It’s been two years since I’ve produced/directed a play and it’s starting to take its toll. That’s right, two years since the Beyond Therapy debacle of ’06. There is a charred black void in my heart where theater once flourished. But that is about to change. I hope.

Now that Emily is old enough for me to start neglecting her on the weekends, I am dusting off the old Jocular Theatre logo and doing my all to get this show back on the road.

There are many important steps in the process of developing a successful theatrical production. I tried to list these steps in an easy-to-read bulleted list, but my convoluted progress through this process made linear listing difficult.

First off, I am resolute in my desire to produce a show. This always helps.

Next is the selection of the play, the cast, and the location. Here’s where everything gets kinda messy. I apologize now if the rest of this entry is a bit confusing. I’m confused.

I would normally book a theater space and compile a short list of plays that I would like to direct. Then I would send out a mysterious casting invitation to the usual suspects and take out an ad in the local English language magazine looking for new actors. Only after the auditions would I decide which play would fit the group of actors with whom I’d like to work and cast it accordingly.

The short list of plays that I would love to direct this spring is as follows (in order):

• Scapino! by Frank Dunlop and Jim Dale (based on Molière)
• Beyond Therapy by Christopher Durang
• The Foreigner by Larry Shue
• The Nature and Purpose of the Universe // The Actor’s Nightmare (double bill) by Christopher Durang

And just for your information, plays that I look forward to directing but just not this season include Bat Boy, A New Brain, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, and Private Eyes. Their time will come.

Unfortunately, the theater in which I usually work is already booked right through the summer. When am I going to learn my lesson and book a space more than five months in advance? I’ve searched around town and finally found a place that has available the exact dates I am looking for: June 5-8. The price is right and the lighting rig is halfway decent. After studying the space thoroughly today with Ed (the Dutch God of set construction), the downside appears to be that the stage is too small for either Scapino! or The Foreigner and isn’t intimate enough for my vision of Beyond Therapy. I could imagine doing the Durang double bill there, but I’m not convinced that two one-acts is the way to go (I’m thinking marketing and the overall homologous audience experience I want to achieve). I’m going to make a last ditch effort and call a few more theaters this week (mostly schools with lush theaters as their auditorium), but I’m happy that I at least have something. I’m also going to call and book a theater for December so I don’t get caught with my pants down again next season.

I placed an ad in the Barcelona Metropolitan last month and have already received a few phone calls from interested parties. As soon as the location of the play is definite, I’ll start courting the actors I’ve already decided must be in the show. Each play is already pre-cast but none of the actors know this. I still hold auditions because they could say it could be that the actors are either not interested or unavailable or I could be pleasantly surprised by some new face that appears out of the woodwork – lord knows it’s happened before!

All I want is a play that I love performed in a beautiful and comfortable space by actors perfect for the part and fun to work with. Is that asking too much?