It's official! Emily Bubeck has had her NYC directing debut. Nothing too exciting, nothing too outlandish or flashy (but honestly... when have I ever been known to be flashy or outlandish?) One of my dear friends at my internship, Jenny King (http://www.jkjennyking.com/), heads a small indie theatre company here in the city called Barrington Collective (http://www.barringtoncollective.com/). This year was the second year of their holiday themed new reading festival and on March 18th they held their very belated Valentines Day reading. Jenny asked me to direct one of the short pieces that she was in and, considering how small the time commitment was, I just couldn't say no!
Having spent so much time these past few months stage managing readings at New Dramatists it was really exciting to get a chance to put my directing cap back on for a rehearsal or two and flex my creative juices. The piece I worked on was called No Filter and it was by a young and clearly talented playwright, Laura Gold. The ensembles of each piece scheduled and coordinated their rehearsals separately and I was able to work really well with my actors, Jenny and Dave. It was so much fun to get out of a developmental space for a moment and get back into a rehearsal room, even if it was just for a staged reading! The show went over so smoothly, there was a huge crowd for the venue and some of my friends even came to cheer me on.
When I was Otterbein I remember being very concerned whenever Directors came back to give a workshop because they always said the only way they ever got a job was through connections and knowing the right people. Little undergraduate Emily always felt cheated by that answer. That's not anything I can work at! I'm goal oriented I need a step by step guide. I'm not lucky! I have never just happened to know the right people, this isn't ever going to work out! Thank God, little baby Emily was wrong. I knew Jenny AND another New Dramatists friend, Chloé, is putting on a night of staged readings next weekend that I'm ALSO directing a piece for! It turns out, if you're doing the work and meeting new people it's easy to make the right connections because everyone here is always creating and always looking for collaborators.
Enjoy this silly little picture I took at Dress Rehearsal, hopefully some better pictures will be coming to this website soon!
