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We decided to do this year's event on an insanely short deadline. We formed a committee and they did what committees do, they met, discussed, emailed, discussed, decided, rethought, etc. Finally, the basic idea and schedule were set. We asked for input at our SATCO General Meetings each month and then the committee discussed and decided on the names of Playwrights and Directors.
Thursday, September 2, 2004, 1:00 p.m. Photos of the Express News photographer photographing Eli Rios, Laurie Dietrich, Latrelle Bright, Gregory Hinojosa, Sterling Houston, Deon van Rooyen, Diane Malone, Bruce Limpus, Gregg Barrios, Deon von Rooyen, Irma Mayorga, Bruce Limpus, Gregg Barrios (partially obscured, sorry), Richard Rosen, Irma Mayorga (partially obscured, sorry). Jim Mammarella could not join us. Photos by W. Chris Champlin and used with permission
Friday, September 10, 2004, 8:00 p.m. We gathered the Playwrights at San Antonio College. We asked them to draw a number using dominoes (face down). This would be their order to do everything else that was needed (draw actors, phrases, props, as well as tech rehearsal and performance order). The phrases were sealed and scrambled. The props were visible, so #1 got "best" pick. For actors, they chose a playing card (face down and scrambled) which would tell them how many actors they would get. Then they got to draw that many Actor envelopes from the bowl. The envelopes only had "#3 Female, age 30-50." We did let one of the playwrights know that their young actress was visibly pregnant! :) It is interesting to note that when we assigned numbers to the actors, to hide their identity, we used a Random Number table, then sealed them up and scrambled them again. Even with all these efforts at mixing up casts, directors and playwrights, certain actors ended up with the director or playwright that they had worked with many times before. The Renaissance Guild cast stayed mostly in tact. Shoestring Shakespeare people would not be separated. We really did try our best! As choice of props we had an old telephone, a huge goose, a rope, an old-fashioned gun, a lantern, a red trident/pitch fork, a child's sand bucket, and several other items. Phrases included: Big Red, Night in Old San Antonio, A Riverwalk Runs Through It, Home to the Armadillos, Some Came from the Canary Islands and Puffy Tacos. Our overlying theme was Life In San Antonio We sent the playwrights home to write their scripts. Saturday, September 11, 2004, 6:00 a.m. Scripts were due to be emailed by 6:00 a.m. They emailed their scripts to three of the committee members as a safety precaution. We figured if one printer failed or one email failed, or someone's script was incompatible with someone else's system, we'd be fine, because we had two backups. Ha! Even with all these safeguards, two scripts could not be emailed and had to be delivered to us at Kinkos. But copies were made in plenty of time, and everyone met at 8:00 a.m. at San Pedro Playhouse. At 8:00 a.m., more or less, we introduced the actors to the directors and playwrights they would be working with.
The week prior to the event, we created a program shell so that the final pieces of information could be plugged in at the last minute. Here's what the end result looked like (click here)
We announced the Actors on September 10, 2004 (click to see larger pictures) The Directors Jim Mammarella, Richard Rosen, Diane Malone
The Actors Greg Hall, Don Frame
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