Well, dear readers, we have survived Mother’s Day and now we have to survive the upcoming week, the week in which we’ll be getting our little musical as good as we can get it given no time and no support. It will be an intense week for everyone concerned and even everyone who’s not concerned. However, before we discuss any of that, why don’t we discuss Mother’s Day? I spent a rather restful and relaxing Mother’s Day and I must say I was quite the Mother to anyone who happened to call me on the telephonic device. I woke up just before nine after a pretty good night’s sleep. I finished writing chord charts, and then went off to the Studio City Farmer’s market for a little browsing and walking in the sunshine. After that, I came home and jogged, going two blocks more than I normally do. After that, I collapsed on my couch like so much fish, sweating like a pig. Then I entered all the fixes into the master script of the musical, and then I set about rearranging two sequences in the second act – it wasn’t a matter of just cutting and pasting, I had to write a few new lines of dialogue to make it work, and then, after I looked at it, I’m not at all certain it will flow smoothly, although I’m hoping when I get it on its feet that it will. If not, back it goes to its original form. After that, I ate a little something, had a few telephonic calls, and that was that. All in all, a very pleasant day.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Late Spring, a film of Yasujiro Ozu. I’ve only seen a couple of Ozu films, and they’re an acquired taste, although I enjoyed them. Late Spring, from 1949, is a marvelously marvelous film, albeit not a film for today’s ADD generation. They would not know what to do with such a film and they would hurl the DVD out the window. Ozu is an elegant and very formal director. Late Spring has almost no camera movement at all (there are, in fact, exactly three moving shots in the entire film – all in the same sequence, and all lasting a grand total of about fifty seconds) – Ozu just puts the camera at sitting level and photographs his scenes, cutting only when necessary. There isn’t even a single pan in the entire film. There is also very little drama – just small, telling moments that add up to a lovely film. Its story is simple, is simply told, and by the end, its final image is very touching in its simplicity. The two leading players are excellent, especially Setsuko Hara, who gives an amazing and nuanced performance as a daughter in her late twenties who is content living with and taking care of her father, on whom she dotes, rather than marrying someone, which is what everyone around her wants. If you’re patient and like a film of quiet beauty, Late Spring is the ticket, and I’ll be watching it again very soon.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because this is going to be an intense week and the intensity starts first thing in the morning.
Today I shall be working intensely with our musical director – I basically have to tape every song for him, show him the vamps and certain figures I want played they way I play them, and then make certain that he has all the information he needs so that he can go off and learn everything quickly. It’s fourteen songs, so he’s got his work cut out for him. That’s going to take all afternoon and into the evening, after which I have to go out to dinner. Then, tomorrow our pianist will be coming to rehearsals regularly. I have two hours to block as much of act two as I can, then I return in the afternoon to work with whoever can be there. On Thursday, I’ll have an hour to finish the rest of the act (I’ll be there each afternoon, but I know I won’t have the full cast for those sessions). On Saturday, we’ll have at least six hours to run the show, smooth things out as best as possible and run it again. We do the same on Sunday day, and then the first of our two performances is Sunday evening at seven-thirty. It’s daunting, but we will do it and we will do it well – I’m determined to have this come off professionally and without a hitch, if just to show those who’ve gone out of their way to be unsupportive that that sort of thing doesn’t work with professional people. I think the kids feel the same way as me, and are willing to do what it takes to show those few faculty members what we’re made of. And then, if they decide to do this as a full production there will be a whole slew of needs that will have to be agreed upon and met – that goes for having me come back to do the class again, as well. I will, of course, keep you fully apprised at every turn.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do some shipping prior to the pianist coming over, I must get organized, I must make some important telephonic calls, I must send my new play to an artistic director of an LA theater, I must work all the livelong day with our pianist, and then I must have a nice dinner. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite Harry Warren songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I begin my very intense week.