What DO people do all day?

We opened Busytown this past Friday. Busytown was written by Kevin Kling and is based on the Richard Scarry book What Do People Do All Day? So, we got the great idea to start asking that question around here, and all throughout the run of Busytown we'll be sharing the responses of SCT staff and artists with you. Today, our first entry in the series:

What do I do all day?

There's no such thing as a typical day for me.

For instance, last Saturday, I taught two classes of Physical Comedy, substituting for Keni Cohen, who is our physical comedy teacher extraordinaire. About twenty students from 9-12 years old learned how to fall down, trip and roll and throw their backs out, bang their heads against a door, and not pick up a piece of paper.

Then I tried to finish casting Summer Season, which means taking the 222 great young people who auditioned and fitting them into 112 roles for our student productions. That stretched my brain a bit. I love matching up a great part with a great actor. Not so great when you realize you may have to say 'no' to somebody. So, I spent a day writing 'no' letters, trying to let people know that they have worth and talent and dignity, no matter what I may think of their suitability for this year's Summer Season.

I'm emailing back and forth with an excellent fight choreographer who will, I hope, work on the fights in High School Hamlet (one of our summer shows), and an equally skilled and gifted dialect coach, to teach the actors the distinctive Alan Ayckbourn rhythms of Ernie's Incredible Illucinations (another summer show).

I spend a lot of time trying to think up things; ideas for Summer Season shows, sometimes ideas for new classes or other events, better lines in the scripts I'm working on -- I'm writing revisions of High School Hamlet and the swordfighting extravaganza Vesuvia! And just at this moment I'm trying to think of an exciting and entertaining way to introduce the Summer Season to our board of trustees. Last year, I wrote a parody of the song Suppertime from Little Shop of Horrors, a musical we produced last summer (sing along if you know the tune):

It's the last board meeting now,
You think your work's almost done,
Just got to balance the books,
Then go off and have some fun
But I've got news for you:
It's summer season time

This year, I'm thinking of a more dialogue approach, with some of our young actors playing me and Karen Sharp, our education director, in a summer season planning meeting.

Like . . . .

Karen: Don, I have some concerns about Urinetown as the summer musical. Is it appropriate?
Don: Yeah, I was concerned about that, too.
Karen: And it's the last show of summer season . . .
Don: Right. What would the next show on the stage be? The first mainstage show?
Karen: Um, Night of the Living Dead, I think.
Don: Oh.

I like all the parts of my job: writing, auditioning, planning the season, coming up with ideas. But my favorite part is rehearsing the shows; when I get to be inspired by young actors and do my best to inspire them in return, and when we both get to test our ideas and talents in front of an audience. Only a few months away now . . .

Don Fleming
Summer Season Producer