So we’re back.
But why?
Well, because I have to. Kinda.
Hear me out.
It’s been a busy year since last we spoke. Pericles had been selected for the next reading. But nothing happened. Why? because well, life got in the way. I was in a play (David in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday). Then I was trying to help keep a community theatre from going under. Then I was prepping to direct God’s Country by Steven Dietz, while rehearsing to play both Wisehammer and Arthur Phillip in Our Country’s Good. It was a good kind of busy.
Then seemingly it all went downhill. A week before the “safer-at-home” order came down here in southern California, Our Country’s Good was cancelled during the afternoon of what would have been our opening night. And while I got some great auditions for God’s Country, there simply wasn’t a big enough group to do the play justice…so I pulled the plug.
Now since all of this was going to be on the smaller stage (the ETCetera Stage) of the community theatre (The Elite Theatre Company) I was trying to help save, I felt we need to have some production for that May slot, if we wanted to keep our doors open. Shakespeare’s free, right? I’ve got that cut of Andronicus ready to roll, right? The talent pool is deeper on the female side in our community, you say?
So I announced auditions, took in video submissions, and put together a pretty killer cast. We’ve been rehearsing through Zoom, the business meeting software. It’s not ideal (the time lag is a pain), but at least we don’t have to leave our homes to rehearse.
And so…
Andronicus.
Coming May 22.
Or will it (now that “safer-at-home” has been extended to May 15)?