May Evel Knievel finally make it over snake mountain. R.I.P.

Turkey Day, Opening and Errant Jason Campbell passes

So, a few things to catch up. We had a vegetarian thanksgiving – with the exception of the giant turkey that Matt Callahan brought, and his potatoes – apparently it’s his people’s thing (the potatoes, not the turkey), and he could have veggie hands all over it. We had over the guest artists from out of town, and our delightfully sassy Lighting Designer Deb Sullivan. I heart Deb Sullivan. My wife was the lead Turkey Day lady (even though she doesn't actually eat turkey), and we all owe it to her. Huzzah wife huzzah.

The next day was opening – which was a true delight. I couldn’t be prouder of the show – a few of the veterans and staff members pulled me aside to tell me it was their favorite Christmas Carol since they got here. Which was sweet. And then they bough me drinks – which was sweeter. But really, the show is what it is because we have such a cracker-jack team working on the show – and such amazing actors from the company – Bill McNulty and Fred Major are my new dream actors. In fact, I’m trying to create some kind of puppet show with Fred Major as the disgruntled neighbor. Seriously, I’ve spent time on this. Pablo got me a giant amount of gum. A GIANT amount of gum. I may have a problem.

Then the next day I flew to Tampa, so that my dad and I could watch the Redskins throw an interception at the end of the game to lose it. Oh, Redskins. You sorta loveable over-priced loser. I loves ya.

The fascinating part of hanging out with my parents, playing some cards, and having a few drinks - is the true nature of the name Daniels. Rumor has it, that's not actually our real last name - it's Edwards, but my great great grandfather was in a bar fight in Ireland, and thought he killed a man, so he fled to America and changed his name to Daniels to hide from police. Luckliy the man didn't die, but the name was set. Why did it take 34 years to hear this story? That's awesome.

Now, I’m in Tallahassee, Fl returning a favor to the Dean of the School of Theatre, doing some teaching, having drinks with my friend Dan Dietz who now teaches here, and then flying home.

It’s so strange – when I was here, I was a total punk, and now I’m pumping out advice and sitting in the Dean’s office (but not because I was underage drinking?!?). Still, it’s nice to be here, but tomorrow morning I’m off, flying back for a Humana Production meetings, and then on to New York to see a gabillion shows, and a do a little casting. No rest, wicked, you know.

2nd preview - wonderful/awful

During the intermission of the second preview - I had an inspiring and then humbling experience. A small child came up to ask me if I was the director, and if so, how could he get into acting, and even more importantly how could he get into Christmas Carol. He was probably 10. It was incredibly sweet. And just as I was feeling pretty good - the man in front of me turned around to ask if I could chew my gum quieter - after he was done, his son said "thank you". I told the cast the next day, and they laughed and laughed - and somewhere, they are still laughing.

For opening, Pablo bought me a ton of gum. Look out second to last row!

3 Days In - 4 To Go

So, after two days – we’ve cut over 200 cues, 7 rotations, and one fly from last year’s production. Tomorrow I still need to go in and fix one scene before we run it and see what we’ve put together over the weekend.

One of the great resident artists at Actors Theater is Mark Walston, and he shot some pictures this weekend, you can check them out here:

Tech Shots From Walston

Though this one is my favorites:

Also, I’m thinking of launching a new weight loss plan – the Actors Theater Directing Weigh Loss Plan. So far I had lost 2 pounds on each show I’ve directed, but on Carol I’ve lost 4. I’m working on the details of the plan – so far it looks rather similar to my “vodka&soda/skip dinner because you’re worried about the show” plan. Look for it in stores soon.

That's a good thing, right?

Finished our first 10/12 tech day. Apparently I cut a 100 cues from what last year's director had. Wow.

Do You Believe In Love After All?

So, we started tech tonight – man the set is big – and one of the first things to do was to run Marley’s entrance three times to make sure the fog levels won’t kill our actor. The last time, we had David Hanbury play it as though Cher was cast as Marley. We learned that Cher would be a terrible Marley – and yet, simply what we must do next year.

