My Year In Theatre - 2019

It's that time of year again. Time for some people to reflect back on all that happened in their lives in the past year as we ready ourselves for a new one. As the years go speeding by, I have felt less like looking back and more like looking forward to the next adventure. But, as I sit here at my computer tonight, I find myself looking back, so many good memories this year. I am very fortunate. For this blog, I will not bore you with all the great things happening with my family and my job and my house and my friends. However, I will bore you with all my theatre memories from the year that was 2019.

The previous year, 2018, ended with me having done two shows in a row, Dracula the Musical? and It's a Wonderful Life. I'm old. Two shows in a row is exhausting for me. I was planning on taking a break from theatre in 2019. So, it was surprising that, not too far into 2019, I found myself agreeing to direct a show for Cedar Street Theatre. I have already recounted the story in a previous blog post of how I ran into my friend and director of Wonderful Life, David Smith, at the grocery store and inexplicably mentioned that I might want to direct again. David is also the president of Cedar Street. Everything happened so quickly after that, and suddenly I was named as the director for Crimes of the Heart. The show is to be performed in late January / early February of 2020, so I had a whole year before opening night. No problem!! I could relax for a while and still have plenty of time to prepare for directing.

Well, I'm not sure exactly where the last 11 months went, but we are now five weeks out from opening the show. Our cast and crew have spent a lot of time planning and rehearsing. Directing can be stressful and time consuming and difficult, but it can also be very rewarding. If you ask me how I feel about the directing experience and about how the show is going at this very moment, I would say I feel terrified, but only because it's getting so close and we still have much work to do. I'm thankful to have my daughter, Hannah, to encourage me and be an adviser. The cast and crew have been great and I'm so happy to have strengthened some friendships and to have made some new ones with Chuck, Pat, Taylor, Megan, Briana, Kelly, Raven, Nestor and Emanuel. I'm looking forward to the artistic contributions of Cheryl and Tiger and Jeremy and Scott and Adam as we draw ever nearer to opening night. I hope you will come to see the show at the LPAC Black Box on January 31, February 1, 2 & 7, 8, 9.

Since I wasn't going to be taking a break from theatre after all, I decided to jump in and get involved in some other projects. The first project was writing an original script that was submitted for consideration for the Antelope Valley College One Act Festival. For the past few years, I have noticed the announcement on Facebook for original scripts. Each year, I say to myself, I really should write something and send it in. However, each year I have let the opportunity pass by without even writing one sentence. This year, for another inexplicable reason, I decided to actually get something written. Again, with the encouragement of my daughter, Hannah, I wrote a short play that had been rolling around in my head for a long time. The deadline to submit the script was August 1st. I began writing about one week prior to the deadline. Surprisingly, I didn't hate what I wrote. The play is called Single. It is a dramedy very loosely based on the real life events of a single guy trying to date again after going through a divorce. To my great excitement, my script was chosen to be performed. It was directed by Erika Newman and I was very pleased and proud with how it turned out.

During this same One Act Festival, I got to experience something really awesome. One of the other scripts chosen was called Buenas and was written by a young college student named Christian Morales. This play was about Hispanic culture and was performed mostly in Spanish with English subtitles displayed on a screen above the stage. The plot has to do with a young lady who had just lost her grandmother. She has a dream about a board game called La Loteria, a very popular game in the Latino culture. In the dream, the characters on the game cards were brought to life on stage by the actors. The amazing part of all this is that there were many people in the audience who were familiar with the game and the audience went crazy for this play. During the question and answer session after the show, the audience members could not praise the author enough for writing a show that they could relate to so well. I was not one of the people who could relate to the story in that way as I had never heard of La Loteria before this. However, I was moved and overwhelmed by the charm of the script and audience excitement. To me, this show and others like it are what theatre is all about: Telling stories that will excite and create new lovers of theatre as well as open an old guy's mind to a new culture. We need more scripts like Buenas. For his wonderful and funny story, to the author, Christian Morales, I say BRAVO!

My "off" year of 2019 found me involved in one other theatre project. This was also an original one act written by Brett Lark called Sitch (short for situation comedy). This show was written in the style of a television sitcom pilot and was performed at ACAVEC. I played the part of Ray, the husband of a former child actress who is trying to break back into show business while balancing her life as a wife and mother. The night before the one acts were performed, I was asked to step into another role in another show, that of the evil hypnotist bear in a script written by 9-year-old Tehya Mae called The Adventures of Jack and Leo. Good thing I only had three lines to learn! I have always admired playwrights, but this year I have found and even greater admiration for the people who have a desire and ability to write for the stage. I was so inspired that I started this Downstage Left blog to keep me writing on a regular basis. Thank you to all the writers in both of the one act play festivals that I was a part of this year!!

I saw two professional shows this year, Falsettos, at the Ahmanson with Hannah as well as an all-star cast of Into the Woods at the Hollywood Bowl. I really don't get down to Los Angeles as much as I would like, but I really do love to see the traveling shows come through town. I also had the distinct pleasure of seeing my beautiful and talented daughter, Hannah (I think I may have mentioned her once or twice before), perform as part of the Hooligan Theatre Company at UCLA. She had an ensemble role in Fame; she had a featured singing role in the annual Showcase performance; and then she played the role of Marta in Spring Awakening. I love that Hannah has found a home in theatre. (By the way, I have a son too, Adam. He wants nothing to do with theatre and that's okay with me. He has found other ways to be creative including music and writing. Oops, I said I wouldn't bore you with details of my family...my bad).

One more interesting thing...because I did one of those Ancestry DNA tests, I found out that I am related (distantly yes, but related nonetheless) to Adam Pascal. That's right, I share a couple of great great grandparents with the star Rent and Aida! So, there's that.

The last few months of 2019 I have spent enjoying and supporting our community theatre shows with my attendance and with this blog. It's been a wonderful 2019.

I would love to hear from you about your theatre adventures in the past year. Please like and comment either on this blog site or as a reply on Facebook.

Break a leg in 2020 everyone!! Happy New Year!

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Gary S. is your average community theatre geek, residing in the Antelope Valley in Southern California where he participates in community theatre productions a few times per year. He works a 9-5 job in the medical field. He has the two most brilliant and talented kids. This blog is written simply for his need to write and for his love of theatre.