Director's Notes

Hey everybody! It's our first guest blog! FINALLY! I'm super super excited. Please welcome our director, Jamie Virostko:

A director is the person responsible for the interpretive aspects of a production; the person who supervises the integration of all the elements such as acting, staging, and lighting, required to realize the writer's conception. That would be my job. That’s me. THE DIRECTOR. Oooooooh.

So how am I going about directing? What am I doing to facilitate the “integration of all the elements?” I spend a lot of time thinking about Munchkins. I spend a lot of time thinking about a dog, a girl, a cat, a witch, a wizard and three mutants...but Munchkins. I meditate on set and costumes and sound and color palettes...Hm...Munchkins. I ponder the logistics of thirteen scenes and ten different locations occupying the same space in quick succession...and I think about Munchkins. They are the key to solving all my problems - the secret ingredient that will facilitate the perfect amalgamation of all the distinct, intense and varied flavors of Oz stew.

I think about enchanted Munchkins becoming flowers and transforming into rivers. I envision wild Munchkins clandestinely tormenting unsuspecting travelers along the Yellow Brick Road. I ponder the uninhibited imagination of Munchkins and whether it can, in fact, reach into other dimensions.

Who are Munchkins really? How do they spend their days? What do they do for fun? Are they each born with a blind obsession with magic or is it due to environmental conditioning?

I consider the mighty Munchkin Army. Is it volunteer or are all Munchkins required to serve? What’s Munchkin boot camp like? How did they drive the Wicked Witch of the West out of the Emerald City?

Munchkins...How can their skills be utilized? Their nature focused? Their power harnessed? Am I tampering with forces I cannot possibly understand? Perhaps. But, I am the Director….Hmmmmm…..Munchkins.

- Jamie Virostko

I Have A Director! Again!

Okay! Back on track with an AWESOME director!

She's Jamie Virostko, who has directed plenty of great theater in Los Angeles. I just had my first meeting with her where we talked all about characters, set designs, audition sides, the importance of creating movement to define your environment, and Munchkins!

It's a bit of a sentimental reunion for us. Jamie played the role of Cinderella in my last full length play, The Big Ever After, which ran in 2005. She was exquisitely lovely in the role, and has a great frame of reference for my sense of humor and my writing.

I'm very stoked that she's at the helm, and before long, she'll be contributing pieces to this blog as well.

It's so nice to breathe again. :)

Well, I Thought I Had A Director

My director, Kelly Ann Ford, contacted me over the weekend to regretfully tell me she couldn’t direct Say Goodbye Toto after all. She’s involved with a film that suddenly got a greenlight that would conflict right around the time we’re supposed to open.

It’s more wearying than anything else, as it means we’ve got additional work to do to secure a new director. And as I’ve said from the very beginning, I’d rather have the drama at the beginning, then after we open. Because here, we still have time to fix things. Not a lot of time, as we have auditions scheduled to go on May 26th. But some time is better than no time.

Every Los Angeles theater faces this issue – previously committed people dropping out to take a film or TV opportunity. There’s unfortunately nothing you can do about it. I’m not one to hold grudges, as I think Kelly is an amazing talent and hope to work with her in the future, and there’s way too many drama queens in the L.A. Theater Landscape for me to want to add my name to their list. Things always work themselves out in one way or another.

But I do hate being in the Land of Unknown Answers. Hopefully our time here will be short.

- Amy Heidish