Potty Breaks

After hearing about my multiple shows, a friend jokingly asked if I'd scheduled potty breaks for myself in my busy schedule. It was a teasing remark, taken lightly; but it wasn't far from being a darned good question!

Because my mother also asked about Thanksgiving conflicts, I will risk being repetitive in telling you where all my endeavors stand so far.

I had had no plans to audition for anything for a while. I saw nothing of interest on the acting horizon, so I dove headfirst into my first two directing gigs at the North Park Playwrights Festival. I've cast both shows and we are in the midst of rehearsals.

However, when Orrick followed me to North Park to read scripts he also submitted to direct and took on another two scripts, casting me in both and assuring that I would be involved in all four weekends of the Festival: his shows on the 1st and 3rd weekend; my shows on the second and fourth.

With those conflicts, I had decided not to audition for a full-length show at another theatre but was swayed when the Artistic Director called me in. The four Thursday rehearsals I would necessarily miss while in tech for each weekend's new North Park program seemed and insurmountable conflict, but I chose to let the director make that decision himself.

Meanwhile, I read the notice for a concurrent audition for a show that would open in January, 6th@Penn Theatre's Anton in Show Business. I knew the director; in fact, I had expected to hear from her about another piece being performed at 6th@Penn, a Challenge Theatre production written by a local reviewer who had offered me the "role of a lifetime" in his script. Because I had heard nothing about the fate of that show I thought it prudent to put myself where Carla would be. I was called back for a role.

That callback is scheduled for this Saturday. In the meantime, I have accepted the role of Martha O'Conner at Scripps Ranch, full of curiosity to see who will be playing fraternal twin sister to my Slavic features.

While all of this is going on and I'm juggling four pieces at North Park, four becomes three. For a number of reasons, Orrick decided to let one of his two pieces go, which meant I would no longer be performing it. This, in the end, is good news for the Scripps show as it is one less Thursday conflict for me. The show will open on the weekend following the end of the Playwright's Festival.

But juggling three short shows, one full-length production, and a callback are merely background noise to the call of producing a new summer theatre festival. After 17 consecutive years, the Actors Alliance has decided to suspend its Actors Festival for a year and I am a key player in an attempt to organize an actors showcase to fill the void.

First, our group met with the Alliance to try to find out how the $20,000 income was too little to avoid a loss for the production. The meeting was amiable enough and contained gems of truth but was not wholly satisfying. With none of the monies paid to actors, there is still a large chunk of change not accounted for.

Then our group met with the professional company Vantage Theatre to discuss a symbiotic relationship in this festival: for the opportunity to produce under their insured umbrella, we would provide them 10% of the house and put their name on everything. However, we had hoped that when they offered to add the production to their upcoming season that they were offering something more. We have been left with a great deal of work to do, decisions to make, deadlines to create and meet, while operating on our free time. Luckily, we all seem to have a bit of it.

And I haven't even mentioned the whole fiasco with building the Vantage Theatre website only to be told to dismantle it.

For someone as direly underemployed as myself, it has been an amazingly busy week. And it's only just beginning. Auditions, meetings, callbacks, rehearsals, readings and all manner of who knows what else are piled one atop the other in the scheduling book of my brain. Yet through it all, so far, I've still managed the occasional tinkle.

Thanks for asking.