#7: The Gentlemen's Ploy, We Have a Start!

I am taking a temporary break from posting about my favorite cast recordings to write about the preparations for The Gentlemen’s Ploy. Hopefully I can keep these posts up to date.

There is progress on the reading of The Gentlemen’s Ploy! I should say, on the semi-staged, off-book reading of The Gentlemen’s Ploy. Matt Pavik has graciously agreed to direct. We had our first meeting three weeks ago and started by discussing possible dates.

Actually, we discussed lots of other things first. You know how it is when old theater people get together. But finally we did get down to business and agreed on two possible dates in September and October.

Then we divvied up responsibilities. Somehow I had hoped that all of those would devolve on him, but in fact I was put in charge of finding a theater plus some other things. I had already done some research on theaters and we pretty quickly narrowed it down to three I should check on.

But it turns out that if your show has a cast of seventeen, as our production of The Gentlemen’s Ploy will, and if you want to keep it fairly intimate, there are not many choices here in Portland. Of the three we agreed on, two were not available and the third has no backstage. We had not considered the backstage situation. It seems that even if the most people you will have onstage at one time is ten, at some point you will still need room backstage for all seventeen, and that doesn’t work if you have no backstage.

So I checked back with Matt and he came up with two more options. But one would be too large for us to be able to fill. (If a theater seats 300 and you only have an audience of 80, no one is going to be happy, not the players, not the audience, and certainly not me.) On further consideration I decided the other one would not do because it is such a barn that we would have to put microphones on the all the performers, and I really do not want to do that.

So we met again last week and decided we would postpone the reading until next April and have it as part of the Fertile Ground Festival. I have checked with the theater and they have the time available for us. I will tour the facility this week and drop off the deposit and we will be on our way.

So get out your calendars and save the dates:

The Gentlemen’s Ploy

April 10th and 11th 2026

Chapel Theatre, Milwaukie

That’s pretty exciting, don’t you think?

In the meantime, there is a surprising amount that needs to be done. While Matt is rounding up a music director, a choreographer, a fight coordinator, a costume designer, a lighting designer, a stage manager, and of course seventeen actors, I have to finish the song I’m writing and... some other things, I think. I’m not sure what.

However, we have a start!I will fill you in as I learn more.