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My first outing as director of a pure, fully-staged theatre production, Wednesday's Child, by Mark St. Germain, has wrapped. So now we get to the happy/sad part of the theatre experience. The set is gone; the universe of Becca, Susan, Martin, Dixon, Valez, Strutt, and Sam has dissolved into the void. The next production at The Guild is in rehearsal and closing in on Opening Night, and "my" show has, for the last six weeks, been that inevitable dark that comes with the transient nature of theatre.

Now that it's been a month-and-a-half since Wednesday's Child closed, I hope I have perhaps a better perspective on this experience, and can make some more reasonable and clear-headed observations and comments.

By and large I am happy with the experience. Overall I feel like it was an overwhelming success and a successful venture for me. Certainly, it was a success for everyone else involved. But if I were to give myself a grade as director, I can't see anything higher than a B, which may be too high ‐‐ perhaps a B‐ at the most. This is the reason for the "Today's Quote:" meme image, which had popped up on my facebook feed just at the oppertune time, that being when I was first made aware of one of the bigger fails of mine, the one that bothered me the most, though I later realized that I was being a tad too harsh on myself. I don't know with whom to credit the words on that whiteboard in the meme image, but they were the right words at the right time, and though they didn't wholly alleviate how crestfallen I felt at the time, the depth of the fall I felt was made shallower as I somewhat took the sentiment to heart. Before I get into specifics, there are a few other thoughts I have about the process as a whole.

My other directing credit for "the stage" is the Summer, 2021 Guild mounting of The Roommate, by Jen Silverman. But that was a streaming production, a hybrid between a motion picture production and a stage production. There are many, many differences between the two, loads of differences. There are also ways in which they are most similar. The profound way is that in no way is it a one-person job for the director, especially if the production is a success, artistically or financially. Of Course, like film directors, theatre directors need to have a vision for the script they are charged to bring to life. So their fundamental task is to guide the project toward their vision ‐‐ let's assume the vision is worth heading toward. Whatever the vision is, the director needs a good production team and a good cast to see that vision come to fruition.

IF, indeed, the vision is worth heading toward, if it's worth realizing, then there should be some measure of loftiness to that vision, that goal. I believe my vision for Wednesday's Child had some loftiness, not a spectacularly large amount, but enough. But I could not have reach my goals without the skills and talents of others. Before I get into that, let's look at my "vision," my goals for this play.

For one, I wanted to make sure the action moved quickly, which frankly should always be the goal, but this one needed as little time as possible in between the many scenes because of the nature of the story. With certain passages of the script this was easy to achieve since, by design of the text, there were actors in different locations on stage during concurrent scenes, waiting in soft freeze for their cues to speak and be the focus while their counterparts went into soft freeze on the other part of the stage; and back and forth this would go, with lights-up/lights-down changes accompanying.

Other scene changes, the genuine scene changes, where one ends and another follows, were where we needed to be clever with the staging to keep things moving. Some of those changes were to go to flashback scenes, taking the audience back in time, then bringing them back when the scene was over. Often, at least one character was in the previous, the flash-back, then the following scene. So one thing I knew early on was there were not going to be costume changes as I did not want to drag out the scene transitions to accommodate them. I had our costumer, Barb Jorgensen, put all the characters in a representative costume that they wore for the whole show. However, actually, there were a few costume changes, most of them dealing with the character Becca (Kayleen Nordyke). For two scenes, she changed from her black top and black slacks into a medical gown for scenes where that would be relevant. In another scene, her character and the character of Samantha (Heather Atkinson) were in bathrobes. The only other times we were even close to costume changes were when the lawyer, Strutt (Becky Howard) and the detectives, Dixon (Jamie McQuinn) and Valez (Ghiovanna Dennis), had their jackets off for a scene or portions of one.

If you follow this blog any you may know that I wrote and recorded all the production music for this, save for the music out of Act 1 and the curtain call music. Becca, the murder victim, has several monologues spoken from the afterlife, described in the script as from "somewhere past time." For those, I had some music I created back in 2014, originally as preshow music for the Dayton Playhouse production of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead™ Live. There are five different tracks and for Wednesday's Child I used them as underscore for the five monologues, one for each. These five pieces, which are all actually eight minutes long, with only a fraction being used as the underscore here, all have the audio of interstellar bodies, that which was recorded by NASA with radio telescopes. There's a nice array of sound used in the five peaces, with such titles as: "Earth," "Jupiter," "Saturn," "Saturn's Rings," "Sphere of Io," and "Uranus." Back in 2014, when I produced these pieces I added atmospheric notes or chords with keyboard pluggins from GarageBand. For this project I remastered all five recordings which I was already planning to do for reasons not related to this show.

For the scene transitions I composed and recorded bass guitar work for all but the transitions into the flashback scenes. For those, I composed and recorded a piece of music with a GarageBand synthesizer pluggin called Echolocation Synth, with three different tempos, moving from the fastest for early flashbacks to the slowest for the late, Act 2 flashbacks.

My system for composing and recording each scene transition was to go through the script, read the end of a scene, then the start of the next and come up with something, on the spot, that fit the appropriate mood and energy. I just went from start to finish in the script, over the course of several different recording sessions. All of the work is instrumental, most of it is only one bass, either my Embassy Pro or my Vintage Sunburst Viola. A few have two or more basses on the track, usually both the Embassy and the Viola. A few of the pieces have percussion, two of those being me tapping on deadened bass strings, both those for music coming out of scenes with a sexual component. One other piece has a programmed GarageBand drum kit for an upbeat instrumental expressing joy.

Since the actors/characters did not do costume changes for the flashback scenes, I needed music that clued in the audience that we were going into such flashback scenes, something consistent that set a precedent. My original idea was to have bass work that was played backward and I recorded such for each such transition ‐‐ individual bass lines for each transition. When I was in the booth, programming the sound cues into Show Cue Systems, playing the cues back through the theatre sound system as I was adding them, I increasingly thought that these little backward-playback bass riffs were not working. I took a break from programming to create something better as cues to the flashbacks. I opened GarageBand on my laptop and experimented with various instrument pluggins and composition attempts until I finally came across a composition using the Echolocation Synth pluggin that worked. As I wrote above, I rendered that composition at three different tempos, having it be the same melody and rhythm but at different speeds for gradual use from the faster at the first, to the slowest by the end of the play.

All of this scene-change music, and the Becca monologue underscoring, all by me, was instrumental. The rest of the music, the background production music (playing on the sound system in Becca's apartment and in the bar scene), as well as the pre-show music, the intermission music, the music that took us out of Act 1, and the curtain call music, had vocals (with lyrics). For all of this music I used female artists, or bands with a female front-woman. I can't fully explain why I decided to go this route. The two male characters in the story are not at all insignificant to the story nor the action. But my instinct was for the music with vocals to be from females. There's certainly a masculine energy to the scene change music, which was written and performed by a man, some of it quite in the realm of progressive rock. Maybe this was my subconscious balancing out the energies.

One final note on my sound design (music) choices: I had a specific song in mind to take us out of Act 1, but the original, famous version is by a prominent male rock band. Yet I really wanted to use that song. It took me a while, but I found a cover with a woman at the mic, and a really nice cover version, at that.

I'm well satisfied with my sound work for this show, both the composing and performance of the original work and my curation of the other music. I did have one audience member complain to me about the ambient sound in some of the scenes, and rather angrily, too. I was told that the ambient sound was unnecessary. I politely thank that audience member for the feedback, but silently disagreed with the assessment but with the caveat that volume may have been an issue. You can, however, be quite sure that I absolutely disagreed with the idea that the ambient sound was "unnecessary."

Now finally getting directly to my thoughts about my direction. Like I suggested above, overall I feel pretty good about my work on this show. I believe I did a lot of things right and made a lot of good, smart decisions. I can look back and see some weaknesses and some errors, but I believe my successes outweigh my errors.

One of the things I am positive I got right was doing table work with the cast, early on. Our first night of rehearsal was the standard read-through, then the next two nights we did more in-depth table work, stopping whenever anyone had a comment or question about anything concerning the text or the characters. Any one could make a comment on anything, including their observations or queries about another actor's character. I certainly made some observations and posed some questions. So did the entire cast. Character work was certainly jumpstarted during those two sessions (one night for each act), as was script analysis. I did this for The Roommate, and it will always be a part of my arsenal as a director.

