Why So "Busy"?

Yesterday, I posted on Facebook, that I wouldn't be able to publish a blog post because it was such a busy day.  And it really was an incredibly busy day. 

Yesterday was the first day of TUTS summer camp for the year, and also our final day of callback auditions for their teenage production of Legally Blonde. 

This is my fourth year to do the TUTS summer camp, and I've really enjoyed every minute of it!  I originally got the gig as the summer music director when I was asked to leave HITS Theatre in May of 2009.  It was kind of funny to me that day, because I walked out of a meeting with the Executive Director and the President of the Board at HITS where they tried to tell me that no one else in town pays the rate that they were paying me, and I made a phone call to Shay Rogers, the education coordinator at TUTS to see if they needed a pianist for the summer that year.  By time I'd walked from the office to my car, I'd lined up a full summer of work at TUTS making significantly more than I was at HITS!!  Thankfully, that one summer has now turned into four summers worth of work, not to mention the "in" it got me to playing shows at TUTS like the national tours of Legally Blonde, Happy Days, Wicked, and West Side Story, and the local productions of Cabaret, and Miss Saigon.   I very likely would not have gotten to play those shows if it were not for me parting ways with HITS.  What a blessing in disguise!

Like I mentioned above, the other big task yesterday was to finally get our production of Legally Blonde cast.  That feels like it has been a terribly long process!  I think we had three days of open auditions, and three days of callbacks.  That doesn't sound terribly long, but it has been over a span of a month and a half.  At least after all of that, it feels like we have a very good cast of Houston teenagers in this show.  The talent of these young men and women just absolutely amazes me every year.  This will be the third year in a row that I've been involved with the fall musical for the Humphrey's School of Musical Theatre.  Two years ago, we the The Who's Tommy, and last year, we did a show written by a native of Houston, Steven Jamail, called Vote!  Although the casts for both of these shows were made up entirely of teenagers, I'd put both of these productions in my top ten of personal experiences!!  That's why I am so thrilled to get the opportunity this year to be the musical director and conductor!  I can't wait to get into rehearsals, and you can be certain that there will be pictures, videos, and blog posts through out that experience!!

Peace Out,
Luke