Meeting the Parentals...

For a young man in a relationship, meeting the girlfriend's parents is nerve-wracking, scary, and more than a little intimidating. Now imagine that feeling and multiply it times thirty —that is the fate that awaits me. Now, maybe I am exaggerating a tiny bit, but that is exactly how I feel about meeting the cast's parents. The idea of the parent-production staff meetings is simple — introduce the production staff to the parents. We also go over rules, get costume measurements, and try to pump the kids up for the coming weeks of work . Believe me —our rehearsals are work — fun work, but work none-the-less.


If the fear of auditions is scary, then the fear I feel towards the first cast meeting is the paramount of my nervous anxiety. People constantly say, "Will —you are the director. The parents are there to listen to you, and there is no reason to be scared." The thing is, I realize how irrational of a phobia it is, but just can't shake it. I feel almost disrespectful telling these parents, and worse, the kids close to my age—what they can and cannot do with their volunteer (summer no less!) time at Cotton Hall. Normally, I do as little talking as possible, and then pass off the meeting to Kate, who takes it home.

But this time around—I plan to master the parent-production crew meeting—to be as prepared as possible. We will pass out scripts and t-shirt forms, making sure to get the last remaining medical and press releases turned in. I also hope to get parental input on rehearsal times for the practice schedule—which will be finished and handed out at the cast movie night! After we talk a bit about the show, and introduce the kids and parents to the production crew, the kids will be split up among three stations. At one, they will order and pay for their cast tee-shirts, at another costume measurements will be taken, and the third will be for Med/ Press Releases to be turned in. I am PLANNING to be confident, and ready to attack (So to speak.)
Not to be stodgy and professional—I will be myself. It's important for the parents to know who will be watching their kids this summer—and I don't want them to think that they will be leaving their precious little bundles of joy with the "nervous looking kid who barely spoke at the first meeting" and his co-conspirators.

So hopefully there will be no gun-polishing father warning me to keep his little girl happy—and no reason to be fear being in charge.