Another decision I made, early on, weeks before we held the auditions was that it would be wise for me to bring in an intimacy coordinator. There were several scenes, two in particular, one of those quite glaring, where I wanted to be sure there was some strong sexual tension and innuendo as a key energy in the scene. For one scene in particular I really wanted a strong sexual energy without it getting to the point of being sexually explicit, yet I wanted it pretty damned close to the sexually explicit line without crossing it. The other scene absolutely needed a strong, obvious sexual component. I knew what I wanted from those scenes, but I also wanted to ensure that the actors felt comfortable and safe in their journeys to get to these places, and to be comfortable and safe as they performed the scenes in front of an audience. Perhaps I could have gotten them there on my own, with them being comfortable and feeling safe, but there's now a structured, well-thought-out procedure for this, and I don't have that training. I contacted Joe Deer, from the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Wright State University for recommendations. Who I went with was Marya Spring Cordes, Associate Chair and Artistic Director of that WSU School of Fine and Performing Arts. Marya, though not technically certified as an intimacy coordinator (or intimacy director), has the training in this skill, and her contribution to our show was vital. One of the actors made a point to let me know how much she appreciated Marya being brought in, and I got the sense the other actors agreed. I definitely got what I wanted in those scenes, and without anyone feeling intimidated, harassed or objectified.

That decision to nix costumes changes, save for a few key ones that were important to the story (which Barb Jorgensen rightly said were really more props than costumes because of their purpose), that decision was another good one on my part. Again, the nature of the script demands a quick pace and often a character was going from one scene to the next, the latter being a different point in time, and allowing time for costume changes would have unnecessarily dragged on the momentum.

My point of contention with my work was about poor communication in a few places. One instance was a scene where I wanted a specific tension and energy and it took me a little while to successfully communicate that to the actor who had to drive that tension and the particular uncomfortable energy the scene needed. The actor finally came to me, a little distressed that they could tell they weren't giving me what I wanted. We had a private talk about it and worked the scene a few times and it finally landed.

Another communication problem I had was not strongly enough driving the point home that the "intimacy" of The Guild's thrust-stage theatre is deceptive in terms of how loud an actor must be on stage. For one thing, the acoustics are less than perfect, and there are dead spots. Plus, many actors are not familiar with working a thrust stage, and they aren't conditioned to think about how they have to project their voices for the audience members who are behind them at any given time. It's also instinctive for them to want to bring the volume down when they are up close (right on top) of a portion of the audience, forgetting that they have to be heard by audience members on the other side of the theatre space. I made these points, repeatedly in my notes during rehearsal. What I didn't think to do was offer any sort of coaching on the topic ‐‐ next time, that will happen unless I have nothing but DTG, thrust-stage veterans in the cast.

My communication was a mixed bag. Though I had some inequities, I believe there were other times I did pretty damned well. One example that comes to mind is that a couple of the actors had verbal cadences going on at the start that were simply not going to work for the characters. I address it immediately, saying essentially, "We've got to break you away from that." I gave one actor a few suggestions including a television actor whose speech pattern and delivery might be a good model. We also spent some time talking about the character's overall attitude. The other actor, I just keep giving the note that the cadence issue was still there, and eventually it went away. I think all these things, as well as the actors' own intuitions, gave the characters the personas the show needed.

I also gave a couple of the actors far fewer notes than others. It was because, by and large, I was happy with what they were doing. I tried to occasionally let them know this, but I think I could have done so more often.

In an advanced acting class I took through The Human Race Theatre Company, the late, great Marsha Hanna, told the class that the job of a director isn't to tell the actors how to play their roles, but to help the actor find the character, the person in the text, in the role. I think, ultimately, I did that. I hope I did. It seems I did. We had conversations about emotional life, mental states, psyche, and motivations. I certainly tried to listen to their ideas about their characters, and they had some good, smart ideas. They even had some good suggestions about blocking. Going back to what Marsha told us in that class, the director needs to collaborate with the actors, and I tried my damndest to do that.

The great thing was that I had such a strong cast. I said this every performance during the curtain speech: that I was extremely fortunate to have the cast that I had. All of the actors were so well-suited for their roles. In a few cases, I had other choices from the auditions who would have worked, but the particular cast I did choose was about as close to perfect as I could have asked for. And I was so very pleased that of the seven actors on the stage, five of them were new to a Guild production. Two of them I was familiar with; three of the them I had never seen or known of before auditions. The remaining two, were, of course, Guild veterans. Those seven actors rocked it! As I wrote in my director's notes for the playbill:

....if this production is an artistic success, the talent, the instincts, and the insights of these actors play as much a part as any other element....

In another realm of striving toward my director's vision, though I had a very fine props person in Sarah, a fellow DTG board member (and also the sound technician for the production), I did take a few executive actions for particular props, mostly dealing with our two detectives. First, though they never draw their guns in the play, I did want them to wear their guns for the audience to see. We didn't have correct holsters in our props inventory for the purpose, so I personally procured the appropriate ones. I got a shoulder holster for Dixon (Jamie McQuinn) and a belt holster for Valez (Ghiovanna Dennis). Fortunately we do have some most authentic-looking blank guns in our possession, one that looks like a standard, five-chamber .38 revolver and one that is a replica of 9 mm pistol. We gave the .38 to Dixon, the old-school cop, and the 9 mil to Valez, the younger protégé. I bought holsters tailored to the guns.

The other cop prop issue was their detective's gold shields. First, I did some in-depth searching for gold shields on the internet. Much of what I found were toys and quite toy-looking. I did find some gold shield prop badges, but they all had city or municipality identification on them, and I didn't want any exact location for the setting. The program said, "upstate New York," and that was as definitive as I wanted it. With the stage setup for this show, both detectives were often within arms reach of the audience, so it would be easy for audience members to read the badges ‐‐ Valez's was on badge holder on a neck chain and Dixon's was on a badge holder on his belt. I did find a couple sites where you order custom-made gold shields, but the cost was prohibitive. I then went to a Dayton area facebook theatre community page asking if anyone had what I needed and could loan them out. No one did, but a couple people suggested we try making the badges via 3D printing. That was the rout we went, and as it turns out, our PSM, Doug just happens to own a 3D printer and is appropriately familiar with its use. He was able to create two polyvinyl badges that were perfect for our needs. Then, Guild board member, actor and graphic artist Wendi Michael (who was seen last season as Kate to my Jack in the Guild's mounting of Broadway Bound) painted the shields gold and added lettering. The badges came out wonderfully.

I also personally handle the creation of two crime scene photos props. One was photograph of print that hung on Becca's refrigerator in her apartment. The print is of an archeological piece that is a mosaic, which the script identifies as "The Madonna of Galilee," but my research shows it being titled "The Mona Lisa of Galilee." That prop was down stage on Dixon's desk in the police bullpen area of our Wednesday's Child set, just feet from the audience and easily seen by such. The other was a crime scene photo of Becca lying lifeless on her floor in a pool of blood. That one was probably barely ever seen and likely not seen well by any audience members. However, at one point Dixon opened a folder to show the photo to a lawyer and there was a chance that some audience members could at least partially see the contents of the open folder. I did not want them spying an obvious type-written page, a blank one, or other visual that was not the murder victim. Even if they saw very little, I wanted them to see something that looked like what Dixon said it was.

There were a few other props I provided due to easy, convenient access on my part. But the big bulk of the props were hunted down or procured by Sarah. And she is who is responsible for one of the most important props for the show, an Israeli stone called a meleke (the script spells it "meleki"). Her father, Dave Therkelson, has a rock garden and one of the limestones in that garden has the perfect look and size for our needs for the "meleki," so, Dave graciously loaned us that stone for the show.

And, our costumer, Barb. Well, she just knows what the heck she's doing!

Now: Red's set. It was not at all like what I had originally envisioned or planned on. My original idea was for the set to be pretty much a black box set with probably no walls or any region of the stage defined as any sort of geographical location. There would be minimal set pieces, more minimal than what we ended up with, that would come on and go off stage as needed. Likewise, the props would be as minimal as possible. Red's five-level platform set idea changed all that. It certainly was more interesting than what I had in mind. I went with it. I did find some of the blocking to be a challenge on Red's design and in retrospect what I learned was that before I give a set my stamp of approval I need to more rigorously think out such things as how it will be to block on. Now, I must say here that Red gave me plenty of time to approve or reject any and all of his proposed set. He made it clear that he would change anything to suit my needs. None of the blocking issues that I was never satisfied were completely resolved can be blamed on Red. I accepted the set so all the issues are on me. And, the set did look cool and was certainly interesting to look at and play on.

