Second Production Completed

I learned a lot about my script, and I learned a lot about working with such a diverse (and generally young) cast.

The 2nd production of my Christmas play, Nobody Goes Caroling Anymore, was quite an eye-opener. After the first production, last year, I struggled for months, unsure how to edit and polish. I knew things were not at their best regarding some of the characters. The story line seemed solid enough, though.

Finally, I felt that another production would help me define what to do with the script. Because of so many people who auditioned, I ended up double casting the show. One cast had five adults and two teenagers, as the script calls for. The other cast was children, 5th through 8th grade, with five of them playing adult parts.

So, in essence, I got to see two more productions of my script, to determine how to edit and finalize before submitting to publishers.

I not only worked on the directing of this script, but also acted as the prompter, which gave me even more insight into the dialogue. During rehearsals, I marked the lines people were repeatedly missing.

What I discovered in closely reading the lines night after night was that some of those missed lines were due to less-than-sparkling dialogue. I repeated content in some speeches, which caused actors to stumble over similar-sounding lines. I could use some better cues. And I realized that I can probably cut about 10% of fat from the script by eliminating unnecessary words and "what?" kind of questions.

I'll let you know how the rewrite goes.