I am thrilled to be back at SLAC directing. boom is an amazing, quirky show with a great cast and talented designers and dedicated crew. But even with all the pluses I’ve just mentioned, there are inherent stresses such as going from the rehearsal room to the stage, adding sound, lights and costumes. Everything seemingly falls apart during tech week only to be rebuilt hopefully into a better product than what you had in the rehearsal room. Gestalt at its best – the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts – each element is fine on its own but the coming together – that’s the magical part! It’s also the stressful part.

When I direct I gauge how well things are going and how stressful things are based on my Rotel dip consumption. “What is Rotel dip” you may be asking? It’s a decadent recipe consisting of 1 can of Rotel Tomatoes (tomatoes with hot peppers – Rotel brand is the best) and one pound of Velveeta cheese.

Stick them in a crockpot or in the microwave and it becomes a cheesy, spicy combo that is a dip for tortilla chips. You can make it with 2% Velveeta and serve with carrot sticks if you’re trying to pretend it can be made healthier. I guess if I were a smoker or heavy drinker, I could find some stress release through those methods, but Rotel seems to get me through with minor health complications (don’t ask my ateries).

My relationship with Rotel dip is longer than my relationship with theatre. I was introduced to this in Texas in high school. This delectable comfort food was served at every party I hosted or attended between the years of 1976 – 1987. Then I moved from Texas to California and that’s another story for another blog another day. After 1987, it was an occasional appetizer around the holidays. In more recent years, it has gone from “party” food to a very comfortable position as “comfort” food – those foods consumed when in mild to severe distress in order to restore the salt/fat balance in the body.

So, back to directing and how all this relates. So, given mild to sever distress in directing, it is often that Rotel dip is needed to get me through the process. Severe issues with actors, designers and/or tech can lead one to consume 3-4 batches of artery clogging goodness over the course of 5-6 prep weeks for a show. And by severe stress, it can be anything from costumes not being finished until after the first week of the run to an actress’ dress catching on fire in a drafty theatre on the final dress rehearsals of THE GLASS MENAGERIE when the line “blow out your candles Laura” should have been “Blow out your sleeve, Laura.” Both of these I lived through with the help of my good friends Rotel and Velveeta. And those stories – well, let’s just say, I have a bunch of them.

boom is a show that has a lot of inherent Rotel consumption built in – First, it’s a new script, so no underground youtube clips to watch. Nor can I call up any theatre friends and say “Hey when you directed this show how did you deal with fill in the blank with whatever the issue du jour is because for the most part no one has seen it let alone read it! Second, it’s a comedy and it’s a comedy that makes you think. Any theatre person will tell you, comedy is much harder than drama. It is very technical but should appear as though everything is happening in the moment no matter how ridiculous it may be. A slap or a trip over the couch or opening a door all have to be worked endlessly to get the comic timing correct. So, amidst the comedy, you need to get the thought provoking ideas across. Difficult. And third, it’s hard to keep laughing. After you’ve seen the bit 30 times, it’s hard to laugh and hard to remain objective on whether it’s funny or not. That’s why the first few audiences are great – to dangle the comedy toes in the water and see what works. And fourth (yes, I know comedy comes in threes, but this HAD to be said - there’s a character that’s a real fish and she just does WHATEVER she wants without regard to the blocking (stage movement) I’ve given her.

If you see me and have seen shows I’ve done, you can ask what the Rotel rating is and I can remember most of them. If it was a 5, then chances are I blocked the entire experience out of my head and won’t even remember directing the show.

So far with this show, it has only been a one batch show and that is actually only due to the fact that I’m blogging about it and am now craving it so I had to make some. We have an audience tonight so I will keep you posted on the Rotel/Velveeta consumption.