Well, dear readers, four our sixth rehearsal we did a designer run-through. Yes, after five rehearsals we played the show straight through start to finish without ever stopping. Yes, there were a few fumfers and a few things forgotten, but I sat there astonished at how smooth most of it was, and I do mean astonished. This show sits squarely on the shoulders of a fifteen-year-old girl and she held the damn stage for eighty-five minutes without losing energy or focus. Sami was fun, incorporated most of the notes I gave her prior to beginning, and she started to finally slow down and really understand the point of the monologues and how to make a meal of them – that’s what I’ve been pushing for for the past five days and it was wonderful to see it kicking in. Because when she did that it was quite magical to watch. She was in great voice and I know she likes it when there are people to play to. For me it was very obvious when things weren’t landing properly – there weren’t many of them, but we’ll now focus on those moments and get the timing right. Being this far along and in this good shape enables us to really now do the detail work we need to. The opening of the show played the best it’s played, so that was nice. And the audience participation thing is finally mostly working. I saw three more things to do with it that will make it even better, so we’ll add those. I’ve got notes on a few lines I’m willing to cut if we can’t make them work. Just before we began the run-through, I added underscoring to the last part of one of the monologues, and that really helped. And as I watched the monologue that leads into the final song (save for a reprise after it), I thought it, too, could maybe stand some underscoring – just brief, but I think it will make that just a hair more cohesive. I’m not overdoing that stuff, and the only reason I’m adding any of it is to make transitions into songs seamless – that said, we only do it three times right now and if I add this other one that will be four. Most of it is under twenty seconds duration, so definitely not gilding the lily here. I made sure Sami knew how happy I was with most of it – I said we were about 80% there and that the final 20% is always the detail work and always takes the most time. And once I feel we’re at 100% I’ll probably push to get us to 105%.
We had about ninety minutes to run stuff prior to the designer run, and that was helpful. It’s just a handful of things that Sami is forgetting and most of that material had rewrites and she defaults to the old versions. So, we’ll keep drilling and drilling until she gets the old out and the new in. Our lighting guy took tons of notes and I think we’re very much on the same page as to the style of lighting that will work best. There will be no “show off” lighting, and for now I have asked for only two times for the lights to go completely out – a fade out at the end of one song and a blackout at the end of another. Otherwise, all the light cues will be scene shifts – I want it to seem very cinematic and have a really nice flow as we go from thing to thing.
Prior to all that, I’d gotten eight hours of sleep. The helper came by, then I did some work on the computer, then had a turkey sandwich and no fries or onion rings. Then I did some banking and the bank, which is where I like to do my banking, and then I came back home. I had a few telephonic calls, the helper came by a second time to get something she forgot, and then I finally moseyed on over to the theater.
After the rehearsal, I stopped at Gelson’s and got five tiny chicken drummettes, some shrimp cocktail shrimp and came home and ate them. The shrimp cocktail shrimp have almost zero calories, and the five drummettes were probably two hundred calories so I still added up to only about 1000 calories. I’d decided I needed one day off from the jogging.
Today, I have stuff to do, I’ll eat (I’m trying to figure out a new place where I’ll be comfortable having lunch), I’ll jog, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then we rehearse. We’ll start right at the top and I’ll talk through each monologue and song about what worked and what didn’t and why.
Tomorrow is another rehearsal, Thursday we have off, Friday I have to do some work with Doug Haverty and Alby Potts, then Saturday and Sunday are our long rehearsal days.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do stuff, eat, jog, hopefully pick up packages and rehearse. Today’s topic of discussion: What are the silliest songs you’ve ever heard in a musical and in a film? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a relatively smooth designer run.