christmas in the city

preparations for in^significant others (opening in february at pier 39) are getting more and more intense and exciting. we had a photo shoot last night and it was so great to see the members of the cast new and old working together and having fun. this is my third incarnation of this show, each time it grows, each time it is sad to see some of the kids go and exciting to meet and work with such talented new kids. jay’s song christmas in the city is going to get some airplay this holiday season in san Francisco (it is a great song) and several members of the cast are going caroling in the castro this weekend – singing some new lyrics jay has set to some traditional carols – should be pretty hilarious. raymond hong put together a great video of the tree lighting event at pier 39 where several members of the cast sang christmas in the city down at pier 39. the video is really great. we had a great kick off party at the hard rock café at pier 39 to promote the show for group sales leaders – we debuted the new wigs and gowns for our drag dreemgurlz (bobby and alex worked the room before the performances of a few numbers from the show). all of this is very exciting – we have a great new set design, costumes, etc. and everything is getting kicked up a notch for this great new run at pier 39.

My latest show LITTLE WOMEN

Little Women, the Broadway Musical opened at Palo Alto Players in Palo Alto this past weekend. It is a must see for this cast alone. I had a great time directing the show and it is absolutely charming. The photo is of Marmee and the girls. 10 Actors and an orchestra of the same size perform the show in Mary Craven's costumes on Kuo-Hao Lo's fantastic set under Jim Gross's beautiful lights. Stage Manager Allison Stamm runs a tight ship and the show is just delightful, if I do say so myself. But don't just take it from me. Check out these reviews! The cast is terrific.
San Mateo Daily News
Milpitas Post
It is really a beautiful show, eveyone did a fantastic job. Check out the Palo Alto Players website www.paplayers.org to get more info and buy tickets!

Jenny Giocomo Visits in September

My sister, Jenny, came for a visit to see Insignificant Others, to play a bit of tourist and have fun. We had a ball. We saw the show at Zeum a couple of times, we got 4th row center tickets to see Sweeney Todd and that was a great experience. Had dinner one at at John's Grill (the Dashiel Hammet/Maltese Falcon place).
We had brunch with our friend, Alvin, at one of our favorite spots - the Clement Street Bar and Grill and we had a little intimate soiree of just us four at Alvin's later that evening and we got Jenny to sing and Alvin and I played some really funny schlocky piano duets.
A good time was had by all. Jenny's hoping to make this an annual visit and we say here here to that! (or is it hear hear?) Enjoy these fun photos of us around town in San Francisco.


There we are at Alvin's Jenny, Rob and I flopped on Alvin's couch!

Becca's Visit

During the run of Insignificant Others at Zeum, friends and family from far and near came to visit and to see the show. One of our dearest friends, Becca spent time with us at Golden Gate Park at the Dahlia Garden and the Conservatory of Flowers. Becca and I worked in the theatre together in Southern California and Becca also studied voice with me. She now plays the guitar and the cello and writes her own songs. We'll probably hear her recordings on the internet before too long (hint hint Becca!)These photos are of Becca's visit in August

august first

once again an entire month has gone by since i last blogged here.


in^significant others opened and has been doing really well. the photograph is of our "taxi tops" that are appearing all over town this month (we had some last month, too but twice as many this month). getting the show open was so much work. we had very little time to build and load in our set and even less time to rehearse before previews. the two previews were a bit rocky - and then on opening night - the magic happened and the show was fantastic. we have such a talented cast and audiences are eating this up. the cd sales in the lobby are going really well (jay is signing them for people at most performances). we've been learning many things as we go along and ticket sales keep increasing. we have a great concessions person - nate! and he even spends time getting people to buy tickets at the tix booth in union square. nate is a keeper.

one of the things we didn't take into account in our pre planning was the laundry (duh) and so i have stepped up as the "wardrobe mistress" for the show. not too bad but next time we won't forget this crucial component!

there are some exciting plans in the works, that i'm not at liberty to talk about but will be able to in a couple of weeks or so.


