...But What I Really Wanna Do Is Direct

OK...so I'm over at my dear friends' houses, Dr. & Mrs. Zoom, and I just had an epiphany while discussing a horrible Childrens Show.

I want to direct one.

Not for the main reasons...not to see my name in the byline. Not to "respect my authoritay", or something. But to friggin' make these diva-wanna-be's realize what theater is all about. Discipline.

The director of the afore-mentioned show is a sugary-sweet person. There was no structure to this show. She cast everyone who was auditioned. So it was a cast of MILLIONS.

I began doing Childrens' Theater when I was 10. It is how I learned through trial & error how to compose myself while auditioning, performing, etc. The one director who still sticks in my mind was the one who came into the very first audition and said "I have a revolving door policy. You do what I say, or you can leave". It still sticks with me after 17 years.

Kids respect discipline. Or even a little "meanness".

So, my original thought was to direct "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", but the Executive Director shot that down, because it was promised to someone else. So I'm looking through the prior programs to the theater, and I'm just racking my brain for something new, or that hasn't been done in awhile. So I submitted "Ramona Quimby" and "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". The latter, obviously because of the huge success of "Narnia", and the previous because I was a HUGE fan of the books by Beverly Cleary, and the plays that they have dramatized are hugely popular nowadays, yet the theater hasn't done them.

In my bid, I also suggested that the theater do "The Diary of Anne Frank" next season. It hasn't been done in years, and I know plenty of people who are itching to do a dramatic show.

And...there it is.