these characters spring to life after living in my head for four years is just more exciting than I could imagine. And having such a great group of dedicated people -- especially Myla, our director, who has already done a ton of work and not only understands the show as I see it but is already bringing new thoughts I never had to it -- is making for a collaborative effort that just thrills. Playwrights who have had a production have probably already been there. For me, it is new food for inspiration.

We begin the rehearsal process next Wednesday, and then we're off and running. Should be a fascinating but also hopefully reasonably painless process if we can make it that way.

We've done a bunch of the shopping for set items and more -- now have a base to connect with a small round top for our "bar height" table, and an order has been placed for the other two tables we need. A magazine rack and a chalkboard to hang; lots of discussions on set design/construction, technical matters ... it's all good. And it's all moving along. We hope!

Not much time for playgoing lately, but we did catch Stained Glass Playhouse's "Evita" a few days back. It was a reasonably good production with some stand-out performances, but I fear the show itself is not one that's destined to become a favorite. On the ALW front, I'll say "yes" to "Joseph" and "Jesus Christ, Superstar" and "no thanks" to "Evita," "Cats" and "Phantom."

The serious work begins

I'm guessing at this point that it will be a rare day from here through October that doesn't have SOMETHING to do with preparing for "Conversations in a Cafe." Tuesday night was a good example: Myla O'Brien, our fearless director, was here at the house along with Kathy and Cheryl Ann Roberts (who will play Susan and Ellie, respectively, in the show). We had an early audition with an actor who could not be here during the regularly-scheduled auditions (for a totally enviable reason), followed by a wide-ranging discussion of planning for the show, and taking notes regarding first-act blocking from the director to meld into the play's script.

Meanwhile, the search is on for various stage furniture and dressing items, along with various props, all of which need to come together reasonably soon. Today, I also spent time with the director at Korner's Folly, where we'll produce the show, working on a variety of subjects that will make the actual production go smoother. Good meeting!

And then I discovered the place in Greensboro, thanks to a lead from the afore-mentioned actor, that has a lot of used and new restaurant furnishings and equipment. Hog heaven! I now have a little less to worry about in regards to where I might find the things we need. This is a good thing!

CATF entertaining, "Conversations" taking on life of its own

So back some months ago, I decided and committed to going up to Shepherdstown, WV for a second year to take in some of the new plays at CATF. For those who don't know, Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) is in its 20th year, working on the campus of Shepherd University and using its facilities to present, nowadays, five new works each summer with an Equity cast and providing lots of opportunities for Shepherd and other young theater students to work shows.

A good friend of ours is the business manager there, and she convinced me last year to make the trip, and I found it quite worth it. All three shows I saw, I felt, were worthy and entertaining within my vision of what constitutes entertaining theater.

This year, I was set to see three more shows, but ended up dropping one of them in order to accommodate a reviewer who wanted to get into a sold-out performance. For me, it worked out well, for my overall favorite this year, "Breadcrumbs," is the show I picked up to replace the one I was going to miss. Yay! It was only a little over an hour long, but very touching, very well performed, a very nice lighting design by Colin Bills (one of Andy's friends in the DC theater lighting group) and just no false notes I could discern. The story deals with a young woman seeking some kind of purpose and an older woman writer starting to disappear into Alzheimers. Liked it a whole lot!

I wish I could be as enthusiastic about the rest of my stay. I liked the second show, "Inana," quite well, but it wasn't earth-shattering, though it did a fine job of tapping into a culture less known to the average American. It deals with a newly-married Iraqi couple -- an arranged marriage -- and we slowly learn why they have ended their marriage day, which started back at home, in a hotel in London. It's a good mystery, and was generally well-acted, and there's certainly a tension. But one of the transitions, to me, seemed a little abrupt -- my feeling was the playwright could have given a few more lines to smooth the transition. Others felt it might have been weakness on the part of the actress. I didn't see that, but I certainly felt there was room for improvement somehow! And that in turn stole a little bit from the play's overall impact.

And then my last show. Wow. "The Eelwax Jesus 3D Pop Music Show." Allegedly a musical, though actually sort of a disguised rock/pop concert with a fair amount of pretty uninteresting music and a fair number of disjointed images being thrown out on either side of where they placed the band. I can only say I've never seen a more random conglomeration of stuff being thrown on a stage. They could have saved a lot of room in the program by calling it "Random," in fact. I made it to the end, but it was a close thing on bailing at intermission. It would surprise me very much if this show made anything other than noise anywhere else in the future.

