Archive for the ‘Director’s Blog’ Category

We have our first public performance tonight!  It’s a preview which means we still have the option of stopping the show if something goes terribly wrong.  Which it won’t (as I knock on wood).

This week has been rewarding, tiring and filled with hard work.  We’ve gone until 10:00 every night – which isn’t easy for the younger ones – and our crack technical and artistic staff then meet until about midnight and we all give our notes for the next day.  This is everything from changing a light cue to making a costume adjustment to deciding to use a different prop.  One of the many things I love about Lyric Arts is that they actually give you enough stage time to be able to consider and make these changes.  Things look VERY different in the rehearsal room - and I’ve worked some places where we didn’t get the stage until two or three days before opening.  That’s crazy-making for everyone – so THANK YOU, Lyric Arts!

And speaking of Lyric Arts – I’ve already talked about the great designers, and the wonderful cast – let’s talk a bit about our producers:  Lyric Arts.  I really, really like this theater – I like the building, I like Anoka, and most importantly, I like the people that run the company.  They are incredibly hard-working, nice, funny, deeply caring, so smart they scare me, and they are devoted – DEVOTED – to creating quality theater and to theater education.  I like that mission – a lot.  I can think of few things more fulfilling than seeing a young person gain confidence and discipline by doing a show.  Or working with an adult who knows (s)he wants to be on stage but hasn’t had much opportunity – and seeing that person blossom as he realizes he has talent.   The experience of witnessing that life-changing (and I don’t use that word lightly) transformation has choked me up more than once.  Theater can do that, people!  That’s why YOU need to support Lyric Arts – come to their shows and give them a donation.  They’re maybe not going to solve the world’s problems, but trust me, they are touching people’s lives and making a difference.  Yeah!

OK – over and out – I need to go and WRITE A CHECK to Lyric Arts.  Hoping you do the same!

BN

Tech rehearsals – oy.   We’ve had a long and productive weekend in the theater adding the technical details – lighting, set moves, timing everything to music, making sure no one trips over anything in the dark.

I’m a little weird because I sort of like tech rehearsals.  First of all, they’re a challenge to your time-management skills and I like that challenge.  More importantly, tech is when you finally find out if what you imagined in your head actually matches what you’ve got on stage.  This can be exhilarating or devastating.  Thankfully, I spent most of the weekend exhilarated.  Lighting is such a creative art and I’m so grateful there are people like our designer, Dan Thorson, who understands it technically AND thinks like an artist.  That makes the whole process enjoyable.

It fascinates me how making theater can be so all-consuming.  You become so focused on creating a specific world and then you go out in the lobby or step outside and are a bit shocked that “real” life is continuing.  “You mean the sun is out?”  “You mean people are driving around?”  “But wait, I was just in 19th-century London.”  Anyone reading this who does theater knows exactly what I’m talking about.  Anyone reading this who does NOT do theater probably thinks we’re a bit crazy.  If you’re in the latter category, do a show sometime and you’ll see what we mean!  Living in that alternate universe is pretty cool.  And it’s the only way to lead an alternate life without being considered completely insane and shunned by polite society.  OK, some of us are still shunned by polite society, but that’s for a whole other blog.

I continue to LOVE this cast.  Nice, funny, thoughtful, hard-working, talented, did I already say funny?  I was especially amazed yesterday at our dinner break.  Arrangements had been made for a pot-luck dinner which I remembered at the last minute and contributed some crappy store-bought valentine cookies loaded with sugar and manufactured ingredients.  I was in the minority.  The lobby was filled with all kinds of crock-pots and home-made you-name-it.  My dear colleague, Irene, even made gruel!  Seriously.  And it was delicious!  (um……sort of seriously – c’mon, it was gruel)

So if you’re reading this, buy a ticket to our fabulous show!  It’s Dickens, it’s a musical, the cast rocks, it looks great and we’ll give you free gruel.

