slinging hash feeling so rejected...

Here I am writing September’s blog post. Yes I’m well aware the first week of October has already come and gone. You see, what had happened was...

At the beginning of August I was lamenting that I hadn’t taken a trip out of New York for almost two years. I needed a break. Living in the City can wear a person out, physically, mentally and spiritually. I had promised myself that this summer I was going to get away. I had nothing happening except my day job. Even the audition scene was on vacation. But not me.

I had found that I disappointed myself by not following through on my promise.

One day I was chatting with my bestie Thurston while he was driving. He’s down in Florida, where he lives. And he changes the subject:

You’re gonna hate me.

Why would I hate you?

I don’t want to tell you.

Tell me.

No.

Do it!

Finally Thurston tells me he booked another show. He’s doing “The Full Monty” about an hour away from his house in Florida.

That’s great. You booked yet another show and I’m doing nothing.

See? I knew you would hate me.

I don’t hate Thurston. He’s talented and very lucky. He works a lot. Then at this point in the conversation his husband, Noah yells into the phone:

I’m doing a show too! I’m in Spamalot.

Noah is another one who is always working. I think it’s great. I just want to be one of them. I want to be one of the people who are always working. It’s just not worked out quite that way.

You should come see it!

Noah and I have a love/hate/love Frenemy kind of relationship. So for him to want me to come see his show meant it was a big deal. Not even when he played The Baker in Into the Woods did he invite me to see it.

Since both Noah and Thurston were both in shows at the same time and they overlapped each other I considered going. I started to check out the price of tickets. I fiddled with the dates a bit to get the cheapest flights. I compared it to the traditionally slow time at my day job and what was happening in the theatre world as well.

Since a whole lot of nothing was happening, especially in my professional life, I booked an excellent priced fare to travel down to Florida. Thurston and Noah invited me to stay with them so the overall cost of the trip would be low. At the end of August, two days after I booked my first vacation in two years, it happened.

When I read the email title I was shocked:

Congratulations! Your musical was chosen to be in our fall new works series. Reply needed

WTF!

I had completely forgotten about it. It had been awhile so I just figured I didn’t get it. But in fact I did. McGurk's Suicide Hall, a fictional account of actual events wasn’t even completed yet and it got pick to be in a festival.

Of course I accepted.

In the space of ten seconds my life went from boring and dull with nothing happening to hyper-charged deadline or die stuffed with meetings and casting and rewrites and auditions and music and new people and excitement and work in my chosen profession.

Oh yeah, and in the middle of all of this a vacation to Disney to see my besties in their shows down in Florida.

So September was filled with getting the show finished and ready. Rewrites are done. The music is almost done. We’ve hired a great music director. We’ve posted audition notices, had auditions and call backs. We’ve cast the show. Lost cast members and are recasting those parts. Rehearsal have been scheduled around our actors conflicts and rehearsal studios booked.

The New Works series pays for some pretty expensive things like a theatre, and tech staff and the back of house staff, box office and staffing and insurance. Everything else is left up to the individual shows. We were in the midst of raising money on Rockethub.com, a crowd funding site, when our project was picked as a finalist in Ovation TV’s Creative Studio.

The project’s crowdfunding will start on October 19 when the final leg of the contest begins. Three winners will get some additional funding compliments of Ovation TV and a segment on a new TV show next year about the process.

WTF?

I took my trip down to Florida. It was a welcome getaway, but not a total escape because with the Ovation contest comes a whole list of other things that needed to be done on top of the huge pile already heaped in front of me.

My besties shows were great. So proud of all that Noah and Thurston have done and are doing. I finally got to see what I call “Harry Potter Land” down in Disney. It was awesome. I unexpectedly ran into some old friends who were down in the Florida area and missed seeing some others who were there as well.

I’m back in NYC now. Recharged and ready to go. It’s a good thing too because on top of everything that’s going on, I’m directing the musical as well. We started today, Monday October 12 at 11am.

When you’re involved in something that lives and breathes everything can change in a split second with a call or an email. This is the reality of Theatre. It’s unpredictable. And you have to accept that fact and be ready to roll with it or be left behind. Because just when you think life is boring and uneventful and there’s nothing happening for you...

"...Lightening flash! You get resurrected...Don’t it go to show you never know".