Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Man of La Mancha Diaries: One Down, One To Go

We opened Cotton Patch Gospel at Totem Pole Playhouse last night to a thunderous standing ovation and now I’m back to just directing one show, Wayside Theatre’s season opening Man of La Mancha. We just got back home, and am taking a brief breather before heading to a long day of rehearsals before we start piecing together the show, which opens next Sunday. By the end of today we should have a good idea where we are and where we need to go. I can’t wait.

I’ve been blessed to be working with two extraordinary casts in both shows, both have understood both my, and Steve (our music director’s) constraints, and have stepped it up to make the time we spend with them very productive. Now that the laser is only focused on one show, we should be prepared to leap ahead in our typical Wayside style.

A word about last night’s opening. My good friend, Ray Ficca, not only stars in Cotton Patch Gospel, but it is the first show in his new role as Artistic Director of Totem Pole Playhouse. Not only was it a bold move to open his first season with a show he stars in, but the boldness doubled (if not trebled) when he picked this particular show. Cotton Patch Gospel is a dangerous show for some. It tells the story of the Gospel of Christ through direct address and song, with one man playing most of the characters in the story. For those who hold their faith too preciously close, they may find it offensive. Indeed in our previous two Wayside Theatre productions of the piece (both starring Ray) we’ve had some folks walk out quite indignant and calling the show sacrilegious. To each his/her own, but I think more folks agree that this is a great re-telling of the greatest story ever told. Indeed at last night’s opening, several patrons left during the first act. But that did not diminish the enthusiasm for the rest of the audience as the show was met with a sustained standing ovation at its conclusion. That response signaled so many victories for one evening of theatre.

First it was a testament to, if I may so myself, and excellent production of a piece of theatre that reaches right into your heart and soul. This play demonstrates the power and the essential roots of theatre, storytelling, at its finest. Second, it was a response to a magnificent ensemble who played and sang and acted brilliantly throughout. Third, it was a thrilling thumbs up for Ray Ficca’s superlative performance. And lastly, it was the Totem Pole audience’s way of letting Ray know that they want much more of the same from the new regime he just rang in with amazing results.

When Ray asked me to direct this show, his first new show of his first new season, I was both humbled and honored. My collaborator and musical director Steve Przybylski and I gave it all we could for Ray, and his team rose to the occasion in magnificent style. He’s not just one in a million, he’s one where they threw away the mold. His efforts at Wayside Theatre have always brought us great success and wowed our audiences and I know the Totem Pole Playhouse fans are in for an equally amazing ride.

What a delight and honor to have been a part of something that is not only heralding a new era for the venerable Totem Pole Playhouse, but to have been able to return the favor to someone who has given Wayside Theatre so much over the years.

Bravo’s all around.

And now back to Man of La Mancha (before R. Scott gets too crazy and feels left out.)

Highly Recommended: Playing for Change

Catching up on some back podcasts while I’m driving back and forth between Pennsylvania and Virginia this past week, I came across this from Bill Moyers’ Journal.

The episode features Mark Johnson and his Playing for Change project. If music is a part of your life in any way (and goodness I hope it is) you’ll enjoy what this project is doing.

Johnson takes musicians from around the world and puts together some amazing music as they play these songs from their various locations.

There’s a DVD of some of the songs and MP3s available for purchase.

I highly recommend at least viewing the Journal episode. The Jacobs part is the second part of the program.

Man of La Mancha Diaries: Week 2 of Doubling Up Soon to Start

The first week of being in two places at the same time went off very smoothly and so far according to plan. Week 2 kicks off tomorrow, after everyone breathes a bit today on Memorial Day. We've got Cotton Patch Gospel at Totem Pole Playhouse staged and ready to rock out. Tuesday night we tweak in the new sound system and then roll from there. We had a first run last night after a long day of rehearsal and things seem to be in good shape as we head to that opening night on May 30.

Back at Wayside Theatre, we spent all day Saturday blocking all the book scenes in Man of La Mancha and accomplished that goal in good time. This week we do musical staging and that will both speed up and slow things down a bit as we move forward. The reality here is that we've got a structure to the piece, not we work on smaller junks, and then hopefully next Sunday we'll be able to pull it all back together heading into the final week.

So far so good.

Honoring Those Who Sacrificed

Map the Fallen is an interesting project from Sean Askay on the Google Earth Outreach Team that aims to honor the more than 5700 men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have created a map for Google Earth that will connect you with each of their stories—you can see photos, learn about how they died, visit memorial websites with comments from friends and families, and explore the places they called home and where they died.

Sharing it on America’s Memorial Day seems only appropriate.

Local Coverage Surfaces on Comcast Killing Local Access

The local newspapers are getting up to speed on the news that Comcast is pulling out of local access programming here in our area and their coverage sheds some more light on the subject. I blogged about it the other day here. Here’s a link to the Winchester Star article covering the story.

Comcast Kills Local Access Program Cable Talk

Score one for the bean counters at Comcast. Score another loss for local coverage of events most likely deemed too small for shrinking newspapers, relying far too heavily on AP stories. Score a loss also for the original intent that accompanied the awarding of cable franchises, but then you could argue that loss got tallied long ago.

The FCC changed its regulations that allowed Cable distributors to stop funding and offering local access channels. States have, with gentle nudges from the cable industry (oh, all right call it campaign cash) gone along with this and changed laws on that level. Cable companies have been doing away with the local cable access shows. Today we got word that our local cable access community talk show, Cable Talk is very shortly going to end its days as a major resource for out local Winchester and Frederick County community. Comcast has pulled the plug. I taped my last Cable Talk appearance on behalf of Wayside Theatre tonight while our cast is rehearsing music for Man of La Mancha.

