Director's Biography and Notes

Bad Dates

Maurice LaMee

This is Maurice’s seventh year as the Executive/Artistic Director of the Creede Repertory Theatre and the tenth season he has directed at least one play for the company. He has overseen the production of over sixty plays for CRT and he has directed sixteen productions since 1997. As an actor or director he worked throughout Colorado, including the Denver Center Theatre Company, the Arvada Center, Littleton Town Hall Arts Center, Aspen Theatre in the Park, Country Dinner Playhouse, Elitch Theatre, Thunder River Theatre, Colorado Mountain College, Commonweal Theatre, and Colorado Rocky Mountain School. Maurice is a graduate of Loretto Heights College and the National Theatre Conservatory. He lives in Creede year-round with his family, actress Trary Maddalone and twin eight-year olds, Kieran and Genevieve.

Director's Notes

By Maurice LaMee

In the great tradition of the theatre going back to the Greeks, directors are a fairly recent addition to the list of jobs we think of as necessary to put on a play. One hundred and fifty years ago, they didn’t exist. When you have a perfect cast that is perfectly suited to a play, you begin to understand why. Directors are sometimes superfluous. This was certainly the case for Bad Dates—I was truly of very limited value here. Diana Dresser didn’t need me to help her figure out Haley Walker. She already understands the joys and burdens of single motherhood. Nor could I be much help in supplying funny anecdotes about the dating game. I haven’t dated in nearly twenty years. Diana has diaries full of these stories.

I did have the privilege of rehearsing for a few a weeks with this exceptionally brave-bright-funny-single-mom actress and struggling through her everyday life. And I was given the gift through Diana and Haley to witness two examples of women struggling to find a place for their work, their children, their obsessions, their fears and dreams while maintaining enough sanity to have a good laugh at the end of the day. It has been great fun, and I’ve learned a lot and laughed even more. What more could anyone ask of the theatre?

I thank my dear old friends at the Modern Muse Theatre for giving us the chance to partner with them on this project. Thank you Steve and Gabriella—a blessing from our old family to your shiny new one!