Drama Behind the Drama

Hey Folks,

Nick here. Seriously, who else would it be at this point? I was writing a screenplay for a competition these last two weeks, so no blogposts. I'm sorry. Well, I would be if I though anyone missed it. :p

This week's post is about the drama behind the drama. We here at Dream Players Theatre are striving to create fun, interactive, one of a kind theatre for all ages. We are also a small business. Sometimes business is good, and sometimes  it is a struggle. The month of October has been a struggle for us. We have a great show, a great cast and a great audience, but everyone and their brother are doing Halloween themed events this month. We've had ticket sales, but we have been struggling to find the right venues to host our shows. As a result, we had to cancel this weekend's performance. This is obviously something we don't like to do unless it is absolutely necessary, but unfortunately it was.

Added to the sheer volume of events in the month of October, is the fact that since we are a small, upstart business, we all have to rely on our outside sources of income in order to be able to make our ends meet up each month. With full time jobs, getting married, babies on the way, moving out on our own and major surgery, we've been having a heck of a time maintaining the additional full time labor of passion that Dream Players is to each of us. We're each growing in our personal lives and doing our utmost to help Dream Players grow just as fast.

All is definitely not doom and gloom, though, as this allowed Brittney and me to canvas the Pensacola Beach and downtown Pensacola areas for potential venues. This turned out to be a very productive venture, as we made good contact with so many venues and got to know two of our key stomping grounds a little better. With a little elbow grease, this is going to turn things around. There are so many great places to do shows in our area. From the hotels at the beach, to the restaurants downtown- and even a beautiful event center with a miniature golf course, we got so many positive responses it is really hard not to feel very positive about things moving forward.




That's all well and good, but we must continue to rely on our audience to help us thrive. Nothing we do is possible without your support. Please spread the word about our shows, drop our name and contact info to the managers/owners of your favorite restaurants or other hotspots. If you happen on a venue you think would work for us, go ahead and shoot Michael an email, or message our page.





Thanks for everything you do, audience. We love you!

Theresa's Down, Michael's High, Nick's Gone and No One Knows About Whatsherface

Hey Folks,

This is Nick. We put on a pretty good show this past Saturday. I hope you didn't miss it, because it seems we won't be doing it on October 3rd like we had hoped. Don't worry, this is for good, exciting reasons- but I'll get to that in a bit.

I don't know how much Theresa wants to share, so I won't go into much detail, but Theresa had surgery this week. The surgery lasted longer and was more complicated than initially anticipated. She was in the hospital overnight. From everything she has told me, it seems to have been a success and she is now recovering. I only mention this because it helps illustrate one of my favorite things about Dream Players Theatre. I've been in tight-nit companies before, but usually it's a working environment. While people are cordial and enjoy their work, there isn't a whole lot of outside interaction. No one told the rest of us to visit Theresa, but we did. No one told us to stay for a good couple hours, until she practically ushered us out of her room, but we did. I've had actual family member go under the needle and I didn't visit. This is the best part of Dream Players. I don't know if it is the atmosphere in the company, or if it is just the people currently in it, but it is a sight to behold. It probably doesn't hurt that is't pretty much been just the four of us against the world for about 6 months. I'd like to think it's a combination of both. I hope whoever replaces me can get into that pretty quickly.

Michael has decided to cancel our October 3rd show so we can focus on doing a month-long tour de force of the award winning How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse Show. We're going to, in theory, be hitting the major towns in our area over the course of 6-8 shows. It's going to be a busy, but badass month.

Hope to see you on the road.

Too Late to Stop

Hey Folks,

Nick here. Today we open our new show, The Great American Family Road Trip. When I was doing theatre in college and a few other bigger, more organized companies, the production team would know the shows that were being done a couple months ahead of starting them- at least. This would give them time to delve into the show, research and design sound, sets, makeup and costumes before they even cast the roles. Everything went according to a schedule and, while there were still hiccups, the people in charge had a pretty decent grasp on what was going on and when.

I have also been in smaller, less organized companies where we operate using "seat of our pants" technology and only know what shows we were doing about 4-6 days before we were doing them. We would rehearse, figure out any props, costumes or logistical issues we had as we went and then be ready to go. 

Dream Players Theatre is somewhere in between those two extremes. We usually know what show we're doing a few weeks to a month out of when we're performing it. One of the greatest things about being in DPT is that we're always trying new things. Michael is very far from perfect, but you can never say he isn't ambitious or that he dreams too small. From the moment we write our shows, we all get grandiose, amazing ideas about how we can make the show the very best it can be. We have our first table read and layout a tentative schedule of rehearsals that should allow us to make our dreams reality. That's when life starts to happen. We have scheduling conflicts, our day jobs get in the way, some of us go out of town, venues drop out, actors quit, etc. Suddenly we start having to weigh our ideas and visions against practicality and feasibility. Then we realize that there are only so many hours in a day, and only so many of us working on a project at a time. Before you know it, the show is just a week away and we haven't made it through a whole run of it in rehearsal without having to stop a whole slew of times.

