I’ve had some big news recently — in the midst of stage managing three shows at once, I got promoted to PSM of the third show: a new Off-Broadway musical called Triassic Parq. The show won Best Musical at the Fringe in 2010, and will be running at the Soho Playhouse this summer, with hopes of a longer commercial run.

In brief, it’s a musical based on Jurassic Park, as the name implies, but it’s not a straight musicalization of the movie. It’s actually the story of what the dinosaurs are doing when they’re not eating people. It’s very funny and surprising. I started reading it on my commute and actually had to be careful not to bust out laughing in public a few times. It’s also a script where the stage directions are really funny and sarcastic, which I always love, as it gives insight into the minds of the writers. I haven’t met most of the creative team yet, but I can tell this will be a fun room to work in.

Since my promotion, I’m just starting to get caught up with the basic things I need to do. We almost have a calendar. I have successfully scheduled a production meeting that almost everyone can make (a miracle!). I’m planning to put contact information into the database tonight, which sets me up to start getting actor conflicts. And I’ve got the rehearsal script ready to be turned into our master stage management script whenever I can get to it (currently planned for tomorrow).

I don’t have much to say (and I’m insanely busy because I overbooked myself not knowing I was doing Triassic, and failed to back out of any of the jobs in time, not knowing I would be PSM of Triassic!) But this has the makings of a show I will write about a lot. Not to put the cart before the horse, but I’m approaching this as if it’s a show I will have to maintain. At any rate I’ll have to maintain it for over two months. I have penciled in the first day I want to have understudy rehearsal for July 2. The important thing is that if the show isn’t well-documented from the start, it becomes much harder to work with it later, so I want to be very meticulous about everything, for my own sake.

The other great thing is that the director shares my love of new technology (and iPads!), and we are considering using the new Stage Write software to document our blocking. I’ve never felt comfortable with any method of digital blocking I’ve seen, and my main gripe with this app is that you can only export as PDF, not share the actual app data so that multiple people can edit it (I have emailed the developer, and this is planned for a future version). The exciting thing about this process is that being surrounded by a bunch of young, technology-friendly creatives, I’m much less afraid to try to reinvent theatrical paperwork, knowing we might have some growing pains along the way. This is going to be a show for imaginative problem-solving (and I’m thrilled to have already been able to contribute some ideas for staging), so I think I can dream big when it comes to how we use technology to create and maintain the show. I just wish I wasn’t so damn busy with other shows right now, so I could sit in my apartment and just meditate about software and paperwork all day!

We start rehearsal in two weeks! Stay tuned!