(Black Cat) Two Rooms

Lessons learned 

This was a show where I had to learn the hard lesson of what it was like to be an artistic director. After the first two weekends, unfortunately, the lead actress Denise Capuozzo had to leave since her grandfather was gravely ill. We wished her the best, and I was left with the problem of a weekend of the show to go. Sammi the director wanted to pull the show saying ‘any changes would not be her vision’. But, since all the other actors wanted to continue. Plus, this was our opening season, and we had tickets sold. I decided it would be best to continue and stepped in. I found a replacement actress for the role, in the lovely Karen Bogen (Matt’s wife), who volunteered to play the role. She was 6 months pregnant with their son Jon at the time. I had a read-through of the script with her on a Tuesday. A full-cast brush up Wed or Thurs. Then we were up! We did away with all the blocking concerning Karen’s character. Putting her behind a podium, which hid her condition and held her script. I informed the audience before the shows that there was a casting change, and if they were there to see the previous actress, I’d refund their ticket. None took the offer up and at the end of each show, there were murmurs from the audience. When Karen, very obviously pregnant, stepped out from behind the podium. Quite rightly, she was complemented by many folks about how well she’d handled such a tough situation.