And So It Begins...

When I agreed to help direct this summer's Youth Drama Camp production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last January, I thought we had plenty of time to put everything together before August. So many months to nail down all those pesky administrative details -- like finding a place, securing the rights, arranging for the music, etc.

So when everything was kind of put on hold until a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking that perhaps we're getting too close to the actual Drama Camp week in order to pull this off. The other directors -- who have all done this before -- assured me that everything would be okay. They talked about how wonderful it is to watch God work miracles and accomplish the impossible at the last minute.

Still, I grumbled. I thought, "Oh, sure, God can pull it off at the last minute. But that's no excuse for not using the time we had available wisely. Now we're looking at needless stress." The other directors just smiled and patiently endured my reluctance.

Then it happened, and I'm now a believer.

We started off this morning finding out from the folks who hold the rights to the show that there may not be time to secure a license for our production. They said they'd try and rush things, and that we might call them back next week to see if it's even possible.

We also started off this morning with no background music for the show. Our time frame doesn't allow for live musicians (where would we get a rock opera orchestra to pull it off in a week, anyways?), so we were hoping to use a "karaoke" kind of CD that promised an all-instrumental version of the show. But when the CD arrived, we found that they had only left off the solo voices; all the chorus parts were still performed on the CD making it totally unusuable.

Over the past couple of days, I have spent many, many hours chasing down leads for an instrumenal recording of the show that we might use. The only things I found were either really, really bad (amateurish MIDI files of some of the songs) or in keys so high that there's no way the youth could perform it (i.e., Joseph would have to sing like Mickey Mouse).

No rights. No music. Both pretty serious obstacles to producing a musical.

Then God did his thing. Just a couple of hours after hearing that it may be weeks before we'd know anything about the rights, we received a license agreement from Rogers and Hammerstein. And they were very generous with a reduced cost for royalties. Things were looking better.

Unfortunately, the royalty fees are not the only costs associated with producing the show. They also require that we rent rehearsal materials (music for the musicians that we don't have, for example), and that became expensive. Very expensive. As in "well beyond our entire budget" expensive.

Meanwhile, I contacted Aztec Showtrax about renting recordings of an orchestral performance for the show. After talking with Ken (very nice guy!), they were eager to help us out. However, there are still some steep costs involved. Basically, they've had musicians perform and record the score for use in various theaters. Luckily, they've already done Joseph in the past and have the whole thing available right away. (Hmm... "luck" had nothing to do with it... *grin*) So when they rent the background trax, they have to pay a royalty to those musicians. They offered us an incredible deal because they want to support what we're doing here.

Still, a great deal doesn't accomplish much if we're already over budget with the license. So we contacted Rogers and Hammerstein again -- the folks who already were so generous with our royalty fees -- and they helped us by trimming expenses even further. In fact, they trimmed exactly what we needed in order to secure the musical trax and stay within budget. To the dollar.

See? That's just God showing off again!

We started this morning with nothing, and are finishing the day with a license and a complete musical performance that surpasses anything I could have anticipated.

I suppose this is just the beginning. After all, Joseph is a story about how God accomplishes unexpected, impossible, wonderful things even though the circumstances look totally bleak. I'm looking forward to seeing what else he has in store for us as the production continues!

(Oh yeah, one more thing. We've started receiving registrations and inquiries about auditioning for vocal leads. It really has begun...! And if anyone wants to know more, just check out the link at www.hopecf.net)