A quick update...

...explaining the lack of updates. I started this blog on Monday. On Tuesday, we had our first production staff meeting for Five Women. It was then that I learned that the show is slated to open September 1st. That's two weeks from today. I got the final prop list tonight. Which is thankfully pared down from the excessively specific prop list in the script. Thankfully except for the fact that I've been gathering props based on that original prop list, so about half of what I've got isn't needed.

Don't get me wrong. I seem to work best with a tight deadline, so I'm not upset or anything. It's just I've had almost no free time to sit down and write. Which is at least part one of the reasons I started this blog. I need to get into the habit of writing. Even if this never reaches a readership beyond myself, I want to make it as near to a daily thing as possible. I've kicked around the idea of writing many things over the years, including starting a blog. I've started several projects, but lost interest before they ever really got off the ground. This is, in part, an attempt to get used to writing regularly, so I can maybe be comfortable enough writing to actually finish something.

Basically, I have three goals for this site. One is the aforementioned training myself to write regularly. The second is essentially outlined in the inaugural post: create an open forum for theatre fans and participants in and around Omaha to discuss what's going on in Omaha theatre. The third is kind of a side effect of number two. That is to have a place to keep track of who is doing what in all the shows I see, and hopefully allow others to contribute about shows I didn't see, so I have a handy reference when TAG Award nominations roll around next year. An open reference that others can use as well.

If I was more ambitious, I'd start some kind of imdb equivalent for Omaha theatre. Something like the Internet Database In Omaha Theatre. Well, then again, maybe not.

Just Who Do I Think I Am, Anyway?

In a lot of ways, it doesn't really matter. I am speaking for no one but myself here. Not TAG. Not any of the theatres I've worked with. Not any newspapers, magazines, television stations or other media outlet. Well, except for this one blog of course. I guess I speak for it. If you really want to call a blog a "media outlet". Weirdo.

On the other hand, while it doesn't matter, I also don't plan on personally hiding behind a veil of anonymity. Even if I didn't put my real name here, anyone who's played trivia against me at Buffalo Wild Wings knows who Pooga is. If you met me first online, I've pretty much always been Pooga. Why Pooga? Googling for my name recently I found a post where I explained it this way back in 2000:

As to why I always use Pooga (as opposed to some other unique and better sounding name)... I dunno. It's an extension of myself. Pooga is my Kermit the Frog.

As to where it came from... The exact roots are a bit painful, but it's a mutation of a nickname given in cruelty during high school. My sophomore year, the senior class was reading a certain novel by William Golding. They also saw the movie adaptation, and noted a strong resemblance between myself and one of the main characters (hint: it wasn't Ralph or Jack).

Eventually, once it failed to provoke the desired indignant and flustered response from me, the seniors laid off chanting it whenever I'd walk by. Unfortunately by this time my own classmates had picked up on it. After that somewhere, it mutated to Pooga. Pooga came in handy in computer classes, where it gave birth to "Pooglian logic" (where the possible states are "true", "false", and "maybe").

In college, I temporarily lost track of Pooga. I didn't dislike the nickname anymore, but there really seemed to be no point in using it. Then a high school classmate transferred to UNL (the standard fallback school for anyone in my high school who couldn't hack it at a real college) and joined the campus Roleplaying group of which I was already a member. Suddenly I was Pooga to all my friends again. This time it stuck with me until I joined Prodigy.

While I'm rarely Pooga in real life anymore, online I've rarely been anything else. If you see a Pooga elsewhere, odds are good that it's me.

You know, no matter how many times I tell that story, it never gets interesting...

To those who know me in real life, I'm much more likely to be Dan Baye. I've been passively involved in theatre for probably about ten years or so. Mostly helping backstage on the occasional production at the Grand Olde Players Theatre. More often than not, it was a show in which my brother, the much more well known Edd Baye, was performing, and they desperately needed someone to help out at the last minute. I'd get involved for a show or maybe two and then go a year or more before getting involved in the next one, usually with Edd pushing me into it.

It's not that I didn't enjoy it. I did. It's just that theatre had always been his thing. I'm a computer geek and bookworm; he's the actor. Plus, working mainly at the GOP, I came to the conclusion I could only take theatre work in small doses, spread out over time. It seemed two shows in a row was about all the theatre I could handle.

Then, just about this time last year, something changed. Edd had failed to convince me to act in the now defunct Dundee Dinner Theatre's production of Annie, but at the very last minute (Wednesday of tech week) he got me to run the lights and sound. At the end of it's eight week run, Edd was acting in Talk Radio at the Baby D. They needed someone for a tiny on-stage role and to voice several of the callers (I got in at the start of tech week this time). Next it was a spotlight runner needed at the Millennium, where Edd was starring in the Stages of Omaha production of The Fix. When Edd was cast again at the Baby D, in Baby D Gets a Woody (don't ask), I actually volunteered to stage manage. At the Baby D, the role was less that of an actual stage manager than that of light/sound operator, box office manager and concessions runner. I stayed on there voluntarily as stage manager for the rest of Baby D's season. Since Baby D's season ended I've run lights for Chanticleer's production of Big River and True West at the Creighton University Studio Theatre (produced by B-Rated Theatre and the Shelterbelt). And it looks like I'll be working on Five Women Wearing the Same Dress at the Millennium into September, and then Clockwork Orange at Baby D after that.

