Sunday’s preview for Take Me Out went very well – the cast rocked, the audience was into it. It took 4 previews, but we finally hit a nice groove. Tuesday and Wednesday we’ll polish a few scenes, restage a couple, and tweak a handful of small moments and wrap this puppy up.

Some folks had asked about the lessons I’d learned during the experience of taking this show over. Needless to say, I had a great time. Good group to work with. Once again, as with every show, I’m reminded why I love what I do for a living, and how lucky I am to be doing it.

The specific lessons for this show, however:

Directing Lesson #1: Coming in, my goal was to honor Jim (the director I replaced because of illness), and his intentions and vision of the show as much as possible. I had discussions with the Artistic Director (Carla) and Jim’s Assistant Director (Gary), who were very helpful thru the whole process. I got from them as much as I could about the “Why’s” and “How Come’s” about the direction Jim was taking the show, and I tried to stick true to that. What I learned was that you can only do this to a certain point. It took me about 5 days too many to acknowledge that during any rehearsal process the show and vision grow and change, and we upgrade our plans to accomodate this. In my desire to ‘honor Jim’s intentions’ I almost killed the show, because I wasn’t acknowledging things that simply were not working: some moving wagons, the video screen/video playback moments, a few other little things. I was thinking “Man, this is a great concept, but it’s just not working cleanly, or effectively. Still, it’s Jim’s vision and I guess we’ll live with the best we can get.” That was my mistake. I was unhappy with it, but allowed it to be there. Finally, when I realized “Jim’s been directing many more years than I have – he would’ve seen this not working and re-booted the scheme. Why am I not doing that?!” Carla and Gary agreed with this assessment, and I made a few sweeping changes and a bunch of minor ones, and now we’re back to Telling The Story cleanly and effectively. So, the lesson? Remember to allow for change and growth. Usually I’m the one preaching this, but I allowed the out-of-the-ordinary circumstances to cloud my judgement until it was almost too late.

The other lesson:
Producing Lesson #1: Big Lofty Ambitious production goals are marvelous. However, poor execution of these goals due to lack of time and resources is not the same thing. This show was very ambitious – 11 actors, video screen with pre-recorded segments mixed in with live video feeds, several giant moving set pieces, 6 running showers, operating scoreboard with flashing lights, big sound and light designs. If the company had a tech crew of 8 and 3 times as much money for each budget, all of these things could’ve happened and looked tremendous. As it was, much of it was happening but it was happening poorly. NOT due to anyone’s lack of effort, or skills, or dedication. Time and Money and Amount Of People were the culprits here. So, the lesson? Big goals are great, but only if you can achieve the same level of professional quality on each element of the show. If not, simplify. Addition By Subtraction was the phrase that became important during this week of our production. Better to have a small show that looks polished and spectacular than a big ambitious show that looks like it almost came together.

Feel free to add any thoughts or comments, or debate any of my ramblings! And for goodness sake, have a nice Monday!