I don’t know how many times a director or an artist gets to re-produce one of their own works. I did recently – re-staging my musical “A Tad of Trouble.” I wanted to make it better – much better than the original. And here’s 10 reasons why I think I succeeded:

1. Plot holes plugged – This was a huge one, for me, the writer. When I looked at the 2009 script, I cringed in many places. I loved the basic backbone of the story – naturally, or  I wouldn’t have wanted to do it again. But there were many plot issues which needed to be addressed. There were some random lines which meant nothing. Those were streamlined. What didn’t make sense or seemed unrealistic was completely redone. I’m real happy with the final product.

2. Set – Day and night! We had a simple backdrop for our first production. With this one, we created a cool above-ground-walkway structure for the angels which worked really well. We added a hanging fabric structure behind the angels and we had some amazing artwork from our art students. Not even close on this one.

3. Venue  – Our restaging was at penangpac. The original at Wawasan Open University. While the original venue was nice, the stage was very small. Penangpac enabled us to do it right. State of the art enjoyment!

4. Dancers – We had 5 experienced dancers for this production. Wow, what a contribution they made. We had a choreographer who worked tirelessly with this group. Excellent addition.

5. New Songs – I decided I wanted to make it a full-fledged musical so we added about 7 new songs to the mix of other original songs. They worked. Really worked. The saloon drinking song was excellent. The opening songs added so much! And the ending song was so touching, I cried every time I saw it! Wow!

6. Revising Scenes – There was a scene we deleted from the original. I brought it back and re-worked it to fit in and it was a nice addition.

7. New Ending – I decided that a re-staging needs to have a new ending. We rocked this ending. Loved it! (though I don’t want to give it away)

8. Bigger Cast – We had a cast of 29 this year, my largest ever. It created some great synergy on stage.

9. Bigger Crowd – We had big, rollicking crowds. Enough said!

10. I’m not the same director – I’ve learned a few things since 2009. This experience was invaluable for raising the bar and creating a great drama/musical.

So there it is. The re-staging was a huge success. So much fun. I shall miss “A Tad of Trouble,” but now it’s time to move on.