An Unfortunate Unexpected Ending

[An email that we just sent out...]

To the cast and crew of Sons of the Revolution:

It is with great sadness that we have come to the decision not to proceed with PRT’s August production of SOTR.

Steve and I have had some long and painful conversations – just the two of us, and with PRT President John Goring and Producer Chuck Dent. The four of us have come to the conclusion that we are better off to stop now. Many factors contributed to this decision, and we thought we would help shed some light on things:

1. PRT admits it had bitten off a little more than it could chew by committing to a Fringe Show in June, their annual Summer Shorts in July, and then a full production in August.
2. Chuck was not able to be as hands-on a producer as originally planned because of an unforeseen change in his work schedule. Steve and I were happy to jump in and do what we could to make the show a success. But even with the two of us and Chad trying to handle the producing end, we were not able to accomplish all that needed to be done.
3. Chad had to leave the show partially because of unforeseen personal matters as well as a general uneasiness as he saw the show rolling faster and faster down the hill without many important components in place. While his departure was the unfortunate straw that broke the camel’s back, we want to be very clear that we feel no ill will towards him for the decision he had to make. He had already given us some great ideas and presented an amazing visual concept for the show. He still wants to be involved with this play’s future, and we absolutely hope that happens.
4. Steve and I also feel partially responsible in that we know we have written an extremely dense, challenging play that may be deemed unproducible by some. (At least without a Broadway-level budget.) Another play may have been able to overcome these hurdles, but we didn’t believe this one could. And we did not want to see a mad scramble to throw together a slapdash production. That would have been a disservice to us as writers and to the actors and artistic directors. So, we are taking this opportunity to go back to the drawing board and see if we can somehow remedy this.

We cannot say thank you enough to all of you for so generously giving your time and commitment to this play. We are deeply sorry for any inconvenience the cancellation may cause you as far as work schedules and other projects. Sons of the Revolution is not dead, it is just taking a much-needed break to come back even stronger.

To the cast: Avis, John B, Brett, Patrick, John C, Dennis, Josh, Annie, Eric, Jeff, Gina, Jocelyn, John W (and yes, even you, Bill): We couldn’t have been more pleased with each and every one of you. We give you our word that you will be contacted when the play re-emerges and is ready to go up again. If we have our way, all 14 of you will be seen in this show.

To the crew members who gave so much for so little: Chad, Debbie, Michael, Catherine, Tommy, Jason, Allen, Cathy, and Joan: We are still amazed that you believed enough in our work to offer your expertise in making the show a success. We will always treasure our short time together, and hope that someday we are able to work with you again.

And to Chuck, John, and PRT, we offer our thanks for their optimism and support that they and Playwrights’ Round Table have shown us in this project and others over the years.

We still don’t feel that these words can adequately express our gratitude and how much we appreciate each and every one of you. You have shown us much love and we are truly humbled.

David & Steve

P.S. We plan to keep our (geeky) blog about the show; you can always check back every now and then to see if there are any developments: http://sonsoftherevolution.blogspot.com/

Update 2005-07-01

Last night we had a great rehearsal where we just talked about some of the issues in the play. Chad asked for me & Steve to speak to the cast to help them understand where we got the idea for the play and what were our reasons for writing it.

Well, you know how Steve and I hate to talk about ourselves... but we gave everybody the low-down and slowly the dialogue started to grow into very lively discussions about the many issues in the play - gun control, power struggles with real and perceived weapons, pacificism, human nature, the death penalty, the agendizing of war, historical context, Manifest Destiny, societal ownership and responsibility, the Civil Rights movement... I think everyone enjoyed it - I thought it was just great, excellent, wonderful (for me personally anyway). We all did not agree, but we all didn't disagree, we were starting to think as a company and see deeper into one another.

A wonderful reveletory moment was when Annie told us that she does in fact own firearms. And her challenge with her character of the 2nd Legal Aide (Diana) is to speak her monologue where she talks about an incident where she recklessly and impulsively reaches for her gun. Annie's background is that of great responsibility and respect for firearms. And even though there are the careless ones out there (Diana probably falls into that category), they are the ones who make the news and give the responsible gun owners a bad name. A very interesting POV I did not expect. (And now the cast is going to be really nice to Annie, too...)

Welcome Eric Kuritsky to the cast in the role of the Rabbi! I have had the pleasure of working with Eric's wife Natalie last year in The 1940's Radio Hour (Bay Street Players, directed by SOTR actor Jeff Lindberg and featuring Josh Geoghagan, also in SOTR). I first saw both of them on stage about a decade ago at the now-defunct Acting Studio on South Orange Avenue in a production of Paul Rudnick's Jeffrey. They were both very funny (Eric was very convincing as a queen - he played the role done by Patrick Stewart in the film version) and I enjoyed it immensely. (WHITLOCK! That's the actor's name that he and I couldn't think of! Steve Whitlock!)

Sadly, we only had a full cast for a brief moment: Bill Welter, who read so wonderfully for the Revolutionary War Captain/Korean War Vet must leave our production because he has a trip planned to visit his son up in Boston during the middle of our run. Yes, it's a shame. Bill, we hardly knew ye... but it was nice to almost work with you. We'll just have to wait until next time.

After we continued with 'sectioning' the play into rehearsable chunks, we finished getting costume measurements from folks, and Chad went over the rehearsal schedule for the next two weeks. Afterwards, some of us went and hung out at Houlihan's. Of course Jeff was the hungriest of us all and after our food took forever, he was the last one to get served. Poor baby! But hanging with him, Josh, JavaJohn (that's what I call John Bateman because during Into The Woods at VCC he was never without a cup of coffee in his hand), Eric, Chad, and Steve was fun, and I especially liked getting to know Patrick and John W. Steve called me as we were driving home and said, "We have a really cool cast!" I concurred. We definitely look forward to hanging with them some more. And the others, too! Since I already know many of the people involved, I am dying to get to know Gina and Jocelyn better, as they are still strangers to me.