#IStandWithTheREP In Summer of 2011, after directing Tom - TopicsExpress

#IStandWithTheREP In Summer of 2011, after directing Tom Sawyer at The CTG and All My Sons at the SCV Space, a slot opened up at the REP due to not getting the rights to the show they were going to do. I approached O about being interested in directing and he asked me what show I wanted to do. I took him a script that I have loved since I read it back in 1991 called The Boys Next Door. They agreed to take a chance on me and my vision for this challenging, and potentially risky, but beautiful script. They were respectful and trusting of my vision for this play and never treated me like a first time director who needed to be micro managed (although they would have been justified to do so.) In short it was hands down the greatest experience I have had doing theatre in the 25 or so years I have been involved with it as an actor, crew member or director. The show was heartwarming and honest and portrayed characters with developmental disabilities not as caricatures but as people with stories to tell. I was incredibly blessed to have the most incredible cast a director could ask for to help pull something like this off in Gregor Manns, George Cummings, Jennifer Beth, Jeff Alan-Lee, Barry Agin, Kevin Rhedin, Marc Segal, Michael Collins and Carole Catanzaro. With the help of my friend Michael Keane we had a great time with an important piece of theatre. THAT is what I think of when I think of the REP. That and the hard work and dedication of Mikee Schwinn and Ovington Michael Owston and the way I was treated there. Thank you and may you be around for decades to come!