Adrienne Shelly's "The Morgan Stories"
by Kate Schumaecker

I've always been under the impression that, in the entertainment business, good things happen only to those who wait. The Morgan Stories, however, proved to me that good things also happen to those who have the skills and the confidence to make the good things happen to them. An opportunity to produce a theatrical piece came, when the Artistic Director of the Culture Project told me about the Women's Center Stage Festival. The month long festival was looking for theatrical work featuring women directors, producers, and various other female theatrical talents. Immediately I thought of WET, whom I had been working with on their Events Committee during their production of Scab. This was a perfect venue for WET and an excellent opportunity for me to co-produce my first theatrical event.

It so happened that across town Sasha Eden (Co-Artistic Director of WET) had just finished reading a screenplay written by Adrienne Shelly, entitled "The Morgan Stories." Taking place over 5 decades, "The Morgan Stories" tells the story of 3 generations of a family spanning the innocence of the Pre-Vietnam years through to the present. The story follows three sisters as they grow up. The Morgan sisters are shaped by events and beliefs of their times, by one another and by the men in their lives who are heroes, villains, and some, a combination of both. Dark, funny, biting, and full of hope, this story depicts an American Family, with all it's craziness and all it's love.

I told Sasha and Victoria (the other Artistic Director of WET) about the festival, and they thought the "Morgan Stories" would be the perfect match for it. Sasha propsed to Adrienne that WET produce a staged reading of her piece directed by Adrienne herself. Adrienne agreed, and Sasha sent me a proposal to give to the festival. I agreed to be a co-producer, along with Diane Murphy (another WET Events Committee Member). With a month to go before the performance, we were off and running.

After Sasha and Victoria chose our casting director, the incredibly talented Jessica Daniels, we each made lists of the actors we envisioned playing the many roles in "The Morgan Stories". By the time our first meeting with Jessica Daniels was over, I knew that this project was going to be very special. Scripts started flying all over town.

With Adrienne, Sasha, Victoria and Jessica on top of the casting, Diane and I began managing the post-party, which is a production within itself. After scouting and speaking with both the most generous and most intolerable of night club owners in NY, we ended up choosing the lovely and gracious "24/8": the basement pub space of Eight Mile Creek, on Mulberry street, between Prince and Spring. However, the day before the performance, ticket sales had climbed to almost all 300 seats, and we knew there was no way to fit 300 people into 24/8. Quickly, we switched our party to the spacious and wonderful- "Fuel at Phoebe's" where WET threw their famous Mardi Gras benefit party in March. Aggressively we went after alcohol sponsors, and were thrilled that Redrum and Tesoro Beer were able to provide for us as well as wine donated by Biagio Cru. The party was generously catered by Chef and Company. who had also catered the opening night of WET's play "Scab", as well as their tech week.

With two days to go, the large cast was finally assembled: Sterling Brown, Lynn Cohen, Billy Crudup, Sasha Eden, Saidah Arrida Ekulona, Glen Fleshler, Pam Grey, Tim Guinee, Jessica Hecht, Amy Locane, John Michalski, Chuck Montgomery, Paul Rudd, Callie Thorne and Ally Sheedy. WET's press representative, Ron Lasko, and the producing team alerted the press to the reading via fax, email, and phone. We were listed in Time Out for the reading as "the Chic and Sexy WET" (love that). The Events Committee hung up posters all over the city. Sasha and Victoria created programs with WET's art director, Scott Higgins. They hired a lighting board advisor, Elizabeth Greenman, and Stage Manager Samone Weissman. One day prior to our reading, with Diane Murphy manning the reservation line, almost all 300 seats were full, which is unheard of for a 6pm reading. We were ready for action.

The day of the reading we had one run-through rehearsal, made possible by our incredible and devoted cast, and Adrienne's clear, intelligent and strong direction. Last minute tech issues were handled with ease by stage manager Samone Weissman. At 5:00pm the line began forming at the box office, and by 5:30 circled the lobby. Diane Murphy made sure to keep the line moving, and WET's events committee passed out programs and ushered people into their seats. As I sat watching from the fully seated house that evening, you would have thought we had had months of prep time for this one fantastic evening that beautifully came together.

As a first time producer on this project I learned many valuable things. Aside from the basics-writing press releases, drawing up contracts for the party space, the art of coercion, the skill of communication, and the importance of cooperation-I also learned that there is no such thing as "not enough time to pull it together and to pull it together well".

Kate Schumaecker is the Director of Development at Chicagofilms where she works for the actor/director/producer Bob Balaban. Since "The Morgan Stories" she has been busy producing projects on her own . Contact her at kate@chicagofilms.com