A Shoutout to @AAPlay (aka a thread about small theatre companies) When @thatjuliacho read FOUR IMMIGRANTS and shared it with the folks at AAP, they could have easily said “We don’t do #musicaltheatre and this one is especially too big for us to ever produce.” 1/10
@AAPlay @thatjuliacho Instead, they came back to me with “What *can* we do together?” Instead of seeing barriers, they wanted to create an opportunity. That’s what led to connecting with @VisionsnVoices and producing the concert reading that happened on Wednesday. 2/10
@AAPlay @thatjuliacho @VisionsnVoices That question “What *can* we do?” can be SO valuable for playwrights. So often, we are told “that doesn’t quite fit what we do” and then the onus is on playwrights to then come back with something that might fit better. 3/10
@AAPlay @thatjuliacho @VisionsnVoices But @AAPlay didn’t say “no.” They took a chance and said “This isn’t what we do, but we believe in you and this work so much that we want to figure out something.” And the conversation moved forward. 4/10
@AAPlay @thatjuliacho @VisionsnVoices What we landed upon was a condensed concert reading of the work presented for free on the USC campus, and combined with a panel before the reading that consisted of translator @fschodt, director Leslie Martinson, and myself. 5/10
@AAPlay @thatjuliacho @VisionsnVoices @fschodt I gotta be honest: the task of condensing a full-length musical into a 90-minute presentation truly seemed impossible. But I learned so much by doing it! By cutting things down, I learned a lot about what was necessary and unnecessary in the script. 6/10
@AAPlay @thatjuliacho @VisionsnVoices @fschodt It ended up being an incredibly valuable thought exercise for the show. Post-reading, there will be some cuts I keep, and other cuts that I bring back. The show is all the better for this thought exercise. 7/10
@AAPlay @thatjuliacho @VisionsnVoices @fschodt I’m so glad I decided to say “yes and…” to @AAPlay because we ended up creating a truly electric moment in time together. And I believe this was largely possible because AAP is a #smalltheatre company open to out-of-the-box thinking. 8/10
@AAPlay @thatjuliacho @VisionsnVoices @fschodt Who knows yet what the reading will yield, but if all that happened on Wednesday was that people were touched once again by Henry Kiyama’s story, students got to experience some theatre for free, and I got to learn more about the piece through the condensing process… 9/10
@AAPlay @thatjuliacho @VisionsnVoices @fschodt I am so content. Enormous thanks to @AAPlay and USC @VisionsnVoices! Here’s to more theatre partnerships where we look for creative ways to work together! 10/10
