Well, dear readers, we had our first rehearsal for the playlet, and it was a lot of fun. There’s some dialogue the actors aren’t comfortable with, so adjustments are happening but it’s completely up to our author to use or not use. But when actors are having trouble speaking a line because the rhythm is off or it doesn’t feel right, character-wise, you have to analyze why. Then there’s always the chance you can help them to make sense of it or at least get to the why of the problem and then adjust from there. I don’t think I’ve ever shut down an actor who asked me if we could adjust things unless it involves a comic line and I think it’s hurting the rhythm, but we ALWAYS try it another way, just to see. If your actors are good, which ours are, you have to trust their instincts and listen – then as a write it’s up to you whether to agree or not, and I’ve told the actors that if he doesn’t agree with something then we do it his way and just try to do it with the best of our ability. But the best part of the rehearsal was actually being in the theater with real people and not wearing masks (everyone involved in these playlets is fully vaccinated). Otherwise, I’m sitting here listening to Previn conducting the Walton viola and violin concertos, both wonderful works, and while I have a favorite performance of the violin concerto, these are beautifully done, as are the five Saint-Saens’ piano concertos with Previn. I also listened to Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman, which I enjoyed very much. I also watched two motion pictures on Blu and Ray. The first was finishing up The Great Imposter, starring Tony Curtis, Karl Malden, Edmond O’Brien, Arthur O’Connell, Raymond Massey, Gary Merrill, Joan Blackman, Sue Ane Langdon, Larry Gates, Frank Gorshin, Mike Kellin and other terrific actors – I mean, what a cast. I love the film. I loved it when I saw it when it came out in March of 1961 (not February as per the imdb) when I saw it at the Wiltern Theater, and I love it now. Robert Mulligan would, of course, go on to direct To Kill a Mockingbird.
Then I watched Forty Pounds of Trouble with Tony Curtis, Suzanne Pleshette, Phil Silvers, Edward Andrews, and others. It’s not too good, but it is interesting as it’s Norman Jewison’s first film and a remake of Little Miss Marker. It’s never really funny enough and it does get maudlin as these things go. More interesting is the fact that it was the first movie by an outside studio allowed to film at Disneyland. That sequence runs about twenty minutes and if you want to know what Disneyland was like circa 1962 it’s all there and beautifully photographed. I’m a sucker for movies with kids, so I wished this had worked better. And then some years later, they remade Little Miss Marker AGAIN, with Walter Matthau and Julie Andrews. The little girl is cute and does a fine job for a seven-year-old. She did a bit of television back then, the usual shows, and her last credit is, of all things, two episodes of The Partridge Family. I wonder what happened to her. Not a peep that I can find. Let’s find her. According to imdb she’s still alive.
Yesterday wasn’t such a bad day. I got almost eight hours of sleep, we had our rehearsal, and after it one of our actresses and I went to the Coral Café, where we were joined by Marshall Harvey, and that was fun. I had their tri-salad thing – two scoops chicken salad, one egg salad. Their scoops are bigger than Art’s, and I got really full, so I took quite a bit of the chicken salad scoops home for eating later. There was no mail to pick up, so I came home. The orders for The Sap of Life are very healthy, but frankly I’m a little baffled as to why Cole Porter Volume III is not selling as well as the Bagley’s normally do, since it’s the best of the five volumes. Who knows why these things are what they are? But I’m hopeful that orders will keep coming in over the next few days.
I did some work on the computer, had some telephonic conversations, listened to music, and then ate the rest of the chicken salad. Then I watched the two motion pictures and then it was back to listening to music. Oh, I promised to share the photograph Karen Staitman took that I kind of liked the best – it was actually the first one she showed me. Here it is.
Today, I have to be up by ten-thirty to do a Zoom meeting with the lighting and sound people for the playlets. They didn’t do what they should have done, which is schedule separate times for each director. They’re starting at nine-thirty, and I don’t want to get up that early on a ME day, nor do I want to sit there for however long while everyone tells what their needs are. We already filled out a sheet for the light cues and sound cues. So, I wrote the producer and said I’d show up at ten-thirty or maybe a bit before and that my needs would take me all of thirty seconds to discuss. Once that’s out of the way, then I’ll relax, hopefully get a LOT more orders, then I have another ten-dollar coupon so I’ll order in something fun to eat – have no idea what that might be, however. After I eat, then it’s just music and watching, not necessarily in that order.
This week is rehearsals, finalizing casting for the reading and Kritzerland, choosing songs, signing the Tonight’s the Night wrappers (they’re bringing them to me – that way I won’t have to open the Blu-rays – we’ll just include the extra wrapper, and then I have to finish making the piano tracks.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be in a Zoom meeting at ten-thirty, relax, eat, perhaps make a piano track or two, and then watch, listen, and relax more. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy to be directing people in the same room – why, you’d think the world was a normal place again – almost. Perhaps next to normal would be a better way of putting it.