One of the things I love about theatre is the little show gifts cast and crew give out to each other. Even something as simple as a thank-you card with a sweet little note in it is a precious souvenir that I cherish. My gift to cast and crew is usually a 6x4 or 7x5 card that I've designed with a personalized note on the back. You'll see my 5x7 to the cast and crew below at the end of the pictures.

My director's gift from the cast was a lovely one. Quite a few years ago, I came across a textbook on acting in the collection at the day job, How to Stop Acting, by Harold Guskin. The title caught my attention as I had already been a disciple of the acting philosophy of "Less acting, More Being." I checked it out and found it very instructive and have repeatedly checked it out several times over the years. I frequently refer to it when discussing acting and certainly made reference to it while directing this show, as well as when I directed The Roommate. I always say how I need to break down and actually buy a copy rather than always relying on it being available for checkout from the library when I want to go back and refresh myself. The cast gave me a copy of the book as my gift, which I suspect was spearheaded by Mr. McQuinn, who is a librarian. They all wrote lovely little notes in it and I am quite touched by the gesture and the sentiments.

Yep, it takes a village to put on a great show. The members of the Wednesday's Child village, from the actors to all the production staff and crew came together to make an excellent show. For myself, there are things I'd do differently with my hindsight, but, overall, I am quite pleased and so greatful I had the amazing company of people I had to mount this wonderful production.

The DTG Wednesday's Child Company back row (L-R): Doug Patten (Stage manager & Lighting Technician), Ghiovanna Dennis (Det. Aleece Valez), Jamie McQuinn (Det. Walt Dixon), Stephanie Henry (Susan Merrit), Ryan Hester (Martin Merrit), Becky Howard (Molly Strutt), Barbara Jorgensen (Costumer), Sarah Saunders (Properties & Sound Technician), Red Newman (Scenic Designer), Alexis Hirst (Stage Crew) front row (L-R): Heather Atkinson (Dr. Samantha Sutton), Kayleen Nordyke (Becca Conner), Christana Tomazinis (Stage Crew), K.L.Storer (Director & Sound Designer) Not Pictured: Marjorie Strader (Lighting Designer), Scott Madden (Producer), Mayra Spring Cordes (Intimacy Coordinator)

Detectives Dixon's & Valez's gold shields, courtesy of Doug Patten & Wendi Michael.	The crime scene photo of "The Madonna of Galilee," taped to Becca Conner's refrigerator in her apartment ‐‐ easily visible to audience members as it lay on Dixon's desk, down stage on our thrust.
The crime scene photo of Becca Conner, post mortem ‐‐ which I hope was at least somewhat glanced by a few audience members during its brief appearance.	The Wednesday's Child "Meleki," courtesy of Dave Therkelson.
The cast's gift to me.	The dorky director faking a curtain speech during a rehearsal.                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula
Stephanie Henry & Ryan Hester                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula	Ghiovanna Dennis & Jamie McQuinn                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula
Kayleen Nordyke & Heather Atkinson                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula	Becky Howard                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula
Ghiovanna, Stephanie, & Jamie                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula	Me, working with the cast                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula
Stephanie, Jamie, Becky, & Ghiovanna                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula	Ryan, Stephanie, & Kayleen                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula
Ryan & Kayleen                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula	Ghiovanna & Becky                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula
Heather & Kayleen                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula	Heather & Jamie                                                                                         Photo by Kirsten Pribula

My 7x5 gift card to cast and crew.                                                                                                                                                                                                  Underlying Photo by Kirsten Pribula

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DIRECT? ACT? DESIGN? PONTIFICATE?:

I'll admit that as I read the DTG slate, I thought about the sound design: How would I do that? Do I have that sound in my SFX library? Would that have to be new Foley or something I'd have to build? I mean, ya know, history has proven that I'll likely end up designing one (or several) of the productions.

I also still have some manuscripts by theatre colleagues to read then provide the playwrights with my feedback, for whatever that would be worth.

SOUND:

I sat in on last night's full run rehearsal, both as producer and as sound designer, with emphasis on the latter. It was my chance to audit the performance to determine the moods and energies going in and out of scenes to better curate the music for each scene transition. It was the time to discuss certain specifics of sound effects with our director, Doug Lloyd, too.

Photos from last night's rehearsal:
Jared Mola (Lee) & Ryan Hester (Austin)	Ryan, Jared, & Philip Trickey (Saul)	Libby Holley Scancarello (Mom), Jared, & Ryan

AN INTERESTING SHOW FROM DENMARK:

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across a Danish horror series on Netflix titled Elves (Nisser in Danish), which caught my attention and I added it to my queue. A few days ago, I watched the pilot and I find the show interesting, so far. At this point it seems somewhat in the vain of Speilberg's ET, but that assessment may change as I watch more episodes.

Here's the write-up at IMdB: Hoping to reconnect over Christmas, a family of four travels to a remote island in the Danish archipelago, only to find it controlled by members of a strongly religious community living in balance with fierce creatures in the woods revealed to be ‐‐ elves. Real, monstrous beings that inspired the folklore and myths we all know. When the girl in the family finds and brings home a baby elf, she inadvertently disrupts the balance and throws everyone on the island into a life-or-death battle for faith, family, and pure survival.

The only obstacle here as far as me successfully watching this show is that, though it's fortunately not dubbed, I hate language-dubbed productions, it does have subtitles, which means that my frequent habit of attending to other activities while I watch TV won't be tenable because I will need to pay attention to the screen. Same problem I had with the original French production of The Returned, which is why I only saw a few episodes, even though I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw.

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AND TECH WEEK OFFICIALLY BEGINS TODAY:

As is common for a DTG production where I do the soundwork, I spent a good portion of yesterday, (the day before Tech Sunday), at the theatre, in the booth, programming the sound cues for the show into the True West project file in Show Cue Systems.

Though some decisions about production music had already been made ‐‐ (on Wednesday night when I watched the rehearsal) ‐‐ most decions were made yesterday. What was already determined was the ins and outs of both acts. Watching the run Wednesday brought me to decide what the sound should be at the start of the show: it won't be a song. I've also known for a while what music takes us out of Act 1. Going into Act 2 we will be using the music I had initially thought would be good at the top of Act 1. My first choice for the curtain call music has maintained its stature, though I've tweaked the presentation to better facilitate the drama in the last moments of the end of the act.

What I chose yesterday was the scene-transition music, from among some candidates I had already culled as being highly potential, and my choices were influenced by the mood and feel of those scene transition moments as generated by the actors' performances last Wednesday. Plus, of course, as I was programming, I made the decisions about the execution and affectation of the general sound-effect sound cues. Any of these choices could be nixed by Doug Lloyd, or he could ask for modifications, but, other than those usual variables ‐‐ plus my inevitable tweaking of volumes, etc. ‐‐ the sound design is finished.

Tomorrow night I'll shoot the principal footage for the show's on-line promotional trailer. There'll be no dialogue from the script in the trailer as I did not secure clearance to use any. As is the case in this situation, rather than shooting moments played specifically for the camera, I'll simply shoot footage during the regularly scheduled dress/tech and edit the DV movie from that, minus audio.

Dinner in the DTG greenroom.	In the booth, working on the sound design.

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A LITTLE ACTING WITH A PAYCHECK:

I have booked another gig playing a witness for a U.D. Law School mock trial session in early February. This will be the usual guided improv gig where I will be provided with case facts and my responses will be limited the scope of that information. I do not know of this is a case I have done before or if it's new. I should be getting the info packet shortly from the actors' coordinator, Fran Pesch.

Here we are at Opening Night. It was a relatively uneventful tech week, with the tech runs going well. The cast is clearly ready for tonight; they have been all week, really. Meanwhile, it was a virtually smooth tech week for my soundwork, too, with only the usual tweaks, mostly to volume levels. And, as you can see from the link below, the promotional trailer made it to final cut and onto the DTG YouTube channel.

