Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Thursday, July 28, 2011
"A MATTER OF 2NDS" AT THE NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE FESTIVAL!
Well, it's been a while since I've posted but I do so today with a quick update and great news! "2NDS" was accepted to the very popular Reading Series at this year's National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC!!!! This is HUGE and participating in this festival will go a long way towards ensuring that this play will have a life after it's premiere in Philly. Feeling REALLY blessed right about now :D
The play also had a staged reading at Penumbra Theatre in Minneapolis and they are interested in placing it on their 2011-2012 season. All good news huh? :)
I can't wait to go to the festival next week. I'll let you know how it goes!
K, the original banjigirl
The play also had a staged reading at Penumbra Theatre in Minneapolis and they are interested in placing it on their 2011-2012 season. All good news huh? :)
I can't wait to go to the festival next week. I'll let you know how it goes!
K, the original banjigirl
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Barrymore award winner OZZIE JONES is directing "A MATTER OF 2NDS"!!!
Hey ya'll!!! Seems like my crazy schedule only allows me to post once every 3 or 4 weeks. When I decided to blog about the process of producing this show, it was my intent to post updates once a week but I haven't been able to do so because I'm so friggin' busy pulling everything together. :-D
Well I FINALLY locked in my cast on July 11th and hell of a cast it is!!! I am SO pleased to have the talents of Gerard Joseph, Basil Scrivens and Damien J. Wallace in this play. All three of these men bring so much passion and electricity to the work I can't wait to share the stage with them!
Shortly after casting the show, I ran into some problems with my director and had to end up replacing him. We just weren't on the same page in terms of the production and I felt that I needed to make a change while I still had time to do so. Now, one could've looked at that as a disaster however, I saw it as an opportunity. I realized shortly after hiring him that he didn't care about the production at all, (not really sure why he took the job) and in order to get the right energy on board I had to get his negative energy out of the way. So, I stepped out on faith and let him go, eventhough I had not yet found anyone to replace him. That was NOT my original plan. Initially, it was my intent to sit down with him to see if perhaps we could find common ground; I mean, maybe I was just misreading his lack of enthusiasm, arrogance and outright laziness. However, after he drug the process out for 5 DAYS by setting up meetings to talk with me and then cancelling at the last minute each time, I realized that firing him was inevitable and the sooner the better.
After casting a wide net and interviewing only 3 candidates, I was introduced to the incomparable Mr. Ozzie Jones by one of my actors (Basil)! He is PERFECT for the piece. He's passionate, honest, CHILL and MAD TALENTED. Barrymore winner, former artistic director of the Lincoln Center in Washington, DC and a multitude of international directing credits!!!! Talk about having God's favor! I wouldn't have ever known about this man had it not been for Basil and I wouldn't have known about Basil (who is a VERY talented actor by the way) had it not been for the previous director dude. That my friends is a true example of DIVINE ORDER! :)
So, I hired Ozzie last week (last Friday to be exact, almost one week to the day that I let the other director go). We had a table read of the script that following day and it was OFF THE CHAIN! Ozzie came with so much good energy and brilliant ideas and vision; his presence has electrified all of us!!! This show is gonna be HOT ya'll!! I am SOOO happy with the way things are now. I always had confidence in the script but now that I have a great cast and a fabulous director in place, it's on a crackin'!!! LOL.
Now it's time to focus on publicity and raising more money! Unlike before, I'm not worried about raising funds. Shoot I can sell the heck out of what I've got now!! :) By the way, if you'd like to support my project please feel free to go to the following link and donate through my producing partner's site. His production company is sponsored by Fractured Atlas and all monies are run through them and are TAX DEDUCTIBLE. Just click onto the link below and follow the instuctions.
https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/contribute/donate/1811
Your donation will be on behalf of Local R.E.P. and will go to support this fall's production of "A Matter of 2nds". If you have problems with the link go to http://represented.org/ and click onto the "support us" tab.
Visit BanjiGirl Production's page on Facebook for updates: http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=278381470046#!/pages/BanjiGirl-Productions/278381470046
And keep us in your thoughts and prayers for a successful show!
Alright, gotta run for now but will have more to report very soon!
Much love,
The original BanjiGirl
Well I FINALLY locked in my cast on July 11th and hell of a cast it is!!! I am SO pleased to have the talents of Gerard Joseph, Basil Scrivens and Damien J. Wallace in this play. All three of these men bring so much passion and electricity to the work I can't wait to share the stage with them!
