I've decided it's time to tell our story, brief as it is up to this point. Though there's a more detailed history of the producers to be added to this blog, we'll focus today on the history of the dinner theater itself. And, because our company produces stories in three Acts, I've further decided to tell this story in three Acts as well. (I'll also use the third person. Why? Maybe because it sounds cool; maybe because I'm a Bob Dole fan)
ACT I: Introduction & Prologue
Our story begins simply, with a musician (Miciah Dodge) and an actress (Jori Dodge) doing their best to support and raise their family. As his day job Miciah worked as a piano teacher; at night he was a Musical Director for various theaters across the Valley. Jori took care of the lit'luns at home and generally kept the domestic order. On the weekends, however, both Miciah and Jori had a different job: dinner theater! Miciah played a pretty mean piano and Jori was a fabulous actress in any role she took (which were most of the roles in the show). They had a good time doing it and made a little extra money, and what could be more fun than being silly and pretending for a living? Not much, I think! But, as all good things must do, this would eventually come to an end.
ACT II: Rising Action
After Miciah being with the dinner theater for over 10 years and about 4 years for Jori, they noticed things starting to head South. Little problems appeared at first then developed into larger and larger ones, until--after actors leaving, preventable mishaps, and a general lack of management--the two decided to call it quits. It had been in their minds to start their own company anyway, and finally here was the opportunity! They'd both learned the business by being involved in all aspects of it (that tends to happen after 10 years or so), and they had some ideas on how it could be improved. They set out to build the best dinner theater in the Valley; "excellence" would be the keystone in the bridge that would eventually lead to...
ACT III: Climax!
After many, many, many hours and hundreds of thousands of keystrokes in various word processing/spreadsheet programs, Dead By Dessert Dinner Theater was born! The first order of the day was a business plan which emphasized some of the things they wanted to bring to the business--as well as things that they did not want to bring to it. Though business plans are a pain in general, the important part of it--Values, Vision, Mission Statement--came easily and further cemented the idea that this one would work. Since then everything came not necessarily easily, but well. The script was wonderful, auditions were filled with fantastic actors, the host venue (Dave & Busters) turned out even better than they could have hoped. These are only the highlights, though; everything up 'til now has gone surprisingly well. The energy, chemistry and elegant simplicity with which everything came together was astounding.
Epilogue (back in first person)
Now only three weeks from our Opening Night, we're terribly excited about the future of this company. From day one every step we've taken has been a step up, and it feels like the Universe is "pulling" for us. Even after only three rehearsals the show is funny and interesting, and we have several more to go to polish things up. We're selling tickets, we've got a pretty massive online presence and our host venue continues to delight us.
Are you interested in seeing the outcome of our efforts? Come to one of our shows, you won't be disappointed.