The 2023/2024 season at The Guild has simply rocked thus far. True West is the next installment in what has been, and I wager will continue to be, an awesome season. If you are or will be in the Dayton, Ohio area between now and the 28th, I highly suggest ‐‐ with only a little bias entering the recommendation ‐‐ that you come check it out!

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As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" CLICK HERE FOR DR. KING'S SPEECH IN ITS ENTIRETY

"INTO THE BLUE DAWN":

The On-Liner Notes essay for "Into the Blue Dawn" is finally posted. I have now written commentary on all the tracks related to the Virtually Approximate Subterfuge album. Until something else is released there probably won't be anything added to the page. However, there are things in the can, and there's a major project from the distant past that needs mixing and mastering. A release, or two, might be happening sometime during 2024. Can't say when any On-Liner Notes essays would show up.

Meanwhile, CLICK HERE for the "Into the Blue Dawn" essay.

FIRST WEEKEND DOWN:

The show on the greenroom monitor.

The cast's curtain call bow, Saturday.

The really cool mug that Director Doug Lloyd, who's a potter, made for me. Actually he made one for all the company members. He also gave us each a rose.

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INFO PACKET FOR MY UPCOMING GIG:

I have received the info packet for my guided improv, U.D. Law School, mock trial gig coming up in early February. Got it last evening from U.D. Law actors' coordinator, Fran Pesch. I've only given it a cursory look-over, but it is a practice case that is new to me. I will be playing two roles, which is common. I'll be pulling out the 3x5 index cards shortly to start making my flash cards for fact & info memorization.

THE RADIO; & THAT DANGED :

A small emergency-lite has occurred. There's been an injury that puts the production in need of more hands to help during the run. The injury is nothing terribly serious, just enough to hinder one crew member slightly incapacitated.

It appears that a solution has been arrived at and new hands will be available for the last two weekends. So we have quelled the production gremlin's entertainment.

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PLAYWRIGHT WORK ‐‐ THE QUESTION OF THE PLAYSCRIPT OVERHAUL:

I'm also feeling a slight urge to overhaul my approach to telling the story but am conflicted about it. The method I am using is a challenge to do well; there are a lot of pitfalls it's easy to stumble into; I have, in fact, stumbled into some of them in the current and past drafts of the play. A big part of me wants to keep my current approach, my current method, and overcome the pitfalls to tell the story the way I am and make it interesting and compelling. One thing I will have to concede to is that no matter how successful I ultimately feel I am with the current approach, there will be audience members and readers who will not like it specifically because they are opposed to the method ‐‐ because they have been taught that the method I am employing goes against a core, principal convention they believe is carved into a titanium wall of playwriting rules.

ANOTHER GREAT WEEKEND!:

Big kudos and major thanks to Ms. Lyrit Ertsgaard, who joined the stage crew and took over many of the crew duties that belonged to our injured crew member.

THREE MORE SHOWS! NEXT WEEKEND!

DTG'S 24/25 DIRECTORS:

I have already begun to corral my production crew, or attempt to. I have two firm "yeses," one "probably," one query out there as of yet not responded to, and a few queries I haven't yet made but am about to make.

The show will run two weekends, Oct 11‐20, 2024.
General auditions are currently scheduled for Aug 26 & 27, 2024.

Here is the official DTG announcement about all six directors:

Dayton Theatre Guild Is Excited to Announce the Directors for Our 2024/2025 Season: 1) The Enchanted Cottage by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero Directed by Ray Gambrel Showing Aug 23‐Sep 8, 2024 (Auditions: Jul 8 & 9, 2024) ======== *** Season Extra *** Campaigns, Inc. a new play by native Daytonian Will Allan Directed by K.L.Storer Showing Oct 11‐20, 2024 (Auditions: Aug 26 & 27, 2024) *Campaigns, Inc. is a season extra and not in the subscription package. ======== 2) The Woman in Black Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt, by Susan Hill Directed by David Shough Showing Nov 29‐Dec 15, 2024 (Auditions: Oct 14 & 15, 2024) ======== 3) The Minutes by Tracy Letts Directed by Melissa Ertsgaard Showing Jan 31‐Feb 16, 2025 (Auditions: Dec 2 & 3, 2024) ======== 4) Chancers by Robert Massey Directed by Marjorie Strader Showing Mar 28‐Apr 13, 2025 (Auditions: Feb 3 & 4, 2025) ======== 5) Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis Directed by Robert-Wayne Waldron Showing May 23‐Jun 8, 2025 (Auditions: Mar 31 & Apr 1, 2025) *Note that all audition dates may be subject to change click here for further audition information for all Dayton Theatre Guild productions

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WITNESS WORK:

Work has officially begun on my study flash cards of facts/information about the case for the guided improv gig for the U.D. Law School mock trial I booked for the first Saturday in February. I am nowhere near finished yet, but should be before the weekend is over, and likely will have them all finished and will be doing drills tomorrow. The flash cards, created on 3x5 index cards, are, as you five regulars probably know, a staple of my actor's memorization technique; they're most handy for these U.D. Law gigs to get the parameter of information my characters* need to know embedded in my thick skull ‐‐ *often for these gigs I play two characters for the case, one prosecution witness and one defense witness. The flash cards are also a standard technique for me to drill my lines for scripted gigs.

One of the things that is always interesting about playing these witnesses in these exercises is that there is always at least one glaring, built-in flaw in the character's deposition ‐‐ where most of the information for the actor comes from ‐‐ as well as in the supporting documentation, usually mock exhibits for the courtroom (photos of evidence, the scene, reports, etc.). As the character you have to ignore any discrepancies, inconstancies, and poor leaps of logic from your information. But, that happens with most characters worth playing in a scripted production, too. You, the actor, have to be your character's advocate and see and feel things with their opinion and point of view, regardless of what you see from your off-stage, or off-screen, position in the real world.

It's always fun to see if the law students on the opposing counsel have picked up on the problem(s) and if so, how well they use such to their advantage; spoiler alert: they don't always capitalize well, and sometimes they don't seem to even catch the problem(s). Conversely, it's interesting to see how the team using the witness deals with the problem(s). If they're smart, they'll do what they can to play it down or make it irrelevent; and, sometimes it seems they don't catch the issue(s), either.

Lunchtime on Tuesday at the rent-payer, starting my flashcards to memorize the info for the gig.
Wednesday evening, at home, working further on the flashcards.
Last night, at home again, continuing on the flashcards creation.

ANOTHER ACTING GIG?:

AND MORE PREP WEARING A DIFFERENT HAT:

Meanwhile, though it's months off, as I stated in the last blog post I'm already in the early phase of preproduction for the October mounting of Campaigns Inc., by Will Alan, with me as director. I have a pretty decent headstart on putting together the production team. Six production staff positions are confirmed; there are another four I'm waiting for a response on; and there are probably one or two, or more, run crew positions that we will need to fill. There's also some Powerpoint production elements that I need to get a start on. I am not familiar with Powerpoint, whatsoever, so I need to get well acquainted with it now rather than later. I also need to familiarize myself with vintage aspect ratios in Final Cut Pro X as Campaigns Inc. needs the production gag of a 1930s movie to be shown during the performance. Honestly, it could be possible to have actors act out on stage the contents of the movie within the play, but that would not be as effective and it would make for a rather awkward presentation. The movie needs to be shot, then played during the stage performances.

SOMEWHERE ON THE HORIZON:

There have also been some other song ideas introducing themselves to my brain, both some musical ideas and some lyrical ideas. I can't say when any of this will be acted upon but the germination has definitely started. Then there are the past projects that are in various stages of mixing and mastering.

I'LL GO, IF I DON'T HAVE TO TALK:

Wednesday I took advantage of the presale for Dayton Live patrons for a ticket to see Jerry Seinfeld in April. I got a decent seat, too: Orchestra Row A, seat 108, seven rows back from the stage. There were actually closer seats open but at the time of purchase, and for anytime in the immediate future, they were/are beyond my current budgetary restrictions. In fact, the ticket I bought was a little bit more than I should have spent, yet.....I spent it.

Seven rows back, almost center, isn't exactly a bad seat. Had my credit card balance been a little better I would be in the second row.

