One nightly character which was not of the audience options (initially) was The Photographer. This character was played by Ben Mumford-Zisk in the 2023 season. For 2024 Ben Mumford-Zisk rehearsed with the cast in this role, but there was a night during the first week that he wasn't available to attend the show and Alina offered to fill in. After that, it became a rotating role! With Ben as the photographer he played a famed videographer for the teletubbies who has done too many drugs in his wild youth and toured with some big bands. I jumped in to play a version of the photographer one night who was a NYU drop out, smacking gum, getting in everyone's face and fumbling outdated video equipment, but taking it all too seriously. When Alina played the photographer she put on a thick Jersey accent and twirled around, snaked across the dance floor and spoke loudly at inappropriate times. And then it just became this great gimmick that the cast never knew who would be the photographer on a given night. One night the real life partner of one of the cast members stepped in as a brash artist who was perturbed by the lack of professionalism from everyone around them and insisted on posing people to get the impossibly perfect shot, and complaining about everything from the lighting to the decorations that weren't up to snuff. ​

The first year that I put on The Wedding Show, I didn't know it was going to be a queer show.
I got an email from someone who wanted to audition and they said they'd throw their hat in the ring but they wanted to know how I felt about a character in drag.
"Great! Yeah! Of course! Let's do it." Looking back two years later I can't imagine the show now having at least someone in drag. 
People signed up to audition and I knew I wanted to work with the cast to create a show that they felt like they could be themselves in. It was after the auditions ended and after I'd chosen the people that I wanted to bring into the project that I started to figure out who the characters could be. The majority of people auditioning were women or female identifying. So there was a necessity to make the story about two women getting married, or else do another casting call and bring in some more gender diversity. In the audition, people had been relatively open about their sexuality, so I knew a queer show would work for the cast. 
As a devised shows, the cast members developed their characters and sculpted the people they wanted to represent. I wanted them to be a version of themselves and build a back story that they felt so at home inside of...so that they could improvise their way through the night, engaging with any audience member authentically. 

The character of Fay is flirtatious, and holds an abundance of love for the people in her life. She falls in love fast and without a second thought, confidently says YES to the people that capture her attention. Her story about marrying Louis and then leaving him when they drifted apart slips out during the 2nd Act. 
We hadn't quite figured out how to get the audience to unlock the story that first year, so the cast created big moments that looked like distractions, only to route audience members through the action. My original vision was that the audience would organically move around the venue spaces and encounter important moments, spread rumors and feel so intrigued by what they were surely missing on the other side of a way, that they'd just have to come back and experience it all again. 
The big moment where Jamie and Fay leave the party to fight about what the marriage to Louis and Fay's failure to share this fact means for their future happened just outside the glass doors to the venue. Every night there would be a few mingling audience members, outside for some respite that suddenly were witness to the fight. In the best situations they would end their conversation to step in and console a cast member or offer advice from their personal life. There was no expectation of this from the audience, but the space that we created made it easy for people to be natural in their interactions and show support. 
Every night after current call someone would exclaim to a random stranger who had inserted themself into the drama, "I was sure that YOU were a cast member!"
​

The second year of the show, there were some returning cast members, but a majority of new people, bringing new ideas and realities into the project. We started with some cannon from the first year and then built a new story for the new players.
The difference was that the cast we attracted were specifically here to represent their love stories which aren't often seen in movies or tv or other mainstream media. They auditioned because they wanted to tell queer love stories. Casting people who wanted to build characters that extended from themselves allowed us the have conversations behind the scenes that informed how the cast could support each other in the show. How should we talk about identity, sex and sexuality in the show? What conversations might come up in improvised moments with audience members? What would it look like to normalize queer love in a show? What doesn't need to be said?
Looking ahead to year three, The Wedding Show will be a queer show from here on out. It needs to be. But the question now is, do we take the word "queer" out of the marketing? Is there value in inviting people to experience queer love as just love and letting them step into a world where identify and sexuality aren't a topic of conversation? Can we create a space to just accept one another as we are, perfect and unique and weird and wonderful?

The Rehearsal Dinner was such a thrill. It was the first time that the cast experienced the full potential of this show. Up until now, we've been building characters and imagining how we create an interesting experience for the audience. It's really amazing what happens when the audience is there to play off of and throw curve balls at the cast. The level of involvement of the audience and the commitment to characters from the cast make it really feel like we're all part of a wedding where we're getting to know each other throughout the night. 
During the reception the Fiancé ripped their pants. That's how serious things got!
Minutes later the Bride had to enlist the help of 3 people to bustle her 25 foot long wedding train. 
I keep struggling to put into words how special this show is. But there's something really amazing that happens over the course of 2.5 hours. We start out with awkward silence, and people trying to find their place in the performance and by the third act, everyone is dancing and singing along. People really do arrive as strangers and leave as friends. 

There are some highlights from the rehearsal dinner that I need to share because they make it all worth it:

• Two people met at the show for the first time and decided to come back to a future show with characters that they plan to play and gags that they want to pull.
• A trio of folks said the show was a place that they felt like they were safe to really be themselves. We made a place where queerness is accepted, normal, welcome and embraced. 
• Our amazing MC led an unexpected dance battle for a group of guests
• After the third act and after the curtain call, 15 people stuck around for an impromptu after party with the cast. 
• The Maid of Honor led an astoundingly well choreographed dance with a group of audience members who played the role of bride's maids. 

