It's over and here's what I've learned

Mineola Twin Reflections

So now that Mineola Twins is dead and gone I get to do one of my least favorite things after finishing a show; reflect. I like to move onto the next project right away. Sometimes a show can feel like a sweet sweet lover (or a cold heartless bitch) that you just don’t want to leave behind, but you must. Lucky you can always go onto the next show forgetting the last one and you won’t get any angry e-mails or cold glances from the former lover.

Now, I understand the reason for reflecting and I encourage it. It is a terrific way to avoid making the same mistake, or repeating a success. This in mind, there is no reason for me to lie or soften the blows of the truth. Not that I image my fellow actors/directors will read this, but if you do, this information is not meant as gossip. So keep it to yourself. Most, if not all issues with the show can be traced back to me. Besides, most of what I have to reflect on has nothing to do with that typical theatre drama.

Auditions/ Callbacks:

Advertise your show much much earlier and have a better description of the style of the rather than the facts of the show. People will interpret the way the show will be directed, even if it’s not true. If I read that a show is about a person playing two twins that explore America through three decades, I wouldn’t be interested either. Be a salesman.

Being extra fucking friendly, even to the point of pucking only makes the actors happy. They perform better. I get better results. They need to feel like I want to cast them, not judge them. And this is true. What the fuck do I care if someone sucks or not.

Having a Stage manager that smiles is a plus. Also, not that it applies to this production, but I’ve noticed that some stage managers have grown a real hatred for actors. They think of them as petty and self centered. I have no idea why they would feel this way, but I digress, it adds a real negative feel to rehearsals and should be avoided.

I like my shows to be set in a large corporate building… on dress down day. Shits getting done, but the competition and EXTREME professionalism is gone.

The Rehearsals:

Although it was unavoidable, try even harder to avoid double casting with a fellow director. Abe was really good about it, but the energy of the actors is shot after the first rehearsal.

After you have warm ups, do not take any time to do something else, even discussions about the scene, before you jump into scene work. The actors will get pissed and they have every right to be. Just tonight in Boys’ Life rehearsals we did all this energetic warm- up stuff and then a trivial question was asked and we spent ten to fifteen minutes answering it. We spent the rest of rehearsal trying to get that energy back and it just didn’t happen.

Something that I didn’t do well was setting a distinct time for designers to both attend and participate in rehearsals. I assumed that once before tech week they would watch the show and then get to work on their individual tasks unless otherwise needed. Megan, the dance choreographer obviously needed to be there more than say the costume designer did. I should have written out a rough schedule (because I couldn’t write out a real one due to double casting with Abe and Nick) so the designers had more of an idea when their shit needed done.

Also, that way the designers won’t stop me as I’m trying to get into a scene.

In this production I tried out having my actors double as designers. Susan ended up as costume designer as well as hair and make-up designer. Nate was TD and general knowledgeable fella and Addam was lighting. I know this was probably a bad idea but I wanted to see just how bad it could be. It turned out pretty well.

One of the reasons that I wanted to do this was as an experiment. I wanted to prove that I treated designers and actors the same. That people didn’t get treated better or worse. And if they did, then someone would come forward and tell me so. This did not happen. If there was any case of this happening I would have to say that Scott may be the one that I treated differently. This is because I expect more out of him. When I have people that I have worked with before, and there are a lot of them, I want them to improve, as I should be. Scott has hit a plateau. I know this, but I don’t know if he has, and I don’t know if anyone else would notice it. I have worked with him in several areas for some time. I intend to amend his laid back attitude that has caused this stale, over the next year.

Something that I set out to do for this show was to control my temper around the cast. Also to have a positive attitude without being either a push over or a kiss ass.

I feel as though I am on the road to making this work. The cast (for the most part, I’ll get to this.) trusts and respects me, especially the repeat performers. Even when things that angered them a great deal happened, I kept myself under control. This is something to continue to work on, but I have improved greatly in this area.

The two or three actors that didn’t respect me, Ryan, Veronica to a very slight extent, and Addam for the first three or four rehearsals had their reasons.

With Veronica, she came into the game very very late. Also, I don’t know that she fully understood the fully implication of getting involved in the show and how much work it would be. I am satisfied with the end result and I think she is too, but I should have explained things more clearly to her from the start.

With Addam, who I had a great time working with after the first couple of bungled rehearsals, it was more of a lack of understanding of how these rehearsals were going to be ran. I believe, and I could be wrong, that Addam has been used to a very unprofessional work habit when dealing with student directors. I don’t think that they’ve pushed him for all of his potentional. I didn’t either, but he did understand his place within the rehearsal process after we spoke and his importance within it.

The person that I feel I never redeemed was Ryan. The issue with Ryan was that he never cared about being in the show. From the start I think he had the wrong impression. During Callbacks he was tried out for both male parts a lot, but he didn’t get either of them, he got the agent. I was seriously considering him for both male leads, he just didn’t get the parts. Also, he didn’t get a script. This was in some ways my fault. Though the budget was extremely limited (and by this I mean we could only get scripts and right) I’m sure I could have figured out a way to acquire a copy of the script, even if he doesn’t have any written lines. The last thing I did wrong was when I was trying to make an effort to not waste anyone’s time. In twelve dreams there were days were someone would sit around for no reason. No one complained. But I felt bad. Anyway, I didn’t bring Ryan around unless I needed him, which wasn’t much. Then, when I did need him the fallout from Anything Goes kept him from being there.

As far as a solution goes there isn’t much. I should probably schedule specific ensemble days much like how Rick has done with Boys’ life. And definitely get scripts to everyone no matter what the part.

Tech Week:

There is nothing that can prepare you for the hell that is tech week. You may think that you have everything covered, but you don’t. Someone’s aunt will die or a designer will quiet or the theatre will shut down for a week and change your show date. A variation of all of these things happened.

Yet I remained calm, and what I mean by that is I kept it inside and used that anger in creative ways like writing or drawing.

As for things that I learned;

I learned that I’ve gotten very good at predicting when a designer was going to quiet. Simone did, when the correct way to say it is “She left the project”. While I was capable of noticing it coming, I have yet to master how to deal with it. I think that I was professional about it, I should have acting sooner, but I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. Susan ended up having to cover her. She had not completed any work up till four days before the show so Susan started from scratch.

Ways to avoid this is to work with people you know and trust well. Unfortunately, Simone was one of those people, but I stick by my statement. Lay out a strict schedule for your designers. If they aren’t sticking to it, or if they tell you that it’s done and they’ll show you soon, don’t believe them. Do not give them the impression OR except the impression that you are receiving a favor from them. Both times I’ve had problems with my designers (on different shows) I was given the impression by them that I was receiving a great favor from them. Both times they were good friends too.

Show Run:

It’s hard to go into what I learned from the show on the show nights as the whole thing is a presentation of a month’s worth of work. I suppose that if nothing else, it showed that I can work outside of my style. I love the style I like to work it, but now I know that I am not limited to it.

I learned that sometimes non-theater people are better audiences. Theater people are built to pick apart things and judge them. Non – theater people don’t have to question if what they laughed at deserved the laugh. It’s interesting because most people that will see my work later in life will not be people within the business. Theoretically.

If I let myself go with an idea, rather than shoot it down immediately, I might find something really cool. The finale with the confetti and tricycles was an example of suggesting something stupid to Scott, and then realizing that it was a good idea dressed in really bad idea clothing.

Yup. That’s it.