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
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