Now back in the Triad, and even while I was gone, the details and planning for "Conversations in a Cafe" began to show that time is growing shorter and suddenly the work is going to have to get serious. Finding prop and set dressing items; contracting for the music license rights; buying additional lighting instruments; planning for auditions; getting the script ready to copy for read-through; contacting production folks; and a lot of other correspondence. There's a lot to putting on a play! (In case you didn't already know that.)

Catching up on the play-going reports

As I sit here in front of the computer listening to "The Music of Providence Gap" and being reminded what a lovely talent Laurelyn Dossett is, I'm also reminded that I haven't yet caught up on the various shows we've seen since late May. It's about time!

On Memorial Day weekend, we made a now-traditional pilgrimage to Charleston, SC to spend a little time with our son, Andy, and take in some of the many fine offerings of Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto. Normally, this means 5 to 7 shows of some kind or another over a long weekend. This year was no exception. In addition to a jazz performance, we had six shows to see during our stay.

Of those six shows, three of them were presented by student actors present and past of the College of Charleston, and all three of those had something about them worth seeing. Two -- "Lone Star" and "Thom Pain (Based on Nothing)" -- were new to us, and the latter in particular -- a one-man performance -- kept one's attention especially well. The third was a presentation of Neil LaBute's "reasons to be pretty," which we had also seen on Broadway with a fabulous set and a good cast. Even with a simple set on a simple stage, the cast did a fine job with the play.

Another show we took in was "(title of show)," an amusing little musical about a couple of guys and their friends trying to create a successful musical. This was done out at the Village Playhouse, which has done a decent job with earlier shows we've seen (they're in Mount Pleasant). We had fun with it, but it's hardly a brain-teaser or challenging in any major fashion.

We were somewhat less thrilled with the production of "Mahalia: A Gospel Musical" downtown. Nothing wrong with the play, exactly, and it was certainly better than last year's "Cage Aux Folles." But the lighting in this space is, well, basic, and either some of it was pointed in the wrong direction, or the actors forgot where to stand. The woman in the lead role had an awesome voice, but especially for Kathy, not so much on the acting chops. And as an overall rule, the sound was choppy. While it certainly had its moments, it was the least effective of our theatrical stops.

Last but certainly not least was Gate Theatre/Dublin's presentation of "Present Laughter." It was quite well done, wonderful set, great acting, very amusing. And we had the benefit of sitting afterwards to watch the crew convert the set to the next production -- which they did many times throughout the Festival -- since there is chamber music and an opera presented in the same space as well. Our son was master electrician here (Dock Street) and his best man at the wedding last October, McLane Snow, was on the crew. A little fun behind-the-scenes visit.

Since our return, there wasn't much theater-going time for a while since Kathy was way deep involved in a show -- stage managing KLT's "Once Upon A Mattress." Naturally, I saw it, and had a lot of fun watching a good cast in a funny, light-hearted show. We did, however, manage to sneak in Paper Lantern's excellent production of "Kimberly Akimbo" in Theatre Alliance's space and enjoyed that very much, too.

Finally, once the show was over, we had two entertaining experiences at Triad Stage, one later in the evening (11 p.m. start) at the UpStage Cabaret, where they were offering Christopher Durang's "An Actor's Nightmare" and "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You," a combo we first saw together in a small theater in Los Angeles once upon a time. And the following night on the main stage, we saw "Providence Gap," the latest play creation effort of Preston Lane and Laurelyn Dossett -- and in our opinion, the one that holds together the best of the four (also including "Brother Wolf," "Beautiful Star" and "Bloody Blackbeard"). Though I would cut 10 minutes from its running length if it were me. And come to think of it, are all the titles required to be two words long?

Anyway, a couple more events coming up, including three or maybe four shows at this summer's version of CATF up in West Virginia. Sounds like more fun, to fill in around the many preparations for "Conversations in a Cafe."

Time to catch up!

Here it is July 1 already, and I haven't blogged in, well, a while. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy!

