Now that was an amazing experience! On February 16, our two performances of “Spirals and Dirt” went off without a hitch. My initial fears of an almost empty house were quickly allayed by the sight over friends and family waiting patiently in the lobby before the house opened. A full house for the afternoon performance, over half for the evening, and who knows how many streaming…wonderful.
It was also special to have some extraordinary people helping out. Several relatives even flew in from New Jersey (a surprise made possible by my extraordinary wife/producer). The staff at the venue were as professional as they could be. I felt like a king!
We provided audience members with a survey where they could share their thoughts on 5 different aspects of the musical. The results were actually not surprising after all, this was a staged reading, designed to ferret out issues, both great and small. What was kinda, sorta odd was my feeing of “what’s next?” Do I immediately begin editing…hire a dramaturg….start something totally new?
I had in essence already made one choice. About 6 months ago, a colleague from Virginia asked if I would consider joining the creative team of his own musical. I understood the request to be an opportunity to broaden my range of experiences and increase my exposure. Unfortunately, I was unable to successfully blend my skills with the needs of the other collaborators. I say unfortunately because the amount of time I spent trying to make it wok. Alas, I needed to honestly re-evaluate my goals as an artist and musician.
One of the comments on the survey mentioned that it takes a long time to craft a musical, as if I had simply attempted to burst onto the scene without “doing the work”. I really wanted to respond to the commenter. and inform them that elements of “Spirals and Dirt” were decades in the making…that I have been creating theater pieces since 1984! However, I realized that none of that matters. I can’t “convince” people to appreciate my work. They either like it or they don’t
I hired a dramaturg to provide their own industry based suggestions and comments. The feedback should come next week. Then, back to the drawing board. In the meantime, I have been dealing with the urge to return to some of my most satisfying work: children’s music. Years ago I recorded minimal versions of a set of awesome children’s songs based on folksongs. We The songs still hold up over time. However, maybe it’s time to re-visit them and present them through a social media lens. I am not sure. We’ll see.
Comments? Suggestions?