Well, dear readers, we survived our designer run-through, so that’s good news. There weren’t many calls for lines, which was nice, and it moved along at a decent pace. When the energy is high we chug along, and when it drops, which it frequently does, we come to a halt and have to get back up to speed again. The trick is to not drop so that we chug along to the finish line. And even though we still have a bit over two weeks until our first time with an audience, I am trying to instill this sense of energy and pace at every rehearsal, so they get used to playing the show that way. But even with that, the show worked pretty well, I thought. A couple of songs had mangled lyrics – I’ve been getting testy about it, and that’s going to get worse the more it happens because we’re too far in now for any lyrics to be fumfered, as everyone has had music, tracks, plunk tracks, and scratch vocal tracks for the past seven weeks. So, hopefully we’ll fix all that over the next few days so we can really start finding the show, in terms of energy and pace and what works. The cast member who got the additional song did a great job of it after only having run it once. And several actors are really starting to find stuff that is working great. And one performer who thought my direction on how to play something was too much, did one line exactly how I told her to do it and got a huge laugh. So, perhaps said performer will trust me from now on, which would be fun.
I got eight hours of sleep, got up, had a telephonic conference call that was fun and brief, answered e-mails, and then I went over to Jerry’s Deli and had a cup of clam chowder, a side Caesar salad, and a chili, cheese, and onion hot dog – all good, but way too much food. I was basically full after the soup. Who knew? Then I came back home, did some work on the computer, had more telephonic calls, listened to music, and tried to relax a bit. In fact, whilst listening to a symphony by Arnold Bax I went and sat on my couch like so much fish and immediately fell asleep for an hour.
Then I went and picked up a package, after which I moseyed on over to the theater. I met the actress who was getting the additional song and I blocked the number quickly – simple stuff but doing the job needed. Then Tesshi and his assistant arrived, his assistant being Chie Saito, who was in the original LACC production of The Brain from Planet X. Our costume designer was there, as was our lighting designer. MIA was our sound designer – he’s coming Monday and will have to see a run-through with an actor gone and our swing doing that role. After the run, Doug and I talked for a bit, and then I stopped at Gelson’s and got some low-calorie foodstuffs for my snack, came home, ate them, and listened to music and relaxed.
Today, rehearsal isn’t until one, so I’ll probably get there around twelve-fifteen to see how the set is progressing, and then we rehearse one to six upstairs. We’ll try running it up there although it’s not big enough, really. I’ll also do some clean-up based on what I saw at the designer run-through. If things go swimmingly I may let everyone go early. Then I’ll eat and then relax and perhaps watch a motion picture of some sort.
Tomorrow, we don’t convene until later in the afternoon, but we should have our set fully up by then, and we can do a run-through with it and then adjust whatever we need to. Monday we have a three-hour Kritzerland rehearsal, followed by a run-through. Tuesday is a run-through, Wednesday we’re off, and then we have a long run until the following Tuesday and during that time we will get our show in playing condition with everyone giving full out performances. I want everyone ready and in performance mode when we hit tech.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What famous classical composers have you never been able to like or enjoy? What musical songwriters have you never been able to like or enjoy? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have gotten through the designer run-through without any major stoppages or problems.