Jay Cross [Sept 7 2002]

This was my first show directing. I had previously 'directed' some of our practices without shows, including some related to movement and lazzi. Some troupe members felt that the troupe's manager should never be the director. Since we elect directors, a constant vote against me kept me out of the job. Alex Newman had taken over the troupe by the time this show was selected.

I had two fairly new players [TJ Mahar and Alex Fitzsimmons] in the troupe for the show, and almost four months to put it together. I had some stupid ideas about making it art by having it be a commentary on courtly love. I also had a late cast change as Daniel Abraham as Spavento and Jennifer Shih as Lesbino didn't like my 'instructional' approach to directing, and quit. Craig Swanson and Pamela Dritt replaced them, and were great. Jennifer Kobayashi's refusal to work with my courtly love ideas was a godsend. The one good aspect I claim about my work with this show was that I got TJ to be much better than he was to start. Too bad he quit after three shows.