I have the impression, Joel, that if you hadn’t of found such a great cast, that this would never have hit the stage, until you did. I remember Prinzivalle’s quote (which is one of my favorite ones) “Had there come ten thousand of you into my tent, all equally fair, ten thousand sisters whom even their mother could not tell apart, I should have risen, should have taken your hand, and said, ‘This is she!’”. This quote is especially applicable to Emily in two different ways: She is extremely unique to you, as she is to Prinzivalle. I imagine you doing this in a way with picking the rest of your cast from the 1000 submissions - You knew what you had in mind, and if there were no matches from those submitted, there would be no play, as evidence your quote on not being able to find such a cast just anywhere, only places that have a “concentration of quality acting talent”. You aren’t looking for the mediocre in this, but the great, and only when you had found it, would it be able to take stage. I’m thrilled that it has all come together as it has, and I finally get to see this produced.
Oh, and (in podcast #8) it’s a Japanese proverb: “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”
Podcast #9 is up now, for those listening to them. In this one we meet Marco!
In truth, the producers had booked a theater, put down real money, and advertised the production as part of their arts cruise, so we were mandated to find a way to make it work no matter what. However, you can be sure that if we hadn’t found our great cast, we would have just tried harder until we did. We had the benefit of giving ourselves enough time to make the decisions, so we weren’t constrained by a bad deadline.
It’s funny you should mention that Prinzivalle quote, because that was what I had picked for the audition sides. And, oh lord, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen that monologue done 20 times, very badly.
I think about that, every now and then, about how completely unbearable it would be to try to do Monna Vanna without a great cast. It would be unbearable with a just OK cast, or even a slightly better than average cast. I said this to Emily the other day that when I think about how random it was that I met her at that weird audition last year, how close we came to not meeting, and how completely inconceivable it is to do Vanna without her, it sends a chill up my spine.
Fortunately, it’s not something I have to worry about.
So Steve, I have a question for you and anyone who might be interested.
We’re recording another episode or two this weekend. Are there any questions that you have for us at this stage? We’d like to devote some time to answering listener questions, if there are any.
Please let us know, and again, thanks for the kind thoughts.
It has of course been discussed, but for a number of reasons no decisions have been made yet.
That plus a car and the $25 ticket and maybe a night’s hotel, you would not have to rob the retirement fund. You could see this magnificent play for about $300-$350.
