The show last night was a massive success.  Thank you to all those who attended in person and tuned in to watch it online.*  We had a great time and hope you did too. Thank you also to all the actors, directors and writers who worked extremely hard to make this happen. We have some fantastic photos by Hannah as well as taped footage of the pieces and will post them all shortly.

We are already mulling what next.  For Natalya and I the aim of the collective was always to take it to a new level each time, to add an element of experimentation or to try something new.  For us, this is a space not for perfectionism but a rough and ready one, a place to play and try things out  – so we are at an exciting turning point right now and considering many options both creative, process and cast/crew/partner-wise.  More news soon.

* Unfortunately, as Kira consoled me after the show: “Sorry you couldn’t get it up, it happens all the time”  Being a girl this isn’t something I hear a lot!  But it’s true we failed on the livestream front.  Lesson learnt?  Don’t rely on just one platform (Mogulus in this case) when working with new types of technology, they are all buggy and all in beta.  Next time, I’ll have Ustream, Justin TV and Kyte accounts set up as back-ups so that we can switch straight over to another option.

Today I called Jane and asked her to take over the final elements of the logistical running of the event from me and Natalya. I am about to fly to LA for a week to speak at Filmmaker Forum and interview a few people for Motive, before heading to Boston for DIY Days, and keeping the online ticking along, keeping an overarching eye on everything else and running stuff on a micro level alongside keeping up with my client work was getting too much. Natalya too is overtaxed – she is acting in Getting Sam directing Dumpster Dive and has been a stand-in director for me for now on Getting Sam (we performed it together previously and put in a lot of time on tweaking it) as well as arranging nuts and bolts elements and being a new blogger.

Jane has a production background which lends itself to unflappableness and, to my surprise, was instantly happy to help ease some of the pressure, keen to involve herself more in the day to day and have us offload a portion of the thinking and tasks. For her this did not spell hassle, but the ability to learn more about online and our general organization, and she jumped at it. It occurred to me the power of the collective – in our version, a loosely affiliated network such as this, that functions both separately and in smaller increments with individual voices/leadership and as a larger group with a mutual goal; where online resources keep satellite units up to date with progress, while aiding a team spirit and solidifying know-how that can be tapped into instantly at need.

I described to Jane that what we needed was a combination of a location manager, directors assistant and PA– leading up to the event and encompassing the night.  A go-to person with a narrow focus – compared to creative generalism – that has the answers to the details and has pre-thought the minutiae that has up and til now been discussed but only thrown around in various emails: Chairs? Tables? Props? Back up props? Backdrop? Public or private event? Bar minimum? Call sheet? Internet? Camera? Sound? Equipment for potential DJ and musicians that might join us? Do they need help carrying things? Confirming who, where, timing and running order. Simple(ish) things, but lots of them. Needing lists compiled and phone calls made to preempt last minute disasters. Lots to think about.

What we’re doing in terms of models for creative process, working methods, crew type and performance is breaking some new ground and we are working it out as we go along. It’s stressful and trial and error, but in the process I‘m learning some extremely valuable new insights into alternate ways to create and run productions, be they live events, film or theatre. It’s a great reminder that all risks lead to discovery.

I’ve been recruited to direct the play I wrote. I can’t say I’ve directed actual acting before. I’ve tended to work on stuff like this:

and this:

but what the hell. I’ll give it a shot. It’s a fun collective and a fun project.

Alas. I’ve been informed that one of the actors for my scene and the director of the scene I wrote have both dropped out.  So now I need to find a new director and a new actor.