Hope To See You There

Reliving 1985 For A Great Cause

Leave a comment

If you’ve lived here in San Antonio long enough, then you’ll well remember the great snowstorm of 1985. More than a foot of snow, the likes of which we’ve not seen since (though 1987 did produce enough of it that I can remember going back to Keystone and throwing snowballs at my classmates the next day).

Forecasters are suggesting that we might see snow again this weekend. It goes without saying – so of course I’m saying it anyway – that I’m a little skeptical. But it’ll still be a good weekend for a Snowball Run. Continue reading →

Where I’ve Been, And What…

Leave a comment

I know it’s been a bit of a while since I last wrote.  I hadn’t meant to be away from the blog for so long.

But the silver lining of that long delay is that I have a lot more to write about… Continue reading →

In Great Company

Leave a comment

It started with Orson Welles, of course.

When I was much younger, and in the earliest stages of my obsession with sci-fi, I learned about the Mercury Theatre of the Air, and their famous broadcast of The War of the Worlds.  I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking it was so cool.  (Seriously, take away all the baggage of its history, and it still holds up.)

Since then, I’ve always had a weakness for old-time radio drama.  And as I haven’t heard nearly enough of it in my life, I can’t pass up an opportunity to recreate that classic radio experience.

Combine that with one of my favorite holiday stories, then add some wonderful local actors, and you have the kind of show I can’t resist. Continue reading →

Attuned

Leave a comment

I’d like to think it’s a mark of success for The San Antonio Stage Script Study Group that so many of our meetings leave me thinking of things I wish I’d thought to say in the moment.

And it’s safe to say that the ideas inspired by our most recent meeting are very me. Continue reading →

Kickstart Our Art

Leave a comment

In the last year, the concept of crowdfunding (most popularly defined as the idea of financing a project through internet donations and pledges) has quickly become a pop-cultural phenomenon. As a case study, I submit to you one Amanda Palmer, a singer/songwriter who launched a Kickstarter page ten days ago to help fund her next album; within about five hours, it had reached its goal of $100,000. As of this moment, with 20 days left, that album’s about 635% funded. I repeat, 635%.

The promise of crowdfunding is that it strengthens the bond between artists and fans/consumers, and allows them to share in the creative act in a way that I hope remains positive. As Palmer’s husband recently said, “I love the way that Kickstarter allows people both to be patrons of the arts and to directly support the creation and manufacture of the thing they want.”

All of which provides a nice teaser for what we’re working on right now… Continue reading →

[Re-]Turning The Page…

Leave a comment

As I’ve said before, the San Antonio Stage Script Study Group was “one of my favorite Stone Oak Youth Theatre activities”.  And in the time we met there, it had developed the kind of following you’d call Small But Devoted.  So when the group was put on hold following the end of Nikki‘s tenure at SOYT, it was inevitable that we’d find a new place, a new time, and meet again.

That brief hiatus ended with 2011, as we met again in January to chart a new course for a new year.  And in that discussion, we agreed that the time had come for one of the group’s earliest and most promising ideas. Continue reading →

The Love List: … Go

Leave a comment

Over four weeks of rehearsing The Love List, we had a list of our own to work on.  And with each run-through, we refined and tweaked it, checking and re-checking each item.

It goes without saying – so of course I’m saying it anyway – that the dress rehearsal is one of the last, and therefore most important, steps in that process.  It’s where we take all the pieces we’ve created and collected and put them together to see how they work as a whole.  Set: check.  Props: check.  Costumes: check.  Blocking: check.  Lines memorized: check.  Sound and light: check.  MaMaLu Olivo as our stage manager: check.  It’s our best chance to see how the show will play before we bring the audience into the theater. Continue reading →

The Love List: Ready Set…

Leave a comment

As I write this, we’re nine days from opening night for The Love List.  And in our third week of rehearsals, the play continues to take shape, each run-through bringing us closer to that one moment we’re all striving for. Continue reading →

Rumors Control, Opening Night: The Arrival

Leave a comment

It all came to this.

Two weeks of auditions.  Six weeks of rehearsals.  Days spent on building the set, securing props, publicity, promotion, and phone calls and texts and E-mails to cover every miscellaneous detail you can think of and probably a few more.  All for this.

One moment.

Opening night for Rumors. Continue reading →