angel face, word for word's noir thriller from the cornell woolrich short story is loading in from z space to the project artaud theater. previews start next tuesday, august 7th and the gala opening is august 10th. the play (another must see) is running through september 2nd.



another z space project - citizen josh - with our producing partner jonathan reinis productions - is beginning a limited run at berkeley rep on august 16 (will run through september 2nd). if you didn't get a chance to see this one man show from josh kornbluth earlier this summer at the magic theatre, don't miss it at berkeley rep. josh is a local national treasure and the show is a great exploration of democracy in action.

more later

- geo

two weeks to the opening of in^significant others

there are two weeks now until in^significant others opens at zeum. we had a run thru yesterday and it went very well - considering we haven't rehearsed for a week since many of us were off in sacramento performing homeland for the organization of chinese americans convention at the sacramento convention center. these photos are from that incredible experience (one of the cast and me on stage before the performance, the other of the house from the stage - jason hoover's photos from his phone camera). on sunday last the cast got together to review the music. then we reviewed staging and choreography for the next 3 days. on thursday we headed up to that huge theatre (where the national tour of light in the piazza had just closed) to "load in" our show. "load in" is in quotes because all we had to load was two chairs, two tv tray tables eight picket signs and costumes. the biggest part of the load in was the sound with which sharon and anton did a remarkable job. they did the sound for my recent production of songs for a new world and they're doing our sound for in^significant others at zeum. they got to hear the show for the first time as they worked it in rehearsal on thursday night. friday night's performance was the second time they had even heard the show and they did a wonderful job with the sound. very difficult thing to do in a huge space in which you've never even seen a production, let alone worked one. the i.a.t.s.e. union crew was terrific. especially larry, the electrician. the deal we had made was that we'd have "concert" lighting for the show and it would be basic lights on, lights off. during the rehearsal on thursday as larry watched the show, he wrote cues on the fly with our brilliant stage manager, gregory holmes. by friday night the show had some pretty light cues and was much better than we had dared expect it to look. david garcia's choreography looked much better on such a huge stage (it was really fun to watch from the balcony on thursday night). i got to roam the theatre and see the show from every angle of those 1,800 seats. while i was doing that, it occured to me that this show would look so beautiful in a broadway house. someday... the cast of homeland did an incredible job. sara hauter and alex rodriguez came to our rescue to replace will and kelly from our december production. you could never tell that they were not part of the original company from december. the cast was flawless and their trust, commitment, passion, energy, teamwork and sense of humor was astounding. i've never had this experience (putting up a show in one week in an 1,800 seat house!) before and hope to not have this kind of pressure again, but if i ever do, i hope it is with these people who made it so easy. take a look at www.homelandmusical.com where you'll see who they are and what we were doing. so now we're on to the next show. might not be able to write here much, but it is rather theraputic to just blurt all of this out.



the biggest thing i learned this week was to stay out of their way - not to interfere. not that i was completely successful at that, but when i was able to let them work it out, they did and it was fun and the result was terrific. i'm trying to do the same thing with in^significant others. give them what it is we want to see, etc. and then get out of their way and let them do it. staying out of the way at yesterday's rehearsal (for the most part) they were able to find their way, make their mistakes, have a lot of laughs (sometimes it is just too funny when things go wrong) and not have that horrible pressure that a director can put on a cast. the pressure never helps. being there to give them a safe space to work in, that seems to help. it also helps me to get ideas about what will make it work even better when i'm stepping back and letting it happen instead of trying to fiddle with it.

we're all pretty exhausted today and thankful for a day off. rob and i are taking sort of busman's holiday for me today and going down to palo alto players to see the closing performance of noises off. even on my day off i can't seem to stay out of a theatre or rehearsal hall!

