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!
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