Cable Talk (and I’m sure other shows like it) is a key part of our community. It is a venue where small organizations, not-for-profits, local authors and other local interests can have an opportunity to talk about what they do and what they have to offer. When celebrities come to town it is a place for them to meet the community.  Cable Talk, and its long time host Barry Lee, have been instrumental in helping get the news out about these kind of organizations and individuals for a long time here. Cable Talk will be more than missed. It will be interesting to see how the local news media handles this story.

As the Artistic Director of Wayside Theatre, I can attest to the impact that Cable Talk has. We, fortunately get to appear and talk about each of our shows that are coming up, and it has a large impact on our ticket sales immediately following the airings of an episode we appear on. So, from my perspective as the director of a small not-for-profit, you can call my reaction to this selfish, or at least say that about my perspective.

But it is larger than just my interests here. Laws were passed to force Cable operators to offer local access programming in the beginning. The FCC changes to those laws came down during the Bush years. State legislators that are going along with cable operators complete the cycle and pretty much force the outcome. It all simply says that what happens on your street, in your small town, or your county isn’t important enough to those who had to be forced to offer that coverage in the first place. I’m wondering what the trade off between the political contributions to lawmakers versus the cost of running the local studios is?

I also understand here locally that Comcast basically ran roughshod over our local governments here when the local franchise deal was up for negotiation again. And why not, they are in essence a monopoly and don’t have to concede to anything, and when there’s cover from the governments about the local level, there’s not much the local guys can do.

Comcast is on the winning side here and they don’t care. They can’t sell commercials on these local shows that talk about the Boy Scouts or the local shelter’s latest fundraiser. Which is strange when your think for a second and realize that they are not  bursting at the seams with original content. Pick a cable channel and all you see if stuff played over and over. And to go along with it, at least on our local channels, Comcast screws around with the commercials. I can’t tell you when the last time I watched a commercial break and saw every commercial complete to its end. Here locally, Comcast cuts off the beginnings and end of commercials, both local and national, with a regularity that leaves me to wonder if advertisers ever monitor their ads anymore. The ‘make-good’ rate on any given night (or day) here would be phenomenal. As I write this, I’ve seen two commercials in the last break ended too soon. I guess that means they can’t complain about DVRs that let you skip over commercials if they don’t want to air them.

So add this to the loss of coverage of local events on top of the pile that includes the ever shriveling newspaper industry. Add this to triumph of greed over the common good. Maybe local communications company Shentel will use this as a play to increase their customer base in Frederick County. They are based in Shenandoah County, (one county south of here) and offer a Shenandoah Country focused local access show.

I’m going to Twitter @comcastcares on this and see if he has any comment. I hope he does beyond the public statements. Comcast owes our community (and others) an explanation. Meanwhile, I’ll be checking into other options for our TV viewing, and I hear tell others in our area are planning on doing the same thing. Of course that’s one local story that won’t get covered.

UPDATE: @comcastcares responded with this:

It is not required for other companies serving an area, and has very high cost. Shouldn't every company have to offer?

Which is a convenient answer when you consider that the rules don’t allow for local cable competition once the franchises are awarded.

And So It Begins

At 10 AM this morning we begin orientation for new company members at Wayside Theatre. That will run most of the day. Then I head to Totem Pole Playhouse tonight to begin rehearsals for Cotton Patch Gospel tomorrow morning. I’ll be back in Middletown tomorrow evening to start up Man of La Mancha.

Time to strap it on and get running.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

With the Tony Awards approaching and the welcome spate of plays on Broadway doing well and bucking the long trend of theme park musicals, the New York Times has two interesting pieces worth reading.

The first talks about acting within an ensemble and the actor’s place in the process. The second talks about the resurgence of the play vs the theme park musical we’ve been accustomed to. Maybe it was the economy, maybe not. But let’s hope it continues.

A Federal judge goes after the Car Warranty Robocallers. Why did this take so long?

George Will on greed. Cherry picking for the sake of his argument, he suggests that “perhaps it would be restful to give moral reasoning a rest and give economic reasoning a chance.” Makes me laugh.

Maureen Dowd comes back with a column I can read again, and changes here stance on letting the past be the past. She now thinks, due in part to Pelosi’s self-water boarding, that we should indeed continue torturing ourselves to get to the bottom of the torture mess.

Michael Parekh links to a good article on the Politics of Cap and Trade. Methinks we all need to get up to speed on this.

Jeff Jarvis almost goes Shakespearean in looking at some of the legal and legislative maneuvering that is going on to try and protect newspapers from the evils of the Internet and themselves.

Liar’s Club

I think Nancy Pelosi has finally, and thankfully, done herself in with this latest episode about whether or not she was ever briefed on the torture thing. My own opinion is that it is time for her to go.

That said, I love it when other liars sense a liar and come running out of the woodwork to pile on. Such is the case with Newt Gingrich. He’s pretty upset about Nancy for her lying. Of course as the old saying goes, it takes one to know one. Remember Newt got called on lying himself by a Special Counsel, as well as violation of federal tax law.

For once, I’d love to see this kind of charade on all sides end, when the Cable shows that book these folks to deride each other introduce the guest as “Here’s one liar to tell us about another liar.”

Never happen, but I’d love it to.

Proving that Stupidity Crosses Party Lines

Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner in separate statements yesterday that stupidity, blindness, and cluelessness are qualities that supposed leaders in both major political parties share.

If the maxim “we get the leaders we deserve” is indeed true, woe be unto us.