tough decisions

There are weeks when everything goes smoothly and then weeks when every day brings a new challenge. This was a new challenge week. I finally finished casting the Wizard of Oz almost a week after the call backs. I always tell people that this is a hard job. Some weeks are harder than others. Over the course of 25 years with the theatre I have become friends with many of the people who are cast in the plays. I celebrate with them in the joys of their successes and my heart aches along with them when they are not cast. It seems that casting musicals is always harder on everyone than casting a non musical.

I received a nice email of support from one of the auditionees for the Wizard of Oz that put it succinctly- posting a cast list will make some people happy, some people sad, and some people angry. The stereotype of community theatre as a “clique” has a reason behind it I think. It is much easier for directors to cast all of the people you know in parts and that way you never have to worry about someone being upset with you.

But in order to operate a successful community theatre, it means that you have to encourage new people to audition and give them a real opportunity to get cast in a show in a lead role. Everyone has to be equal in the casting process. In that process you must be willing to disappoint and hurt the feelings of people that you have known for years in order to give a chance to people you’ve never met. I have a calendar note posted on the wall of my office from The Road Less Traveled daily calendar. It says having is integrity is never easy. It takes a lot more courage to operate with integrity than without it. I look at that calendar page a lot at certain times.

The play selection committee met last night and hammered out a preliminary season for next year. We will now apply for performance rights and then see if any of the choices availability has changed since we began the process. We almost always wait until after Jan. 1 to get into the next calendar. Royalty houses don’t like to give out royalty quotes 2 years in advance and for our 2010 plays that would be the case if we applied in 2008. That process was is difficult because you weigh your own feelings about a play against what you think the community would like to see and what the people who audition would like to perform in. Picking a season of plays is like playing the market. If you choose well and do your research you have a better chance of coming out ahead. If you choose badly then it can hurt in a dozen ways. I always find it best if the committee keeps in mind our mission and what our strengths are. The most successful plays the past few years have been Smoke on the Mountain, Beauty and the Beast, and High School Musical. All three are family shows that appeal to a broad audience. In tough economic times that is what we need to focus on.

Southern Comforts goes into Tech rehearsal on Sunday and then Dress rehearsals next week before opening a week from today. In order to save money we are taking the book cases out of our offices and putting them onstage instead of building new bookcases. Marsha and some of the volunteers have spent a great deal of time alphabetizing our scripts and we will need to take extra time to not lose all of that as we take the scripts out and box them up to use the shelves.

Ramona Quimby started rehearsal on Tuesday. April and I have been working on a set design to make the scenes flow quickly without lots of scene changes. There are over 28 scenes in that play. Some as short as ½ a page. The last time we produced the show was a Tilghman HS on a stage where we could fly things in and out. This time we will have to be more creative in how we create the more than a dozen locations called for in the play. Lots of tough decisions still need to be made.