It has been a long week, a lot has happened and I am feeling a little bit spent. A lot happened with auditions for student films and being on set, working to cast the upcoming WILDsound, having to recast it several times because people had to back out. Crazy. Most importantly though I met with my first potential producer for the one man.
One of my friends is a close friend to the producer at Buddies and Bad Times. We too are friends but our connection still lies through our mutual friend Karim. Anyway, an informal dinner was set up so that we could meet and discuss him (Wayne) taking on the producing of my project. I keep calling it my project but I must remember to clarify that it is our project. Alison and I are working together to create a night of theatre with each of us taking on a half hour one person show. She truthfully was the inspiration behind me writing this and wanting to put it on. At this point she has been very busy on another project which will wrap November 20th, so I have been laying the ground work for us in our venture.
I knew that meeting with Wayne would be fairly informal, but knowing that he does this professionally, I wanted to be prepared to present formally if I had too. As pre work, I sat down with Alison and hammered out all the reasons why we are doing this, what we want out of it, who we hope to see this, where we want to put it up, the works. Truthfully, I may not have had this conversation if meeting with Wayne wasn?t going to happen. Truthfully, I am glad we did because I learned it is vital to ensure, whether working alone or with others, that you know what page you are on in order to target your work. In hindsight, it was like writing an outline to an essay in school. With Alison being busy I took all of our notes and compressed them down into two page Q & A style document. I composed a cover letter. I had Alison approve it so that I wasn?t speaking out of turn for her and with some formatting I had created an informal production proposal.
So there we were having dinner at Karim?s house, a wonderful relaxed atmosphere, catching up, enjoying a glass of wine and all this time me sweating ?how do I transition into business?. Fortunately Karim brought the conversation around to our scheduled purpose. Even though I was meeting informally I was nervous. This was the first time I was really presenting my ideas outside of a few friends. This is where it begins to count, when people who may or may not get on board with you have a say in what I am doing. Will I be rejected and if so what does that say about my show? If he says no do I carry on, find someone else? Is it about me or his schedule? So many thoughts, so many nerves. So with a deep breath I spoke passionately about what I believe is going to be an entertaining piece of theatre and forum for exposing my talents. I was so grateful for that ?outline? because it truly helped to focus that passion. When Wayne or Karim asked questions I had answers that had meaning and poignancy. In the end I remembered one important thing, you have to ask for the business. So as things seemed to wrap up naturally, I asked: ?What does it take to get you to produce this for us?? Based on his schedule he is considering whether he has the time or not. I will have an answer soon. All in all the meeting went well. What did I get out it? One thing learning about understanding why I choose to do a project; it taught me to focus my ideas. Second thing and I think this is the most important and possibly discouraging is that I may be aiming to high for my first venture. In laying down everything I wanted I knew I was shooting for the moon. I recognized as Wayne was talking that the moon is a very long ways away. I gave thought, as I was preparing my package, to the alternatives to getting this show done and as Wayne gently brought some of these obstacles to light, money being one of them, I felt a little deflated. I want to see this show up in a big space with all the trimmings. That might be very hard, maybe as a first step next to impossible. And although I felt the slight defeat, having carefully explored what my purpose is in doing this I felt elated because I know there are ways to achieve what I want without doing what is common or expected. This show will go up and it will look good regardless of where we do it.
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