Good Night!

Good Night Moon

South Stream put our seventh production to bed Sunday night. It was also the night of a total lunar eclipse in Raleigh. As far as I know, those two events are not related, but it MIGHT just be that my show was the appeasement necessary to keep the ancient gods from stealing the moon forever. We'll never know.

It was a special one for me. In addition to co-producing the show, and directing the show, I wrote the show. That meant every person who came was sharing a very special part of me. So thank you to everyone who came to share these stories with us. It meant a lot to me.

We have to say thank you to a lot of people for helping make this show happen. Thank you to Burning Coal, RLT, Christine Rapp and Michael Babbitt for letting us borrow stuff, and to Andy for letting us borrow your voice. Thanks to Laser Image Printing and Marketing for that cool "INFORMATION" letters. And thanks to the Petrones for helping with the lights and letting us use a few extra.

Big thanks also to Ian Finley for helping us with rehearsal space. Such a huge gift to a small production. I'm looking forward to speaking with his class as part of our "payment" for the space. Of course thank you to Michelle and Josh and Sonorous Road. Wonderful hosts as always. Without space for theatre, theatre never happens.

Thank you to Tara and George for choreographing the stage combat for us. You helped us make it look unsafe while keeping the actors safe. Clear, clean, effective choreography is a great asset to any production. Y'all made it look easy (and good)!

Thanks to our amazing technical crew. Will on sound. I think you've provided the sound for every South Stream Productions production. Thanks for your excellent professional work as always. Todd Houseknecht for Technical Direction. Also a veteran of every show we've ever done. The set pieces were smaller this year, but they were so well done. Thank you to Rachel for costumes. This is the first time we've worked with you but I sincerely hope it won't be the last. You were so professional and on point. Everything was just handled with efficiency and flair. Thank you to Jenn for your fantastic images again. And for keeping me sane. And for putting up with my stress. Meant all the things in my bio. And Alyssa, thank you for your work on lights and as ASM. You stay so busy in theatre for a reason. As a crew member you're reliable and care about making sure the show looks as good as possible. As a friend, you're great at telling me when it's ok for me to step away. Really appreciate your support on the last weekend.

To the cast - Ben, Katie, Lou, John, Julie, David, and Natalie - what can I say? It was such an honor to have artists of your quality work with me as a director, and to speak my words as a writer. I really can't thank you enough for sharing your craft to bring my text to life for an audience. You nailed it.

Kelly, our SM - you were excellent. Professional, conscientious, thoughtful, and kind in your way. You were with me every step of the way in rehearsals. You were a comfort and a sounding board and an absolute rock. And once the show was in tech, you ran it like a dream. It just worked. But it didn't "just work." It worked because of your hard work. It is so awesome to have a competent, intelligent, reliable stage manager. I never had to worry about how the show would be run. Never. If you have a good SM, you never notice what they do. But I did notice the fact that I didn't notice. So thanks.

And John, as my co-producer - thanks. We did it again. Thank you for believing in my work and writing, and for encouraging me to put this on. I am certain I would not have done it without you pushing me to do it. And of course I couldn't have done it without you. You're good at the things I'm terrible at, and I'm happy for that. Yet another South Stream show in the books. Thanks.

And finally, to everyone who came. Paid or comped. Critic or Patron, THANK YOU! Really, I SO appreciate each and every one of you for attending my show. It really means so much to me that you would take your time to share these stories with us.

To everyone, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now I'm going on vacation. Directing and producing a show is stressful. For fun, here's an actual measure of my resting heart rate during tech week:

Yes. This is my actual resting heart rate as measured by my fitbit.

See that peak there? That's opening night. Time for some rest.