I’m not from New York. I feel like this is a good preamble to everything and discussing Love for Beginners’ long trip to the Hudson Guild stage. Everything in getting the play up for The Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One-Act Festival is worthy of a play in and of itself, but the journey will make the first (and hopefully not last) performance this Saturday mean that much more.
I live in San Francisco, and when I applied to the festival, I really didn’t think about the logistics of putting up a show across the country. When I got the acceptance email, I was beyond ecstatic – I mean, any playwright would lie if they said that they didn’t think about having at least one of their shows go up in New York – and for me, it was a very big deal. But then I realized that I was pretty much responsible for getting the show up myself. At first, this didn’t seem like such a big deal – I’m really used to putting up my own shows, as I did throughout college. So, it was like, okay, I’m directing it, all I need to do is find some actors online and fly in two weeks ahead of time and spend that time rehearsing. Easy, right?
Wrong. Obviously. I realized I couldn’t stay with a friend of mine for three weeks, and then I figured that finding a director to work with the actors that I found online and actually, you know, direct would be the best idea. But, of course, there were setbacks with that – the original director, talented person she is, was way above working for nothing on this show, and four of the original actors had, like, a thousand conflicts. It was a stressful few weeks for sure, but everything worked out and I found Jonathan Chang, my amazing director, and he recast the four roles that were missing. It’s incredibly exciting to hear from the rehearsal reports that the cast is getting along amazingly and that there is real chemistry.
Wrong. Obviously. I realized I couldn’t stay with a friend of mine for three weeks, and then I figured that finding a director to work with the actors that I found online and actually, you know, direct would be the best idea. But, of course, there were setbacks with that – the original director, talented person she is, was way above working for nothing on this show, and four of the original actors had, like, a thousand conflicts. It was a stressful few weeks for sure, but everything worked out and I found Jonathan Chang, my amazing director, and he recast the four roles that were missing. It’s incredibly exciting to hear from the rehearsal reports that the cast is getting along amazingly and that there is real chemistry.
So, tomorrow, I fly out to New York. I’m excited and scared, to quote a particular musical, to see the progress and watch how Jonathan and the cast have transformed the material (it was Jonathan’s idea to set Love for Beginners in the 1990s, which is amazing because I’m a child of the ‘90s and a huge pop culture nerd about it – I did have to rewrite a few lines, but I’m so frickin’ excited about it all!). It will be my first show in New York, and on Saturday, when I hear the music start and see the lights go up, I know that all the stress and pounds lost and nerves and struggle to get the money together and all that will have been worth it.
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