Please forgive my blatant self promotion, but you might like my new musical comedy "Big Feet, Big Love." The show is certainly BIG with as much spicey dancing as your audience can handle. The stage directions suggest a mostly bare stage with easty to build spinning flats for quick scene changes. It's a new show and the music demo CD isn't finished yet, but you can download the one sheet and the script from the "My Files" on my MTI ShowSpace profile or from http://www.RodneyRobbins.com. (The MTI audio player might not be working yet, but MTI is working to get that fixed.) Read more about the new show at http://www.BigFeetBigLove.com.

Hey everyone who has helped me out by commenting, we had our meeting tonight and the show we decided on was Fame. We decided with the movie having just come out and whatnot it would bring in a lot of patronage. We're a newer group and we need all the money we can get and with the fan base we've begun to construct with our production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (which I co-directed and played VP Panch in) we decided Fame would be our best bet. Thank you all for your input! I'll keep in touch, posting pictures etc. throughout. That having been said, our next show is actually the straight play, Cheaper by the Dozen which goes up in February. Spring show is Fame. Summer show is Bare. After that it looks like our kids show for the season may wind up being Pinkalicious the Musical. Thanks again! -Dave

I think the FAME dvd is coming out in late January, so that should help too with audience interest. Please keep us posted on how it all goes. PS - can't wait to see your production photos from Spelling Bee - the promo shots are great.

Unfortunately, the production photos may not happen, our photographer dropped on us THE NIGHT he was supposed to be there. We had a DVD made for our records which I may try and screenshot out of. Thanks for your support Marcus!

Seussical would be great in a black box setting, that way you can just introduce simple bold colours through costume and oversized props. You can't create too much set for Seussical as it moves too quick. I have seen it done in the round really effectively! Les Mis SE is a great 1 too

I think Seussical works better without a big set. The material just doesn't support BIG, as evidenced by the Broadway production.

I wouldn't wanna do Seussical without a big set. Little Shop and Urinetown though both on my top 10 faves, have been done too much recently. And uh... Honk isn't uh... Very good. ;) I'd LOOOOOVE to do Parade...

HAIR would be fun!

I love Sweeney. Unfortunately it's been done too much around here recently to really be effective.

I've seen Parade done in a small space with minimal sets, and it was incredibly powerful.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, HONK!, URINETOWN and SEUSSICAL can all be done with very minimal sets and costuming and they work well in intimate spaces.

If you're looking for something darker, think about SWEENEY TODD - I've seen some really great productions in blackbox settings. Since most of the action takes place in the pie shop or the barbershop with a relatively limited set of central characters, the darkness and claustrophobia that a blackbox can provide can be used to great effect. And the proximity of your audience may eliminate the need for amplified voices.

Have you considered AIDA? That show could really be done with as much or as little set/costuming that the theater can afford. I would personally love to see AIDA done in a blackbox, because I think it would bring out the intimacy of the piece a lot more than it would on a traditional stage. Another show to consider would be Little Women. I think that piece would also be quite nice in a blackbox. Either of these shows would work and both are incredible.

Little women is a possibility. I like the idea of Aida in there too. I did a little research last night and though maybe Chorus Line, Cabaret, Pippin, and some others. I'll suggest Sida and LW too! We're having a board meeting Sunday at 8. We'll be discussing then. We just finished up our first small scale of the year which was The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, before that we did our kids show, Dear Edwina. Now we're doing our straight show, Cheaper by the Dozen. Good ideas though, thank you Sean! :)