Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Great Reviews Coming in For Driving Miss Daisy

I'm not trying to be boastful here, but with a great play, Driving Miss Daisy, and a remarkable cast, I wasn't expecting anything less than good reviews for this superb effort by Wayside Theatre. Although the predilection to talk on and on about the movie when reviewing a live theatre piece always puzzles me.

Below are links to two reviews that I hope you'll take a look at. I agree, the show is a gem.

The Winchester Star

The Northern Virginia Daily

Technorati Tags: Wayside Theatre,Driving Miss Daisy

UPDATE: The Winchester Star seems to be having some difficulties with their site at the moment. Keep trying, maybe it will resurface.

Driving Miss Daisy Diaries: First Audiences Today

Driving Miss Daisy has its first two preview performances today and it should be a good day. We've had a great rehearsals, the cast (Faith Potts, Elliot Dash, and Jim Fleming) are doing astounding work, and I think we've wrestled the tech under control. This is a simple and fragile show, and simple is always hard to do, especially in an small intimate theatre. Every breath is important and resonates with tremendous power. That's what will make this show great, or conversely knock us down.

In any regard the latest Wayside Theatre podcast, featuring the cast is now up, and you can catch it here and listen to the cast talk about what they are thinking about the show.

I'm looking forward to seeing audiences watch the show today and what tweaks we'll make after we get those first responses.

Technorati Tags: Driving Miss Daisy,Wayside Theatre

Driving Miss Daisy Diaries: Getting Some Pub

Here's a link to a an article in the Northern Virginia Daily on our upcoming production of Driving Miss Daisy. We're having a blast working on this delicate little flower of a show. We hit the hard scenes towards the end of the play this afternoon, but this cast just shines.

Check out the article. More importantly, come check out the show.

Driving Miss Daisy Diaries: Working with Pros

I am not in the least knocking the mostly teen age cast of our production of Romeo and Juliet when I say this. That group of kids (and some adults) is amazing and wonderful and will always been near and dear to my heart. But what a delight to walk into rehearsals for Driving Miss Daisy with this cast of three pros and get down to work. Things are still nuts here with my schedule, and rehearsal is about the only time that I can focus on one thing at a time. And it is made even easier to do with Faith, Elliot, and Jim, as we plow through the script and bring the show to life. We're having a blast, working hard, and making some great things happen. Makes me want to actually go to work in the morning. (Even though rehearsals aren't until the afternoon.) Audiences are in for a treat.

Technorati Tags: Driving Miss Daisy,Wayside Theatre

Driving Miss Daisy Diaries: Racism and Drama

We started rehearsals today for Driving Miss Daisy, the last show in our 07/08 season at Wayside Theatre. Great cast with Elliot Dash, Faith Potts, and Jim Fleming. As we sat down to discuss the show and do a first read, we were all talking about how intriguing it is to do be doing this show in the midst of this presidential campaign that, for the moment, seems consumed by racism. Starting rehearsals on the day of what is being billed as Obama's "Race Speech" heightened the discussion to a degree. I 'd like to take credit for the scheduling, but I can't. And I find that scheduling plays with themes that end up being current again happens more often than not

I'm not sure if where the whole 'race' thing will go during the next weeks of rehearsals, or during the weeks of the run, but it will be interesting to see how audiences respond to the play given what is going on around them.

Being familiar with the play prior to immersing myself in it to get started, I'm wondering how many of our audience will have the same reaction I did once I started real work on the script. I recalled it as a great show with great writing about some powerful issues. But on reading and re-reading I kept being surprised by how powerful a piece it is, and at the same time, how fragile it is. Of course, given that the issue of race relations has been with us and will continue to be, that part isn't the surprise. The surprise is how much we forget or set aside those issues until they come staring us in the face.

It is going to be an interesting few weeks. That's for sure.