My talents as an actor are... nominal at best. Aside from the aforementioned Talk Radio, I figure I've had a total of three and a half stage roles in my lifetime. The first, playing a leprechaun in a 2nd grade class production at Howard Kennedy Elementary was so long ago that I remember almost nothing about it. It was many years before I was offered another role. Or really more like half a role. If that. Technically I was listed as part of the cast in Little Shop of Horrors at the Chanticleer, but my "role" was to control the small hand puppet version of the plant from under the counter. The rest of the show I was essentially backstage crew. Next came my biggest role to date. I was Schroeder in You're a Good Man Charlie Brown at the GOP. Due to a combination of promotional snags and a lack of any reviews whatsoever, I believe it might have been their least attended musical production ever. A few years after that they got me to come back again and play a dual role of office boy and news reporter in The Solid Gold Cadillac. The roles were so forgettable that I can't even recall their names, and I played them. I think maybe the reporter was Kent something. Or is that the reporter from the Simpsons?

Well, lucky for you, this is a bit shorter than it was originally! I had another paragraph summarizing my social life (minimal to none) and day job (uninteresting and not something I'm allowed to talk about in detail anyway). Either I messed up, or Blogger did, but I lost everything after "Schroeder" up above. It's probably a good thing. This post is boring enough as it is.

So, next up: I'll try to come up with some ground rules for the site, and maybe a mission statement. Then on to something actually dealing with theatre. Hopefully.

The Lie Behind the Name

So... why Untagged, exactly? Well, if you're here, it's probably because someone in the Omaha theatre community has told you about this site. Probably me. Unless you're visiting this site six months from now, when word of mouth has made it successful beyond my wildest expectations, when everyone visits daily to find out the latest about what's going on in the Omaha theatre community (like I ever really know what's going on). Or maybe you're blog surfing or something. Whatever. You're here. You might as well find out where "here" is.

This is a site where I plan to post news and reviews of shows taking place in and around Omaha, Nebraska. Which, if you know anything about Omaha theatre, makes the title Untagged sound somewhat... ungrateful. It's not really meant that way, but I can easily understand the misperception.

A miniscule amount of information for those of you not involved in Omaha theatre: the Theatre Arts Guild, or TAG, is a non-profit organization that does much to promote and support live theatre in Omaha. There are about 400 members, according to the 2005 membership roster, most of which are actively involved in the theatre community in some way. As they point out on their website, there are "over 35 active production companies" and "over 250 productions mounted each year" on Omaha stages. Obviously, only a fraction of those involved in Omaha theatre are part of TAG. I mean, there is a lot of crossover of personnel between theaters, but it would still be stretching things a bit thin to have only 400 or so people put on 250 shows.

Even within TAG, there is a great range of opinion on the effectiveness and/or appropriateness of their (or our, since I am a TAG member myself) efforts. If anyone else finds their way here, I'll let them express their own opinions. My own opinion is that pretty much everyone in TAG, and especially those on the board, honestly feel they are doing their part to fulfill the mission of TAG, which is (short form): "To raise awareness of and participation in live theatre in the metropolitan Omaha, Nebraska community". The problem is that not everybody agrees on what's the best way to do that. Sometimes they disagree quite vocally. And some of those disagreements lead to denigrating the role of TAG in the theatre community.

That's not what this blog is for. And while there may be some overlap, I don't intend for this site to duplicate what can be found on the TAG site, either. They usually do a great job announcing upcoming shows. If given the information in time, they also do a good job with audition announcements and job opportunities. But, by the very nature of the organization, they can't exactly post what you (or at least I) really want to see: reviews. Biased, opinionated reviews. Reviews that say, "Yes, this show stinks as much as I figured it would," or "Wow! This is the most amazing time I've spent in the theater ever, except for that one time in the light booth with Liz, when it was so hot that we both... er... yeah. Great show."

Some shows fall below the radar of the World Herald and the Reader. Other times you may want to find out if that scathing or raving review actually reflects what the rest of the audience thought. Or you just want to get some instant feedback on preview night. Whatever. While the TAG site is very informative, it really can't be opinionated. That's where we come in. (Okay, just me at the moment, but that doesn't scan as well.)

It may be reasoned and thoughtful analysis, or it may be sheer emotional gut reaction, but hopefully this will be the site you can turn to for reactions. To find out whether that short-run production clear across town on the same nights as your show is running is worth finding a way to catch. Or to get some honest feedback on how you screwed up your own performance that people just won't tell you to face at the post-show party.

So I made this site Untagged mostly to make it clear that it's not a site endorsed by the TAG board, or anyone in the theatre community except me. If all goes well, there will be others posting here about shows I wasn't able to see. And open threads where everyone can post, for shows I couldn't find anyone to officially (as much as anything in a blog is "official") review.

While I've been on and around blogs for a few years now, this is the first one I've created. So there will probably be a bit of a learning curve as to what works and what doesn't. It might be that reviews become only a small part of the mission of this blog. I still don't know yet what's in place around here with regards to who can comment, whether you need to be registered or can post anonymously, or what. And what degree of control I have over those and other aspects of the site. Right now, I'm using a blogspot default template, but I hope to change that soon.

I should probably add something here about who I am. Unfortunately, it's getting pretty late and I have work in the morning. The bio post will have to wait until tomorrow. Okay, technically later today, but you know what I meant.

Anyway, from here I guess we'll find out together what this site is going to be. Let's hope I don't screw it up too badly. Welcome.