Behind the Scenes of 'A Little Night Music' with the Players Guild of Dearborn

The decision to do Stephen Sondheim's musical, A Little Night Music, was made by the Players Guild of Dearborn's Board of Governors following a recommendation of the script committee.

Sally Goodman is the guild's script governor. Her seven-member committee spent the better part of a year reading, discussing, and evaluating hundreds of plays for the 2012-2013 season.

In considering shows, the committee looks at things such as costume costs, set peculiarities, and cast size. They discuss how the show will fit on the guild stage. They talk about it's appropriateness for guild audiences. They consider how well the show will draw. They literally consider hundreds of questions and concerns before making their selections.

For the 2012-2013 season, the committee selected to follow a "travel" theme and selected the five shows that made up the season.

Dracula, which is set in England, has a decidedly "European feel" given that the main character comes from Transylvania.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat is set in the Biblical lands of the Middle East.

First Things First returned audiences to England and to the London home of Pete, who suddenly discovered he had two wives. 

And, finally, A Little Night Music, is set in Sweden where, in winter, the sun never rises, and, in summer, the sun never sets.

The script committee then made a presentation to the 14-member Board of Governors who, as noted above, gave final approval to the committee's recommendation.

At the board level, there was a lot of discussion about A Little Night Music, ranging from the difficulty costuming the show, to the challenge of Sondheim's music, to the problem of finding the right singers, etc. In the end, the committee's recommendation prevailed and the season line-up was selected.

That didn't end the work of the script committee. They almost immediately turned their attention to the 2013-2014 season and those shows have already been selected and approved by the Board of Governors. But, that's a story for another day.