Our Big Opening

Hey all, it's Ryan, The House's development director. My "role" at The House is in fundraising, but since everyone else is busy putting the show up, I thought I'd give you my thoughts about Opening Night.

We're opening The House's version of THE NUTCRACKER tonight at Steppenwolf.

I could probably just stop there.

But for those of you who always have wondered what the big fuss is about Opening Nights, I'm willing to give you my two cents absolutely free of charge.

Opening Night is all about energy. To understand this energy at The House, you have to remember that we do all original work. ALL NEW PLAYS. Keep that in mind reading ahead...

The cast has been given new lines today, a song has been cut, the dance has been edited, and they now exit upstage left instead of downstage right in the second scene. There are so many "versions" of the show in their head that they are on the verge of a breakdown. Now we invite the press to come review their performance and write about it in nationally distributed newspapers. We also invite other people - friends, family and fans - to come experience this "play" that they've read about, but have never read or seen...until now.

So you have a nervous cast and crew, an eager gaggle of reviewers, and a boisterous group of cheerleaders in the same room for two hours. A member of the company takes the stage with "Welcome to The House." The lights go down. And we're all on the edge of our seats just waiting to see what happens.

I hope you enjoy the show.