Well, dear readers, the new girl in town had her first day of rehearsal and I must say I was rather taken aback by her ability to learn, adapt, and then jump into a full-fledged run-through without really missing a beat. As I suspected, she knew many of her lines, knew the songs, and picked up her blocking quickly. My goodness, I just jumped into these here notes just the way she jumped into The Brain From Planet X, didn’t I? But, before we get into detail, I must talk about yesterday morning, simply because it is expected and one must always do what is expected. For example, I woke up. That was expected. I then did an interview for reviewplays.com and I had lots of fun doing it. I then jogged (that was expected), and then did some errands and got ready for rehearsal. We began early, just giving Merrill her blocking, slowly and methodically. By the time the company arrived an hour later, we ran the opening number and she had it down just about perfectly. We gave her all her blocking for her first solo number, and since she couldn’t retain it all, she just began doing other stuff, which I liked even better – she really threw herself into the character and the number rather amazingly, and I’m going to keep a lot of what she did because it was so much fun and so spontaneous. And I must say, her co-star had to suddenly come up to her level and that was really fun to watch, too. I love actors who just bring wonderful stuff to the table – it makes my job ever so much easier. In short, my gut instinct, which rarely fails me, was absolutely correct. Her fellow cast members embraced her instantly and really like her and she’s just a swell addition to our merry troupe. The evening run-through was a bit sloppy because we are finally using the big wagon unit (a double-sided set – one with a backyard patio, the flip side the interior of the spaceship) and the cast who move it are just getting used to how heavy it is, how it has to move and how best to get it where it’s going. When we have that down, it’s going to be really cooliscious. There were some fun things that happened, but lots to work on and clean up. After the run-through, Mr. Kevin Spirtas, Mr. Cason Murphy, Miss Merrill Grant and I went to Prizzi and had some yummilicious supper, after which I came home and did not sit on my couch like so much fish, since I had to dive into these here notes.
Last night, I finished watching a motion picture on DVD entitled The Wreck of the Mary Deare, starring Mr. Gary Cooper and Mr. Charlton Heston. It’s not a great movie or anything, but I found the transfer so good that I enjoyed it quite a bit – can’t really go wrong with Mr. Cooper, even in a potboiler. The film has an excellent score by George Duning, some really well-done miniatures, and it moves right along. If you want to see what perfectly rendered color is supposed to look like, this disc really gets it right.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’ve got to get these here notes posted and then must get my beauty sleep.
Today, I must go about my business doing errands and whatnot (I have to get over to storage to pull some Creature Wasn’t Nice material for the CD that will be coming out soon), then we’ll have a nice long rehearsal, drilling the new girl in town in her scenes and numbers and then doing a complete run-through.
I still don’t know what I’m doing for Thanksgiving, since I haven’t heard from my usual folks I dine with. If that isn’t happening, then I’ll figure out what to do, since I’ve had a couple of other invites. Post Thanksgiving, I’ll be seeing The Light In The Piazza at the Ahmanson, thanks to the kind folks over there, for whom I occasionally do work. Saturday and Sunday I will probably just watch many DVDs.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, do errands, drive about in my motor car, and then rehearse and have a run-through. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite theater poster designs? And what theater posters do you own, if any? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we?