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MORE WITNESS WORK:

Work creating the 3x5 flashcards to drill myself on the info for my U.D. Law School mock trial gig is not completed. A couple issues come into play. One is that time has been rather tight over the last week or so. The bigger issue is that there is a particular forensic science issue in the deposition of one the characters I am playing that is rather dense and has quite a few moving parts. And the details are scattered in the deposition in a less-than-organized manner. I spent a good amount of my time last evening creating a text document on my computer just to rearrange the points of fact about this forensic aspect so I could wrangle them into an order that will be easier for me to, one, make better sense of it all, and two, to better memorize it all. Time is getting tight, the gig is this coming Saturday, but I'm not in a panic as of yet.

THE PENULTIMATE 23/24 DTG SHOW IS IN REHEARSAL:

Meanwhile, the Lawnchair cast list has been officially announced:

CHARACTER		ACTOR
Jerry Gorman		Aaron Hill
Gracie		Jeannine Parson
Big Jack Preston		Drew Roby
Blaire		Emma Alexander
Mother Gorman		Rhea Smith
Mr. Frankel		Isaac Bement
French Boy/Amelia Earhart		Julia DiPaolo
NASA Official/Leonardo DaVinci		Michael Plaugher
TV Reporter/Charles Lindbergh		Jamie McQuinn
FAA Agent		Jamie Pavlofsky

Once again there are mostly faces new to the Guild stage, which is always an exciting thing!

Honestly I've not begun any soundwork on this show. But I do now have a hardcopy of the script to troll for what I am sure will be a minumum of sound cues. This being a musical, there also won't be any prerecorded production music; that will all be live, from the band. I will need to provide pre-show music, and Kim and I briefly discussed along what lines the theme of curating the music might fall. The important task will be dealing with the situations where we need wireless mics. Overall, the cast won't have mics ‐‐ when we do musicals, or live music in straight shows, in our space we usually don't mic the cast because of the intimacy of the space. But there will be some moments in this show that need mics for specific actors. We have our hand-held wireless mics, but we will need one wireless Lavalier mic, and I am about to research if I can borrow or rent one and assign it to a channel on the transceiver for our hand-helds. It will be much easier of I can.

Meanwhile again, I'm waiting for word on whether we have clearance to use maybe, dialogue, but certainly, music from the show in the promo trailer. Kim and I have even had another initial discussion about what song should be used. I haven't even listened to the cast album, so I'm not yet familiar with the show's songs.

ONE SMALLISH STEP:

Just a smidgeon more preproduction has happened for my next gig as a director, next October's Campaigns Inc., by Will Alan. I'm gonna once again do a little vague-posting by not revealing what that was ‐‐ it's none of the things I mentioned in the last blog post, but it is a good thing that will be revealed at a much later date.

POST-MORTEM LITE:

I'm not going to attack you with an obnoxiously-long, overly-verbose ramble, like I did with the Wednesday's Child post-mortem, but I did want to add a coda that this was another stellar production. Thus far our 2023/2024 Guild season has been excellent ‐‐ even if I am more than a little bias, especially about the sophomore production. These cast member's performances were excellent. Red's scenic design was great. Becky Howard's properties work was dead on target. Marjorie Strader's lighting design was, once again, perfect for the script. Carol Finley's costuming was her usual marvelous work. Kayla Graham orchestrated some perfect fight choreography. The production crew was top-notch: Melissa Ertsgaard (production stage manager), Abby Williams & Lyrit Ertsgaard: (run crew), Rhea Smith (lighting tech), and Sarah Saunders (sound tech). I received a few kudos for my soundwork, too. And, of course, all this was done under the fine stewardship of our director, Doug Lloyd.

A couple specific shout-outs: Lyrit Ertsgaard came in for the second and third weeks of the run after Mom (Melissa, our PSM) broke her foot, which left Mom mostly imobile and very unable to perform most of her duties as stage manager. Lyrit came in, did a bang-up job, and saved the production's bacon. Also, Lynn Vanderpool came in and gave a tutorial to cast member Philip Trickey on how to use body makeup to cover some tattoos that were out-of-character for his work as movie producer Saul.

The audiences certainly liked it. One hard-core theatre person confided that this was the third time they've seen the show, the other two productions being professional productions, and this was the first time they've liked the show. They thanked our production for showing them what the script can be when done right ‐‐ that's only a minor rewording of what they said.

Ryan Hester (Austin) & Jared Mola (Lee)	Philip Trickey (Saul)	Libby Holley Scancarello (Mom)
The three photos above by Rick Flynn

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THEM FLASHCARDS BE DONE:

Last night I finished the 3x5 flashcards for my U.D. Law School.mock trial gig coming up this weekend. Return readers may know that I'll be portraying two witnesses, one for the prosecution, one for the defense. This is a standard practice in these U.D. Law, guided improv gigs, for each actor to play two characters, one for each side of the argument. It's also standard for one of the two characters to be giving testimony to dispute the specific testimony of the other character that actor is playing. This is the case with me, here.

As I wrote on Jan 26 in respect to the first character whose info I was putting on the flash cards, the second one, whose flashcards I finished last night, has some major problems with the character's testimony. My instincts argue for me to alter the logical flaws, but those flaws, as I wrote before, are purposefully built in as part of the exercise for the law students. So I'm duty bound to deliver the bad testimony with confidence and gusto, despite the actor, K.L., realizing how dubious the points in question are. And again, it's interesting to see if the students on either side of the case catch these issues and if so, what they do with them.

Well, now that I have the flashcards completed, I'll spend much, close to most, of my "free" time between now and Saturday morning drilling myself with the flashcards and delving back, directly into the source material.

Finishing up those 3x5 flashcards last night ‐‐ now onto the drills.

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I'M NOT REALLY A DACTYLOGRAM* EXPERT, I JUST PLAY ONE FOR LAW STUDENTS:

So, as I promised, a considerable amount of my so-called "free time" over the last few days has been spent getting the facts and info into my brain for my two witnesses for today's U.D. Law School mock trial gig, which I'll be leaving for shortly after I upload this blog post.

Yesterday I took a vacation day from the rent-payer to spend much of the day reading and re-reading, and studying and re-studying the gig packet; and, of course, I spent a lot of time working with my flashcards, drilling myself on the facts, info, and positions of my two characters. Though I will admit that I also took a nap for a couple hours in the early afternoon. I also did a free-weights workout after my nap, but study on the case in between sets. So, the In the Gym graphic is only partially accurate. I also was in my TV-free zone for the last several days; but I did listen to a lot of Bartók, Schubert, Teleman, and Vivaldi.

I always go into these gigs feeling like I'm unprepared, but rarely have I ever been caught off-guard during the examinations or the cross-examinations. The big issue is that there is always far more information to memorize than will be asked about by any of the student lawyers. But, I have to know it all, and sometimes I go in feeling pretty shaky about some info.

But, I have crammed into my head whatever I have crammed into my head, and it's time to go be a couple witnesses.

*Dactylogram: finger print

WILL I GET MY TAXES FILED EARLY THIS YEAR? OR WILL IT BE THE SAME OL', SAME OL'?: I believe I have all the documents now to do my 2023 taxes. I have the perfect opportunity this weekend after the U.D. Law School gig is wrapped. Getting whatever refund I'll get ‐‐ *remember that the Trump/GOP tax increase on the middle and lower income households will kick in this year (and the GOP and their wacko leader will insinuate that it's the current White House's doing) ‐‐ but getting my refund sooner rather than later would be a good thing. So this weekend is a good time to sit down and file my taxes, federal and state. Yes, I write something similar to this every year, and with only a few rare exceptions I have still filed on or close to the April deadline most years. Lets see of I can change that this year. But, seriously, from this afternoon, onward, the weekend is wide open, and, like most of you out there, the whole process of doing my taxes will take a couple hours at the most.

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THOUGH I WAS A DACTYLOGRAM EXPERT, I WASN'T A COP ‐‐ AND OTHER ADVENTURES:

So, there were a couple monkey wrenches in the machinery Saturday for the U.D. Law School mock trial gig. First, despite mention of the 10:00 start time in several emails I'd received, I still had it in my mind that the gig started at 9:00. I wanted to be there early to get some last-minute study in, as well as the possible chance to confer with the student lawyers for some trial prep, so I got there at about 8:15; I was a little earlier than I needed to be.

