We had our first rehearsal for Absence on Thursday night and it went really well. Granted, we didn’t have a man actor, but we had a stand-in who did a great job. Mostly, I was really impressed with how well the two ladies did with the very first read-through.

Maybe I’ll give a little background on the production… it’s happening at the Midtown International Theater Festival (MITF) in late July. The show is part of their Studio Series, which basically means that I give them a little bit of money and they give me a little bit of space, and we’re all very happy. They get a small percentage of my box office gross and I get some marketing assistance, plus a performance space with a rep plot.

It’s a really great way to put on a small, simple show… especially one that doesn’t need a big set or fancy lighting cues. I like doing shows there because I still get a lot of control over the production (I was allowed to choose my own performance dates). It becomes a really simple way to make theater and have great learning experiences.

Plus, MITF — being titled the “Midtown Festival” — is terribly convenient to my midtown office. So it’s really easy to take a few minutes out of the work day to run over to the space for whatever reason.