After a little over a year since the last short film I worked on, it was a blast to get a short done for TIMECODE NOLA’s Joint Picture Project.
Not only that, but we won first place! Our team got a high-end editing suite from festival sponsors Adobe and a valuable weekend camera package.
Big thanks to producer TJ Federico for putting together such a professional crew, director Bron Moyi for his vision, and Francesca McKenzie and Susan Gordon for their acting contributions.
Running April 10 – May 31 at the National WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen is “On the Air 2,” a brand new jukebox musical written by Cavan Hallman (that’s me), directed by Victoria Reed.
I was thrilled to get a commission with one of the most prestigious venues in New Orleans, working with Equity actors to create a sequel to their beloved musical “On the Air.”
It was a pretty crazy task, having about 30 days to build the story and book to a musical set in an era I had never researched, but we did it!
Come see it weekends through the end of May for “jokes (that) land well.”
It’s been almost ten years since the last one, and I’m very proud to be performing on the stage of Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, the oldest playhouse in New Orleans.
The person initially cast as Jesus got in an accident (don’t worry, he’s okay) and someone from the cast stepped up, leaving a role to fill. Now, I’m hitting the high notes while orchestrating the death of our lord and savior four times a week as “Annas.” Hope you get a chance to see it!
I’m performing a monologue at The Shadowbox Theatre Dec. 18-21 as part of The Elm Theatre’s show, “The Naughty List.” It should be a fun little holiday romp, and I’ve been feeling the performance bug, and looking to get involved with more companies here. Cant’ wait!
Well, I guess it’s actually winter break, but I live in the tropics again, so every break that isn’t summer vacation is Spring Break!
And in case you were wondering, yes, Spring Break! must always have initial caps, followed by an exclamation point.
I’ll be in the lovely city of Chicago for the last two weekends in August, prepping four companies of actors to tour my latest version of Aladdin.
I first started working with Windy City in the fall of ’99, touring for three months in a terrible production of The Secret Garden. When the tour was done, I informed the producer of exactly how terrible this script was (this was even before the half-assed puppetry was accounted for), and he responded by hiring me to write and direct the next fall’s production. Now the kindergarteners from my first year on the job are entering their senior years of college, and I have gray hairs — if you look close enough.
In those first few years I had serious concerns about “selling out” and the drudgery of working on a project that didn’t have my full heart behind it. But the truth is that I’ve decided that I want my job to be that of a storyteller. That is my defining role, like when Donovan talk-sings about the farmer, and the poet, and the carpenter, and the rest of the mish-mash of characters on his weird ark in Atlantis, I want to be the storyteller. And if we look at the carpenter, I’m sure he has a lot of projects that fulfill the shit out of his little woodworking heart, but sometimes the other people in your tribe need a house. Not a fancy Frank Lloyd Wright you’lll have a place to sleep in a couple years house, but a roof. Say, right now. It’s okay to just build a house. As long as you build it well. It’s your fucking job. Call all of that a justification, or just call it growing up. I love that someone pays me to write and direct theatre. And every night I go to bed in the fall, I know that 6,000 kids across the country saw my play that day, and that’s pretty damn special, and I’m pretty damn grateful to do it.