Shortly after casting the show, I ran into some problems with my director and had to end up replacing him. We just weren't on the same page in terms of the production and I felt that I needed to make a change while I still had time to do so. Now, one could've looked at that as a disaster however, I saw it as an opportunity. I realized shortly after hiring him that he didn't care about the production at all, (not really sure why he took the job) and in order to get the right energy on board I had to get his negative energy out of the way. So, I stepped out on faith and let him go, eventhough I had not yet found anyone to replace him. That was NOT my original plan. Initially, it was my intent to sit down with him to see if perhaps we could find common ground; I mean, maybe I was just misreading his lack of enthusiasm, arrogance and outright laziness. However, after he drug the process out for 5 DAYS by setting up meetings to talk with me and then cancelling at the last minute each time, I realized that firing him was inevitable and the sooner the better.
After casting a wide net and interviewing only 3 candidates, I was introduced to the incomparable Mr. Ozzie Jones by one of my actors (Basil)! He is PERFECT for the piece. He's passionate, honest, CHILL and MAD TALENTED. Barrymore winner, former artistic director of the Lincoln Center in Washington, DC and a multitude of international directing credits!!!! Talk about having God's favor! I wouldn't have ever known about this man had it not been for Basil and I wouldn't have known about Basil (who is a VERY talented actor by the way) had it not been for the previous director dude. That my friends is a true example of DIVINE ORDER! :)
So, I hired Ozzie last week (last Friday to be exact, almost one week to the day that I let the other director go). We had a table read of the script that following day and it was OFF THE CHAIN! Ozzie came with so much good energy and brilliant ideas and vision; his presence has electrified all of us!!! This show is gonna be HOT ya'll!! I am SOOO happy with the way things are now. I always had confidence in the script but now that I have a great cast and a fabulous director in place, it's on a crackin'!!! LOL.
Now it's time to focus on publicity and raising more money! Unlike before, I'm not worried about raising funds. Shoot I can sell the heck out of what I've got now!! :) By the way, if you'd like to support my project please feel free to go to the following link and donate through my producing partner's site. His production company is sponsored by Fractured Atlas and all monies are run through them and are TAX DEDUCTIBLE. Just click onto the link below and follow the instuctions.
https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/contribute/donate/1811
Your donation will be on behalf of Local R.E.P. and will go to support this fall's production of "A Matter of 2nds". If you have problems with the link go to http://represented.org/ and click onto the "support us" tab.
Visit BanjiGirl Production's page on Facebook for updates: http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=278381470046#!/pages/BanjiGirl-Productions/278381470046
And keep us in your thoughts and prayers for a successful show!
Alright, gotta run for now but will have more to report very soon!
Much love,
The original BanjiGirl
Friday, June 25, 2010
Things are moving along!
I know that it's been a while since I've posted but have been on the grind. In addition to mounting the show I'm still auditioning and FINALLY booking work. (Shooting an industrial this coming Monday. It's been a long dry spell for me as an actor) :(
Anyhoo. . . LOTS TO REPORT:
Had a kick-a** production meeting with my partner on June 4th! Decided upon the FIRST FUNDRAISER for "2NDS" which will be on July 21st. It will a monologue slam at a place named LeTage in South Philly. All proceeds from the event will go to the Marketing budget for the show. I'M PSYCHED!!! We decided that the SECOND FUNDRAISER will be closer to the show in SEPTEMBER during the rehearsal period. It will be a partnering with another organization to have a happy hour/meet and greet with the cast and a way to recognize and honor those who have supported the production monetarily or otherwise. I REALLY like the thought of recognizing donors at this event. Hopefully there will be LOTS of them to honor at that point! (LOL)
Organizing callbacks has been a pain in the you-know-what! The three guys that I'd really like to cast are wonderful actors so they're all extremely busy AND two of them are based in New York. Trying to balance that with everyone else schedule, including my own, has been a challenge. FINALLY hit upon Thursday, July 8th as a date that everyone can make. Whew! Looking forward to this part of the process and locking in my cast. I have the potential to land a VERY exciting cast for the show. I originally approached (and I THOUGHT had locked in) a particular actor A YEAR AGO about the role of MALCOLM who I've worked with before and was EXTREMELY disappointed when he pulled out. However, I now have a chance to get an actor who's just as talented and even more exciting on stage! Getting him would be quite the coup. I'm praying that, if it's meant to be that it happens. Just think, if that other actor had not dropped out, I NEVER would have even considered this guy! Funny how things work out, isn't it? :)
I'd been attempting to connect with Howard Shapiro of the Philadelphia Inquirer about a series he was allegedly writing about new plays being produced in Philly. Well, he actually called me back this past Monday and we had a WONDERFUL conversation! Turns out he is not writing a series on new plays, however, he was extremely interested in the project and said that the Inquirer would DEFINITELY come out and review the play in October! (yea!!!) He also said that he might be interested in doing a feature story about the show (how it came about, why I'm producing it, etc) depending upon what's going on in the arts community this fall. (In other words, if nothing more exciting is going on, he'll write about us, LOL) Heck, I'll take it! The opportunity to be featured in the city's largest newspaper is tremendous and if it DID happen, it would be GREAT for the show. (Keep fingers crossed for us on that):)
Let's see, what else has happened since I last posted . . . Oh yeah! Just got a new draft from the writer Thursday. Looking forward to reading it today. Hope this is the draft that we can start working with and possibly lock in, to some degree. Even though a dear friend, who's a kick-a** dramaturg, offered to help, right now I'm essentially dramaturging the piece myself. Oy!
