With all the holiday performances happening right now, this article about the one and only manuscript that Charles Dickens left behind for “A Christmas Carol” is really cool! Looking over the Shoulder of the Creator of “A Christmas Carol”

This Wonderful Life opened on Friday. One review so far, it was very good. Audiences are also responding very positively. We’re grateful and thankful for both.

And now comes the part of being a director that’s always odd. Being done with a project.

To do your job properly you have to start backing away as you approach Opening Night and letting things take their course, letting the actors and stage managers develop a rhythm that they’ll need to run the show. So, because you have to start backing away, you find yourself making harder and harder decisions on the ever present “priorities list”. You know, “Let’s see, we have 60 minutes of rehearsal time before a preview, and there’s easily two hours worth of stuff on my to-do list for the show…”

So, you whittle away what you can in an hour. And this doesn’t always mean only the moments you dislike the most, or the toughest moments. It means blending all sorts of concerns – the biggest moments of concern for the cast, for the stage manager, for the designers. So you prioritize, and things that might be fun to clean up, or worthy of a complete dissection, are sometimes left alone. It is, after all, “art with a deadline”. And when that deadline’s reached, it’s time to move on.

It’s funny, reading that last paragraph after I’d written it I realized that it sounds like every show is an unhappy race to the finish line – that’s not the case at all. Most of the time you’re loving those discoveries that make moments better, that tell the story better, that better move people. But you do make your lists of moments that are Great, Good, and Weak. If you’ve done your job right, by the time you’re done (or nearly done) you’ve gotten rid of the Weak, and you’re working consistently on polishing the Good until they get moved up to Great status.

So, part of what makes “being done” tough is that you’re really in the heat of the moment and, hopefully, doing some of your best work as a group just when the calendar says “Okay, you’re done. Now the director goes away. You were on a roll, there, really polishing stuff from Good to Great – I bet that felt good!! Well, you’re done now. Go away, and start from scratch on whatever project is next! Thanks, bye!”

Of course, this is a good thing. Never leaving a project would result in never-ending, insanity-inducing nitpicking that would kill everyone involved.

For me, (I can’t speak for all directors), I have very mixed feelings when it comes to being done – on one hand, I will miss it for all the reasons I listed above and more. On the other hand, though, I’m glad to be done when the time comes. I think this is because you really do build up a rhythm with things, and you know when your usefulness is coming to a close on a project – when anything you want to try will have to go untried because of the calendar and ticking clock, and so you spend the last few hours trying to ignore the “What-if-we-had-tried” thoughts knocking on the back of your forehead. Ignoring the what-if’s is never easy, and so to avoid getting frustrated you embrace being done… and you embrace the final product, and the process, and the family that you built with the people who went through the process with you… and then… with a “have fun” and a wave, you move on, knowing that you’ll miss the project.

But, also, eagerly anticipating whatever’s next.

Thanks, folks, for all the great answers to my question “What do you think of when you think of The War Of The Worlds?”

I got a bunch of great answers via Livejournal, Facebook, email and even Twitter! Very helpful stuff, thanks!

(Except for that one answer about Tom Cruise… you know who you are.) *laughing*

Looking for thoughts & ideas from everyone out there playing in the internet tubes:

As I’m doing some prep-work for my next directing project, I’m wondering…

What do YOU think of when you think of “The War Of The Worlds”?

Images, sounds, ideas, whatever comes to mind, the top 2 or 3 things that you think of when you think of “The War Of The Worlds”?

Thankful for a LOT of things this week…

Thankful for my family, friends, coworkers.

Thankful for my job, and the opportunity to do what I love.

Thankful that my son is feeling better. On Thanksgiving he wasn’t feeling well at all, so he and I stayed home from the big family gathering so he could rest – it was a very quiet, restful father/son Thanksgiving, with some leftovers brought back at the end of the day. We had a great time just being together.

Thankful for the great cast, crew and production staff of “This Wonderful Life” – and thankful for our fantastic Preview and Opening audiences.

Thankful for the great review of the show, and the opportunity it offers us for advertising, as well as the recognition of everyone’s hard work.

Thankful for some family time this weekend, including a wonderful visit from my brother, sister-in-law and nephews today!

Thankful that, although I’m very late in discovering it, I’ve been introduced to the chocolate-dipped-wrapped-in-geeky-goodness-awesomeness that is the music of Jonathan Coulton!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Today, in preparation for tomorrow, I’m thankful for all sorts of stuff – including fun internet links that I’d like to share with all of you!

I love The Muppets: The Muppets do Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” – awesome!!

Those pesky Canadians! Possibly NSFW, this police report is hilarious.

What would it look like to us if the Earth had rings, like Saturn? This video is really neat!

So this morning I got up, had a nice busy morning, came to work, stopped at the bank in town to deposit a check, saw several local folks I know there. Shook hands, chatted, laughed with folks, answered a couple of question about how things are going at the Williamston Theatre, generally schmoozed and encouraged folks to come see the next show.

Walked over to the coffee place, got coffee, saw another couple of folks I know and had similar conversations.

Got into the office, and realized that only the top couple of buttons on my shirt were buttoned.

So, that leaves the bottom 4 buttons undone, shirt flapping in the breeze, presenting a good, professional, put-together image for all to see: my belly hanging out!

“HI! I’m Tony – I run the theatre in town! This is my belly! I’m on a diet, it’s getting a lot smaller, so I thought I’d just NOT COVER IT. Hey, there’s my belly button! See it? Yeah, it’s a innie. I’d stay to chat but I’ve got to go press my belly up against all the windows on Grand River!”

*sigh*

My kids will love this story.