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...

Five Furiously Fast-paced Weeks to Go!

The war wall hasn’t changed much this week, but that’s no reflection of how busy we’ve been this week. I would post a picture, but we don't have a functioning camera in our office today. I guess you'll just have to hold your suspense until next week... Without Nina in the office as frequently, we don’t have as many quotes on the wall, but here’s a good one from last week:
Speaking of GM’s, Carin’s been busy as ever, spending much of her time this week booking flights for visiting academics and artists, fanangling and printing off new budgets, going over our company GST report, and trying not to pull her hair out over the company credit card which has yet to arrive. She’s also probably busy doing lots of other things that I don’t even know about... every once and a while we hear her muttering, “kill, kill, kill...”

Andrea’s been spending late nights in the office, messaging me to go for dinner at 10pm when I’m almost ready for bed. Her report to the Trillium Foundation (which funds her position) is due tomorrow, which is causing an appropriate amount of stress she is currently balancing with her responsibilities in Marketing and Development. She’s revamped our website countless times, re-coloured our lotus logo, dealt with a new shipment of flyers, and worn heels to work almost every day. BAM. Did I mention that she was also performing in CBT’s Flipside Festival last weekend? No big deal.

Byron was also working with the Flipside Festival, directing a piece about a mother and son. So while a considerable amount of time was dedicated towards that in the last week, Byron has also been laying the foundation for the welcome packages that will be handed out to academic and artistic visitors upon their arrival, while simultaneously attempting to file his taxes. He’s also worked out several awesome deals with food sponsors for our festival such as Epicure (providing us with free food for opening)!! He’s also be working like a madman to make sure all the shows are cast... where are all the Asian actors?

Matt, our Potluck Festival co-producer, has been leaving a LOT of messages (e-mail and phone) that he fears are going nowhere in his attempt to cast plays. Good thing he has a blackberry, enabling him to frequently check his e-mail in fits of casting paranoia. He’s also helped me out a tonne by sending a mailout to his contacts in an attempt to get high school volunteers.

Nina is whirlwinding in and out of the office in a flurry of meetings, loose sheets of paper and venti cups of coffee. She pops in for a meeting, interview, and lunch and is gone before we can quote her for the War Wall. Incredibly busy as always, she is doing mysterious work and making important decisions that keep the company running.

Our incoming Artistic Director, David, is almost done with Monster (directed by Nina) at LKTYP and will again be a presence in the office (mainly there to harass us while we work) after the holiday weekend. In the meantime, he will continue to be BCC’d on all my e-mails and honor me with answers to my questions accompanied by an occasional sarcastic response. We miss you, David!

My week has been yet again by liaising with academics and artists. We’ve invited a few new people this week, and only have a few more people to confirm travel arrangements with and then I get to put a giant checkmark on my to do list. I worked with Matt to put out the aforementioned volunteer call, went to a Maple Leafs NAAAP mixer with Byron and practiced slinging business cards like ninjastars and worked on building a signup sheet for board members to pick up festival/conference guests from the airport. As a conference presenter myself, I’m only starting to realize how screwed I’m going to be if I don’t get my academic act together soon—whatever happened to living life contently as a simple intern?

Oooh boy, this has been a long freaking update. I’ll leave you with this: Kapisanan is launching a new website this weekend. We’ll be there to review it, and you should definitely go check it out!