Since last I wrote here, Kathy has been tied up in the process of stage managing Kernersville Little Theatre's "Once Upon A Mattress," chiefly a fun if time-consuming process. This also meant, of course, some entertaining at home, which is always some work. Since I wasn't seeing much of her during that time, I also took off to the other house for a while -- and even got some writing done on the "Patent" full-length project. Not much, but better than nothing.

But the vast majority of my time nowadays is caught up in preparations, research, communications and other related tasks for the fall production of "Conversations in a Cafe." It's pretty exciting, of course, thinking of having one of my scripts coming to life on stage. But as many common citizens do not realize, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that no one knows about, and I am in the middle of all that "stuff" right now.

We will hold auditions for some of the roles in August, and we are tying down the roles we've already cast right now. It's a busy time, and it's going to remain that way.

But worth it, one hopes!

Catching up, a bit, anyway

Since last I posted, we caught the very entertaining "Hank Williams: Lost Highway" at Theatre Alliance. I don't need to plug it too hard, since the run just ended and the shows all sold out. But Gray Smith as Hank and Justin Hall as his street mentor were both excellent; the live music was delish (esp. the pedal steel and Dobro moments); and the supporting cast generally fine. Gray was on pretty much throughout the show, and I'd guess three days of sleep would be appreciated now that the show's over. He earned it!

I came back from Phoenix with the idea for a short play in mind, got it written, and got it read at the Greensboro Playwrights Forum two weeks back. I thought it went very well indeed, and we'll learn more tonight when it will be the raw material for a Directors' Forum -- first time I've attended or been part of one of these. That should be a new and intriguing experience! I'll report on that later.

With Kathy doing the stage manager job for KLT's "Once Upon A Mattress," there's not a lot of show-going right now. But that will pick up speed again very soon, as the annual (sixth year) excursion to Charleston, SC and the Spoleto USA and Piccolo Spoleto plays is right around the corner. Yay!

Two shows, and more waiting

After Thursday's night's new plays at GTCC, Kathy and I then, together, took in "Nunsense" at Clemmons Community Theatre (performed at the New Hope Presbyterian Church) on Friday night, and last night was "Ethel Waters: His Eye is on the Sparrow," at Triad Stage.

I thought the CCT did a very nice job indeed with "Nunsense," a very amusing tale of the nuns at Mt. Saint Helen's and their efforts to raise some money to properly bury the last four of the 52 nuns who died when the convent's cook's vichyssoise went bad. The "talent show" they are trying to put on runs into a variety of challenges, and each nun gets a chance to shine and/or save the day. All of which, as Sister Hubert points out, would have been unnecessary if the Mother Superior hadn't taken money from earlier fundraising to buy a VCR.

We enjoyed the singing and the performing, and were especially pleased to discover what a great singing voice was displayed by Lee Ann Chrisco as Sister Hubert. Her number near the end of the show was awesome. Though she is pleasingly humble about the whole thing in real life, that's a voice you'd want to hear again, for sure! And young Charis Jeffers, who we hope will be our Meredith in "Conversations in a Cafe," was a pleasure to watch as Sister Amnesia. Though we didn't know the other three performers, they all played their characters quite well, and they all seemed to be comfortable together and enjoying themselves.

If only the sound had been better ....

The Triad Stage show was a good one, essentially telling the story of Ethel Waters with one fine actress reflecting through flashback, and a piano player accompanying her when she sang, and sometimes providing "mood music." I'm not familiar enough with Ms. Waters' recorded music, but we agreed that the singing portion was not quite as strong as hoped (esp. having heard Ms. Chrisco the night before!), and for me, about five minutes cut from each act would have made it more pleasing. But all in all, still a good night of theater!

The playwriting continues, in fits and starts, as I'm working on a short piece for which the core idea was created during one of those shows in Phoenix. And I need to return to "Patent" and try to get more pieces of that glued together. Maybe this week ... as I wait to hear something one way or the other on the fates of two short plays I have submitted. One of those delayed its submission deadline by a couple of days ... so that more competitors could come in!! Whee! ... and then delayed the announcement of its finalists accordingly. Grrrrrr ......

It's FUN trying to break in as a playwright!

