Okay, so I’ll admit up front that in the last nine years I’ve done a lot more season planning than dating, but it strikes me they are pretty much the same thing. Hear me out. Imagine, that a play is the boy/girl of your dreams. You’re totally into this play, you do all your research so that you know as much as you possibly can about him/her. Are you compatible? Is he/she up to your standards? Is he/she worth the time and energy necessary to make the relationship a successful one? Can you afford him/her? (Okay, so maybe the metaphor doesn’t work so well there, but you get the point and besides, I warned you that it had been awhile since I’ve done this). So you’ve found him/her, the one you really want to be with. You know that a relationship with him/her will be so good for the both of you. You decide that now is the time to make your move so you work up the nerve and pick up the phone or send an email (or submit answers to a bunch of questions on a website form). You say, “Listen, I know that we’d be good for each other, I really like you and I’d love to spend a rehearsal process getting to know you better.” Admittedly, my suave talk probably isn’t what it used to be, see above. If you are lucky, the response is, “Absolutely, I’d love to go out with you, I just need to check my calendar and see when I am available.” In the best case scenario, you hear back almost instantly. You are both available to meet at a mutually agreed upon date (or weekend) and all is good. Sometimes though, sometimes it doesn’t go so well. You work up the nerve to ask and the response is “Gee, I’d really like to, but I’m already going on a date that weekend with someone else in your area,” or “Sorry, but I only date professionals,” or “I haven’t started dating Americans yet.” Sure, the initial letdown can be harsh. After all, you had done your research and out of all the boys/girls you really thought you had found the one for you. Sometimes you know that if you are patient they will come around eventually. And, sometimes you let out a huge sigh of relief because you were scared shitless at the prospect of dating this particular person anyway. Often though, and this is key, the process of getting rejected makes you look a little harder and dig a little deeper and, I think more often than not, you find someone else so much better. Okay, I think I’ve played out this metaphor.
In just a few days, theatre KAPOW will announce the shows that will make up the schedule for season nine (yikes, nine, wow). I’ll be honest, we’ve courted a lot of plays over the past few months. I’ll also tell you that some of the plays we wanted weren’t available for one reason or another. Some of them remain on a short list of what I refer to as “tries.” We can’t do the show now, but we will try again in the future. This list gets longer and longer each year, but it means that there are some really great shows coming in future seasons. But, and as I said before in that horrible metaphor that started this perhaps disastrous blog post (yay for you if you’ve stuck through it thus far), I think the plays we’ve chosen are better than the ones that we originally pursued. We have a really strong season with wonderful stories and even more wonderful characters. Oh, and trust me, there is one major surprise. And now, dear reader, is my opportunity to play coy with you. I turn my best sultry look towards you and say, “if you want to learn more about what we’re doing next season, let’s hang out on Saturday night (or perhaps at the Sunday matinee) at the performance of Raining Aluminum.” Yeah, I admit, my game has some holes in it, but you get the point. We are thrilled with season nine and we know that you will love what we have in store.
~ Matt Cahoon
P.S. Anyone looking for relationship advice can hit me up on facebook.