Back to the Homeland

So this weekend has started off very well. David Garcia (choreographer of Insignificant Others and Homeland), Jay Kuo (composer/lyricist producer of Homeland and Insignificant Others) and I went to see the movie "Show Business" at the Opera Plaza cinema. The theatres there are tiny so it is always a very intimate experience. So there we sat, the three of us, Jay on my left, David on my right, watching this documentary that followed the Broadway shows Wicked, Caroline, or Change, Taboo and Avenue Q. A very well made documentary that for us show folk was a peak experience to be sure. The three of us have been working creatively together now for 18 months (David and Jay another year or more beyond that) and we have a long road ahead of us, but the way seems clear in so many ways. It is very frightening to think about the possibilities of success and failure as the stakes get higher and higher, but the thrill is invigorating, too. I must say I was quite moved by this film and it is not a "moving" film. I was moved because it seemed like another little nudge from somewhere telling us we're doing the right thing. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, don't look down - there's lots of people who will help you along the way even if some of them may be out for blood from time to time. (that photo is me in rehearsal for THE LAST SESSION in 2001)

I got home and started to work on HOMELAND again because we start a week of rehearsals before our one night only performance in Sacramento a week from tonight. It all came flooding back, the grand sweep of that show and all the intimate moments. We've got our work cut out for us, none of us has worked on this since last December. One foot in front of the other and don't look down.

We're going to have a San Francisco Cable Car (you know the kind on wheels) in the Pride Parade on Sunday for Insignificant Others. (It is such a gay musical about San Francisco - is that statement triple redundant?) The parade seems the perfect showcase for our commercial debut in 3 weeks.

Yes, Insignificant Others opens in three weeks and we are leaving it for a week to do Homeland in Sacramento. Show Business.

See the movie. See our shows. One foot in front of the other... don't look down.

june 18, 2007 in^significant others and homeland in one fell swoop

today is my father's birthday - happy birthday dad! and thursday is my mother's birthday - happy birthday mom! just got off the phone with them and we always talk for quite a while and have a lot of laughs.

so it is time to update this blog: the latest is that i've started working at the z space studio here in san francisco as the interim executive director. check out z at www.zspace.org and see what we're up to over there. three programs: word for word, youth arts and z plays run by three terrific artistic directors, susan harloe, joanne winter and lisa steindler. a great crew of people at the z space, david szlasa our production manager, clayton lord our marketing director and kasa cotugno our administrative coordinator are a small and mighty group. having all of the other theatre companies there sharing offices with us, too (cutting ball, crowded fire, fools fury to name only a few) is exciting. lots of creativity going on there.

in^Significant others - the musical we work shopped last summer @ NCTC (www.nctcsf.org) music and lyrics by jay kuo is opening on july 14 at zeum (www.isomusical.com) and i am having a great time directing this. everyone is doing their personal best. david garcia, our choreographer is doing amazing things with plumbing and office chairs on wheels... all of this is very exciting. keri fitch has agreed to do our costumes (i've worked with keri many times at NCTC and am thrilled to have her with us), cathie anderson who works at brava and did the lighting design for my recent production of songs for a new world at ray of light theatre is doing our lights. owen stephens is doing our set and everything is coming together really well. this show is going to be fun.

homeland again for one night only: you may remember we did a preview of one of jay's other original musicals homeland last december at the magic theatre. we're doing a one night concert performance for the oca national convention at the sacramento community center theater 1301 L street, in sacramento, on june 29, 2007 @ 8:30 pm check out the website www.homelandmusical.com

there hasn't really been time for much else so that's it for now. don't miss jay's daily blog about putting our show up at www.sfmusical.com it is a lot of fun.

- george

Jekyll & Hyde, Songs For A New World, in^significant others

We had a great run through Saturday of Jekyll & Hyde. This cast is really terrific and I think the show is going to be wonderful. We've got lots of work ahead of us and just the right amount of time to get it done. The costumes are looking terrific and all of the elements are starting to come together nicely. We will get on to the stage and our set in about 10 days. ...very exciting. This production opens at the end of April. Don’t miss it.

Check out some great photos at the Palo Alto Players website.



Songs For A New World rehearsals get underway on April 15. Our brilliant musical director, Ben Prince, will take the helm and the cast will be learning and refining the music during the first couple of weeks of rehearsal.
Ray Of Light Theatre is the producer of this show and it will be performed at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco starting May 11.