My brain is slipping

So for the last three nights – I have had the same vivid recurring dream. I’m at rehearsal for my 3rd Christmas show at Actors Theater (granted, I don’t actually have a 3rd Christmas show, but it’s like one of those dreams you had when you were a kind, and you dreamed you went to school – only to wake up and actually have to go to school!). I can’t tell you exactly what the play is about, but there’s a lot of children, and a big race at the end of it – and Michael Domue is stage managing it, but for some reason he’s wearing a headset in the rehearsal hall as I try to work on the race with the kids. I think I might be losing it.

Big Phat Aricle On Our Boy & Our Amazing Costume Designer

Great article about Oli

Also, after working magic (budget and actual magic), our costume shop is able to add new costumes to the show. After telling her how amazing I thought she was for making this work, I received the following email from my costume designer:

"Thank you Sean, thank you, flattery will get you far.

There is still the question of the pony, however.
I am polling the shop to see which breed and whether or not we actually
want a horse of shorter stature or whether we meant a diminutive term
for an actual thoroughbred that we could run in the Derby.

More later

Oh wait, I ma getting more response for the spa days and/or an on-call
24 hour masseuse...

More later..."

Looks like this one is gonnna cost me.....

Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

We gotta get more toys

Huzzah! Huzzah!

Our Second Review

Ali Faughnan Meets Santa

Observations on Tuesday:

- There was a note in the Santa land performance report that our pre-show Santa was running out of gifts during the pre-show. I’m glad my artistic tenure is marked by such notes.
- 2 shows down, 3 to go on the season (more on that later). I feel like it’s Stage 21 of the Tour De France. If our run-thru goes well on Thursday, I may start wearing a yellow jacket.
- Had lunch today with our delightful costumer Lorraine to try to find a way to let her design respond to the new direction we’re taking Carol in. Then I had a meeting with Masterson about my meeting with Lorraine in order to see if we let her design respond to the new direction the play is going in. We decided to meet tomorrow morning with the Production Manager to see if we can squeeze money from a turnip, so that we can let her design respond to the new direction the play. You can tell I’ve been here for 6 months – 3 meetings feels like we’re moving quickly!
- In honor of Santaland’s success – I found this picture of Ali Faughnan – I was there when he was born, not literally in the room, but I sat with his mom all day long and then went into the other room when it actually “happened”. It was Easter, so I’ve always thought he’d grow up to be the Anti-Christ. I guess that could still happen. After Liz birthed Ali, I suddenly realized how hard it is to birth a child – I know that sounds stupid, but unless you’ve heard someone go thru it (Liz made sounds of pain I didn’t know humans could make), it just doesn’t seem as real as it needs to. My roommate at the time, Lucky Yates, and I were both so moved by the birth that we went home and spent an hour calling our moms to thank them for birthing us. So, this is Ali’s first picture with Santa. Pretty perfect once you know the show.

An email from my dramaturg today

Why does Tiny Tim need a crutch?

Many researchers, pediatricians, and literary scholars have attempted to diagnose Tiny Tim. Here are some of their
arguments:

a) Tiny Tim had rickets, a Vitamin D deficiency.

The Case for it: Vitamin D is found in milk, which the Cratchits could not afford, and in sunlight, which would have been scarce in the poorer, smog-filled area of London where the Cratchits lived. Without Vitamin D, kids don’t build healthy bones, and their legs can bow under the weight of their own bodies—just like Tiny Tim’s leg!

The Argument against it: Rickets was not usually fatal, and the Ghost of Christmas Present insists that Tiny Tim will die if Scrooge does not help him. And if the Cratchits did have a problem getting enough Vitamin D, the other children in the family would have had rickets too.

b) Tiny Tim had TB, or Tuberculosis, a very common disease of the time.
The Case for it: Though TB was generally a respiratory disease in adults, it could appear in children under 10 as a crippling illness that also caused fatigue (Bob says that Tim is tired.) and weight loss (“Tiny” Tim). Left untreated, TB would have eventually killed Tim. But a little help from Scrooge – good nutrition, rest, and a back-brace – could have saved Tim’s life and put his disease into remission.

