Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
January 29, 2020:

SO THERE’S THAT

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I think our little set is going to look very nice once all is said and done but at the moment all is not quite said and done, all being a contrarian with a bad toupee.  It’s a very sparse set, which is what I wanted, but it’s very evocative in its way and it enables our lighting guy to be very creative and artistic.  We’ve got a lot of rented instruments for this show, which this show really needs.  I’m not sure everything is in exactly the right place, but we’ll finesse as we go along.  Our set designer also painted the floor and it’s really beautiful.  I’ll try to get some photographs when the rest is up.  As to our run-through, I think it was the one you always know you’re going to have, the one every show has.  It had many excellent things but some of it was just a beat behind.  And when I gave notes, that seemed to have been the consensus of everyone and that’s always helpful.  Even with that, I have given less notes on this show than any show I’ve ever directed and that is a real testament to this wonderful company of actors.  A couple of, for me anyway, the most powerful moments in the show are things I thought would not work, but I came up with a way to stage those moments that just makes them very moving.

I got there early, and we recorded all the stuff that’s voiceover in the play.  So, that’s a big thing that’s now done.  I’m letting the sound designer but these things together with the music cues that play under them and then we can swap things if I don’t think they work.  We have fifteen minutes of cues, which should be fine.  The show is running pretty consistently, time-wise.  First act is coming in at between fifty-three and fifty-five minutes, which is fine, and the second act is coming in around fifty right now, which is also fine, as that means we’ll be at two hours WITH the intermission.

Prior to all that, I got a little over eight hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, wondered how I’m going to survive this week, next week, and some weeks thereafter.  Miracles, anyone?  At two-thirty, I went to Jerry’s Deli and had some matzoh ball soup, which was helpful and good.  Then I came right home, did some work at the piano, did some work on the computer, didn’t get any proofing done, then I shaved and got ready, then I moseyed on over to the theater.

I was hungry after rehearsal, so I stopped at Subway and got some sliders, came home and ate them all up.  Then I relaxed and listened to music, an excellent symphonist named Hilding Rosenberg.  I’m on his third symphony as I write these here notes, and it’s really great, as were his first two.  There are eight in all and I grabbed them all from the Tube of You.

Today, I shall sleep in as much as I can, then I’ll get up.  I may have to go over to the theater for a little while, and I think Jason Graae will come over at some point, otherwise I have to record a couple of songs at the piano, and finish proofing the book.  622 pages is daunting to say the least and to say the least, 622 pages is daunting.  Then we have our run-through in the evening.  I’m done giving notes after the runs and will e-mail them from now on.  Oh, and I guess I’ll eat and hopefully pick up some packages, too.

Tomorrow is more of the same, and then a run-through in the evening.  Friday, I’ll probably be at the theater by two or three to go through all the light cues so that the show is programmed by the time we begin tech at seven with a run of the show.  Saturday, we have a run-through at ten, then a break until six-thirty, when we do a second run-through.  I’m hoping we can get everyone out by eight-thirty.  And we’ll use the long break to clean up any technical issues.  Sunday, we’ll probably start the first run at eleven, then we’ll see what kind of shape we’re in.  If everything has gone smoothly and well, that may be it.  If I feel we need a second run, we’ll do that but we’ll get everyone out by four or five at the latest.  Monday, we’re off, and then we have our invited dress on Tuesday, two previews on Wednesday and Thursday, and we open on Friday.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in as much as I can, get up, maybe go to the theater for a bit and if I do I think I’ll mosey on over to Dino’s for a couple of slices of pizza.  I’ll hopefully pick up packages, come home, do work here, and then mosey on back to the theater for our run-through.  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, wondering what to title these here notes since nothing is jumping out at me, but then again I’m not jumping out at nothing, so there’s that.  Oh, maybe “So there’s that” is a good title.

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved