Five years ago, I had a really great CREATIVITY LESSON. Would I want this to happen again? No. But I did learn something absolutely awesome, for I was able to make a little bit of lemonade, out of a very sour lemon.

For our 10th Anniversary Event at Manhattan Rep, we decided (because it is great fun and we like fun) to bring back my crazy fun play about dating, THE MATCH GAME for a very limited run. Jen Pierro, my partner in life and Manhattan Rep and I actually met during a production of this play many years ago so we thought it would be FUN and fitting to bring back THE MATCH GAME to celebrate our Tenth.

Initially, rehearsals went great. It was awesome to step back into this play and participate in the FUN of acting with Jenny again. It was such fun and going so well, and then suddenly, a week before opening, an original member of The Match Game cast (my dear friend Anthony J. Ribustello) had a health issue and had to pull out of the production. We frantically looked for a replacement who was right for this role who could get it together in time but to no avail. It looked like we were going to have to cancel the 10th Anniversary production of THE MATCH GAME.

I hate to give up. I just do. Giving up is not in my nature. If I choose to do something, I will do my crazy best to make it happen, and I fervently believe THE SHOW MUST GO ON.

So sitting in front of my computer, late one night a week before The Match Game was supposed to open, I made a crazy choice.

I would rewrite THE MATCH GAME and make it work.

What? Pull out this Anthony’s character? What?

Yes, and I did just that.

I literally pulled Anthony’s character off stage and made him a much smaller off stage presence with some creative phone calls which would be voiced by pre-recorded sound bytes. Phone calls were already a part of THE MATCH GAME but I figured I could use this phone vehicle to propel the story and still present the true essence of The Match Game and Big Bobby B, the missing now off-stage character.

The cast was concerned and ready to call it quits but I convinced them to give my rewrites a chance. I was determined to make this work.

So that weekend, I recorded the off stage voice of BIG BOBBY B and I put together a rocking crazy fun soundtrack that would power The Match Game through to its crazy fun conclusion.

Spending hours and hours putting this all together, I just barely got it done in time for our Sunday TECH rehearsal. Luckily, we were blessed with one of the best Sound Light technicians in the world, Katherine Cartusciello, who took my 95 sound cues and created theatrical magic. Our tech took only two and a half hours (The show is 90 minutes.) and when we ended, we all knew it was going to work. We had our dress after that, and WOW, a miracle! The play was tighter, more concise, and more streamlined than ever before! And then we opened, and it was such awesome fun!

(BELOW IS VIDEO TRAILER # 1 FOR THE MATCH GAME 2015 LIMITED RUN.)

Choosing to let go of something in this context worked.

I let go of the old way of telling this story and I found another way which actually worked too. I had one of our resident playwrights attend on opening night and he was struck by the dialogue and the acting work in the show, AND he had no idea we had actually taken a character offstage. No idea! Crazy fun!

Do I want this to happen when I produce my next play? Absolutely not. But I do know that when the going gets tough, CREATIVITY is the answer.

Accept what is. Get creative with it, and then make it work.

Below is a blind date scene between Peggy Sue (Jennifer Pierro) and Ted Fox (Yeah, that’s me.) This is fun.