Production Presentation, Birthday Bash and a Day of Dance

There was a lot of buzzing around this past week. The big events came at the end of the week. Thursday I taught my own class. There has been some talk on our course about doing some sharing sessions with our peers. We have had a few of those moments trickling through lately. As I am the oldest in the class and have been kicking around the planet for longer than the rest of my classmates, it stands to reason I have experienced a few things that might be of interest to the others. Some have asked me about certain areas producing. Upon discussing some of these conversations with my course leader, she suggested I take the class one day. Wow! I didn't see that coming. I was happy to take on the challenge. With experience over the last twenty years in acting, directing, writing, casting, play publishing and licensing, production management and the corporate sector, I have a well rounded understanding of how to put a show together and the basics of how to run a theatre company. I put together a two hour presentation called The Producer in Production and ran through the whole production process, soup to nuts. It was a lot of information and was really just a whistle stop tour. I can see the presentation has room to expand and could be broken down into bite size portions with more detail and could run a whole term or possibly year. Thursday seemed to go well. My course leader was pleased as were several students who thanked me. One thing that was really good for me, it was a wonderful reflective on the last twenty years of my professional life. I was able to take the time to really think through what I have experienced and learned and formulate it into a sort of best practices type production guide. Naturally, the production process will change from theatre to theatre and show to show, depending on the needs and resources but, it's a good outline to utilize when starting out on a show or with a theatre company that primarily focuses on second class productions. Now that's no insult, most regional, community and educational theatres do second class productions. That isn't a comment on the quality of the work. It is in reference to the show not being the first major run of a title. Broadway, West End and some A-list regional theatres would be the considered the first class production of a title. And that was all covered on Thursday.

Friday was my big 4-0! Exciting times. I have never been one to hide or worry about my age. I embrace it and am thrilled to meet this milestone! Some of my friends and classmates gathered at a pub near school for a quick social drink and then we headed to London Zoo for their Sunset Safari. What a night! At my birthday shenanigans, we had three from America, one from Australia, one from Austria, one from Singapore, one from Italy, two from Poland, one from Saudi Arabia and two from England. That's a pretty good mix of international representatives! The zoo was a hoot. Stating this past Friday the London Zoo will offer these evening hours every Friday for the summer months. It was a good time. We saw animals, watched the zoo keepers do presentations, rode the carousel, got our faces painted and generally had a blast.

Saturday there was no lying down on the job. It was off to the Royal Opera House for a full afternoon of new short ballets. Three rising star choreographers of the ballet world presented three new dance pieces. I had never been to the Royal Opera House so, it was a treat to see the venue. We were up in the top level of seats but center and actually for watching dance, the seats could not have been better. We could see the whole stage and the orchestra and at an elevated angle which gave us the perfect sightlines to see the stage pictures and formations that were being created. It was fabulous afternoon!

This coming week is filled with more meetings and projects. I'll let you know how it goes next Sunday. In the meantime, check out what are dance companies and choreographers creating in your area.

Take care!
-m