Another monkey wrench was that due to illness, one of the teams could not be there, so each of us actors only played one of the two characters we were assigned. I and another actor were both assigned to play a police detective for the prosecution and a forensic fingerprint (dactylogram) expert for the defense. One would play the cop for one team then switch to the other team to play the expert -- so the teams didn't have the same actor playing both roles. With the team dropping out we each only played one; I played the expert, the other actor played the detective. This was same for the other two actors who were both playing their own set of two witnesses. Bottom line, we all ended up spending a lot of time learning the facts and info for a character we didn't end up portraying. Kind of a drag, but not the worst thing that has ever happened. However, I will note that the amount of the police detective's info I was charged to know was a big reason I burned eight hours of vacation from the rent-payer to take the day off Friday to top off my study for the gig.

And then.......there were revisions made to the case files and the details of all the characters. These were revisions we actors were not made aware of. So we all ended up getting questions we were not prepared for because it was information we didn't know. That was a serious SNAFU. Again, not a disaster, but it was a little frustrating.

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SOUND, PLUS:

The production has also called upon my unofficial position at The Guild as the virtually, approximate, PSEUDO-technical director for the theatre. By default I am the most qualified; "most" is definitely a relative term; I am truly not anywhere close to well-qualified. There is a lot of knowledge and skill a good technical director ought to have that, believe me, I do not possess.

However, the tasks I am being called upon here I can handle. The orchestra will need monitor speakers to better hear the on-stage singers; that is the easy one. We also need to set up a screen monitor at the back of the house, with a camera on the conductor, with a signal that feeds to the screen. That so the cast, performing on stage, can look to the back of the house and see certain visual conductor's cues. Investigation into setting that up is underway.

I am waiting for word from the playwright, Peter Ullian, and the composer/lyricist, Robert Lindsey-Nassif, about using a brief portion of the script/score in the trailer. If I get clearance, I may use some dialogue and definitely will use a portion of one song. That song has been determined based on Kim's recommendation.

Lunchtime, yesterday, at the rent-payer, probing the Lawnchair Man script for sound cues.

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FLIGHT OF THE SOUND GUY:

The first problem was one I've faced before for other shows, that being that there is a too-noticeable ground hum that comes from the speakers when they are plugged into certain wall sockets. I did various things to isolate the offender and found the issue and a solution.

The second problem is that in our theatre space, regardless of the ground hum buzz, it's clear there is no way to use open monitor speakers for the conductor and band to hear the onstage voices. There's a feedback loop that fires-up before the monitor speakers are close to loud enough to be of use. After a bit of experimentation I found that the feedback just cannot be avoided from open speakers. The solution is to put the conductor and musicians into headphones. I'd been looking at patch bays to accommodate the multiple phones needed, but as it turns out I need a headphone amplifier with multiple outputs.

As of yet, I've not started the work on the sound cues for the sound design, but that starts tonight. I'll start pulling the cues together from my sound library, or procruing new ones, though I don't believe the latter will be necessary.

Later this week I'll be recording one voice-over with an actor. I'll create another one, artificially, myself, using the text-reader voice feature on my MacBook Pro. I'll also begin curating the preshow music; it's going to be an oddly eclectic list of music, all based on the theme of flying: go figure.

Me, hooking up one of the monitor speakers in the area designated for the pit.

Me, doing some on-line shopping research, erroneously for a patch bay.

NEVER TOO EARLY....:

CAMPAIGNS, INC. by Will Alan

A little bit more very early preproduction has happened. Another production staff member has officially come on board. I've come up with some ‐‐ underscore: some ‐‐ of the production gameplan and communicated such with the staff.

DANGED RABBIT HOLE!:

I've written here in the past how gothic this story bible has become, and how it continues to grow.

Sometimes while adding an entry I'll actually add a passage of dialogue, or perhaps a correspondence or portion of a news report. As of late, rather than add the dialogue directly into the timeline entry, I have used the Final Draft software to write a short-short play as a separate document, then refer to it in the entry. Over the last week or so, I've spent some time on that for a particular entry regarding this idea I've been infusing into the bible.

Once again, as I was working on the scripted entry, I again went into that rabbit hole, I sometimes do, and allowed this venture to take precidence over other projects, mostly theatre projects. But I came to a place with the little excercise where it shaped itself into a pretty structured ten-minute play. There's a Ten-minute Play festival coming up this summer, and I may just submit this to it.....perhaps.....We'll see.

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LAWN WORK:

The 4-channel headphone amplifier is ordered and should be in my possession by the end of the week. For those who don't know, the headphone amp is so that the three musicians and the conductor, all in the orchestra pit can use headphones to hear the cast singing on our thrust stage.

Last week I met with Greg Torre, from Miami Valley Communications Council, who came in to look the palce over in order for MVCC to help us out by providing a camera and monitor screen so that, from the thrust, the cast can see our conductor, Sarah Lingg, conducting the music. There are certain cues from her the cast needs to be able to see as they perform. Theatres that frequently do musicals usually have such a setup as part of their standard equipment. We rarely do musicals, and the last several we've done did not require such. This one does. A BIG THANKS to Greg and to Ray Gambrell, also from MVCC ‐‐ Ray is also directing our first show, next season, The Enchanted Cottage. Greg will be in soon to install the equipment MVCC is loaning us.

STILL NOT TOO EARLY:

CAMPAIGNS, INC. by Will Alan

Though I won't need it for more than a half-year from now, I have secured from Will Alan the copyright clearance to use dialogue from the Campaigns, Inc. script in the promotional trailer that will be published a few days before our October 11 Opening Night. His permission didn't really come as a surprise to me.

Despite that I have a few other things on my current plate, I still need to up my preproduction for this. There is some dramaturgy I ought to attend to soon. There's some specific preproduction, which includes some of that dramaturgy, that I need to get a start on for the principal photography of a short movie that needs produced for use within the performances of the play. Part of that is the early casting of a couple of the characters (more on that later) for the shoot, that which will take place in the late summer. There's also a period prop that either has to be found or built for the shoot.

As I wrote in an earlier post, there are a few technical things I need to get on. For one, I need to learn Powerpoint because that will be needed for the production ‐‐ to show that movie and most likely for another element at the end of the performances. And I need to learn how to produce a 4:3 aspect ratio in Final Cut Pro X. I'll likely be shooting in 16:9, but I need the locked edit to be 4:3 without compressing the image. It's supposed to be a 1930s movie, so it'll be in 4:3 and also in black-and-white. It will not, however, be silent. There will be audio, but that audio will be sweetened to have a tinselly sound.

YOU DON'T JUST REHEARSE WHAT YOU'VE BOOKED:

PLAYWRIGHT WORK ‐‐ FROM STORY-BIBLE ENTRY TO SHORT PLAY TO POSSIBLE FULL-LENGTH PLAY:

So that recent story-bible rabbit-hole I wrote of going down manifested into a ten-minute play, or almost a ten-minute play.

To elaborate, I have begun the practice of creating separate documents consisting of pieces of dialogue for some entries into the timeline documents in my story bible materials for the universe of the characters for my already completed draft of a full-length play, and for my earlier novel. In the past I'd simply added the dialogue into the timeline entry, as shown on the screenshot to the left. What I've been doing recently is using the Final Draft software to lay out the dialogue in play script format in a separate document, saving that script document in a specific folder and then referring to it in the entry in the timeline. I've done with two pieces of dialogue here recently and I plan to go back and move the past dialogues in the timeline, as there are a few, into these play-script-formatted documents, including the entry shown on the left.

The first of the two that I've done the play-script format for is very much a vignette, not quite fully formed into a story structure. This second one, the real subject of this post entry was closer to fully formed. I recognized that and took it all the way. The result is the fully-developed draft of a short, one-scene play. I wrote above that it is " almost a ten-minute play"; that's because it's running a little longer, coming in at about fifteen minutes. There actually is a ten-minute play festival coming up this summer, put on by the Yellow Springs Theatre Company, and I considered submitting this short play, but I verified that the play must come in at ten minutes or less, the deadline for submission was Friday, March 1, and I did not have time to sit down and trim five minutes off in time to make that deadline. I'm not actually sure I want to cut five minutes, anyway.

For this work in question, I'd contacted a couple lawyers I know to ask for their opinion on an aspect of the entry, when it was just an entry for possible later use. Both told me pretty much the same thing. I sent the fully-formed short play to one, who also happens to be one of my area's finest actors, and he gave me some feedback from both his legal and theatrical experiences. There is some chance this little fifteen-minute could be expanded, based on my own urges toward it and buoyed further by his feedback. If so, it will be a while. I still have the rewrite of the full-length from this same universe, which is higher priority.

