Theatre Company: Geyer Performing Arts Center
Director: Tina Lepidi-Stewart, Michael Deibert
My Role(s): Co-Director

This show happened VERY quickly and suddenly! While I was amidst the chaos and fun of costuming The King & I for a late November run, the manager of the Geyer Theater approached me and asked if I would be interested in directing the musical A Christmas Carol, opening not even three weeks after The King and I closed! While I initially said no, it was suggested that maybe if I had someone helped me then it might be manageable. I asked my friend Tina Lepidi-Stewart if she were interested and available. Together, our schedules JUST allowed us to handle putting the show together so we said “Yes” – and jumped right into the process. We held auditions the following weekend!

Our approach to balancing the show was to each take certain scenes and numbers, and the other would aide in the cleaning/refinement. The sole reason for this was time management – there were nights we needed to have rehearsal that only one of us were available. This worked out quite well, as we had previously worked on a couple shows by this point and knew how the other worked. Additionally, we had significant assistance from the theater who helped flesh out the production team with a tech director who handled the set, another friend who costumed the show (even though both Tina and I are costumers!), and Tina’s husband assisted the theater’s lighting designer to create the lighting effects.

While neither of us Costumers helped with the costumes, I did bring another strong element into the production – Puppetry. To help create an amazing illusion and evoke fear with The Ghost of Christmas Future, I created a black draping shroud for “Frank,” my 16′ tall Frankenstein puppet,  and added him onstage for great effect!

In the end, the show turned out beautifully and was a great success for such a hodgepodge and crazy five weeks from start to finish!