The Argument against it: At the end of the story, Tiny Tim is cured. TB never would have been completely cured, and
Tim never would have been well enough to run into Scrooge’s arms.

c) Tim had Renal Tubular Acidosis, a type of Kidney Disease.
The Case: Doctors would have thought Tim had TB, and they would have given him a medicine that contained excess acids. In fact, many “tonics” or medicines of the day contained acids and other harmful toxins that would have hurt Tim’s kidneys. The extra acids in Tim’s kidneys would have affected his bone production, and his short stature would have been an early sign of the disease. Then, one side of his body would have become considerably weaker than the other, causing him to walk with one crutch. And RTA is completely curable – Scrooge could have saved Tiny Tim simply by taking him to better doctors who knew what to do!

The Argument: What do you think? Which diagnosis do you think fits Tim the best?

Secretly, it's awesome

So, I have a secret confession to make, which will probably lose me any points I had won as “cool director” (for the record, I think I’ve accumulated only 3 of those), but I am having an absolute blast directing Christmas Carol.

There is a tough part though - that I have the costumes and sets from 2 directors ago, and even then the designer wasn’t able to build all the costumes she designed, so it’s a strange beast to produce the show that will bring in the most money thru the door while attempting to spend as little as possible on it. Sometimes you feel like your supposed to direct it, and sometimes you feel like you’re just not supposed to fuck it up.

Since I’ve never directed Christmas Carol before, I just find myself directing it like it was new, being confused by old choices (I confuse rather easily), being interested in different things than the last directors were and generally trying to make it feel like this group of people is telling this story.

We’re changing things left and right – changing the tone of the direction, trying not to get sidetracked in production ideas but bringing everything back to the original story – all the kinds of things that you would do to any classic, or any large show, but since many decisions about my production were made during Bush’s first administration, it gets tricky every time you come up with a new idea. And by tricky I mean –

Though luckily I have rockstars designers who are attempting to make all my hair-brained schemes work, they just don’t have the resources at hand to let their design respond to my direction. In fact, it sometimes seems to be working the other way round.

Another blessing? I have a stage manager and lead actor who could not be more game than trying to make it seem relevant. And the vast majority of the cast has not done the show before….and on top of that, I’m really having the time of my life doing it. It’s a fun, giant show to do – cool or not, that’s the truth.

Huzzah!

Our First Review

Night-caps

So, I’m knee deep in rehearsing two shows at the same time.

Usually when I’m in rehearsal I tend to drink a fair amount, well, perhaps when I’m not in rehearsals I tend to drink a fair amount, but when I’m actually rehearsing, I need “a little help from my friends” to fall asleep.

Now that I’m directing two shows (today I literally ran from one room to another leaving one cast in the hands of my music director while the other one sat around wondering where I was – I received a very gentle txt from my stage manager…) I seem to not be able to sleep at all – but when I do…I have the most vivid dreams of my life. I don’t know if it’s because my brain is working overtime, but these are some epic colorful dreams.

Two nights ago, Brian Lillienthal and Matt Callahan came and saw the show and gave me their notes afterwards. That night I dreamt of the end of the world. The next morning I decided that I was sign I probably shouldn’t take any of their notes. I don’t want that on my conscious.

Our first preview was great, nice to finally have people there – and the people LOVED it, and Oli was a real pro at knowing how to ride the audience. And we got, which I guess we’ll get a lot, in the way of SERIOUS David Sedaris fans who already knew the show, and would laugh at the beginning of jokes – since they already knew where it’s going. Our pre-show Santa continues to be genius; They jumped to their feet at the end. And not just to leave….so here’s to seeing how night two goes. And perhaps after a cocktail or two, or an opening or two, I’ll finally get some sleep.