MY WARRIOR-MUSE QUEEN JUST WILL NOT STOP WHISPERING IN MY EAR:

Ideas for new songs, all of music, lyrics, arrangements, and production, keep coming to me. I'm not seeing a window coming up that has a lot of space for a lot of attention to new music. What I may end up doing is some piecemeal work on new music. As I've written in earlier blog post, there is some original scene-change music I composed for Wednesday's Child that I want to expand upon and make full-blown works out of. There are other ideas that are coming to me, too. But don't expect to read about a new album release for quite a while.

THIS IS NOT "HOTEL CALIFORNIA":

There are three shows left this coming weekend. It's a, er, um, a "fun" show.....really.......Fun. But really, a good night (or afternoon) of theatre.

NOT EXACTLY A WINDFALL, BUT "$" ALL THE SAME: Well, I did get my 2023 taxes done early, but it took a few weeks from when I'd gather all the relevant documents together and posed the question of how soon I'd get it done ‐‐ almost exactly a month. But both the federal and the state are done and I should be able to throw some money toward cooling down my obscenely hot credit card debt within several weeks. Because, yes, you can count on that being where the refunds, or at least the majority of them, will go. Not that it'll put a great big dent in the debt, but it will be of some assistance. I'd love to use it toward a nice vacation this summer, but I really need to work on that credit card debt. At least this year I didn't procrastinate until the eleventh hour as I have in many years past.

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I voted this morning, shortly after the polls opened. There were no lines, no waiting. Honestly, I kind of wish there already had been some lines and some waiting, despite that I live in a community with a majority of folk who will be voting in the other party’s primary.

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MORE LAWN WORK ‐‐ AUDIO STUFF, THE PROMO TRAILER, TV MONITORING, AND THAT |)A/\/\|\|E|) :

Yes, it's been a while since I posted much material here. I have not been idle, I just haven't had anything prose in shape to publish, nor have I allowed a lot of time to get anything there. I have been working on this entry all along, just not getting any portions to completion until now. In the meantime Lawnchair Man is now finishing its Tech Week, with Final Dress tonight and Opening Night tomorrow. Here's my Lawnchair journey since last I uploaded any words about it...:

I took three full vacation days, from the rent-payer, the first two on Friday, Mar 8, and Monday, Mar 11, plus a few hours Tuesday morning, the 12th, to work at the theatre on the show. I had plenty to work on. Of course, I had sound design stuff to do, but there was also some of that uber-pseudo-technical director stuff to work on, as well; and there was other work to do.

Monday, Mar 11, at the start of the production's sitzprobe evening, I recorded the designated song from the score for use in the promotional trailer, which I shot the footage for this last Tuesday night at the first full dress rehearsal. Friday afternoon, on the 8th, I initially set up my audio recording equipment. I brought my Tascam 24-Track recorder, my three mics, which includes my one Shure SM7B vocal mic. I also brought my two working mic stands, and my two XLR sound cords. But I wanted to record at least five channels, with three mics on the cast and two on the band. That's not completely ideal, as I would have really loved to have had more mics on both aspects as well as recording the music in a more acoustically friendly environment, such as a recording studio setting.

I needed two more mics, fortunately the Guild has two nice wireless handheld mics and just happens to have the three extra XLR cords I needed, so I employed those as well. So I was able to put three mics on the cast ensemble and two on the four-piece band. I did have to head down the road to Sound Force to pick up three more mic stands. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to keep all three or get a reimbursement for two from the theatre and put them in the DTG inventory.

I mixed and mastered the song this past Sunday. Despite the challenging acoustics in the theatre's mainstage area, I was able to get a pretty decent final master. I even got a relatively nice stereo mix, considering that all five channel tracks each have a certain amount of bleed from all the other four. Ultimately I was able to get a final mix that is much cleaner than what I expected; I expected to have something far muddier. Not that the final is the clearest, crispest sound there can be, but it ain't at all bad.

This Tuesday night was the first official dress rehearsal, with the cast in their costumes. That was my night for principal photography for the trailer. This time, rather than having any cast members perform moments directly and specifically for the camera, I simply shot the rehearsal, or a good portion of it. There will be no dialogue in the DV movie, only mos footage accompanied by my audio recording of the cast. Okay, technically there is dialogue, but it wasn't recorded that night.

Yesterday I took that third vacation day to edit the DV movie to final cut, in Final Cut Pro X, and though it's not exactly a threat to the legacy of Federico Fellini, it'll do.

Click here to see the trailer.

My other big push over that first weekend was to finalize all the sound cues, which for the show itself are all sound effects, (no production music for this one), for the obvious reason. That same Sunday, I programmed the soundwork into Show Cue Systems. I've also completely curated the preshow music, being all songs that somehow or another touch on the theme of flying, again, for another obvious reason.

Greg Torre, from Miami Valley Communications Council has made a few trips to install the MVCC camera and monitor screen so the cast can see the conductor's cues while on stage. After a few little glitches we have a camera monitoring system that more than does the job. Many, many thanks to Greg, Ray Gambrell, and MVCC.

Again, this is something I am helping the production with in my super-unofficial capacity as the theatre's defacto faux-technical director, which, as I have written in this blog before, I am seriously under qualified for ‐‐ well maybe not with the "faux" prefix attached, but definitely when that prefix is removed.

On another note related to this show and this "faux-technical director" nonsense, the 4-channel headphone amplifier I ordered came in. The order was initiated by my assessment that it was needed in the orchestra pit, back stage, so the musicians and conductor could hear the cast singing on the thrust stage. However, the production team has come to the conclusion that an audio monitoring system in the pit will not be necessary. Unfortunately I did not know that until after the order was fulfilled. Fortunately, I had decided to buy the headphone amplifier for myself rather than for the theatre.

But the sound-snafu issues didn't stop there! This Monday evening, after the tech run had started, the sound-op laptop began an automatic update of its Windows® OS. Seems that somehow the wi-fi was turned on ‐‐ which it is NOT supposed to be! ‐‐ so the laptop was rendered incapacitated during a good chunk of the rehearsal. Fortunately, I had my MacBook there with the original SFX files for the show, so we were able to run a sound plug from mine into the mixing board and play the remaining cues for the show while the update on the theatre laptop was trudging along.

But wait, there's more....: After the update was finished, the Show Cue System software could not find the driver for the external sound card, and it would not let me get to the place in the software where I could change it to the laptop's internal sound card driver. I had to create a new SCS program file of the show after the Monday night rehearsal was finished. I'm lucky there are not a lot of sound cues in the show, so I was still able to get hme by 11:00. I did have to come in early the next day to reset the volume level for each cue. It could have been worse, and it's a good thing that I'll be getting a new external sound card for our sound system. My hope is that we will be up and running with a new soundcard before Superior Donuts opens.

There were also a few different issues with the camera/monitor screen system to show the conductor to the cast while they are on stage. There have been a few cable connection issues, one which the little gremlin jerk laid on us this Monday as the run was just about to start. But Greg from MVCC was more than happy to come down and trouble shoot the problem. He found it and we now know what to do if it happens again, and even ways, we hope, to help prevent it from occurring.

So here is an over-abundant array of pics from the last two weeks:

The initial set up, Friday, Mar 8, for audio recording during the sitzprobe ‐‐ setting up to run some preliminary mic checks, etcetera.
Still the recording equipment set-up.		Pizza dinner break, Friday the 8th.
Installing a shelf for the back-stage monitor camera, still that Friday.
Editing sound effects in the tech booth at the theatre on Saturday, Mar 9.
One last harvest, on-line, for a sound effect.	Programming the sound cues for the show, Sunday, Mar 10.
	Dinner, that Sunday.	Putting the cues in the sound tech's script.
Checking audio (mics, levels, etc.) before the Mar 11 sitzprobe.
		Pizza again before the sitzprobe.

The MVCC camera setting on the backstage platform.	The MVCC monitor screen, mounted in the back of the house.
Last Saturday was the show's tech day. It also happened to be St. Patrick's Day weekend, and just a two-minute walk from the theatre the serious annual St. Paddy's Day blowout in The Oregon District was up and running. So we had to chain off our parking lot or else it would be full of St. Paddy's partiers, and our cast and crew likely would not have any parking. I was the gate keeper and took the opportunity to work on my own creative stuff.