BN

Oh my goodness!  It’s pretty clear that a career as a professional blogger is not in the cards for me.  I have been very bad about new entries – sorry!  So.  Darned.  Busy.

But enough excuses – let’s talk about the brilliant cast of Oliver!.  This show is so fun for me because about 1/4 of the cast are old friends with whom I’ve worked before, and many of them are new talents that I am enjoying getting to know.  There’s the fabulous Erin Duffy (playing “Nancy”) – we’ve done, gosh, four or five shows together including a previous production of Oliver! AND Lyric Arts audiences will remember her as Maria in The Sound of Music.  (Insert joke here about going from playing a nun to a woman of rather lesser moral values.)  So we can pretty much read each other’s minds by now.  Erin’s voice is……….volcanic.  She’s absolutely amazing and her “Nancy” will break your heart.  And she’s purty, too.

Then there’s my pal, Steve Florman, who was the “Captain” in The Sound of Music at Lyric Arts two years ago.  We got along well then and by now we’re old friends who like nothing better than giving each other a hard time.  Steve is brilliant on many levels (one of the most intelligent people I know), and is a very fine actor – in this production he plays the key role of “Mr. Brownlow” (Oliver’s savior) and he, too, will break your heart.  Even though he’s not as purty as Erin.

I had not previously worked with Corey Okonek – but will try very hard to do so again in the future.  Corey plays the central role of “Fagin” and he is a director’s dream-come-true.  Such a gentleman, such a hard worker, and such an amazing presence on stage.  I am endlessly impressed with him.

And Tom Goerger – also new to me and playing the evil “Bill Sykes.”  In real life, Tom is an extremely kind and gentle man.  As Bill Sykes, he is terrifying.  Seriously.  He’s amazing in the role and will give you a performance that you’ll remember for some time to come.  And Lyric Arts hereby informs you that it cannot be held responsible for any nightmares you may have as a result of experiencing Tom’s intense portrayal.

And let’s not forget the 25 – yes 25 – children in this show.  They are GREAT!  They sing, they dance, they talk, they walk.  They are a very, very talented group of high energy (REALLY, REALLY, REALLY high energy) kids and they’ll steal the show.  They will – and one of these days I’m going to have to break that to the rest of the cast.

Rehearsals are going well – tonight was our first time with the orchestra – Saturday and Sunday we tech (add lighting, sound effects and other technical elements) and then……..dress rehearsals.  EXCITEMENT!

Come see our show, folks.  You.  Will.  Like.  It.       Guaranteed!

Bob

Hello fans of Oliver:

Welcome to the 13th edition of my “Oliver” blog!   “Wait,” you may say – “What happened to the other twelve?”  Funny story – today, with the help of the Lyric Arts staff, we discovered that my previous TWELVE blogs were somehow lost in cyber-space.  And by “somehow lost in cyber-space,” I mean, of course, that I’m an idiot and I apparently didn’t write and/or save my previous entries in the proper way.  Yay, Bob!  Let’s hope my competency in directing far surpasses my computer abilities.

“Oliver” is off and running in a big way.  We now have the entire show blocked and choreographed and will be doing our first run-throughs on Saturday.  Actually, in theater parlance, we usually refer to these as “stumble-throughs” because alot of stumbling does occur.  It will be the first opportunity to go through the entire show in order – and that takes some getting used to for everyone.   But stumble-throughs are incredibly useful because they start to inform all of us about what needs more work and attention, they help the actors learn how to pace themselves, and they help me see how (and IF) the scenes connect and what the transitions look like.

Meantime, more and more props are appearing in the rehearsal space, more and more calls are going back and forth to the set designer (Patrick – rock star), and more details are being discussed with the costume designer (Lisa – also rock star).  The lighting designer and I had an all-afternoon meeting last week and some great ideas were thrown around.  (By the way, Dan is the lighting designer and guess what?  Yep – rock star!)

That’s the report for now – heavy on the technical side because my next communication will be all about the fabulous and talented cast who are working hard – and making me laugh even harder.

More soon!

Bob