Juggling! 1.5 Weeks 'til Festival!

I feel like this week in the office has been a little bit ephemeral. It’s not even halfway through the week and I can barely remember Monday. What I do remember from last week is that it was super busy until Wednesday and things started to cool down, but apparently it’s been busy enough to leave me with a lapse in my memory.

I don’t even know how to begin to summarize.

The War Wall as of April 21, 2010

Our wonderful producers, Byron and Matt have finally finished casting K7. It took longer than they’d have liked, but with over 30 actors, the whole event is monumental. The specs for the performance space are slowly being worked out, contracts are being signed and conference sponsors are being organized. Byron is constantly taking the time to teach me valuable lessons about the challenges one faces as a producer. This is a job that seems to require a lot of juggling.

Rehearsals for both K7 and the Potluck have started, meaning that the rehearsal space next door to the office is always busy. Pluses: good company, I finally get to meet all the people I’ve been e-mailing, there’s always extra food lying around. Minuses: the occasional loud yell that startles everyone in the office. I suppose that isn’t really a minus, I mean, at least it’s entertaining.

K7 Schedule- MADNESS!

Said rehearsals mean that we are seeing Andrew, Nina and David all around the office. Busy as ever, the three of them are managing to direct/dramaturg several readings. Their lives are all short on sleep, and their levels of health are questionable, but we love them dearly and it’s truly wonderful to see their faces.

Andrea’s getting all of our materials on the streets! She had a newsletter mailed out yesterday, we had a MASSIVE flyering event last week (thanks to our wonderful volunteers!). Look for our origami lotus flyers all over the city. If you fold it up and take a picture of it in a creative place, you can submit at www.fu-gen.org/secret to win a prize!

Carin has been in and out of the office. Despite the fact that Carin had a nasty case of the flu, she has been in constant communication with us. Making sure that things happen, that people are happy, and that artists and academics will arrive, Carin's life is never slow. She's refining budgets and ensuring our cash flow is steady. Scary job, eh?

As for me? I’ve been busy nagging people to do various tasks. I feel like a big part of my job right now is to hold on to all the loose ends and slowly figure out ways to tie them together without letting one slip away. I’m learning something every day and I feel really lucky to be writing e-mails to all of the incredible people across the continent that are coming to Toronto to be part of this explosive event.

We have one and a half weeks to go! Friday you can look forward to a post from our K7-ers and next week you will see our load in! Exciting times...

I Can't Believe It's Already April

Lots of things happening at the office this week. I was fortunate enough to sneak away for the weekend and visit my family back in Edmonton for the holiday, but I could tell fu-GEN staffers were busy due to the frequent e-mails and the quick response rate to whatever e-mails I managed to send. I have decided that due to my absence from the office over the last few days, I have every right to let my imagination cut loose with regards to the goings-on of my fellow fu-GEN staffers. So this, dear readers, is a somewhat fictitious (though probably not entirely ridiculous) and probably not-entirely-accurate rendering of last week’s happenings.

THE WAR WALL (April 7, 2010)

Festival producers Matt and Byron continued to spend much of their time on the phone in an attempt to cast actors in all of the Potluck plays. Their next challenge will be to cast K7, the challenge being that they have to do it with all non-equity actors. Byron sits amidst an ever-growing stack of contracts as he waits for Nina and Carin to swing by and sign them out of his hands and into the actors.

Nina carries around her agenda in a briefcase—okay, it’s in her MacBook, but still, her schedule is insane. This woman is back and forth between here and Cahoots, doing interviews for college students, signing our paycheques, dramaturging like 50 plays and directing another 50 (I’m pretty sure my numbers are accurate), oh and raising a 3 year old to boot!

Carin (and our aforementioned producer Matt) is busy with a toddler of her own, the lively Miss Berkeley, yet somehow Carin still manages to make it in the office to sign away some of Byron’s ever-growing contract pile (pictured below), while simultaneously asserting her presence over the ladies at the bank to finally get us our company credit card(!!!). Lately, she’s been spending her time spending our money—almost finished with flight bookings, she’s now moved on to paying our actors!

And what of incoming Artistic Director David? I haven’t seen him in weeks, making me think that his schedule is comparable to Nina’s. However, a picture of him as a child has appeared on our War Wall (filling me with the desire to caption it “Our Fearless Leader”). I can only imagine David stumbling in tired one night, grumbling, plastering his photo on the wall and taking a swig of vodka before heading home for the evening.

Our Fearless Leader

I can’t take full credit for the “Fearless Leader” slogan, Andrea, our lovely Director of Marketing and Development came up with that one. She sits quietly in her corner, typing furiously away and fortuitously putting together our program (a seemingly never-ending process). She’s been working on a listserv, taking photos, sending out e-blasts to our followers and designing all of the materials that will eventually be handed out at the conference. No big deal, right?

As for me, I spent my weekend eating waaaay too much food. While running back and forth between my laptop and the table I managed to catch up with friends and family, never really being fully able to answer the question, “what exactly are you doing out in Toronto, anyway?”. Since when does the response “interning for a theatre company” not satisfy all of a curious parent’s questions?

To look forward to in the upcoming weeks: Mind-map from K7 Playwrights and blog entries from each of the Potluck Playwrights including: David Yee, Catherine Hernandez, Donald Woo, Camellia Koo, Romeo Candido, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and our office’s very own Byron Abalos.