First Meeting!

One of the hardest parts after casting is waiting for the first rehearsal to begin. I personally don’t like to start rehearsals until the actors have spent a little time with their scripts. It is much more efficient to run rehearsals without a script in hand. So for the next week my wonderful cast will start to learn their lines. 

We spent some time last night singing through some songs and listening to the reference recording. One of my favorite parts in the beginning is the creative juices...the possibilities. Bouncing ideas back and forth with my direction team and actors about wigs, choreography (big lifts!!??), difficult harmonies.

I love it. Every minute of it. I cannot wait to start our first rehearsal next week.

On that note: While you are patiently waiting for the Putnam spellers to get their act together check out some great theatre this weekend!

You can see “How I Learned to Drive” By Paula Vogel directed by Jennifer Miller. The show runs July 24, 25 and 26 at 7:30pm at the Sligar Auditorium (Next to Elevation 486). Tickets are $10 and all proceeds will benefit the Crisis Center. 

Cast List

This week Amy Wilkinson, Autumn Robinson and I sat in auditions for the show. We were pleasantly surprised with the large number of talented actors who came down. Auditions can be terrifying and we felt everyone did an great job.

Then we had to figure out who to cast. I don't stress as much about casting as Tony Mannen does, but many of the actors auditioning are my friends and I care about them and their feelings so when I don't have a role for them it hurts my heart to have to tell them. This show, like others I've directed, necessitated a couple of those notifications. In a way I prefer producing large cast shows where it's easier to use everyone who auditions. But not every show has a large cast and we turned away 4 talented ladies.

I always tell kids in my classes that casting is like a big puzzle. As a director you look at who you've got auditioning and you move them around until the pieces fit into the picture you have in your mind. Sometimes it's easy to eliminate pieces because they are not quite at the level they need to be, but in this show it was not easy. That being said the direction team would like to sincerely thank everyone who auditioned and are proud to announce our cast and crew for

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Tamara Harmon - Director
Amy Wilkinson - Musical Director/Olive's mom
Autumn Robinson - Choreographer
Taia Stevens - Assistant Director
Bryson Hatfield - Chip Tolentino/Olive's dad
Megan Johnson - Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere
Peter Stone - Leaf Coneybear
Daniel Gardner - William Barfee
Rachael Wilkinson - Marcy Park
Meghan Burnham - Olive Ostrovsky
Rebecca Warwick - Rona Lisa Perretti
Brendan Rowlands - Vice Principal Douglas Panch
Jennifer Miller - Ms. Mahoney
Brandon Lee - Carl Grubenierre
David Jay - Dan Schwartz
Devin Blackburn - Jesus Christ

Remember show dates are September 11, 12 and 13. at 7:30pm We will have a SATURDAY Matinee at 2:30pm. Tickets will be available online August 1, 2014.

Auditions!

We have hit the middle of the summer which means it is time again to begin preparing for our fall show. Due to scheduling conflicts Jud Harmon will not be able to direct this fall as planned. I will be filling in for him and I am very excited to see auditions tonight. 

We have decided to do The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. And I am well aware that I am eating the words I spoke shortly after Spamalot that it would be YEARS before we would do another musical. There is a bit of a back story to this decision.

We were slated to produce God of Carnage. A wonderfully smart script by Yasmina Reza. With Jud handing the project over to me I wasn't sure that the timing was right for this production and my heart wasn't really in it. I spent a month or so reading through scripts to see what spoke to me. It was a fruitless search. I read script after script and nothing fired my interest. Not because they weren't wonderful or potential scripts, more because I was looking for the same kind of feeling I had when I began preparing for Motherhood out Loud. If you are familiar with my blogging during that show you know that was a tall order as I was so passionately connected to that show. After a heart to heart with Tony Mannen he asked me to listen to the soundtrack for Putnam. I got to the song "I'm not that smart" before I went to YouTube and watched a video of the show. I loved it.  LOVED IT. I felt like the show had RAT Players written all over it. 

So what I wanted to be years between musicals became months as I announced auditions. In all honesty this is not a well known show and I wasn't sure what kind of response I would get to the audition announcement. It's a small cast, but as a director I'm always anxious about whether or not I'll be able to find actors to be in my shows. Needing actors that have to be able to sing VERY well on top of our other high standards was a little nerve wracking. However, the response I got from people who heard about auditions was incredibly encouraging. Also, right away Amy Wilkinson offered to be my Musical Director which was HUGE for me as I knew I wanted someone fantastic to collaborate with. 

There is the story. 2014 will just have to go down in our company history as the year of cheeky musicals. No, we do NOT intend to produce musicals from now on. In fact in January we will be back to our roots with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. 

In the meantime Amy and I will see auditioning hopefuls tonight and tomorrow. Casting will be done by Friday and we will tumble headlong into our fall production. Sharing our experiences as we go. :) Mark your calendars now as seating will be very limited.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

September 11, 12, & 13, 2014 (matinee will be announced after auditions)

CSI Fine Arts Center

Tam