Drama in the church

We were fortunate enough to have the local TV station do a 90 second
piece on us. The reporter interviewed three of us and they shot footage
of the choir and orchestra rehearsing. Great advertising. We got many
phone calls in response. I wasn’t happy about my clip, but the important
thing is that we were in the news at 11PM and 8:30AM.

http://www.wgal.com/news/8196757/detail.html

The last weeks before the main event are hectic and harried. There a
thousands of little details to sort out and decisions to make. And you
still have to keep the actors on track. Everyone wants to ask about this
piece of fabric or that prop. Some just want to be stroked for solving a
problem. That’s fine. I recognize that need in myself also.

As a director you need to encourage autonomous decision-making on all
small things and make sure everyone knows this is a team effort. If this
is your full-time job, then you might have the time to make all those
decisions. That’s great, but in the scope of non-profit productions, it
doesn’t happen much. Be patient and encouraging.

What a difference a week makes. Last week I was running around with my
nose in the book, helping actors with lines, reading parts from missing
actors, and trying to direct. This week I had an assistant. Wow. She was
able to do all the former and allow me to direct. It also helped that
most of the actors finally have their lines memorized, too. I was
actually able to work on characters’ emotions and motivation.
It was so encouraging to see a scene or portion of a scene improve over
the 20 minutes we worked on it.