Welcome to "Hell Week." No matter what sized company I've been in, the week leading up to opening night was always known as "Hell Week." Even with the best planning, this is when all the elements of a show first need to be woven together- the lights, sounds, sets, costumes, makeup, music, direction, props and acting. This is a hecktic (hehe, get it?) time for everyone involved, but when you have so few people trying to do so many things, that added stress and tension becomes concentrated on just, in our case, five (six if you count sound techs as people) people- mostly our director/head sound designer/lead actor/main propmaster/master electrician- Michael Fletcher. We all work hard for the company, but this is really and truly Michael's company- his baby. It's easy to get frustrated at him, and criticize him for the areas and ways he hasn't been perfect, but the majority of what goes right is his fault.

This particular Hell Week has been pretty tough. We're doing a whole new type of show. We are working with a cast of a wide range of experience/comfort levels. This show is moving. There is only three seconds of sitting still in the entire show. There have been arguments, tears, injuries, yelling and hurt feelings- all before we even start the first scene each night. Rehearsals run late into the night, and for some of us, there is even more work to do when rehearsal is over. Michael and Mary have been up nearly all night every night this week. We open today and have yet to make it through the whole show without stopping. 

Don't let this all make you think there is doom, gloom and low spirits at DPT, or that the show is going to be bad. We're closer than ever, feeling good and the show is amazing. This is a new type of show. It is very heavily dependent on the audience interacting with us, and it is almost designed to go wrong, with many exciting and funny moments coming out of our attempts to maintain control over the situation. Not knowing exactly how it will turn out is half of the fun. Join us tonight. See for yourselves if all the work and... well, drama (get it? it's a theatre pun) is worth it. I'm absolutely sure you'll agree it absolutely is.

See ya there!

Check out this cool trailer for the show, and these awesome rehearsal shots!

Nick vs Michael

This has been the first couple weeks of really rehearsing our next show, The Great American Family Road Trip. This is an interesting and delicate process- particularly for Michael and me. While I wrote the show, he's directing it. Once I finished writing it, it became his show to do with as he pleases. I trust Michael to do justice to my shows. He's done well in the past with shows I've written. There are always, however, moments where he and I don't see eye to eye right away. To his credit, he doesn't have to run anything by me, but sometimes he does. When you've worked so hard on a script, all the while having absolute and complete control with only your imagination as a boundary, it gets a bit hard to see someone change something that you feel strongly about. I can't give too much away, but there is a moment in the second scene where an audience participant is used and then they are sat down. After they sit down, another character interacts with them offstage, but all you hear are voices. This, I think, is important because it foreshadows things at the end of the show, but it also it set up so that the audience assumes a lot about what they are hearing that actually is not happening. I get it- this is vague and you maybe have lost interest. I can't give away too many details because this show is a shocker.


Anyway, Michael wanted to change this bit for logistical reasons and because he was afraid the audience would be confused. We politely argued about it for a solid half an hour. I got my way, the scene is staying more or less as written, but there are moments like this that crop up over the course of each rehearsal. I'm not some purist, I don't mind changing a line here or there, or trying new ideas out- doing this is important, it's how the script becomes a living, breathing collaborative work of art. I thought it was strange how often I have felt strongly about this show, though.


I am known for writing longer shows. When Theresa writes a show, we often have about twenty pages tops. When I write a show, they run closer to fifty. This is because I am very specific with the choices I make. I'm not saying Theresa is wrong to do things the way she does, or that I am right, but that's the way we seem to do it. Because I am very specific, I tend to use a lot of stage directions to get my ideas across. This is a running joke in the company- Nick's shows are 50 pages, but only 15 are story and the rest is stage directions. Michael is a busy man... for someone who doesn't work a full time job in the traditional meaning of the term. But it is seeming more and more apparent that he has not read through my pages and pages of stage directions. This is likely to lead to more discussions, should he choose to continue to include me.


This has been a rather mindless blog, by a rather mindless Nick.

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Reunion

Hey folks!

This is Nick. Today was pretty cool. Brittney and I volunteered to help out at a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Reunion (follow the link to the event page, where a few have shared really moving stories about their time in the NICU) at the Children's Hospital at the Sacred Heart in Pensacola. It was a pretty simple gig, I was dressed up as the Cat in the Hat and I read children's books to... well, children. I look at it as a good thing to do and training for when little Eloise is born. Everyone there was so great. There was a girl named Addy Beth who kept jumping in my lap and giving me breathtaking hugs. If you get a chance to go next year, you should go. If you are able, volunteer in whatever way you can.

Brittney and me as Betty-Lou Who and The Cat in the Hat.

The morning flew by and became a bit of a blur, but here's what stood out to me:

The kids were adorable, everyone volunteering was just bristling with life and warm-hearted deeds. There were kids volunteering as Thing 1,Thing 2, the Lorax and one of the Whos. All and all it was a glorious time. It really makes you take a moment to think about all those little things we probably take for granted each day- health, the ability to walk, communicating with those around us. I've always seen doing things like this as just the right thing to do, but now as an upcoming father I'm starting to see things differently. I saw a little toddler walking around with fluid attached to her belly through a tube. I turned my back and heard her trip and knock it over. Her parents were with her and it looked as though everything were okay, but that's got to suck. That could be our little Eloise someday. Whatever ailment or disorder that child has could just as easily be had by my child. I'm freaking out already about having a child, but these parents have so much more going on than I could ever know. I wish them all the best and pray for the health of their little one... and mine.