I've been going through photos from the night and preparing to do some posts and you just really need to be there to see it all and be a part of it. Photos can't do justice to the fun and excitement of belting to 'I Will Survive' with the Wedding Singer, while people prance around the room playing recorders and tambourines and pulling consenting strangers onto the dance floor...

 Is anyone else feeling anxious about the wedding approaching so quickly?

It's a Friday night and I'm making a rain stick for the sound bathing that this year's MC plans to perform during Act I, The Ceremony. I've got a wedding veil that I need to finish sewing so that it can accompany the 25 foot long wedding train that is nearly complete. The missing components of the wedding train are a sign saying "to be wed" and some clean cat food cans which will rattle behind the train as if it's a "just married" car. And there are some half finished papier maché flowers that need to be painted for table decorations.  

I'm making props for the show and they're all larger than life.  Directing and producing have slipped into crafting and curating and I'm not mad about it one bit...

Some of these props were designed for promotion but they are evolving into parts of the real show.
The interesting thing about a devised show is that we start with this bare bones foundation and every time we rehearse, we add new things. The ideas that pop up in conversations and the props that I'm creating seems to seep their way into the show and overtime the show starts to create itself. There is a strange synchronicity that seems to happen after all the cast members have developed their characters. It's like we all know each other's characters just well enough to anticipate what they'll do or how they'll respond. And the better we know each other the more fun we can have. Spending an evening crafting oversized wedding attire, table decorations and musical instruments is a way that I can connect with the characters, get to know them a little better and feed their personalities.  

July 12th was the Rehearsal Dinner for The Wedding Show and the title of this post is the truth. I haven't been that excited to dance at a wedding sober since my best friend's gay wedding where we organized a flash mob to a song by Dadi Freyr, a band known for their Eurovision fame. 

So first of all, big ups to dj tuggle who was pulling out the perfect dance songs and the most inappropriate wedding songs and seamlessly interchanging and commingling the tunes. When the father of the bride came out for the father-daughter dance, dj tuggle slipped into Pony by Ginuwine. Dj tuggle was the late night start of the show and it's really not your ordinary show. 
I went to see a musical last night and sat in a chair for 110 minutes thinking about how my only interaction with the show was going to be clapping and maybe a wily hoot near the end. 

At The Wedding Show, we had nearly the whole audience out on the dance floor. (see figure A below)

Figure A

This is improv. We're making character choices. And those are reflected in the music choices. 
And one of those choices is "2 Become 1" by the Spice Girls.  Another choice is "Memories" from the musical Cats. 

It's March...The Wedding Show is 3 months away and I'm having dreams about auditions. We just put out our casting call and in the next few weeks I hope to have the 2024 cast picked out. In my dream about auditions I was wasting people's time chitchatting and suddenly I realized that our time together in this group audition would be better spent doing improv games. 
The Wedding Show is in many ways improv based. There is a schedule that the cast follows and interactions between each other that are planned, but everything with the guests is off the cuff. So to prepare for this type of theatre performance, our rehearsals involved teambuilding activities, improv games, character creation. 

For the 2024 season we're going to make some changes to tidy up the show. As much as I'd like to blur the lines between the wedding and the real world, I think people need more clarity right now. The audience (guests) can step into the Wedding world once they arrive at the venue. 
Calling them the audience first and "guests" in parentheses is a shift from last year. 

This year we'll have a intermission (reception) which I'm looking forward to. Although it won't in any way be a break from the action, it'll be a very intentional shift to another space, more free form interactions for the audience, and we'll centralize the activities. In most shows, the intermission takes you away from the action, but it's the chaotic bustling, queuing, uncomfortable mingling. I think some people find it to be a way to be anonymous and lost in the crowd, but I find intermissions always feel a little too long if you're not there to drink and stand in line. So we'll mitigate that with a photo booth and lawn games. A few random toasts to the couple where the audience can clink their glasses, have a laugh and even make a toast of their own. There will be refreshments and drinks for those who want to whet their whistle and mingle. And then the show will migrate back to the venue for dancing and dessert and speeches. 

As a producer, my biggest worry is how do we cover the costs of the show. This is what keeps me up and night, stops me from dreaming, and results in stress infused nightmares. The most important thing about the show, other than it being a unique, amazing and memorable experience, is paying people what they deserve for their time and talent. And with so many outside expenses, and the inability to get funding for people, it's not wonder that community theatre is often unpaid work. But does that limit the people that take part? Probably! Drawing a diverse cast isn't easy to do when the stipulation is that you have to dedicate hours of your life for free to the work. And while The Wedding Show can go on a resume, it's not getting our cast an acting credit on IMDB. I don't want this to be a labor of love for everyone involved. I want people who are a part of the show to feel respected and appreciated for their time and energy. 
I'm stretching some creative muscles by completing the Artist's Way and it's week 6. We're talking about abundance, so this is my week to push hard for sponsors, donations, funding and support so that when it comes to paying the cast and crew, we're golden. 

I think there is a line between the real world and the theatre wedding world that we're wavering on it's either too much or not quite enough. I'm thinking about the first dance into the dinner.
SCENE
The couple are sitting in a circle with all of their friends and then they stand, ready for their first dance together. The MC announces "Mrs and Mrs _____ " and then the music begins. The song is an awkward mix of two songs that they both chose separately and then asked a DJ to mix and surprise them! So the dance starts with "Power of Two" by the Indigo Girls and then it mashes into "Call me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsem,  It's gross, it's painful, it's perfect and artful...
So is it too much, or not quite enough???