Good morning, all! I slept late, since I will be out until late this evening. This is day two of the ROBERTA sessions; we begin at 2:00pm, with most of the cast. Jason Graae joins us today, and his energy will kick things up. We'll do the two scenes with Stephen Cole first so he can get back to his other tasks, and at 3:00 the seven Collegians will arrive. We'll record bits and pieces until 5:00, break for dinner, return at 6:00 and record a short musical number with Jason, Patrick, Tally and the Collegians, send Tally and Patrick off to their evening performances, and spend most of the night with Jason and the boys on the HUGE comedy specialty.
Yesterday was a 1969-1973 nostalgia blast; I tracked down and talked on the phone for about four hours to one of my best Miami University theatre friends. I last saw him in 1973, when two friends and I drove from Ohio to Manhattan for the opening of CANDIDE at the Broadway Theatre. In 1994, I last spoke to him on a sympathy call after a horrible car crash killed his wife and seriously injured his two children. At that point they were living in upstate NY near Poughkeepsie, and we lost touch after that. My life got crazy working with a wonderful producer who kept calling me with work and a record label called Varese Sarabande, which led to other recording and regional theatre work, and Steve had a life to rebuild and two children to heal.
And, since I'm already in a nostalgia blitz, let's jump to the TOD:
Roses Mull: my fifth grade teacher who rescued me from a morass of anxiety, fear, and misery
Valda Wilkerson and Helen Weinberger: junior high and high school music teachers, who cared, made music, and inspired
Robert Kane: four years of college Latin; best. instructor. ever.
James Martin: allowed me to experiment with an orchestra and learn my craft with lvd players
The Chad Mitchell Trio and Judy Collins: performers who taught me whatever political awareness I now possess and that satire and music are often the most powerful tools in addressing an issue. I am grateful that in the past 30 years I have told the Trio and Ms Collins how much I owe to them.