CROMER ON STAGE:

GAFFIGAN ON STAGE:

Originally, when I saw this gig was coming, I had decided not to get a ticket, but I changed my mind. So, now, I'll be seeing Mr. Gaffigan for the fourth time. This time rather than a Dayton venue, he'll be at the Taft Theatre in Cincinnati. I've seen a few acts there before; all have been musical acts. The Gaffigan show will be the weekend after the closing of my next Guild directing effort, Campaigns Inc., by Will Alan.

My seat for Jim ‐‐ Orchestra 3, Row G, Seat 7. Not a bad seat at all.

DECORUM OF THE PROS:

Here's a pet peeve I have about something that I experience, not infrequently, on several different fronts. Maybe some of you do, too:

One sends an email or a text, asking a question, communicating an important need, or giving some important information for the collaborative project at hand. No response. After a reasonable period of time, one reiterates the communication, possibly in a different mode of communication. Still: no response.

Don't be that non-responder. It's not good professional etiquette. It does not matter if a paycheck is involved or not; it is not good professional etiquette in any circumstance where a team of people are trying to work toward a common goal. It's frustrating to the person who is trying to get or send information. Answer the question or acknowledge that the message was received. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, this is not a major misstep, but it's still an annoyance.

Not doubt, I've been guilty of this, myself, but I try my damnedest not to be.

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Tech Week is wrapped. I was among several who watched the final dress last night of this quirky, fun little musical, and we all enjoyed the evening. As Director Kim Warrick said to the cast during her final notes, all the cast really needs now is a full audience. The show runs through April 7. If you live near or will be in the Dayton, Ohio area, I recommend the show, if you want an entertaining evening of silly, cheeky fun with some lovely, fun performances from a strong cast. If you want Chekhov, that's a different evening.

Click here for the promotional trailer of the show

FF IS BACK & I'M BACK AS THE SOUND DESIGNER:

After taking a one-year hiatus for some retooling, FutureFest, Dayton's well-respected new play festival returns this summer, and I am one of many who welcome it back!

Several weeks ago I was approached by the FutureFest 2024 committee about designing sound for the six finalist in this coming summer's weekend. I was interested but only if I did not have to also be the weekend's sound tech; I really like sitting in the audience for FutureFest ‐‐ or being on stage in one of the plays. The committee is amenable to my desire so I am on board as the FF24 sound designer.

This likely means that I won't be auditioning for any of the six plays because attending the key rehearsals, of any play I was cast in, close to and during Tech Week would be a problem since I will need to attend all six tech rehearsals as the sound designer, as well as some rehearsals of all six just before Tech Week. I'm also basically precluded from submitting to direct any of the plays, for basically the same reason.

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A STRONG OPENING NIGHT:

Including tonight's 8:00 show, you who are close enough to make it to our theatre have eight more chances to come enjoy your evening and laugh more than just a little.

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ON THE BOARDS WITH TWO-THIRDS OF THE CAST:

This past Monday and Tuesday evening this actor auditioned for our Dayton Theatre Guild 2023/2024 season closing production, Superior Donuts, by Tracy Letts. I am thrilled to report that director Jared Mola offered me the lead role of Arthur Przybyszewski *(Shub-er-shef-ski), which is the role this season I've had the most interested in; of course, I accepted.

So

The show, by the way is up, June 7-23. TICKETS

(updated Apr 26, 2024)
One role is not yet filled due to not having actors at either audition night who met type. This is a circumstance where it would not work to cast against type because the text dictates that most characters are pretty specific to one type or another ‐‐ there's not a lot of leeway in most cases for this show. See some info below about the roles not yet cast

Here is the current Superior Donuts cast list *(as of April 26, 2024):

CHARACTER		ACTOR
Arthur Przybyszewski		K.L.Storer
Franco Wicks		Andre Tomlinson
Max Tarasov		Mike Beerbower
Officer Randy Osteen		Heather Martin
Officer James Bailey		Percy Vera
Luther Flynn		Maximillian Santucci
Lady Boyle		Jennifer Lockwood
Kevin Magee		Brandon Teeple
(updated Apr 26, 2024) The following role has not yet been cast. For more information or to make an audition appointment, contact Director Jared Mola at mola.jared@gmail.com
Kiril Ivakin		Male, 20s-30s. Russian. Max's nephew who appears at the end of the play. A large man, he is described as looking like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV. (Speaks with a Russian accent)

I got my call early Wednesday afternoon, so, Wednesday evening I took out my large-print copy of the script ‐‐ which is actually for my soundwork for this show ‐‐ and my 5x3 index cards, to start creating my flashcards of cue lines against Arthur's lines, that to begin my sojourn toward off-book status.

In terms of the audition, at least one other actor did a good read as Arthur (in my estimation), so I certainly did not feel I had a lock on the role. Being the classic egomaniac with an inferiority complex, I was ready to get the email that goes out to all the auditioners who did not get a part, and not get the phone call offering the part. The result of that scenario being my ego shouting its self-absorbed whine in my head about how I was "robbed."

One of my acting colleagues asked me, after seeing my facebook post (see the screenshot to the right), how I thought my audition went. My answer was one that most actors who might read this will understand:

I felt good about it. And, my egomaniacal bias insists to me that I was the only one who truly showed understanding of the character, but that bastard has rose-colored glasses and I can't relay on his judgement.

At least I've managed to get smart enough to be aware of how my particular brand of megalomania deceives me. Of course, the voice of self-doubt deceives me just as much. There have many times I have been convinced I tanked an audition, that there was no way I was going to be cast, only to get the call that I was in. Like I told my fellow actor and friend about this one, though, I did feel that I gave a good audition; and another of my friends and fellow actor, who also auditioned for the show told me, "I thought you were great...at auditions and I hope you have a lot of line memorization ahead of you in the near future!" My egomania and my sense of inferiority were at equal levels of anticipation and anxiety this time around. A good decade or more ago, I was advised to wear my anticipation about the result of auditions like a loose robe, to be as nonchalant as I can. I've given that a shot with poor delivery ‐‐ maybe someday....

But, from my friends lips to the Theatre Godess's ears, because I do "have a lot of line memorization ahead of [me]] in the near future!" and, of course, that process has begun. There's also one particular passage, and not at all a long one, that will need particular attention. There's a litany of the names of African-American poets that Arthur rattles off, and several of those names will take practice for me to pronounce correctly. I actually had already started working on this before auditions, in the event that this part of the script would be part of one of the audition sides. It wasn't, and I haven't yet mastered the names to the point where I can deliver the list as quickly as the script intimates it should be done, but at least I fundamentally know how to pronounce these few challenging names and my lips and tongue have begun getting comfortable with the execution. Though, I would not have delivered the list "at speed" during auditions.

The other thing that will be happening in this show is that I and another actor will engage in some serious stage combat, which will be facilitated by the production's fight choreographer, fellow actor and fellow Guild boardmember, Kayla Graham (who also happens to be married to our director, Mr. Mola). A little bit of basic fight choreography movement, for those of us up for Arthur and the other relevant character, was actually part of the audition. I'm guessing the choreography will be relatively intricate and will take a bit of rehearsal, since Letts' description of the fight says, in part:

The fight is long. And painful. It is sweaty and bloody. The fighters display great ferocity. The fight involves fisticufts, grappling. wrestling and found objects. The fight contains gouging, biting, kicking....

I am not, by-the-way, intimidated by this, but I know there is some physical work coming up. Fortunately, with stage combat, and a good fight choreographer, safety is built in, and though it's often a bit of work, it is far less work and actually takes far less energy ‐‐ and force ‐‐ than the audience's perception. And, of course, it's actually not violent, whatsoever. That's if it's choreographed then executed correctly. I trust Kayla, who is stage combat certified, and I trust the other actor. I am feeling good about my upcoming collaboration with Kayla and my scene mate. I'm also feeling like I am in good enough physical shape that this will not be taxing on me.

Wednesday night, as I began the process of creating my flashcards to do memory drills on my lines for the show.	Continuing the process, the next day at lunch, in the breakroom at the rent-payer, this time using the PDF of the script on my laptop as reference.

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