Lastly, I've been working with a graphic artist to create a logo/brand for BanjiGirl Productions and she came up with some great stuff! I'll be finalizing things with her in the next few days so by next week, we will have an original, cool a** logo!!! Look for it, I'll be adding it to the blog and facebook page as soon as I have it in my hot little hands!
I guess that's it for now (it was a LOT, I know). I'll try to do better at posting more often. BTW, I will soon have a link on the blog to donate to the production funds of "2NDS" in case you have a couple of extra dollars you wanna throw our way! :) Also, follow us on FACEBOOK! I'll have a donation link and more info posted there soon as well.
Thanks so much for taking this ride with me! Wouldn't be able to do it without your interest and support!
K, the original BanjiGirl
Anyhoo. . . LOTS TO REPORT:
Had a kick-a** production meeting with my partner on June 4th! Decided upon the FIRST FUNDRAISER for "2NDS" which will be on July 21st. It will a monologue slam at a place named LeTage in South Philly. All proceeds from the event will go to the Marketing budget for the show. I'M PSYCHED!!! We decided that the SECOND FUNDRAISER will be closer to the show in SEPTEMBER during the rehearsal period. It will be a partnering with another organization to have a happy hour/meet and greet with the cast and a way to recognize and honor those who have supported the production monetarily or otherwise. I REALLY like the thought of recognizing donors at this event. Hopefully there will be LOTS of them to honor at that point! (LOL)
Organizing callbacks has been a pain in the you-know-what! The three guys that I'd really like to cast are wonderful actors so they're all extremely busy AND two of them are based in New York. Trying to balance that with everyone else schedule, including my own, has been a challenge. FINALLY hit upon Thursday, July 8th as a date that everyone can make. Whew! Looking forward to this part of the process and locking in my cast. I have the potential to land a VERY exciting cast for the show. I originally approached (and I THOUGHT had locked in) a particular actor A YEAR AGO about the role of MALCOLM who I've worked with before and was EXTREMELY disappointed when he pulled out. However, I now have a chance to get an actor who's just as talented and even more exciting on stage! Getting him would be quite the coup. I'm praying that, if it's meant to be that it happens. Just think, if that other actor had not dropped out, I NEVER would have even considered this guy! Funny how things work out, isn't it? :)
I'd been attempting to connect with Howard Shapiro of the Philadelphia Inquirer about a series he was allegedly writing about new plays being produced in Philly. Well, he actually called me back this past Monday and we had a WONDERFUL conversation! Turns out he is not writing a series on new plays, however, he was extremely interested in the project and said that the Inquirer would DEFINITELY come out and review the play in October! (yea!!!) He also said that he might be interested in doing a feature story about the show (how it came about, why I'm producing it, etc) depending upon what's going on in the arts community this fall. (In other words, if nothing more exciting is going on, he'll write about us, LOL) Heck, I'll take it! The opportunity to be featured in the city's largest newspaper is tremendous and if it DID happen, it would be GREAT for the show. (Keep fingers crossed for us on that):)
Let's see, what else has happened since I last posted . . . Oh yeah! Just got a new draft from the writer Thursday. Looking forward to reading it today. Hope this is the draft that we can start working with and possibly lock in, to some degree. Even though a dear friend, who's a kick-a** dramaturg, offered to help, right now I'm essentially dramaturging the piece myself. Oy!
Lastly, I've been working with a graphic artist to create a logo/brand for BanjiGirl Productions and she came up with some great stuff! I'll be finalizing things with her in the next few days so by next week, we will have an original, cool a** logo!!! Look for it, I'll be adding it to the blog and facebook page as soon as I have it in my hot little hands!
I guess that's it for now (it was a LOT, I know). I'll try to do better at posting more often. BTW, I will soon have a link on the blog to donate to the production funds of "2NDS" in case you have a couple of extra dollars you wanna throw our way! :) Also, follow us on FACEBOOK! I'll have a donation link and more info posted there soon as well.
Thanks so much for taking this ride with me! Wouldn't be able to do it without your interest and support!
K, the original BanjiGirl
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