Thing 1, Thing 2 and the world's most adorable Lorax.

On the flip side of the story, though, each child with some disorder or impairment seemed to be having such a blast. They're still kids after all. I was reading a story to a girl who seemed not to have the function of her legs for some reason. The company I work for, the Early Learning Coalition of Okaloosa Walton Counties, had given me books to hand out to the children I read to. Spotting these books made this little girl's eyes light up. She dragged herself across the carpets the other children were sitting on and grabbed the book she wanted to read- some Disney thing about stuffed animals that is apparently a TV show- and just started flipping through the pages as if there were nothing noteworthy or impressive about what she had just done. She had fun, it seems. 

Smaller Things 1 and 2!

I was reading One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish and a young girl with some sort of autism- I don't know exactly and I didn't ask, but based on other children I've known to have it, this seemed to be similar- who knew every word of the book. I would leave words out and she'd call them out. Soon, all the other kids started following her lead. This seemed to make her happy.

Two Whos in a pod? Nah, that one doesn't work.

I hope to have a healthy baby. That's all I want in this world right now. But these kids today proved that regardless of what happens, my child will be loved and Eloise can be happy no matter what. I may have read the kids a bunch of stories and worn a cat suit today, but it was them that did me the service. If I can, I'll be going back next year. I hope I see you there.

Trying her best to pose, but needing Mommy's help!

See ya!


PS- be sure to thank Brittney for the pictures, because I, as usual, did not take any and have stolen hers for this- that's why she's in almost every bloody one of them! Here's the rest!

Balance

Last Show at the Ranch Mucho Denaros

Hey Folks,

Nick here. This weekend we finished one of our longer running shows, Murder at the Rancho Mucho Denaros. It was an amazing show. The audience was right on point. They followed the story so closely that when they asked questions during the "Gallery of Guilt" portion of the show, we had to reach deep into our acting quivers to figure out how to hit the mark. The audience participants were some of the best I've had in my career, and definitely the best I've seen in my time at Dream Players Theatre.

Blurry picture of the 80+ person audience

There were flubs on our part, though, but we all had each other's backs and improved some of our best bits right on the spot. One of the audience participants, who really was awesome, couldn't read the letter she had to read loud enough for the whole audience to hear. Michael and I impovised a short version of the Telephone Game from when we were kids. The audience member would read a sentence or phrase fairly softly, Michael would repeat it, changing it a bit, and I would repeat it for the other side of the audience. It was great fun and one of the highlights of the night for me personally. These moments- when we make mistakes- are some of my favorite things about theatre. Working together fluidly, without words to pull off an on the spot correction or adjustment is just such a thrill when it works well.

Telephone Game, but cuter than Michael and me

It was a great high, but now we're done with it, and who knows how this next show, The Great American Family Road Trip, will turn out. We had over 80 people come to this last night of Rancho, but before that we had a solid month of difficult ticket sales. We cancelled a total of five shows because we couldn't sell enough tickets to make the show break even. It was a low point. There is a lot of work that goes into a show. More, there is a lot of time away from my pregnant wife. The day or two in between shows, when I have some time with my beautiful wife, I start to wonder if all this time away from her is worth it. We have a little girl, Eloise Mae, on the way and I also wonder how long I can keep this up, and juggle my full time day job, my practically full time Dream Players job and still be the kind of father and husband I want to be.

Temporary poster for next show until we finish the real one

Don't get me wrong, I love what we do and I wrote the next show- so my ego helps me to be more excited and optimistic about it. The doubt comes in as I come down from the amazing high I got from our Chumuckla audience and start to think about whether or not we're about to have another awesome high, or another low. I want my daughter to be happy and follow her passion. I want to set a good example for her by finding the right balance. I've done it so far. I'd like to keep it up.

I found this online, under the right balance

Here's hoping!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has to balance work, family and their passion. how do you do it? Do you have any advise for others trying to do the same?

Does this really need a caption?

Why a Blog?

Hey Folks,


This is Nick. I was the guy in a dress at our last show. This is my first post here, and the first ever post for The Life of a Dream Player blog, so I'm going to give a little bit of an overview of what we'd like to do with this blog. We at Dream Players Theatre are share a deeper connection with you, our audience. We didn't get into theatre to make money.* We were drawn into theatre because of that special connection it allows us to make with an audience each night- the rush that comes with the shared sense of reality an audience, a good script and other actors you trust. It's really an amazing thing you allow us to do. I would highly recommend it to any of you.**

Towards this end, I'm going to share little pieces of the behind the scenes stuff with you each week. I hope other people from the company will join me with their own perspective down the line, but right now it's just me. So get set, we're about to get real personal. :)


* No one goes in to theatre to make money, unless they are dumb.
** We are always hiring, and are one of the few regularly paying theatre companies in northwest Florida. Send us a message at our Facebook page if you're interested.