I remind myself to live in the moment. and I do that pretty well, but now I'm being asked to move beyond 2020 and the 30th season for HG. It's time to begin the process, the planning, the envisioning for 2021. Well. Luckily, I really like to read plays where I'm living in other people's moments. I have served on the Artistic Planning Committee (APC we call it) for quite a few years now. So far this month I've read the story (no music yet) for two musicals and regular scripts for a couple plays, and I've gone back to a few that I read last year and one that I read maybe eight years ago. All of this is preliminary work and others on APC will read, or have read, some of the same. No single person on this committee gets to make the final decision, but we do share our recommendations with each other. Are there requirements for APC membership? Read on.
I've been known to take a long time in casting a show. I know it's unfair to those who have auditioned but it's the only way I know how to do it and live with the decision for the following two or three months. I've written about the process that I often go through to figure out a cast. We try very hard to cast every show from the people who audition.
I can't wait to begin working on the big summer musical SOUTH PACIFIC. A year ago I probably wouldn't have said that or felt that way. One of the curious things about selecting a season is that there is a timing involved: some years/months/days a particular play or musical has no appeal or interest, and then that same play or musical can seem just right at another time. I'm not sure that SOUTH PACIFIC would be on my top 10 list of favorite musicals, but here I am can't waiting to begin working on it.
We're in the midst of reading plays and discussing them for the 2021 Season. I love the process. I liken it to those heady days in college when I would pour over the schedule for the following semester and begin choosing what courses I would take. It was a rush for me. And pouring over seed catalogs to choose what I'm going to plant in the spring. Oh, man; it's heaven. And thumbing through music catalogs to choose songs for the choirs for the following year. I'm weird, I know, but...well, I'm me.
I was recently asked by Clare Ritter who is organizing the 30th Season program later this month what my favorite song is from any of the shows we've produced. Often people have asked me what my favorite play is of all that I have directed. These are questions I cannot answer. Usually I say that my favorite play is the one I'm working on currently, whatever that might be. I love the process and the interaction with the cast and crew and then with the audience. It's kind of like asking which of your children is your favorite.