And an update

We've just moved out of the time period in which, after too long a lull, Kathy was involved as an actor with a play. We had noted that Adam Sullivan, who directed "Margaret Mitchell" for KLT, had won and would have his play "Crier Tuck" produced by 3rd Stage Theatre in Greensboro, while attending the Short Plays. Kathy wondered out loud if there were any roles for middle-aged women, so I asked Stephen Hyers, who would direct. He said "yes." She decided to audition, and, it turned out, she was given BOTH of the middle-aged woman roles. That turned into a lot of fun for her -- playing two completely different woman characters -- and hastened the acquisition of a wig she had planned to get for the "Conversations" role this fall. At least one member of the audience (who clearly hadn't read the cast list in the program) did not even know the two women were the same actor. Cool!

The play itself was pretty good, especially for a first staging, and underwent some change in the rehearsal process. One or two things I might change, but minor -- all in all, a lot of fun!

Kathy since has moved right on to helping stage manage the upcoming KLT musical. Meanwhile, I caught two short plays by Ed Simpson and a short-ish musical by Tommy Trull tonight at GTCC, directed by Michael Kamtman, with whom we have crossed paths various times since arriving in Kernersville in 1989. It was an interesting evening! The first, perhaps 10-minute, play was good but suffered some from one weak link in the cast. The second was longer and well done, given the partial limitation that these were all staged readings. And the musical was a neat retelling of a piece of mythology, with the lead female quite good -- animated as a performer, and a good singer, too. I can't say quite as much about the rest of the singing, though, and would enjoy hearing this again with a group of musical singers.

And on we will go -- two more shows in the next two days!

I just love good acting

The material is tough to watch at times, and of course some folks here in the Bible Belt are just going to lose their religion over the language, but Del Shores' "The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife" just opened at Theatre Alliance (Winston-Salem) tonight, and it is intense and awesome. Two of my favorite actors, whom I am also lucky enough to call friends, play the lead couple, locked in an abusive marriage that meets all the classic characteristics. A friend in the trailer park is trying to help the wife out, and the newly-arrived five-times-married slut across the way is helping the husband out of his pants.

We had seen three Del Shores plays at T.A. in the past -- one of which, "Sordid Lives," I actually liked. But you can clearly tell that he decided to go serious with TTATOATTH. And serious it is, for the most part, though there are certainly some laugh lines. Especially for the two leads, played by Cheryl Ann Roberts and Mikey Wiseman, it's a physical, and physically demanding, time on stage. They make it very, very believable, almost uncomfortably so -- which is, of course, the point. We're looking unflinchingly at a bastard of a husband doing everything he can to demean and intimidate his wife, and blame his many failings directly on her rather than looking in the mirror. Painful stuff, but with those two leads and strong support, extremely well presented.

As I've said before, not every T.A. presentation is a favorite or even good. This one, however, for someone who wants some serious in his theater from time to time, is an absolute winner.

The latest reports

Time to get caught up on recent playgoing!

Quite some time ago, in part to see if we could figure out what all the buzz was about given its seeming success around the country, we bought tickets to the national tour of "Church Basement Ladies" for when it came to the Stevens Center on April 1. We went and saw it. Well, truth be told, we saw part of it. It is a very rare thing indeed for us to leave a show before it's over. I can only think of two other times in all the years. But we walked at the intermission on this one.

Frankly, I simply cannot understand what would entertain anyone about this show, unless, possibly, they were from Minnesota or possibly practicing Lutherans. Even then .... The tunes and lyrics were so-so, the acting in most cases overdone, and it just wasn't very funny. I've always thought "Nunsense" proved that you can have some fun with religion or religious characters (though I'm not so sure about any of the sequels, which I have not seen.) But this show proved that the opposite is also possible.

Not long afterwards, we arrived for a mini-vacation in Phoenix, and Kathy discovered that a Phoenix Fringe Festival was happening. So on Sunday night of the trip, we found one of the six venues that had three interesting-sounding shows (most of the Festival shows ran about one hour each). We caught a 5 p.m., a 6:30 p.m. and an 8 p.m. show.

The first was a one-woman show on the concept that angels are given opportunities to select bodies and types to return to the Earth to fix karmic problems. It had some good ideas interspersed with some less-than-interesting exposition. Not bad, but not great, either.

The second show was intended for children but told a good story for adults, too. The concept was a young man (with wings) who had been hidden out of town by his parents and as he grows up, discovers other children and ideas and finally makes his parents realize he must try on his own and might have been overprotected, though to some extent for good reason. It was a sweet and thoughtful show. Unfortunately, I got kidnapped for a few minutes by an idea for a 10-minute script that I will start writing soon. But I still enjoyed it a lot.

