TUNA CHRISTMAS end of week one

Last night, we finished our first week of rehearsals on our upcoming comedy. We started by reading through Act Two, and then moved on to blocking the first two scenes of the second act. We will finish blocking Act Two on Sunday afternoon, and Monday we will start over again and begin reviewing the scenes.

Mike and David are having fun discovering the different characters in the show. In addition to determining how they are going to play 11 different roles each, they also need to figure out a quick way to switch from one character to another. David is trying out phrases that he can say to himself that get him into the new character. Mike is playing many of the same characters that he played in GREATER TUNA, but he's also having to discover new characters. It's a fun process for all of us.

Blocking - TUNA CHRISTMAS

This week, we are blocking the show - determining where and when actors enter and exit, where and when they move or sit. As the show has very little furniture, there's also a lot of pantomime - a coffee cup, an oven, decorating cookies, etc. We are also in the early stages of determining the differences for each actor between their characters - what makes Jody different than Charlene for David Odom? How does Mike change from Thurston to Elmer? It's a fun process that will continue until we get the entire show blocked and then we'll move into making more specific choices and further developing the characters.

On a separate note, this is the final weekend of SUITE SURRENDER - we have four shows this weekend, including Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. If you haven't seen the show, come on down and support our great cast and crew!

TUNA CHRISTMAS rehearsals begin

Last night, we had our first rehearsal for TUNA CHRISTMAS. It's a small group - just the two actors (Mike Harrell and David Odom) along with Stage Manager Doug Hart and myself. It was good to get back into the rehearsal room and get back to work on directing - I have not directed a show since LES MISERABLES opened in February 2009. Of course, I'm going to be directing four shows in a row - TUNA, CHRISTMAS CAROL, the opening 2010 musical and the spring 2010 Yucca musical - so I am pretty much going to be in rehearsals and performances until late April 2010.

Working on TUNA CHRISTMAS is going to be fun for both myself and the actors. If you're familiar with GREATER TUNA, you understand the basic premise of the show - two guys play all of the people in Tuna, Texas. The original (GREATER TUNA) introduced you to these characters, and we had a tremendous run of this show in Mabee Theatre II in 2001. The guys who wrote the show live and perform in Texas, and have always restricted the rights to perform this show in their home state - in other words, for years you could do this show in 49 states - just not in Texas. They have actually written and are now performing a fourth version of the show based on Las Vegas, so I guess they released the rights to TUNA CHRISTMAS in Texas.

I will try to blog more now that I am in rehearsals and keep you updated on our progress. Opening night for the show is Friday, October 24, 2009.

Auditions

Auditions can be one of the most difficult times to work at a theatre. Almost everyone involved in the auditions is nervous - will I get a part? who else is auditioning? how do i feel right now? who am I reading with for the next scene? As the director, you try to provide a "level playing field" for everyone participating in the auditions. If it's a non-musical, you can have them read scenes and then go home. If it's a musical, you have scenes plus singing and dancing - musical auditions can (and have) gone very late into the evening.

At MCT, we have traditionally held auditions on Sunday and Monday night. I made this change when I arrived because I felt that providing a Sunday night auditions allowed some people to audition on a day they didn't have to work. The downside is the fact that its the end of the weekend - and sometimes people just forget until they go to work on Monday. However, we don't require you to be there both days, so two days of auditions are usually enough to cover our needs. If we have youth (ages 8-14) auditions, they are usually held on Saturday, adding a third day of auditions to the process - this will happen for both A CHRISTMAS CAROL (our upcoming 2009 holiday musical) and THE WIZARD OF OZ (our 2010 opening musical).

This past weekend, we held auditions for TUNA CHRISTMAS. These auditions are a little easier - after all, you only need two guys to do the show. However, we had nine talented men audition for the show, and this meant some hard choices - check out the cast list on the MCT website. However, I feel very lucky that MCT has such a talented pool of actors to chose from. This past summer at the conference in Tacoma, I heard from many of my friends in community theatre - "we have no men". MCT has a great talent pool of male performers, and I hope that we can continue to provide our men - and women - with many opportunities to let their talents shine on our stages.

Opening Night - SUITE SURRENDER

Two years ago, we were alerted to a new comedy being performed in Florida. It was about a USO show in the 1940s with two divas who did not get along and were performing at the same USO show. They were both assigned the same dressing room, and chaos ensued. This farce was 90 minutes long and would be a perfect addition to an upcoming season. This comedy was SUITE SURRENDER.

Director Pam Keel and her great cast have been working hard to prepare for tonight's show. I watched dress rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday night, and I think our audience is going to love this show. Now, you may have heard that many performances are sold out - we recently added two more shows to the run on September 20th and 24th. In addition, you can always just "show up" and we will put you in an empty seat. So come on down and join the funny - I promise that you'll laugh and have a great time!