In mid-September, Karen and I hosted a dinner and table reading of the script around Karen’s dining room table.  It was a lovely reunion of past cast members, as well as a way to polish our book before NY.  At the end of September, we flew to New York to cast the show.  It was pouring with rain, but we hardly noticed!  We were at Ripley-Grier rehearsal studios, overlooking Broadway, auditioning actors and singers for our first New York reading. As soon as the casting notice went out, Playbill.com reported on it!  “Dan Fogelberg Musical Will Get NYC Staged Reading” (click red link to read).  There we were, the whole team sitting behind a long table: Karen and I, co-producer of the NYC presentation Warren Adams, director Lynne Taylor-Corbett, musical director Michael Moricz, and casting director Carol Hanzel.  A number of the actors from our previous West Coast readings submitted auditions on video.  Harley Jay, our wonderful “Sean” in the LA/San Diego readings, flew to NY to audition in person.  Of course, to Karen and me, Harley IS Sean, and happily, our colleagues agreed!  He was cast before he left the building.  We were over the moon to have Harley in NYC with us (to see why visit www.harleyjay.com).  The rest of the talented actors were cast out of New York City and we ended up with a terrific ensemble.  Hours after we locked them all down, Playbill.com ran another piece that Part of the Plan had been cast (click red link to read).

Karen and I flew home to Los Angeles and began to prepare for our return trip to New York, where we would present our show to investors and producers.  We had plenty to do to keep us busy and stave off the nerves:  there were invitations to send, rewrites of the book (hearing auditions helped us realize some changes to be made), and new music to arrange.  We brought on guitar virtuoso Laurence Juber, of Paul McCartney and Wings fame, to work with Victor on several songs that were guitar-driven, and the results with these two were breathtaking.  The musical interpretations of our story and Dan’s songs was one of the great creative experiences of our lives.  What a gift to work with such musical masters.  Then, of course, there was the matter of selecting a location for our two showcase performances.  We settled on St. Luke’s Theatre in the heart of Broadway’s theatre district.  We’d seen another staged reading there that our director had put up in the Spring.  It’s a real theatre, on a great street, and we were thrilled.

We arrived back in New York at the end of October and settled in for a week of rehearsals at Ripley-Grier Studios, which was beginning to feel like home away from home.  The rehearsal process was extraordinary.  To watch Lynne and Michael collaborate was a humbling experience because they are so, so good.  There is nothing like seeing seasoned professionals at work; to know they understand the heart of the story and communicate it to the actors so beautifully.  Creative ideas were flowing, rewrites were happening on the fly, and music was being further shaped and enhanced.  Michael added his own magic, and put together a band!  There are never enough hours for rehearsals, but after 29-hours with our actors, the equity maximum allowed, it was curtain up!

“Part of the Plan” played to packed houses and received standing ovations for both shows!  After the second performance, Warren threw us a cast party at E&E Grill, and we could barely keep our feet on the ground.  The show just seems to get better and better. So many of the audience were blown away, asking us “What do you need?” and “How can we help?”  That was exactly the purpose of this adventure.  Once again, Dan was smiling down on us.

That brings us to today.  Over the last few weeks, Karen and I have formed our own production company, and with a shout-out to our lovely friend and kind supporter, Lesley Hamer, we’ve named it K-Squared Entertainment.  (Get it?  Kate…Karen…K-Squared?  Wait’ll we unveil the logo!)  We are also forming a company called Part of the Plan, LLC that will allow us, along with partners and investors, to raise the capital we need to workshop and then mount our first commercial production!!!  And, of course, there’s the seemingly endless prospect of rewrites and polishes to make Part of the Plan the best it can be.

With the help of the Dan Fogelberg Foundation (thank you Deb Jelinek and Eric Mills), we have cross-referenced the U.S. cities where the majority of “Dan Fans” reside, along with large baby boomer populations (the primary theatre-going audience), and have come up with our own list of cities in which “Part of the Plan” could potentially premiere!  We are hoping that our next blog posting will announce a full production of “Part of the Plan” at a live theatre near you.  If you have thoughts on where that might be, reach out and let us know! Ever On!!! 

- Kate Atkinson

Starting mid-April 2014, Kate and I spent a month in NYC meeting Broadway professionals (can you say “Nederlander”?), checking out what was hot on the stage (15 shows in 30 days!), and making the commute to and from Brooklyn every day.  Of course it was spring, which meant the weather was…unreliable.  But even nasty colds couldn’t hold us two gals down.  Finally we returned to Los Angeles to prepare for the June staged readings. 

We brought on a talented and lovely director, Richard Israel.  Some of the cast members from our October readings were available, but many were tied up with other shows and their own busy lives.  In fact, our first "Rebecca", Lauren Shealy, was pregnant (and is now Mom to a beautiful little girl).  But we put together another terrific cast and began rehearsing for our next phase of Part of the Plan.  As an aside, our first “Sean” was going to be out of the country, but we were able to cast someone who’d been highly recommended: singer-songwriter and actor Harley Jay.  Harley spent three years on Broadway playing “Mark” in Rent.  His soulful rendition of “Leader of the Band” (with Laurence Juber on guitar) can be found by clicking here.

Once again, the Greenway Court Theatre served as our home for rehearsals and the first reading on June 18th.  We filled the house and had the pleasure of welcoming some significant players in the world of theatre, film, and television.  Warren Adams and Brandon Victor Dixon, co-producers of our upcoming showcase in NY, flew in so they could see the project on its feet.  Their experience of Part of the Plan that night made them even more passionate, and we all began to strategize our New York City showcase, which would take place in the fall.

The following morning, the cast, crew, and creative team drove to San Diego to present Part of the Plan to artistic directors and staff from regional theatres who came to town for the annual Theatre Communications Group conference.  We were able to present the show to multiple regional theatres, a wonderful opportunity given the fact that we want to further develop our show at one of these theatres.

After a rooftop reception and cast party atop the Tenth Avenue Arts Center in the heart of downtown San Diego, we returned home to LA, took a week to rest and recover, then went back to work on the book.  With fresh eyes, we began the process of reimagining certain elements of the show.   It ‘s always a challenge for writers to let go of moments we’ve fallen in love with.  But we know we have to be tough on ourselves, and make sure that every detail, every moment, serves the story.  In this rewrite, we lost lines, scenes, and even Pearl, one of our beloved characters. 

The rest of the summer was all about refining the book and coordinating the upcoming showcase in New York, which was set for early November.  Once it was confirmed that we would present Part of the Plan in New York City, the theatre gods smiled on us and we scored Tony-nominated director and choreographer, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, and the brilliant Broadway musical director Michael Moricz.  It was time to go to back to New York, where we would find the perfect cast… 

- Karen Harris