Wearing the hat...

This week I have likely spent over 20 hours on Walterdale work. Welcome to the position, I guess. Part of the time has been spent getting things done that will help me work less later on in the season. Part of that time has been spent in phone and email conversations with members currently working on productions (or starting the work) and trying to help them solve their problems.

Next week the newsletter will go out with the Season... but for a sneak peek...

The first show is Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean directed by Wendi Pope. It goes up in October and auditions will be mid June. Stay tuned for more details.

All is Right - We Have All the Rights!

Yesterday the Rights for the last (actually, the first) show came in. Whew! Stay tuned for announcements, likely in the newsletter and the program for the Footlight Festival and hopefully some sort of formal announcement. We need to get on it to gather interest for the auditions for the first show. These will likely be in June and will require lots of strong women of various ages...

Speaking of the Festival... There are a variety of events happening for the festival. It runs the last week of May to the first week of June and there are five One-Acts, 2 Staged Readings (which I am involved in), a late night variety show, a workshop, and some round table discussions. Many of the events are 'pay what you can', so come out!

Four down... 1 to go...

We now have confirmed the rights to 4 of the 5 shows. Ah. I anticipate no problems with the remaining one, but it is the first one of the season so I want those rights asap so that we can launch the season and set auditions.

I spent the morning in at the theatre today. I planned to get a lot more work done than I actually did, but it was good to chat with the Administrator and I did get a number of questions answered about my job and how I want to proceed. There are challenges to running an organization where everyone pretty much has another day job. There has to be a bit of flexibility with expectations while still maintaining the standards of the association. I hope to develop ways to help people do that.

The big job I started today was writing the "Thank you" letters for those individuals who submitted pieces to direct that were not selected. I had many good people (with good plays) submit, but there are only 5 slots in the season and I did want to direct myself. I am hoping that some of them can still participate with Walterdale in some capacity despite not getting to direct this season.

Merrily we roll along...

Confirmed rights for 3 of the 5 shows. Our 6-Pack selection is the February show . We had wanted the October show so as to get a jump on the season, but this will be good for the small cast show we have in cold February. Email communications have started about launching the season. Whew! Still waiting on those last two shows...

Check!

The Rights for all 5 plays have been applied for. We have received definite 'yeses' on two of them and the other 3 have received confirmation of application. They are with Samuel French and the reply says 2-4 weeks for processing. I am not anticipating any problems, but I want to know for sure so that we can move on to the next step... budgets!

One of the plays is by a local playwright so that is very exciting to me. It is great to be supporting not only Canadian, but Albertan playwrights. Another deals with two young gay teenagers who fall in love. It is a beautiful play and so well written.

I read the latest APN newsletter and it talked about female playwrights and I was disappointed in myself in that none of the plays I proposed were written by female playwrights (both of my back-ups were, however). I did select the shows with women in mind, at least with regards to acting roles, but I totally ignored the playwrights. Hmmm. I still want to select strong scripts so for next year I am hoping that the submissions include some strong pieces by women! I do have 3 female directors lined up. It is an interesting situation. I do not want to be partial one way or another, but I would rather pick the best candidates. If they happen to be women, that's great, but if they aren't, I would hope that people realize I was selecting on merit.

On the way to next season...

This past Sunday was the Season meeting with the Board of Directors. Weeks prior I gave them copies of the scripts I was proposing, plus two back-ups in case they didn't like those that I chose (for whatever reasons - hopefully legitimate ones - not just aesthetics). In addition I gave them a 4 page document outlining why I put the season together as I did. The season should be balanced and have a variety of works and you have to serve the producing membership as well as the audience. I also feel you need to have something in your season that might challenge your audience. In any case, after a lengthy discussion my first choice roster of plays were approved (pending availability of rights). There was one switch in scheduling, but that was minor in my eyes. Interestingly enough, the script I thought would be the biggest no-brainer was the one most challenged. It just goes to show you cannot know how other people will react to what you put forward.

Stay tuned for an announcement. it will probably be made during the Footlights Festival!

Post-Mortem - Hamlet

Today I went to the Hamlet Post-Mortem. Though the title is somewhat macabre, it is a very valuable tool in the Walterdale Toolbox. The Post-Mortem allows the team to look at the Production and determine the challenges and the triumphs of the process and to pass along concerns and tips for future shows. As a future AD I find this extremely useful. I have been to several Post-Mortems over the last few years. At every single one of them communication has been highlighted as an issue. When you think about how Walterdale runs, it is easy to see that this would be an issue. Every show has a different Team, some familiar to Walterdale and some brand new. Some people are in their first show, while the person next to them has done over 30. The new person may feel inundated with information and the old-timer may zone out because they already feel they know the information provided. I doubt anyone hears everything. It will no doubt continue to be an item for discussion at every future Post-Mortem I attend.