The Portal Traitor: The Musical
My playwrighting debut was also my directorial debut: The Portal Traitor: the Musical at the 2021 Florida Theatre Conference. The process for this play (in addition to writing the script, the music, and creating all the accompaniment tracks) included casting (auditions were virtual, as we were still deep in the pandemic when this began). I coordinated 13 very different schedules and led vocal rehearsals over Zoom. Then, when we were able to be together physically, we began choreography. When Guno’s actor needed to leave the show partly though the rehearsal process, I stepped in for that, and ended up playing the lead. I coordinated the set and props as well, and found a costume designer among the cast. I communicated with the Florida Theatre Conference, and recomposed some of the music to better suit the cast I had. Overall, this was the most intense and formative directorial experience for me. I didn’t really know what I was doing most of the time, but I managed to pull it off and learned a lot about what it takes to be a director in the process.
Pyrates
Pyrates is very nearly a finished show. The sheet music is written, backing tracks have been created, vocal demos are currently being recorded, read-throughs were successful and it’s ready to be performed at your local theatre. This is a historical fiction musical filled with drama, fight choreography, and original sea shanties. It’s a story of love set against the backdrop of war. In August of 2022, I flew to New York City to perform a medley of themes and pieces from the play in a showcase.
Spamalot
My first experience on a community theatre tech team was for the Gainesville Community Playhouse’s production of “Spamalot” directed by Ted Lewis. I worked microphones, and while the mic board was quite fancy, the mics themselves were old and of poor quality. This means that not only do I have experience working high-end equipment, I have a lot of experience troubleshooting it. The show actually had a lot of technical problems, most notably that the smoke volcanos would go off at random times. Although that wasn’t my jurisdiction, I paid attention and now know how to solve similar problems in my own shows. While I knew all the positions of a tech team before, this was my first time seeing all of them firsthand, and I now fully understand them and can use them to their fullest potential in future directing/stage management projects.
Single: The Musical
This show was conceived of, written, composed, designed, choreographed, and performed in the span of three weeks. All of this was done by two people, one of which was me. This included very fast costume changes (as I played all nine dating show contestants), and seven different dances (only four of which were even performed, due to the choose-your-own adventure nature of the show). While The Portal Traitor, SamichMan, and Pyrates have all taught me great lessons about what to do and what not to do, this show is the one that helped me realize just how great my work can be when I really set my mind to a project. This musical’s lifespan is not over, though, as I would like to put it on again; it’s my go-to when submitting to short play festivals.
SamichMan
This YouTube series had two seasons, with 23 episodes in total, and all of them were directed by me and the series’ co-creator Jeremy. On-set was a very collaborative environment, and often we would only have fifty minutes to film an entire episode. I wrote episodes and composed music and this experience taught me a lot about choosing between different camera angles, editing, onscreen acting, and developing a narrative over many episodes. It also taught me a lot about working with what was available: low budget, few props, minimal sets (except on special occasions), two regular actors (and two inconsistent ones). I also learned how to work with animals, and how the creator side of YouTube works.
The Universal Language
My next directorial project will be the classic David Ives play “the Universal Language” at Santa Fe College’s Ten-Minute Play festival. I have already cast the show, and rehearsals will begin after Christmas break.