the next generation

Thursday night, I traveled with Jenn, Erin and our friend Katie up to Santa Clarita to see the Southwest Entertainment Theatre Group's opening night of Friends Like These. All four of us had very strong connections with the various Theatre Unleashed productions. Erin had stage managed all four runs. Katie was the original costume designer, and her plot was used from the world premiere through the New York Fringe. Jenn, of course, was instrumental in helping me finish writing the show, and had been by my side every step of the way. We were all very excited, and I was certainly a little nervous.

Well, we got up to Santa Clarita about thirty minutes before curtain. Having scouted out where the theatre was, we ran across the street to a Starbucks to grab some pre-show coffee. Inside, I was thrilled to find a flier for the show hanging on the wall. Their design used the original show description, written by my good friend Jim Martyka, and Jenn's composition notebook name plate logo. It was weird seeing those two icons of the show with a list of names I didn't know. Well, that's not entirely true. After all, I had met director David Wisehart through the Hollywood Fringe Festival (he wrote and produced Valentino: A Play in Verse at the festival last year). He called me directly back in... October? November? It's 3am as I'm writing this right now, so my memory's a little foggy on detail. Anyway, it was a few months ago when he contacted me personally to ask if he could have the rights to the show. Also, I got to meet Jay (the new stage manager), plus most of the cast (Wes, Myrna and Trevor) when I ran a LARP adventure for them in December.

I knew that this show was going to be different. It was a completely new set of eyes interpreting the script and applying a whole new vision to the production. What I was worried about was whether or not the script would hold up without me. Well, I didn't have to worry - the show was fantastic. I'm not just saying that, either. It was certainly very different than its predecessor - different set, different costumes, different blocking and choreography, different moment-to-moment choices by the actors... but by-and-large, the spirit of the show was the same. The message was the same. The feel was the same. Seeing this show after spending so much time with the original production, it felt like meeting your best friend's little brother or sister. The two of them bore a strong resemblance to one another. Even though they have very distinct differences, they both feel like they belong to the same family. That's how this felt. So, major kudos to Wes, Fish, Myrna, Amanda, Trevor, David, Jay and John on a job well done. I'm looking forward to seeing the show again before it closes on the 22nd. If you're reading this post, I recommend you check it out as well. You can purchase tickets to the show at the SET Group's home page.

Check out some pictures from the show below (courtesy of Amanda McWorter):