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Plays and Other Creative Endeavors

Forgive the current sparsity of content on this page, I am in the process of backfilling.

The Little Prince (March 2007)

This was my first time directing a full show. It was performed on the main stage of Pensacola Little Theater (PLT) over two weekends. The script was very sparse, requiring five leads and a chorus. We were fortunate to have a team in place that could provide very rich costumes and sets on a limited budget. The Aviator's drawings were made by projecting video. A particular highlight was the original flute score, written and performed by Kim Gandrup. Our Prince was only eight when he performed the role, and he was perfectly alien. Special kudos go to the many child actors in the chorus whose faces were never seen, but who gave the piece life as rose walls, baobabs, sunsets, deserts, stars, and everything else that needed to move. The elements came together nicely to capture the fragile and quiet nature of the book while forming the complete illusion of a world (many worlds, actually).

The most recent production that I helmed. Despite it being the "smallest" PLT Treehouse show of the year (coming right before the juggernaut that is High School Musical), I'm rather proud of this one. It was a musical, performed in the round, and was actually the American premier of the show (which is fairly well known in English schools). Also, we had 30 children from 6 to 16 in the cast, and we kept them onstage as much as possible. Like The Little Prince, the design elements on this production were originally conceived as being simple ... and then took on a life of their own. In the end our intrepid duo of costume mistresses managed to handle 120 separate costumes in the course of this one-act show about Phileas Frog and his faithful friends Pass, Fix, and Phoebe. Yet another show where the chorus was the backbone. This time they played amphibians, crayfish, mosquitos, some over-educated newts, fireflies, rats, and a fearsome Chinese-dragon-style pike. Once again I was blessed with an absurdly talented team, including a pair of complementary music directors (a young piano maverick and an older conductor with band and pre-K experience). When you have the right people on-board, it can be a pleasure to direct.

Current Project: Back to Writing

It's been a few years since I've had any of my own work performed, so I'm working on a stable of one-act plays. More on that as it progresses ...