We’ve reached the midpoint of the summer! All the shows are up and running at IRT, the IRT-Y shows have been up and running since June 21st. We met this morning at 9:00a for a Pain*t pick-up rehearsal to rework a few areas.

I’ve really been happy with how Pain*t and Sydney have been performing. The audience response has been very positive. Most importantly, the kids in the audience really seem to enjoy them. Often, after Pain*t, the actors spend a half hour painting faces. The biggest challenge for IRT-Y has been getting the word out.

Lately, it’s been a part of our weekly routine to “paper” as many parking lots as we can with IRT-Y flyers. I'll admit it. It is a bit of a double standard. I really hate finding flyers on my windshield, but that effort combined with steady announcements before the mainstage shows seems to be working. Our attendance is steadily increasing each week.

In other news, I found out last week that I’m going to direct Euripides’ classic play The Trojan Women this next season for the U of I. It will perform in the same February/March slot as On the Verge. Much more about that project to come. Right now, I’ve just started researching the play and looking through various translations. Right now, I really like Nicholas Rudall's translation. It's modern without completely deconstructing the text. It's a good compromise. Anyway, it’s still fairly early. We’ll start design meetings in September.