At Brunch with My Friend and Future Personal Assistant Janice Lehman
With no workshop, presentation or rehearsal today, I spent the day preparing to direct the 'Now and Then a Hero' reading, and also spreading the word about that reading on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. One thing I've definitely learned is that the writer is always (unless you're someone huge like Sondheim or Schwartz) called upon to market the work. I used to hate having to 'sell myself', but it's completely necessary; no one will do it for you. There's no room for someone to be humble here... you have to believe in your work (and supress the demons telling you that your work, and therefore you, are not worthy) and you have to spread the belief in your work to all who will listen. It's also about repetition; you need to tell people multiple times in order for the message to sink in. In this current culture, people are bombarded with thoughts and sounds and images, and more often than not, they only remember what they see multiple times (at least 3.) So, while it may piss some folks off to get word about the show on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn... and get multiple emails about it... so be it. It's the only way to get people to remember. This approach, with constant reminders from multiple sources, worked like a charm last summer and helped to sell out every house in our developmental production of '40 is the New 15' at the Secret Rose.
I did take some time out to reconnect with friends; I had brunch at Marston's in Pasadena (try the corn-flake-french-toast!) with my friend Janice, who when I make it to the big-time I have promised a job as my personal assistant; and I had dinner (and hugh margaritas) with my friends Joey, Dean, Joaquin, Kent and Tod at El Conquistador in Silverlake. (Happy Birthday, Kent!)
The rest of my day was spent marking up my script in preparation for directing the reading. To save some cash, Jake and I decided to handle directing duties ourselves; I'll be doing the stage direction and he's doing the musical direction. For a reading, all that means is that I will be delving into the character, story and scene arcs, and making sure they know which music stand they go to for each scene to get the most of the interation and storytelling capabilities while still being on-book. It's really very less-is-more, actually, so it's a bit of an art. I've done it several times, for multiple readings of past projects, and it's something I am good at, so I feel okay about doing it; even if it might be a better choice for me to be able to sit back and watch.
So much for my 'day off' - it's back to work tomorrow, from 3:00-10:00 with the cast! (Aaah, but work is fun, right?)