Finally, we saw a play called "Dudes Gone Wild," with four young men in various stages of not yet being willing to grow up, on the evening five years after high school after a woman leaves one of them virtually at the altar. There was a lot of drinking, cursing, and crude references to women and themselves. Sometimes playgoing should take you to places you don't normally reside, and this did for me -- kind of made me wonder if my life would have been different if I'd had a fraternity mindset.

And happy that I didn't.

A little down time

Well, March has not been much of a month for play-going, though April should make up for it. Due to a variety of time-sucking chores and non-play projects, not much has happened in play writing, either. I need to find a way to turn that around!

In any case, the musical highlight of last weekend was attending High Point Community Theatre's production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," which used the impressive sanctuary at Wesley Memorial U.M. Church in High Point. We went with Myla and Paul O'Brien, not solely for the musical but because Mary Lea and Cameron Williams, as well as Dave Wils, were in it.

In addition to being a lesson in how some things can be done by a community theater that KLT seems not to think of, the production was a delight, with only one really bad off-note in the entire show (pretty wonderful for community theater). Mary Lea, as the Narrator, and the young man who played Joseph, had -- and I don't often use this word in theatrical commentary -- awesome singing voices that impressed from beginning to end. The show may not be "Cabaret" or "Spring Awakening," but I enjoy it (second time now) and I left the theater smiling. That's a pretty good deal for a Saturday night's entertainment!

Now I look forward to "Church Basement Ladies" on April 1 and a host of others to follow. And I will write again some day. I swear it!

And on we go ...

The week away at the OBX wound up with a little more work done on "Patent," a number of other needed chores completed, and a draft of a second short play that might prove suitable for the fall Greensboro Playwrights Forum's short plays. The concept for the fall shows is less a theme than a place -- all of the shows will take place in a unit set of a roadside diner. Fun!

As mentioned before, "for the fun of it," I stopped in Raleigh on the way home from the OBX to see Theatre in the Park's "Don't Cry for Me, Margaret Mitchell." It did not turn out to be fun, actually, except for some conversations with audience members before the show and during intermission. It just wasn't very funny, and some of the choices on line interpretations and physical "humor" were mistaken, in my opinion (and Kathy, who saw it Friday night, chiefly agreed).

I had corresponded with the actor who played Hecht, and I thought he looked the part very well, and when he was allowed to be a grown-up, played it quite well, too. But sometimes, it was more Three Stooges than three grown men working on a play script. And the way they chose to represent Victor Fleming, the man's man, well, less said the better. The transitions to the beginning of both acts were painfully long, for no clear reason except to allow entire songs to play, and oh, I could continue, but I won't.

I guess, on the bright side, it is always instructive to see something you DON'T like, not only for education but because you appreciate a well-done show much better as a result.

And speaking of well-done shows, "Around the World in 80 Days" at Triad Stage was delightful, and we especially liked the lighting (designed by Norman Coates, Andy's lead professor at UNCSA). We also had fun at "Forever Plaid" by Theatre Alliance -- a little choppy here and there, but at least one especially good voice that I had not been able to hear individually, at close range, prior to that night -- and more fun with Kernersville Little Theatre's "The Battle of Shallowford," with a good cast indeed and one of the best KLT sets I've seen. It's unfortunate that it was under-attended.

Meanwhile, auditions were held for "Crier Tuck," which was the winning NC New Play Contest script (Greensboro Playwrights Forum) this year. Kathy has been cast in BOTH of the middle-aged woman roles, both of which occur in the second act of the show, written by Nathan Adam Sullivan, who also directed "Margaret Mitchell" at KLT. It will be fun to see her back on stage after some time, and dancing with two different roles, too. Those shows will be in Greensboro April 15-18, at the downtown Arts Center.

Keeping busy!

A good experience

I am currently on my annual week-away timeshare writer's retreat to the Outer Banks, where it has been cooler than most years, and breezy, but mostly sunny. I guess it's good that the weather has kept me indoors and more concentrated than some of these trips in the past!

The writing portion so far has included the adaptation of an old short story to a very short play, which was fun and might become a submission to the Playwrights' Forum's Horror Anthology, which occurs in October (going to be a busy month). Maybe I'll get it accepted!