Music rehearsals are already underway for in^significant others. Jay Kuo has put up a blog that is a sort of live journal of our whole process in getting this show up. You can take a look at www.sfmusical.com and check out the shows own websitein^significant others for more info about this award winning original musical production.

Musical Theatre Update

Jay Kuo’s musical Insignificant Others was just awarded the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for best original script of a new musical! This is an exciting honor for this show that we’re going to be opening at the Zeum Theatre in Yerba Buena in mid-July. We have a great cast and will be starting rehearsals before you know it in June.
Check out the website for this world premiere musical production.


In the meantime, rehearsals for Jekyll & Hyde at Palo Alto Players continue to be fun and exciting. This is a really big show and we’re doing some fun and exciting things with it. This production opens at the end of April. Don’t miss it.
This is the Palo Alto Players website.


Another exciting project is Songs For A New World a revue of truly marvelous songs by genius songwriter Jason Robert Brown. His music is complex and beautiful. The lyrics are deep, moving, funny and thought provoking. Four talented singing actors will be performing this show for Ray Of Light Theatre Company at the Eureka Theatre in downtown San Francisco starting May 11th.
Ray Of Light Theatre is presenting a concert version of The Secret Garden this month before we start work on Songs For A New World.
http://www.roltheatre.com/index.html

I’m excited to be directing all three of these theatrical projects for 3 different companies! It is quite a busy spring. I hope everyone gets to see these shows between April and August of this year.

On Being Human - Making Mistakes

I saw this today and thought it was great. This is good stuff for me to remember as I am in rehearsals for Jekyll & Hyde and working to foster an environment where actors can create. A safe place for them to make mistakes. I think it is only through making those mistakes and having the freedom to make them that we arrive where we need to be in the process of making a play. The following is out of a book called Days of Healing, Days of Joy by Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty:

"I can't. I shouldn't. It's my fault." These self-abasing and self-defeating thoughts are expressions of shame. Because repeated thoughts turn into beliefs and long-held beliefs turn into actions, thoughts rooted in shame can lead to tragedy.

People who live in shame come to believe that it is not okay to make a mistake. They imagine they should know what to do without having to learn it. They think their wrong judgments mean they themselves are wrong.

But it is human to make mistakes. If we acknowledge we are human, we are defining ourselves as people who always have something to learn (Thomas Edison failed to perfect the light bulb until his ten-thousandth try). We are saying we have to keep going if our plans don't work out right away (Walt Disney went bankrupt seven times before he met with success).

"Thou shalt not be human" is the command of shame. What rubbish! How can we be anything else? Why would we want to be?

exciting news! ...new theatrical doings...

The big news for me is that Insignificant Others returns to the stage at Yerba Buena Center’s “Zeum” Theatre, in the heart of San Francisco’s Arts District. This Jay Kuo musical (directed by yours truly) roars back bigger and better than ever, with a live band and expanded cast. Don’t miss the must-see hit show of the summer!

Before that, I'm directing a new production of Jekyll & Hyde at the Palo Alto Players. This show opens on April 28th and promises to be a fun new version of this popular musical! I'm really excited to get started. We've assembled a great cast of 23 people, a terrific production team and musical director, Matthew Mattei will be conducting a 10 piece orchestra for this lavish production.

My website has been updated a bit (about time). Tightened up some things and changed some of the images. Let me know what you think!



Happy "Presidents' Day Weekend" - buy a mattress (isn't that what we're supposed to do?) or a truck or something.

Get out and see some theatre. Yeah, that's the ticket. - George

More Auditions (plus that beautiful boat!)

We had auditions for Jekyll & Hyde which I'm directing at Palo Alto Players (performances are April 28 thru May 13 - mark your calendar and buy tickets www.paplayers.org) and they were great. Such a huge turn out. Casting is never easy and made even more difficult when so many talented people turn out. We've got a very exciting cast and rehearsals start in a few weeks.

(just had to put in that photo of the boat!)

I'll be directing a new production of L. Jay Kuo's hit romantic musical comedy, Insignificant Others. The auditions on Feb 18-19 are nearly full. Don't miss your chance to come out for this show! ISO will play at the Zeum Theatre in Yerba Buena from July 13 through the end of August with a possible extension and will be a featured show at the SF Theatre Festival.

