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."