Every year as I'm busy writing music arrangements and helping make design decisions for Fall shows, I bump up against directors or staff members who feel they need to micro-manage the process.  I understand how this happens.  The stakes are high for everyone.  But I want to remind you that if you have gone to the trouble to hire good people who you trust to do good work for you, then please TRUST them to do that work!

I explain to every client that I am willing to work within their comfort zone.  They need to be honest and tell me how must creative freedom they are comfortable giving me.  Some directors will say "I want a show based on 'Wicked'…go do your thing" and others will give me a recording of the exact cuts of the exact songs they want in the exact format, down to the second.  Thankfully, there are few of these second type, because I can do my best work with as much creative freedom as possible.  But the staff needs to figure out what they are comfortable with.

There's no doubt that for me, I do my best work with as much lattitude given as possible.  Recently I was working on a show and I realized that "Hall of the Mt. King" worked perfectly with the song I was arranging.  It also was perfect for the tone and theme of the show.  So I was able to include some snippets of that song, hoping that judges and audiences will "get" the clever moments when it occurs to support the mood of the moment.  (I always say that I like to feel SMART when I watch a show, and I love to include things like this that an educated audience member can enjoy.)

I never could have created this clever musical moment if I had not been given a lot of flexibility. This director trusts me to do my work, and he understands that I can do my BEST work with the flexibility to be creative and follow an idea that comes to me as I'm working.  So I encourage you to remember that you spent the money to hire certain people because you love what they do, what they create, and how their shows turn out.  So trust them and leave them alone to DO that work.  You'll have plenty of time to weigh in, I promise.  It's YOUR show.  But allow me and my fellow designers to do our best work, be creative, and this will allow you to have moments and ideas in your show that no one would ever expect!  And we all want that for our band.