Today's name was Dominic Regner. As of this writing, the most recent addition to the TAPAS Discord server. He's been part of the team for a couple of years, he just didn't join the Discord until last week when his role started necessitating him to be there. That's not an interesting fact to lead with, what the heck am I talking about?
I've known Dominic since the very dawn of TAPAS, the moments that sparked the idea that I could get a team together -- for he was in Quincy Community Theatre's 2015 production of Spamalot that I joined while briefly in town visiting my grandpa, the thing that changed the very trajectory of my life.
Dominic was a member of the four-man male ensemble, and I tended to feel more comfortable with the ensemble guys, younger guys like me at the time, than with my fellow principle cast -- I was Sir Robin, an impressive get for a first-timer. Dominic highlights in the show include getting the baritone solo line of "I have to push the pram a lot~" and, when I doubled as the Swamp Castle guard who likes to keep things straight, it was Dominic (rather than the actor playing Patsy as is the show's usual tradition) who played my voiceless, hiccuping partner.
I... probaby saw Dominic a few times after that, nothing comes to mind, but we began interacting extensively starting in the 2021 production of Beauty and the Beast, in which we were both ensemble, where his impressive physicality was immediately noticeable; every gesture striking and deliberate, every cartwheel, brandished weapon, and wolf attack way more impressive than the other guys'.
Everything he does radiates discipline -- not for nothing, as he stays in shape by walking all the way to neighboring towns and back on long hikes he calls adventures, giving him a reputation as a local curiosity the papers call "the Highway Hiker".
Helpful, super friendly, throws himself 100% into everything he does. Near the end of the Beauty and the Beast production, as I was picking up a few extra team members, I asked Dominic if he'd be the production manager on Irregular Fantasy!, inspired by the stage managers I've known throughout my handful of QCT productions, the overseer of the entire production, organizer of all the director's ideas.
What holds TAPAS back a lot of the time is that I have ten years' worth of endless ideas that my brain just keeps on overflowing with, and though I've managed to write them all down, actually organizing them is a task that's not exactly getting any easier as the new ideas keep on comin'.
So, Dominic is credited as production manager on the Irregular Fantasy! teaser, but he didn't fully step into the role until about a month ago. The impact of a month ago can't be overstated -- along with Mason (currently serving as production manager on Keys & Kingdoms: The Choices in place of Gretchen, who's occupied at the moment by actually stage-managing the production of Matilda that Mason and Dominic were recently roped into as backup dancers), he assembled a very simple schedule of collective due dates for the entire team to follow as we progress through the production of both of those projects. It was brilliant, and ever since late December we've been meeting our deadlines; small ones for now as we kind of brush the dust off the rusted old TAPAS machine, as it were, but I feel (knock on wood) that we're getting on a roll and 2024 will be ours~
You've seen these images on the blog before, Dominic portraying Kyros and Draak in the reference photography for the Irreguar Fantasy teaser. Powerful, powerful posing. I'm excited to see more of that in particular from him, and I'm eager to see what he might have in store in the world of choreography, voice acting, maybe a bit more sound design which he also assisted with for the teaser, and insights he may have when we start bringing him in on podcasts. A solid, epic teammate we're all glad to have in our corner.
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