Archive for February, 2010

Day Twelve: Feb 16, 2010: 11:00 a.m.: When looking at up stage left, you’ll notice the crossbows we’ve started adding. We’re going to continue this effect across the entire structure. Meanwhile backstage, we are getting everything set up for the orchestra. The orchestra conductor is able to see what the actors are doing on stage by way of camera. The actors can see what the conductor is doing by way of that same camera located behind the audience.

Day Eleven: Feb 15, 2010: 11:00 a.m.: Our Lighting Director Dan Thorson has been busy perfecting the lighting cues for the production.  Lyric Arts strikes the lights after every production so they can be re-hung, re-set, re-focused, and different colored gels can be put in.  Every new show starts with a blank canvas, including light and sound!  Look back to Day One to see what we mean!

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

Day Ten: Feb 12, 2010: 11:00 a.m.: A set piece has been moving almost every day.  Can you spot it?  It’s not a furniture piece, but an actual set piece.  It will be doing this during the production as well!

Day Nine: Feb 11, 2010: 11:00 a.m.: Who’s coming through that stage door? Why, that’s Patrick, our Tech Director, who seems pleased that with the help of some of our volunteers, he is ahead of schedule with the building of this set! Now he has time to clear the scene shop for the orchestra who will be setting up camp there for the next few weeks.

Day Eight: Feb 10, 2010: 11:00 a.m.: The piles of items downstage right are all orchestra equipment.  Like we mentioned earlier, the orchestra usually goes backstage, and that is still true, but last night we held a rehearsal called a "sit and sing" which is where the cast and the orchestra get a feeling for each other and how the songs will go.  Everyone survived the rehearsal…the coffin on stage is only a prop.

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