Its amazing how some things get started. What began as simple request has turned into one of the most difficult, yet most rewarding, directorial experiences I’ve had so far in my life – and I really haven’t even directed anyone yet…
One winter’s night, after one of the first board meetings I had attended for Crown Point Community Theatre in a long while, Amanda Dietrich asked me if I would be interested in helping her co-direct our theater’s annual cabaret fundraiser over the summer. Without too much hesitation, I happily and excitedly agreed, thinking it would be a simple way to ease myself back into directing after an extended absence. The only thing we needed to do was come up with a theme or idea for the show. Hot on the heels of last summer’s incredible Broadway Rocks performance, Mandy and I knew we had some big shoes to fill. So -like you do- we found ourselves brainstorming ideas at the Denny’s in Merrillville over coffee.
The one thing Mandy and I knew we wanted from the get-go was a small, tight cast. While there is strength in numbers, to be sure, both of us knew our directorial talents were stronger in providing detailed one-on-one feedback with our performers (something that tends to find a way of eating up precious rehearsal hours before you know it). That means having less people to direct on such an intimate level would, in theory, allow for more material to be covered within a short time frame. A smaller cast also meant that each performer would get more songs to sing and thus allowing them a better opportunity to show off their various ranges (vocally, dramatically, etc.). Ultimately, we decided on casting no more than eight to ten people – tops.
Another thing we knew we wanted was a very light, short-and-sweet, yet incredibly focused and concentrated rehearsal period. It was our hope to find a small, select crew of players who could rehearse a breadth of musical theater numbers quickly and efficiently, who also would then spend time on their own to work on their material. So right away we knew we were asking for a lot out of our cast – and we hadn’t even added the first name to the list! We tried discussing actors and actresses that we wanted in our show, but we quickly realized that without knowing what they would be singing, there was no point in trying to figure out who should sing it. Heck, we still hadn’t thought of the show’s theme yet!
So we switched gears and began to focus on song selections. Mandy’s initial idea was to have this year’s cabaret be an evening of duets. I really liked the idea, but my concern was that there would inevitably be too many love songs, to which Mandy agreed was a point of concern for her as well. Don’t get us wrong, we love a good love song as much as the next theater fan, but too many of them strung back-to-back would be a slow prolonged journey into the depths of Broadway’s Ballad Hell, and the one thing Mandy and I have always striven for in our theatrical endeavors was that, no matter what else, we would absolutely not put on our stage (and subject a paying audience to) anything that we ourselves would not be willing to sit through and find ourselves enjoying. Needless to say, neither of us were completely sold on the idea of an evening of just duets, but at least we had a jumping off point for further discussion.
While trying to drum up non-romantic duets from our individual Broadway repertoires, Mandy mentioned a “brainstorming block” she was experiencing to me: she couldn’t think of any songs she knew because of this one other song that she had stuck in her head that refused to mute itself. The song was “Up the Ladder to the Roof” from the short-lived Broadway show Everyday Rapture. Regardless of what she tried, no other melody would come out of her brain to play itself for her consideration because this song would not go quietly back into the night of her consciousness. I started to giggle at her misfortune, but soon myself singing this song as well – and thus my own “brainstorming block” was created. (Telling someone of a song you have stuck in your head has the tendency to do that, no?) You see, Mandy had previously played this song for me on her MP3 player, and had even shown me the original trio of women who sang it in the Broadway show performing it live at last year’s Tony Awards. And I love this song. Beyond that, its a great upbeat number that three in-sync belters could just jam-out to on stage. Even still, I have my pride. Not willing to admit what she had done to me, I laughed at her and told her to try and bury the song away; we needed tunes that were to be sung by two people, not three.
Almost immediately, she and I were both struck with an idea that would drastically change the shape of our show forever: Why not include this song? It wouldn’t be yet-another boring love ballad, Mandy knew it was in her vocal range and had been looking for a way to perform it, and we both knew that we would probably end up on stage at some point during the show ourselves anyway, so why not use it?
“Well, its not a duet…” she said.
“So? What if we expand our scope beyond duets? You and I both know some other great trios – and even quartets – that we could use!”
“Okay… but no ensemble numbers. They’re too hard to teach, and cast wouldn’t be big enough for them unless we expand it.”
“Agreed. We’re not expanding the cast. I vote we stay with duets, trios, and quartets. We can challenge ourselves with songs that require complex harmonies, emotional relationships, and various scenarios – and maybe even a dance number or two.”
“I like it! But what do we call the show then…?”
“Uh… Hmmm…”
(The above is condensed and paraphrased, of course.) When it came time to title our new creation, we got quiet again. Mandy’s eyes dropped to the notepad and pen she had in front of her. Completely lost in thought, my eyes glossed-over and stared blankly out the window over her shoulder. In my peripheral vision, I could see her scribble what appeared to be nothing more than a doodle, lost in her own train of thought as well. But within mere seconds, it hit me: “a-2-3-4!” I suddenly said to her.
“Are you kidding me?” she replied. She instantly turned the pad towards me and I looked down at it to see that she had not scribbled a doodle at all. Instead, she had begun making a list of possible names for our show; however, she had only come up with one name so far herself: a-2-3-4!
I couldn’t help but grin like an idiot from ear-to-ear at this incredible shared level of synchronicity. My level of excitement for this show, and what I knew would be a great partnership between Amanda and I, instantly shot through the roof. It has not come back down since. Sure, we really had only come up with concepts at this point in time – no real tangible proof of exercised work to show anyone – but it didn’t matter; I knew everything still ahead of us would find its own way of falling into place. And it did.
From that moment onward the amount of pre-production work that Amanda and I have poured into this one-night-only affair has been immeasurable. I had no idea how much work truly goes into the creation of a cabaret-from-scratch until now, and I wholeheartedly have a new-found respect for it. From the selecting and casting of eight brilliant singer-actors to join on stage, to whittling down a list of forty ideas of songs to twenty-four solid numbers (split into three 35-minute acts, no less); from scouring the internet and other various resources in an ever-vigilant hunt for sheet music, to the writing of a brand new libretto to slot these chosen songs into (And yes, you read that correctly: I wrote an entire one-act plot for the second act, as well as clever ways of tying the songs together for the first and third acts.) – it has all been an absolute labor of love.
Not only have we spent a great deal of time getting the material together for what will ultimately appear on stage, we also had to band together an entire production team to make the magic that will happen off-stage, too. So far we’ve got a full crew of volunteers ready and willing to help with the stagecraft, not mention four incredibly talented musicians in our pit. Throw in some microphones and a sound guy, lights and a board operator, tickets and a house manager – and you have yourselves a solid creative team.
Again – I can’t express it enough – I haven’t been this excited to take a show to a stage in quite some time. And we haven’t even started rehearsals! Its weird to think that within two weeks from now, it will all be nothing more than a distant (and hopefully fond) memory.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
We do still have fourteen solid days of rehearsals coming up, and I know they will not be easy; yet, I’m not worried. The actors are set, the band is ready, the crew is in place, the script is writ, and the music is chosen… The only thing left for Mandy and I to do is find a way to bring it all together into one incredible night.
I hope to see you there.
~Eric Reithel
Co-Director, a-2-3-4!
Board Member, Crown Point Community Theatre
Poster Design: Amanda Dietrich
