Director’s Notes is a series of posts to log my experience in directing my first major One Act at my college. I’ll be going through the beginning weeks all the way up until closing. I hope you enjoy these posts and my journey as well.
Oh man it’s already been week one? I feel like I’m still in the middle of summer break. While my body and mind are still getting used to being a full time student again, I need to be working. Now I’m chosen as one of the directors for the one acts and while I’m really excited, I’m also really nervous. This is one big bite to chew and I always have to check myself before I spread myself too thin or take on too ambitious of a project. Actually now that I’ve done a week of school I’m kind of thinking I may have spread myself far too thin. In the attempt of wanting to pursue different things, I’ve opened up my online store and running it, will be directing for a one act, and I have classes every day of the week. Saturday is my only day off so far and even those might be in jeopardy.
Anyway so far things have been good. I had to write up the script analysis and the meeting with my set designer felt a bit wonky, but I think we’re in a good place. I got back the pictures and it’s pretty much what I wanted. We got to talking about having maybe an extra room or what not, but it doesn’t seem like that made the cut. Most likely because of how much the other shows demand, specifically the one about Cinderella. It’s okay though, now I get to block around it and I have a clear view of what I’ll be doing.
Casting went a little crazy. Auditions were a bit rough. We got a lot of new talent, but a lot of inexperienced talent as well. It’s different picking form a pool of talented performers who’ve also had experience in shows, but most of the people that auditioned didn’t even have a single show. Some even only had crew which there’s no ill will toward the crew, I would never, but it’s very different than being on the stage. I wish we had a bigger pool to choose from but a lot of experienced actors moved away, so we’ve got to work with what we got. I was worried because a lot of the people I called back were also people who were called back for the bigger shows. Being a cast of three, I had to try and be the most flexible. But I’m also really picky.
Because of that the callbacks didn’t feel all the great. All of these actors were incredibly talented, but for some reason I wasn’t really satisfied with what I saw. There was a lot of talent and a lot of great work, I guess nothing popped up to me going “That’s it! That’s what I wanted, exactly!” It’s kind of a bummer, but I do have a strong cast and I’m excited to work with all of them. I’ve worked with them before and we’re all good friends so I’m so excited to work with them.
Tomorrow is the first day of rehearsals and I need to write up a calendar and a bunch of other things. Oh and I have a production meeting. Things are moving really fast. I hope I can keep up.
The Words Off the Page 