Well, dear readers, we had another very productive rehearsal last evening – three hours, as always, and we got a huge amount of stuff done. In fact, I’d say two-thirds of the show is now blocked, and I should be able to finish everything by next Wednesday at the latest, and then I’ll start assembling the show. And then we’ll start run-throughs, which is where I smooth everything out and do the detail work that I never do when putting the show on its feet. But so far I’m pretty happy with the way it’s feeling and the cast is coming along and keeping up, which is great. So now we have a few days off.
Yesterday was another day of complete rest. I slept over ten hours again, arising around twelve-thirty. Once again, I was groggy and foggy and froggy and it took a while to get cleared up. I took my usual preventatives and relaxed. Then I went and picked up a package, stopped at Jerry’s Deli and got my matzoh ball soup, came home, ate it all up and found it very soothing, as always, and also had a bagel with it.
Then I rested and relaxed whilst listening to lots of music, including three CDs of music by the marvelously marvelous English composer Gerald Finzi, who I rank right up there with the greats. If you don’t know his music, I highly recommend you do something about that. It’s achingly beautiful and at times very reminiscent of Richard Rodney Bennett’s kind of scores for Lady Caroline Lamb and Yanks – I have no doubt Bennett was fond of Finzi. I would seek out the CDs of Lyrita, especially the clarinet concerto, which is stunningly beautiful, and the other album that has a lot of shorter pieces. And finally, on EMI an album released two year ago called Introit – where an orchestrator did orchestral versions of songs for piano and voice, with instruments covering the vocal line. It’s gorgeous music and made my day very pleasantly pleasant. And then I got ready for rehearsal.
As soon as I was ten minutes into rehearsal I realized I felt tons better and that was nice because it gave me the energy I like to have. Rehearsal flew by, like a gazelle taking all its preventatives.
After that, I came right home. I had another bagel with the chicken salad that was left over – that was a perfect little snack. I answered some e-mails and that was that.
Today, I have to be by eleven-thirty so however much sleep I get is however much sleep I get. I’ll be to bed by one so it should be at least nine hours. I have to be at the theater by one to meet with a sound designer. That shouldn’t last too long, and I’ll then go hopefully pick up packages and probably stop at Jerry’s for my dose of matzoh ball soup. Then I’ll come home and rest and listen to music and probably watch something. I also have to call Apple again, because the mail program is still screwy between the computer and the iPhone. I tried nuking the problematic address and reloading it on the phone and it just wouldn’t work right – so while it’s on there, no mail at all is actually visible on the screen. Must solve this issue.
The weekend is all for resting and relaxing so that by Monday I hope to be back to 100%. We resume rehearsals on Monday and I think we begin working six days a week with Tuesdays as our off day – I think that’s how it’s working. We have one huge sequence to do Monday night – I’m hoping it won’t take more than about ninety minutes, but it’s a nightmare sequence where a lot of the songs and stuff we’ve heard throughout the evening are done nightmarishly in a big cacophony of sound, music, and action. We’re going to create it as we go and our musical director will be there to take notes, as he has to create the underscore for it. And then at some point in the following few days the show will be blocked.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, meet with the sound designer at the theater, hopefully pick up packages, eat, and then rest and relax with music and maybe video. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, too many to name. Blu-ray, an import of The Collector that is purportedly better than the mediocre US Blu-ray. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy for my days of rest and nights of rehearsals.