Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle finding its sexuality. I found my sexuality once, but I misplaced it. I think it’s in the garage somewhere – I really must go look for it one of these days. Well, it is quite late and I’m beginning to be heavy-lidded so I’d best get these notes done, so my sexuality will have to wait, I’m afraid.
Yesterday was quite a long and involved day, but not a bad one as days go. I was up at eight-thirty and to rehearsal by ten. We dove right into act two, stopping occasionally to clean up the musical numbers and run them a time or two, or for a bit of direction or clarification. Everyone got used to our new space very quickly and it’s actually very similar to the space we were working in. The staging stuff looks quite good and is getting better with each go. We also made a very big decision, which is to have a live piano player. The tracks would have required a LOT of work and were worrisome. But I held off making the final decision because the gentleman who’ll be joining us had schedule problems and other than today and a bit tomorrow can’t be with us until next Tuesday, so for just about all of tech we’ll be using the tracks. There were many upsides to the decisions and some downsides, but the ups won out. The downsides mainly have to do with losing drums and some fun percussion, but we’ll make do. Using the tracks was like putting the cast into a little airless box, and this will free them to be able to take pauses, or have some creativity within the music. So, the actors, who will actually get the word at rehearsal today, will be very happy. Having a live musician also means I can play with where the music will begin, so we can get into numbers a little more smoothly, plus adjust some buttons I was unhappy with.
We got through all of act two, then went back to the top of the show and just drilled numbers until our time was up. We didn’t get through everything, but all the drilling is really helpful. After, we had a rehearsal for the Robby Awards with Sami and John Massey, who are doing I’m Past My Prime from Li’l Abner. That went very well and it was nice to see John again after his long stint on a boat doing Legally Blonde.
Then I finally had something to eat – a patty melt with no fries and onion rings, after which I came directly home, quite exhausted. I had to answer e-mails and I had a nice conversation with Muse Margaret about the handful of fixes I wasn’t sure about. We talked through them and did some and didn’t do others. There are a couple of irritating things going on, but hopefully those will be solved shortly. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Bride Wore Black, a film of Francois Truffaut adapted from the book by Cornell Woolrich, starring Jeanne Moreau and a lot of top French male actors. I saw the film on its opening day and quite enjoyed it and went back a few times. I really enjoyed the score by Bernard Herrmann and lamented there was no soundtrack album, just as there hadn’t been for the other Truffaut/Herrmann collaboration, Fahrenheit 451. I’ve seen it a few times since, but it was nice to see it on Blu-ray. I’m a little less taken with the film now than I was then, but that’s mostly the first fifteen minutes or so. As the vignettes get longer it gets better. The performances are superb. Truffaut’s direction is occasionally melodramatic and not to good purpose, but the actors are the show here. The transfer is excellent – perhaps an older master, but it looks really good, with perfect color. Some boob on the worst of those Blu-ray boards said it was a terrible transfer because the color didn’t pop. I’m sure the boob has no idea what the film looked like or what the color of this film should be. Note to boob: This is not a film where the color pops. There were also unfavorable posts about the yellow subtitles, which cannot be shut off. Well, I prefer yellow because white subtitles get completely lost where there’s white on the screen. And I don’t need to shut them off because, I don’t know, I don’t speak French and it’s nice to know what the actors are actually saying. There’s also an English dub of the film, which I’m interested to watch because it contains some different Herrmann cues from the French version. If you’re a fan of Truffaut, I would think you will be very happy with this disc. It also comes with a CD that includes a seventy-minute audio interview with Bernard Herrmann. That alone would be worth the price of the Blu-ray.
Today will be much the same as yesterday only it will be today. I’m a little disoriented, however, because the Kritzerland show was on Monday instead of Sunday, so it feels like Tuesday when it’s really Wednesday. Anyway, we have our rehearsal, which I’m hoping will be a straight through run of the show from start to finish, even if it’s rough. Then we’ll do clean up for the rest of our time. Then my sound designer comes and we’ll spend a couple of hours figuring out how to do what we need to do. Also, our set will be up and I’m sure that will take some getting used to for the two sequences where the chairs actually aren’t on stage. Then I’ll eat something at some point, then stagger home.
Tomorrow is more of the same, but an even longer day. Friday is more of the same and an even longer day, as we paper tech the show after the rehearsal. Then Saturday we are in ten out of twelves, which means we can work from ten in the morning till ten at night. I really don’t want to work that long and probably won’t, as long as I can get two complete run-throughs in, do clean up, and hone the show. It will be the same thing on Sunday. If I can get us out in time, then I’ll take Sami and her mom and sister for Sami’s birthday dinner at Genghis Cohen. Otherwise it will have to wait until the following week. Next week is obviously completely nutty as we head towards our first public preview on Thursday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse and hopefully have a complete run-through, meet with the sound engineer, eat and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall rummage through the garage to look for my sexuality.