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January 4, 2018:

COACHING

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry so I can write a few more book pages before going to bed. That is because the movie I watching was a little over two hours – I kept taking breaks and trying to do more pages, but this book requires some research at certain points, which means I don’t write but look up stuff. But I’m getting ahead of myself or, at the very least, afoot of myself.

Yesterday was a perfectly okay day, just trying to keep the irritants at bay before they all explode. I was up by nine-thirty and immediately went and picked up the mail that had come the day before. I did a few other errands and was home by eleven, at which time I began futzing and finessing the previous day’s writing. I did the usual things – adding, subtracting, smoothing, moving things around – and then I wrote one new page. Then I had to get ready for the Levi Indiegogo coaching session at one. The little girl’s name is Peyton. I’m not really a coach in the true sense, so it was more like a singer/director session. Peyton loves Welcome to My World and wanted to work on some of those songs, but before we did I had her do a song from her book, just so I could get the lay of the land. She had I Enjoy Being a Girl so I had her do that. She was nervous, but I told her there was nothing to be nervous about – that there would be no criticism, just talking, and that this house is a completely safe space.

She sang through it. It was immediately apparent to both Alby Potts and myself that she has a really nice voice and timbre. After she sang through it, we talked about the song itself. I gave her some pointers, since she’d basically sung it all at one level. We talked about the acting of it and the joy that the person singing it should have, and how to make the cute stuff work. She sang it again and it was a whole different girl – not only did we have the nice voice, we had personality, charm, and fun. She knew it right away, too, which is really important. We talked for a while about the nature of songs – how they’re like little miniature plays, with hills, valleys, highs and lows. I asked her about the shows she’d done and what she wanted to do with her life (believe me, she knows, just as I knew at her age). Then we switched over to some Welcome to My World songs, and for each one she sang it through once and then we’d break it down and talk about the sections and how to make them different. She was like a sponge and a good sponge at that because she instantly had the ability to understand what I was saying, take the note and not only do the note but make it her own, which is not always easy at that age. And every time we’d do the song over, she got better and better. We worked on the song Annie for a while and she just did it delightfully.

We worked for three solid hours and her energy never flagged and she was present at all times, willing, and very professional. At the end, I gave her a script to Welcome to My World. I had her go to the opening of the show and read it cold – and boy did she do it well – she was funny, she got the jokes, and did all the takes naturally. In a year and a half she’ll be ready to do the show – she’s twelve now but will be thirteen in March – in fact, she shares a birthday with my very own Darling Daughter. We all had a really good and fun time.

After they left (it was her mom’s birthday so they had to get home for a birthday dinner), Alby and I went over to nearby Island’s for a burger and fries, both excellent. After that, I went back to the book and wrote about four or five pages right away. Then I started watching a motion picture entitled All the Money in the World, the Ridley Scott movie about the kidnapping of Paul Getty in 1973. I didn’t find it all that – it was okay, and Christopher Plummer, who filmed all his scenes in eight days only eight weeks ago, replacing Kevin Spacey, was very good as old man Getty, a completely appalling human being. I paused a few times to go back and write more pages. Just prior to writing these here notes I’d done eight and will definitely do two more before bed, which will put me at about page thirty-two, which isn’t bad at all for the first three days. When I’ve gotten to page fifty or sixty I’ll print out those pages and get them to Muse Margaret pronto, just to make sure she likes them and thinks this is on the right track.

Today I’ll be up by nine-thirty again, I’ll futz and finesse as much as possible, and we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal at noon o’clock and it’s another long one that goes until four-thirty. Then I’ll eat, write new pages, and maybe watch something in the evening.

Tomorrow I’m hoping will be a garage day, and I’m getting a necessary haircut at three. And of course I’ll be writing. Saturday is our stumble-through and then I’ll be finessing mixes after that, at least that’s the hope. Sunday is sound check and then our show. And then the following week I will really be able to have my days for writing.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, futz and finesse and write, have a rehearsal, eat, write, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Who are your all-time favorite child performers? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had such a fun coaching session.

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