Well, dear readers, it is very late and I am just beginning these notes so I guess I’ll keep them short and sweet and also sweet and short. So, you’ll get a little break from the long involved notes. But I must tell you about my evening, which was more fun than I could have ever anticipated. I did my Cabaret and Singer Workshop – it’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this and I had no idea how it was going to go. We had a very nice crowd of about forty-five people (with the usual twenty no-shows), and I was happy to see Shelly Markham, Adryan Russ, our very own Meg, Les Traub (the president of Cabaret West), my pal Bill Ewing and family (Bill’s son Blake was the original boy in Ragtime in LA), and Jan Abrams, whose act I directed, as well as our very own Alet Taylor. I had reminder notes, which I kept close at hand, but until the end, when I was just making sure I’d covered everything, I didn’t use them at all. I’d figured out a structure for the two hours and I wanted it all to be loose and off the cuff but still to get a lot of information out there. I just dove in and flew by the seat of my pants and I had the best time – it was funny, hopefully somewhat informative, and, at times, irreverent. I used as the basis for my talk all the acts I’ve directed, and was quite detailed about how they were created and why we did what we did. About fifteen of the people in attendance were taking notes throughout, writing furiously. At the end, we took some questions from the audience and then it was done – the two hours really flew by, like a gazelle singing Feelings. A bunch of people came up afterwards and had very nice things to say. We’ll have some photographs to share very soon. After the event, I went to a nearby Eyetalian eatery and had a chopped salad (with salami, bacon, and cheese – very good). So, for a first time out, I couldn’t have been more pleased and I’ll probably do a different type of singer workshop for our series two events.
The earlier part of the day was rather fun, too, in that I printed out a great many orders for Illya Darling, which is moving faster than Anya did. I’m hoping to have CDs in by late Friday or mid-day Monday. I had a lot of e-mails to deal with, and I also got the okay on four more CD releases, all really good titles, and all dependent on whether the tapes are there and in usable condition, which I’ll know mid-next week. My goal is rather adventurous for Kritzerland – to have at least one release every month for the rest of the year, and sometimes maybe two releases in a month (like Rio and Anya, and Illya and Two For The Seesaw). It’s a heavy schedule, but I like that it’s finally starting to get Kritzerland in the public’s consciousness, which I’ve never been able to do before because of our very erratic release schedule. And all these titles do generate a small profit, which keeps the label afloat.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m quite tired and it’s quite late and soon I must have my beauty sleep.
Today, I must start the arduous task of addressing the Illya Darling packages – there are quite a few to do, and helper and I will continue doing them over the next few days, and then they’ll all be stamped and ready for the CDs. The good news about these last few show reissues is the traffic its brought to Kritzerland, which has resulted in lots of other CDs being bought.
Tomorrow, I have an early breakfast meeting, and then I have to read the long musical. I also now have to come up with a lot of questions for our Saturday LACCTAA event with casting director Jeff Greenberg. I also think I’m seeing this new Dreamworks animated thing at some point this week.
I’ve had a lot of queries about the Nudie Musical reading in June. If you want to attend, drop me an e-mail and I’ll make sure you get on the list. I have a feeling it’s going to sell out its two nights, so getting on the list early is a good thing.
I think we’d all better put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, I think we’d all better break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, I think we’d all better dance the Hora or the Electric Boogaloo, because today is the birthday of our very own dear reader, mommy Ann. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear reader, mommy Ann. On the count of three: One, two, three – A VERY HAPPY HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER, MOMMY ANN!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, address packages, print out orders, and then relax and watch a motion picture or three on DVD. Today’s topic of discussion: Understudies and standbys are sometimes real unsung heroes – what shows have you seen where the understudy or standby went on and truly blew you away, so much so that they made you forget whoever they were covering? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland.