Day 423: Celeste(a)

I'm not sure if it's spelled Celeste or Celesta because I've seen it both ways and heard reasons to explain each spelling. That tiny logistic aside, I have been granted the opportunity of playing the Celeste during The Music Man. Several golden age musicals (since it was before the days of keyboards and synthesizers) had piano books in the orchestration and often these books required the player to double on Celeste. So what happens, is both instruments are in an L shape and when it indicates you rotate and play a few delicate chords on the Celeste. If you don't know what it is, it looks like a keyboard, sounds an octave above where played and written, and is made of a series of bells to sound like a music box. In the show it is used in the ballads, and is most featured in Goodnight, my someone. I love the pretty sound of it, that I wouldn't mind playing the whole show on it, but that would sound a little silly especially in Trouble or The Wells Fargo Wagon. I never thought we would get to actually play one or that the school even had one. We do though and I'm thrilled. I love it here!!! The day they rolled it in, I just had to take a photo:

Day 421 and 422: Sick Pit

I'm not sure what happened during this closing weekend of The Wiz, but the orchestra pit ended the show on a sick note. I don't mean that in good or bad terms of the music, but in literal terms of health. Without going into too much detail, several musicians had some sort of stomach bug. With each performance from Friday through the matinee and evening on Saturday and the closing matinee on Sunday people were sick as dogs. To put it simply, the trash can was passed throughout the drummer, the cellist, the guitarist, the violinist, the trumpet player, and the flute/piccolo player. However, the show went on and not a single person could tell because we all played as if we were the healthiest people there.

Day 420: Band Day

Today, we staged the finale of The Music Man. For those of you who aren't familiar with the musical, it ends by the sold boys band being created. Even though they are terrible, the parents are so proud of the kids that the town forgives the conman and they all live happily ever after. Therefore, in order to have a band, there needs to be instruments, so today was band day. All of the children were told where to go and then instruments were assigned (generally assigned by age, strength, and other logical factors). It was a really exciting process to watch. The kids looked so thrilled, and we all walked around showing them how to hold them and look like they were really playing them. Not only was it a lot of fun, it was simply adorable. I'm not the biggest fan of kids in rehearsals but you couldn't help but fall in love with the kids band especially this little five year old holding a piccolo. I took photos and it can be compared from the rehearsal day to the real performance in costume.

Day 419: Lights

"Clap on, clap off." That's what you can do with special lamps to make lights go on and off almost like magic. Now you're probably wondering what magical lights has to do with my summer stock rehearsals. Actually though, it's quite relevant. There are light switches on each side of the room and they are the flat kind that tilt one way with the other side slightly indented out not an actual lever device. People lean against the walls while observing or waiting to make an entrance, but they don't realize that they are leaning on the light switch, and just like that the lights are off and we are in pitch black dark. We were running Addams family and it happened and all of a sudden we were playing with no light but somehow we kept playing. I guess it was because uncle fester had lit up his light bulb. In forum rehearsals we were running the opening number and after the lyrics "tragedy tomorrow" someone leaned and the room was tragically dark. The funniest and most ironic time was when we were running the very dangerous fast paced tornado sequence in the wiz and the method acting went into effect when they went off. It's a funny and alarming occurrence but like a show, the rehearsal goes on.

Day 418: Campmeeting

There aren't really any disadvantages of doing SSMT, but if I had to come up with one, it would be missing Salem Camp Meeting. Every year in July the local campground hosts a week long religious revival. Services, activities, music, and food make up an awesome week of fun and spiritual movement. I'm on their email list and on the Facebook pages so I see the photos shared of it and I know what I'm missing but I know I'm where I'm supposed to be. I had my time with camp meeting and generations continue to experience it. However, nothing will ever fill the void of missing the abundance of fried chicken. Here's some photos from Campmeeting.

Day 417: More Reviews

And to continue the tradition of Monday and Tuesday photos and reviews blog respectively, here is the link to the review of The Wiz.

http://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2015/07/10/the-wiz-at-shenandoah-summer-music-theatre/

Day 416: More Photos

C. King has returned and has taken some more photos for our production of The Wiz. Here is the link to his photos and blog on the show.

http://ckingphotography.com/the-wiz/

Day 414 and 415: Last Rehearsals

This weekend we started blocking/staging rehearsals for our final show this season: The Music Man. For those of you who didn't know, I'm a serious golden age musical theatre junkie. I love the good old musicals. The Music Man is definitely my favorite musical of the season. This can cause problems because I sometimes disagree with the musical director or director and have to keep opinions on how I might do the show to myself. I also have to watch the conductor extra carefully so I won't rush the uptempos or milk the ballads too much. Our cast is excellent and I can't wait to see the production come together. I can already tell it's going to be fantastic.

Day 413: Jessie

As I have said, we have an amazing cast for The Wiz, but the glue of the group that keeps it all together is our leading lady: Jessie Lee Hooker. She is an SU alumni and has returned to play Dorothy. I have worked with a lot of leading ladies, but there are so many amazing qualities about her that I can barely list them all. I also became such a fan that after opening I waited outside her dressing room to get a photo with her. Not only can she sing like nobody's business (I mean she brings down the house every night when she sings the classic song "Home"), but she is also the most hardworking, positive, and humble person I've ever met. She brought out great performances from all the people she worked with and led our cast to brilliance. Some leading ladies can be divas and think the show is all about them, but this star shines brighter because of her humility surrounding her talent. I hope I get to work with her again.

Day 412: More Opening

Tonight, (which is definitely not tonight because I'm way behind in the blog posts), we opened the third musical of the SSMT 2015 season: The Wiz. It's definitely not my favorite show, nor is it going to be the audience favorite of the season. Nevertheless, it's a modern take on the classic novel and has music that makes you want to dance. Also, our cast is phenomenal. It's been an incredible to show to work on and a real learning experience working on a completely style of music and reading music written in chord symbol formatting requiring jazz-like ad libbing and comp-ing. Time to go ease on down the road to meet the wiz.

Day 411: More Dress Rehearsal

And today, the day before opening, we had our typical two dress rehearsal Wednesday. I would talk about the typical things that happen in dress rehearsals like costumes are added but I want to talk about change in the theater. People don't realize that the theater is so alive that is always changing in rehearsals even to the rising curtain of opening night and after. We had two major changes over the course of today. A costume was changed. Also, our pit singers backup chorus instead of being in the spotlight gallery was moved to their rightful spot, the pit, only to be changed back to the gallery. All of this to say, it's all rehearsal. Even when we have an opening preview the night before when we have our second dress rehearsal, it's still a work in progress. It just looks great because all the elements are there as you can see in the photos.

Day 410: More Tech

Hold! Hold! Hold! The magically annoying word that is shouted by the crew, designers, or the stage manager over the powerful "God" microphone. You freeze in your place and the technical problems are resolved. It takes hour upon hour but the work that is produced is miraculous. We didn't make it through the entire show and had to finish the tech process in dress rehearsal but the fact that we made our set for The Wiz instead of renting it made it easier for the crew to manage and operate it. However, for a show as elaborate as the wiz, with black light, electrical wires on costumes, puppeteer dancers in all black, human tornado figures, bent houses, green fire sparks, a melting witch, a flying balloon, and more we knew the tech would be tedious but it paid off with great results. Photos as usual:

Day 408 and 409: Singing

Our production of The Wiz can be wrapped up in one sentence: Damn!, black people can sing.

I don't mean that to sound racist but they say in Memphis the musical, colored folk sing like white people can't. It's the truth. There is a completely extra level of depth and soul. There is so much power and emotion. Every time I heard one of the cast members belt out one of the songs, I just got chills (and not just because the rehearsal hall is freezing). From the R and B Barry white style songs, to the fast jivin up tempo Motown numbers, to the power ballads, our cast can sing. They don't just sing, they saiiiing.

I thought they sounded great with just the pianos accompanying them but when we had our sitzprobe, the power of their voices just amplified and soared over the incredible orchestra. The soloists would stand up and like it was singing happy birthday, they would belt out a song. This cast will become the next set of Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, and Stevie wonder. I'm so blessed to be working with this talented cast.

Below, are the photos from the sitzprobe:

Day 407: Black and White

Working on The Wiz, there have been some basic things we have dealt with and discovered. For those of you who don't know, The Wiz, simply put, is the black Wizard of Oz with Motown music. Therefore, it was already a casting challenge here because we have a very small African-American population at our conservatory. Therefore, we had to bring in some outside talent. Also, we had to have most of our ensemble members be Caucasian. That's fine because the ensemble can be played more easily as colorblind than the principal characters who need to be African American.

So from day one, we somehow naturally segregated ourselves. I don't know why it happens but it does (if you don't believe me, just look in a high school cafeteria). We even made a joke about it because we thought instead of avoiding it we would just establish the African Americans were the stars. However, the director would have no joke or natural separation. He wanted us to be a unit from day one despite the fact that we had a racially diverse cast. He knew that if unity wasn't established the show wouldn't be at its best. We view everyone as equal and all filled with talent and we have been a great cast because of the unity and it shines through the performances. If only people had had that determination of unity between blacks and whites for all time. We are all people of equal value no matter our race. All our different shades just combine to make beauty just like all the colors combine to make a beautiful rainbow.

Day 406: Audience Reprise

In order for the title and content of this post to make sense you have to read awesome audiences, a post from last summer in June. This is a reprise, I hope you all know what that is, to that post.

The audience is so, so important. Yesterday, we had a two show day meaning we had a matinee and evening and tonight we had the usual evening show. There were three different audiences and three completely different shows. The first of the three mentioned was a horrible performance. The cast had no energy. The dancing was lazy. The singing wasn't full out. It was all an all just half-ass. The evening performance was the best performance that they'd ever given. They did the best ad libs. They had the most energy. They sang phenomenally, and just gave it their all. Tonight, the performance was good but it couldn't live up to last night's over the top level of excellence. Respectively, here's how the audiences were to those shows. The house was only at half capacity, too many children to even be aware of who the Addams are, barely any applause or laughter. Next, the crowd was sold out. They constantly cheered. They were always laughing even at the dumb stupid jokes. They clapped in the middle of songs or just at the opening reveal of the family right before the opening number. Tonight the audience was average size and responsive but can't compare to last night.

Now pair the show with the audience, and you should see the correlation proving my point. The audience determines the fate of the show. We rehearse and rehearse a show but we can only give so much. If a crowd isn't open to the show and being just as engaged and engaging as the performers than there are limitations on the quality of the performance. Always understand your role as an audience member when you attend the theater. It's kind of like when we, as citizens, have to do our role in the government by voting and doing our basic American citizen duties. Even though the fourth wall separates the stage and the audience, the theater is one room and everybody, every actor and every member of the audience has to do their part to create a magical evening.

Day 405: Intermission

I have written about the pre show pit and now I have to discuss intermission.

1. As I said yesterday, the most important thing is doing our job. Therefore, we are practicing any challenging sections of the second act, using the restrooms (not because it's our job, you just have to), and tuning.
2. There is more of the fun gossip and chit chat about random stuff.
3. This is the key thing but it really only applies to The Addams Family right now. One night, one of the character's pearl necklace broke right before intermission. They needed someone to clean up all the beads so they sent out lurch as an intermission gag. He would, in character, push the beads into the wings with a broom almost like playing shuffleboard. People loved it so much he did it every night so the pit started watching him because he would always do something different. One night he came out with headphones while sweeping which all made us wonder what type of music he lurch would listen to. One night he dropped the broom and he slowly, slowly, bent to pick it up and made it hilarious in the photo below. The final show he took a selfie from the stage. See, even the actors have shenanigans during intermission.

Day 404: Pre-Show

I'm sure you're all wondering what in the world does the pit do before the show, so I am going to give you the inside scoop to the pre show orchestra rituals.

1. We warm up. We practice little difficult passages from the show. Also, we ask any music related questions to the conductor about previous performances. Lastly, we make sure all music technology works and we tune. I'm asked to play an A and then we are prepped and ready to go. While we do we have fun, we know that we are here to do a job, so this ritual is first.
2. We talk about crazy stuff. Granted, some of its not always clean, but it's always hilarious. We talk about the events of the day, the sports match, the show, the games we are playing with each other on iPhone apps, etc.
3. Lastly, we annoy each other. I mean, what family doesn't? And the people you're around annoy and get annoyed the most. For example, last summer, the drummer was annoyed by becoming my therapist while the other pianist was just annoyed. This summer, the trumpet player and I lovingly sassed each other because of our competition in trivia crack. But most importantly, in this post especially, I have to say that the pianist, percussionist, and I had the most fun because we were discussing the fact that they think I talk to myself during the show. They failed to realize that I lip-talk the dialogue and use gestures. I basically act out the show like a silent movie. It keeps me alert and focused in the show and provides amusement in a show that's become mundane from playing it many times. Not to mention, I know all the dialogue and lyrics because I heard it so much in rehearsal. I just think it's hilarious that they though I talked to myself. I'm not that crazy.

This post can only capture so much the fun that we have in the pit before a show. We are such a close family, and through annoyance, sass, jokes, games, conversation, and more, we have a blast. (Some photos from the fun between myself and the person who kept her parents comp ticket and made them pay for one instead (aka Olivia)).

Day 403: The Review

Below is the link to the review for The Addams Family. Granted, it's a little biased because the writer is closely involved with our school and SSMT. Kind words and a great read nonetheless and gives me a day off from the blog while still providing a look at what's going on up here.

http://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2015/06/26/the-addams-family-at-shenandoah-summer-music-theatre/

Day 402: Addams Pics

Here is the link to the professional photos and blog of the photographer of Addams Family.

http://ckingphotography.com/the-addams-family/

Day 400 and 401: More Rehearsals

I'm going to keep this post very simple. Last weekend we started rehearsals for our third show, The Wiz. I can't believe that the summer is half way over. It's going by too fast. Here's photos from the rehearsal hall.