The First Meeting. . .

As the director of this amazing musical, I wanted to show everyone how on-top of, in-tune with, and legit I was. So naturally, the best way to do that is to schedule a meeting at a coffee shop in the sketchiest part of KC on the day that everyone has rehearsals.

Needless to say, it started out as a good plan. I started by creating one of those hateful Facebook chain messages to get everyone's opinion on a date. Within minutes, I had an explosion of opinions, suggestions, and people with clogged up inboxes. I, being the dauntless (and brainless) man I am, dove headfirst into the virtual fray, corralled the basic information, and had a date and time scheduled within the hour. The last thing to worry about was the location. Finally, our actor for Charlie suggested we use his family coffee shop, to which I agreed-who doesn't like a cool coffee shop? So, I grabbed the address, sent it to my buddies, and prepared for the meeting by making a waiver, informational sheet, and a basic synopsis.

As those fateful two weeks passed by, an unusual thing happened; about a fourth of my cast suddenly was unable to be in the show (due to vacations, college visits, and crunchy hips). This, of course did not phase me, for I had a battalion of eager actors who also wanted parts! However, that battalion apparently all had a practice scheduled for the exact time we had our meeting. Perfect.

I was saddened by this, but it did not halt me. I had scheduled the meeting, and there was no stopping it now. And so, on that fateful day, I gathered my Lawrence crew together, and headed out for our destination. As we approached though, a strange thing began to happen; more and more bars were found in windows, more and more homeless people were seen walking around, and more and more 25 cent laundry mats appeared. Soon, I realized that I was carrying a load full of suburban-raised, private schooled teenagers through the heart of Kansas City. Nerve wracking doesn't even begin to describe how I felt!

Well, we arrived at the coffee shop, which turned out to actually be a fantastic place to hold a meeting. Unfortunately, our numbers were not quite up to the cuff, due to our shift in actors and unforeseen complications. The actor for Charlie was there, along with our choreographer, and her friend. Add in my four Lawrence lads, and vuwalla! The first cast meeting of seven people was on!

In the end, it turned out ok-I had found a great actor for LaPedis (our choreographer's friend), and had got the seven of us pumped for this epic stage production. Of course, I had no clue how amazingly the rest of the cast would react during auditions, but still it was a fun meeting. And, Charlie made a pretty mean coffee drink, so I was happy!