Well, dear readers, I had to make two tough decisions yesterday, both concerning Welcome to My World. We had a meeting at ten at the House of Pies with the stage manager and the costume designer. The costume designer never showed up, never texted, never called – she’d confirmed the meeting so it wasn’t that she didn’t receive something. After about an hour and ten minutes and she not responding to any of the stage manager’s texts or phone messages, I e-mailed her a very strong e-mail. She e-mailed right back and apologized, saying she had no excuse. Now, this lady is very talented and did a great job on Li’l Abner and Inside Out, but she has a real problem with being on time, which especially happened a lot with her costume fittings on Inside Out. She then told the stage manager she hadn’t slept because she didn’t feel well, took some medication and slept through the meeting. But she could have texted or e-mailed to warn us it might happen. So, I pretty much decided we had to make a change and since I was meeting later with a guy who really wanted to do the show but was willing to just help the quick change stuff, I told the lady not to come to the meeting. The guy was very prepared, has known Sami since she was a kid, and he loves the show (saw the workshop) and so I told him it was his and he’s thrilled. Then I let the lady know we were definitely making the change. I just saw no other way – I cannot deal with someone who is habitually late or doesn’t show up, especially without calling – no time for stuff like that.
During the day, I’d talked to a couple of my trusted pals and told them about the odd phone call with our lighting designer and both told me the same thing when I asked what they would have done – they said they would have hung up on her because it is not her place to be a dramaturge or offer up her opinions disrespectfully to the writer/director of a show. Obviously had she done the same thing to anyone in a Broadway type production, she would have been fired instantly. My friends felt I could not take the chance that she’d come into rehearsals with negativity, and I agreed with that 1000%. And whether she did or not, I would have the thought in the back of my head about our conversation and I have no time to be concerned with that. Her job was to light the show, not berate me because she either misinterpreted the writing or didn’t understand its point, or because whatever her deal is makes her feel a certain way. On top of that, after the call (she felt better when we’d finished and was definitely willing to do the show), I sent her an e-mail with a link to clips of the show, plus said a nice thing to her and explained further about one point she was completely wrong about. She never even had the courtesy to respond to that e-mail. So, our new costume guy recommended strongly a young lighting guy he’s worked with. That fellow called me, I liked him and his energy, and I gave him the show – he, too, has known Sami since she was a kid. So, the stage manager will let the lighting person know that I ultimately decided I could not work with her after that conversation. So, hopefully that will be the end of all that unnecessary drama.
One thing I learned from the morning meeting – I will never go to the House of Pies again on a Sunday morning – too crowded, the chefs are obviously overworked, and the eggs benedict, which is normally amazing, was terrible – not enough hollandaise and two eggs hard as rocks. After that meeting I came home. I was super tired due to only getting about five hours of sleep, but I had some stuff to do so I did it. I did a jog (in 106-degree heat), and then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on the Flix of Net called Cat City, starring Rebecca Pidgeon, Julian Sands and Brian Dennehey. It’s one of those neo-noir affairs – neo-noir usually takes place in the hot sunlight of the desert, in this case Palm Springs. I found it to be a fairly terrible film, with some really bad dialogue writing, and equally bad direction. This movie seems to have played three film festivals in 2008 and then had no other bookings at all – I’m not even sure it had a home video release. On the imbd you will read almost all ten-star raves – someone finally came on and said it like it was – that all those raves came from friends of the director or the writers or whomever. And it’s pretty obvious because they’re all written exactly the same. Miss Pidgeon is, like David Mamet’s former wife, a rather cold actress. I always enjoy Brian Dennehey, a wonderful actor, but like so many who get new teeth, he just doesn’t look or sound quite the same. Mr. Sands is pretty awful in this, and a newcomer playing a central and pivotal role is just terrible and any chance the film had went out the window with his performance. All in all, just about a complete waste of ninety minutes.
After that, I had the meeting with our new costume designer – he had some drawings with him, we talked about the nature of the show and how our girl should be dressed – it’s key because until the last three scenes she wears the same outfit. He’d already figured out how to do the two quick changes, so that was great. But the discussion is whether to have Molly (Sami) in overalls/shorts, the purpose being that the two dresses later in the show would go over that easily, or in a cute casual dress. When we took some photos for the CD packaging she was wearing a really cute pink dress – it’s a bit short for the show (although Sami always wears booty shorts under such dresses) but the idea of it works for her, I think, so our designer said he can do and exact copy but just a bit longer. That, too, would make the quick changes even easier. I’m leaning that way because the overalls/shorts reads tomboyish to me, like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, and I just don’t see that for this character. He will make me a little rendering of overalls/shorts in pink that are cute to see if I like that a bit better. And he knew exactly what I wanted for the tap number, and he picked out a really cool dress for the number about prom. So, I think we’re on solid ground with this guy.
I got the packaging for Welcome to My World and it looks great. Oh, and here’s the pink dress we all like – so just imagine it a bit longer than it is in this photograph.
Today, I will hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. I’ll call Paypal and see where we are in terms of my getting my dough back, I’ll jog, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then we have our first rehearsal.
Tomorrow and Wednesday are rehearsals, and we have a production meeting after Wednesday’s rehearsal. Thursday and Friday we’re off, but I have meetings and meals on both days and hopefully we’ll announce the new Kritzerland title at the end of the week. Saturday and Sunday are both long rehearsal days.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, eat, hopefully pick up packages and have a rehearsal. Today’s topic of discussion: When is the first time you heard the following words: kale, quinoa, sous vide, and add your own au courant food words to the mix. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that there will be no more unnecessary drama and certainly no more changes.