How To Succeed, the production

Cast in the ensemble, we began rehearsals in the April 21st and went until June 12th. Aside from fellow ISU students joining the cast were several regulars of Actors within both the cast and crew I've worked with: I was in a very familiar and comfortable environment. During this time we worked very closely with the music director and choreographer as well as the artistic director to learn (and retool) the music and staging for each scene. No surprises, but what's different from working in ISU is the absence of time spent on script analysis or table work. I suspect this connects with Actors' season philosophy of choosing shows with high community acceptance, which could be harder to sustain if they chose shows complex or difficult enough to demand table work.

Rather, How to Succeed felt like a manufactured machine in its efficiency and pragmatism. Rehearsals were scheduled down to 30-45 minute blocks and organized to dismiss cast members quickly, off-score and off-book dates were announced soon after casting, and there was frequent reminders from the production team to not fool around. I feel this is a very strong reaction against last year's musical, Pippin: while not a poor show run, the production process was, in nearly every aspect, horrendously inefficient and stressful to the point many cast and crew weren't treated respectfully. Fearing this, I feel H$2's mission statement was to avoid these mistakes with significant preplanning and constant communication from the director and producers (who at Actors also function as rehearsal stage managers). The director's previous experience as an IBM auditor definitely came in to play (ha). Rehearsals went smoothly and we met all deadlines along with having time to retool the blocking choices (IBM didn't help there), and while the constant reminders to keep focused (regardless of said focus) were dulling we were treated professionally.

The cast of actors was a mix of ISU Theatre students, Actors regulars, and a surprising amount of theatrically inexperienced people. This composition resulted in a solid performance foundation with plenty of neophyte exuberance and a desire to have fun, which was very appreciated after such a work-intensive spring semester. Frequent food donations and planning for cast parties, show quotes and puns shared, and an overall strong camaraderie within and for the show was more prevalent than any other show I've worked on. While sometimes a little put off by their verve, I'm still impressed by how strongly a show that we at ISU could call simple can succeed so well in creating an ensemble. While the crew was unfortunately very removed from rehearsals for the most part, once we began seeing them more frequently towards tech week they were included in the fold.

We opened the show on June 13th for a three weekend sold-out run, one of the highest grossing shows Actors has done in 20 years. The show was a near 3-hour behemoth that always ended sweaty and exhausted, but much of the audience took the time to congratulate the cast on specific highlights for them (they especially appreciated Carter Roeske looking like someone about to have a nervous breakdown in the background), and was overall a well received show for crew and audience.