Letting Go

I’ll admit it.  I'm a control freak.  If I could clone myself a dozen time to work on each and every aspect of the show - I’d probably do it.  I’ve always bought into the philosophy that “if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.”  This project means a lot to me on a personal level, and no one is going to treat it with the same level of care and commitment as I will.  I obsess over the smallest of details.  As a writer, I once spent thirty minutes deciding upon a single word.  That’s a half hour of work for one measly word.

And I’m telling you, as someone who aims for nothing less than perfection, you have to let it go.  You have to trust the people around you to do the job you hired them to do.  For one, talented people are not going to stick around if you’re telling them what to do all the time.  Everyone wants to feel like their contributions are valued - especially those who are good at it. 

And you know what?  When you do let go, the results will often surprise you.  Case and point:  I was working with my director (Jake Turner) and lead actress (Ydaiber Orozco) in an early rehearsal.  Jake asked me to do something that was totally different than what I had in mind when I wrote the script.  Jake has my complete trust and respect so I did what he asked.  And you know what?  It was a brilliant choice.  His idea was better.  If I had been stubborn and insistent I never would have found it.

Introduction

One of my very favorite Broadway producers (Ken Davenport) came up with a novel idea:  He started a blog and wrote about his day to day production activities in Godspell.  It was very educational and an absolute pleasure to read.

I’d like to do the same thing with my show.  Only there’s one difference.  Ken is a Broadway producer.  My show is going up at Atlantic Stage 2 which is a 99 seat theater in Chelsea.  I have to work within budget constraints that Broadway doesn’t worry about, so the advice in this blog is a lot more applicable to productions of that scale.  So if you want to produce a show, and you don’t have tons of cash  – you’ve come to the right place.

But before I begin, a little background on what we're doing.  It’s a new play called A Hole In His Heart, and it’s written by yours truly.  We're opening January 20^th, 2012 and performances will be held at Atlantic Stage 2 on 330 West 16th Street.

I’ll do my best to update this blog on a daily basis.  I’ll talk about marketing, development, casting, contracts, wardrobe, and anything else you can think of.  In particular, I’ll spend a lot of time on marketing (as I feel that this is one area that off-off-Broadway can really improve upon).  And if there’s a particular topic you’d like me to write about, please feel free to email or post it in the comments section.