But speaking of the Playwrights' Forum, I volunteered for, and then ran the lighting board for two tech rehearsals and three of the four performances of the Evening of Short Plays. It happens that the studio theater lighting board there is identical to KLT's larger board, so I wasn't too technologically challenged to be able to figure out the running and the cues. Unfortunately, the cues were programmed for a certain order of shows, then the order was changed, so there was some jumping around involved. But I don't feel I screwed it up too badly; it was fun to see the various shows and how the process works; and I certainly got to be comfortable with the board again. Maybe next time I can learn more about the actual programming, etc. Certainly a fun learning experience, anyway!

Many more shows to come over the next few weeks, starting on Sunday -- going to stop on the way back to K'vegas to catch "Margaret Mitchell" at Theatre in the Park in Raleigh (Kathy will hopefully get to see it on Friday evening) -- just for the fun of it, to see how they handle the show.

And then a fair # of Triad shows after that. And hoping to get some serious work done on the next full-length play script, "Patent" -- starting ... right now!

Weather or not

Lately, central North Carolina has been pushed around by somewhat uncommon wintry weather -- a 6" snowfall over last weekend; uncommon cold; freezing rain/rain today; more wintry stuff threatened for the coming weekend.

It has wreaked havoc with all kinds of events schedules, including the play we had scheduled to see this past Saturday. We've been lucky enough to reschedule it for Thursday night -- hopefully before the next snow attack -- so will report on that soon.

However, that means we've only been in the theater a couple of times lately, as well as a special event, so looking forward to clearing roads and more shows before long.

We got over to UNCSA for a special performance of "The Compleat Works of Wm. Shakespeare, Abridged" that helped raise funds for senior drama students to get to L.A. for auditions (and part of the proceeds went to the Haitian relief effort). It was a lot of fun, if a little sloppy here and there. We sat with Macon Shirley and Paul and Myla O'Brien, so a good theater night!

More recently, we caught "Oscar & Felix" over at Open Space, with Ken Ashford and Scott Stevens in the title roles, and Michael Carter and Chuck Powers among the poker players. Pretty good too, I thought. A few line drops here and there, but good energy and it held my attention.

We also ran over to Greensboro for the season-announcement event at Triad Stage. A good collection of shows, but a particular favorite included -- they'll be doing "Educating Rita" as their second show, in the fall. Can't wait!

Since last writing, I have managed to discover that a lot of the in-depth research I had been doing on individual songs, writers and publishers may not have been necessary. I have yet to confirm with ASCAP, but BMI definitely offers a "promoter" license that, for a fee (of course) allows basically unlimited use of all BMI songs for music backdrops -- at least for the limited run of our "Conversations" production. This is VERY good news!

Plunging ahead

We haven't done much playgoing lately, but that's about to change -- quite a few shows in the region looming on the calendar. I'll try to remember to report on them as we take them in.

In the meantime, the work on the "Conversations in a Cafe" project for October continues rapidly. I am in the middle of a number of searches for proper licensing techniques in order to use certain popular songs as part of the soundtrack, legally. This is a one-time production; the venue doesn't have any kind of musical license (nor does it need one); and the use of a recording in a performing-arts environment falls into a kinky area of music licensing anyway. The easiest ones, I have found, have one performer, the same writer and one publisher. Get much beyond that, and boy howdy, does it get complex.

The soundtrack I had in my head at the beginning, back in 2006, is going to change somewhat, both for simplicity and for financial reasons. I originally had 11 songs I wanted to use, but if you have to pay upwards of $70 per song to use 'em, well, public domain songs sound better and better.

Then we're starting discussions about set, set pieces, furniture, lighting, window designs, and of course, casting. A lot to think about, but oddly enough, we open in nine months, and that doesn't sound like a long time away any more. I actually ordered the first piece of the prop furniture yesterday.

I'd quote a Steve Miller song about time keeping ticking, ticking ... but they'd probably want a fee to quote it. So let's just say I'm trying to keep up with show prep along with everything else.

But we have filled in a lot of blanks in terms of casting the show, and with each commitment (well, tentative commitment - we'll ask for firm commitments on July 1), I get a little more excited about the show being something special. Most of the time, I'm glad we made this decision to jump off the cliff. And as I told someone the other day, we'll see how we feel about that when the run ends!