Audition dates: February 18-19, 2006

Send resume and headshots to significantjay@yahoo.com

Non-AEA.

Remaining Audition Times: 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. in half hour slots.

Audition location: 42nd Street Moon's rehearsal space at 250 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco at Van Ness and Grove.

Callbacks Feb 26th 6:00-10:00 p.m.

We are casting for the following 11 roles:

Margaret: 20s/30s mezzo with strong range, G to Eb. Plus sized, great
comic timing, nurturing, some cabaret style dance.

Jordan: 20s high bari or tenor, comedic role with dramatic versatility,
charismatic.
Jeannine: 20s mezzo-soprano. Strong belt to D, clear pop vocals.
Assertive, sexy.

Luke: 20s pop tenor - comfortable sustained G with pop to A. Sympathetic,
attractive.

Kristen: 20s Mezzo-soprano. Quirky expressions, patters well and harmonizes
excellently in tricky numbers.

Erik: 20s baritone (float to an E), good folk ballad voice, charming, can
play sexually ambiguous.

Andrew: 20s/30s - Baritone / bass - low G to Eb, dashing.

Ensemble/Understudies: 1 W, 20s mezzo soprano, 3 M 20s-30s, baritones or
tenors. Strong dance experience.
Swings: 1 W, 20s/30s alto or soprano, 1 M 20s/30s bari/tenor, strong dance
experience.

PERFECT

(photo is from "Park Takes The Stage" in Homeland)

This weekend -- the Theatre Bay Area annual general auditions. As a director - an auditor. Being at these auditions, I am reminded of the fact that we are not and never will be perfect. All of these talented Actors with just two minutes to show us what they can do. Just two minutes for us to imagine all of the possibilities for one of our upcoming productions. Whew! Perfectionism. It gets in the way as it imposes impossible, unrealistic ideals that guarantee failure. However, when we do not think we have to be perfect, then we can accept mistakes as learning experiences and be willing to try again.

We are not perfect -- we are growing. Accepting our own limitations makes us more tolerant of the faults and weaknesses of those around us. Together, we progress.

I am thankful that I don't need to be perfect!

I’m sharing some photos here from our workshop of “Homeland” last month at the Magic Theatre.

(photo is from "Across America" in Homeland")

Jay Kuo and I are looking at talent for upcoming productions of “Insignifiant Others” and a new musical that Jay is working on now called “All In.” I’m also casting for “Jekyll & Hyde” which I am directing at Palo Alto Players.


(Yilin Hsu and Luke Klipp as Rose and J.D. in Homeland)

There are so many wonderfully talented Actors here and while they may not think they are “perfect” most of them are absolutely right and wonderful. They provide those of us who love the theatre with endless opportunities for engaging storytelling and astonishing theatrical events.

Go see a play!

Happy New Year!

It is clear the future holds oppor-tunities - it also holds pitfalls. The trick will be to seize the oppor-tunities, avoid the pitfalls, and get back home by 6:00.
--Woody Allen

Sometimes we take ourselves far too seriously, drawing our lives in absolutes of black and white -- no shadings of gray, our whole lives depending upon every decision we make. We see a problem as a crisis rather than another of the ongoing issues that confront all people.

It might be helpful to look at today's problems as a game. Indeed, we would like to play the game well, but it is possible that we could have a good time doing it. If we don't take ourselves too seriously, we might have some fun.

Hope smiles on the threshold of the year to come, whispering that it will be happier.--Alfred, Lord Tennyson

At the start of this year, looking back at what has been, we see that our path has been filled with healing and hope. Now is a good time to make lists of the things we fear, the things we hope for, and the things we are grateful for. These lists serve as a kind of snapshot inventory of our attitude toward the world, pointing us in a direction for today and for the year ahead. Put these lists in a safe place until next year when we will bring them out as a reminder of where we were and a measure of how far we've come.

These inspirational words come from many sources.

The photo is by Ron Henggeler at www.ronhenggeler.com