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MY SOUND EFFECTS LIBRARY HAS RECENTLY BECOME SIGNIFICANTLY LARGER:

No, it hasn't grown in major size based on my creations ‐‐ though I can successfully argue that by combining elements of applause and laughter files to taylor sounds for specific needs in Souvenir that I do have about a dozen new and unique sound files.

But, in the last week I have gotten hold of almost 46 gigabytes of royalty-free sound effect files. The haul includes more than 22 hundred sound effects from the BBC Sound Effects Library and almost a thousand other files.

I had once before procured some of the BBC files but there was a file-corruption problem and it was going to be a major hassle to determine what was and wasn't damaged, so it was simpler to replenish the whole collection, plus add more.

There's somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 gigs more from the BBC collection to get (based on the files being 48 kHz, 16 bit, stereo .aif files). At some point I'll have them.

PREPARATIONS ARE GRADUALLY COMING ALONG:

Spent several days listening to the original Broadway cast recording, mostly focusing on the 3/4 dozen songs Grandpa Gellman appears in.

Now I'm starting to do work on those specific songs. And I am "taking my vocal cords to the gym" every day ‐‐ i.e.: being sure to do vocal warm ups regardless of doing specific work on the songs. Though from this point forward, I'll be doing some kind of work on those songs every day.

Sat down at the rent payer yesterday and worked out my work schedule for them during the period of rehearsals and production. I am, for the most part, not going to be burning as much vacation leave as I had thought ‐‐ potentially, at any rate.

During the week rehearsals will generally be Tuesday through Friday from 6:00 until 11:00. So I have arranged to work 9:00-4:00 Wednesday through Friday, based on the idea that I'll be getting to bed in the neighborhood of midnight. That's the current plan, at any rate.

The first week I have to add Tuesday to that, because we have our "meet & greet" and first musical rehearsal on October 10. But the good thing is, that rehearsals are dark that Friday, so I can come into the rent payer at 9:00 but still get an eight-hour day in. So I only have to use three hours of vacation for the whole week.

Then, after my HRTC acting class is wrapped, I can work a ten-hour day on Monday's, the usual dark day for Caroline.... in both rehearsals and production. That will require, after I have flexed work hours out, only using one hour of vacation during said week. During most of the actual run, I will be able to just move my rent-pay shift down one hour Wednesday through Friday and take no vacation leave.

The caveat here is there are some possible afternoon rehearsals (presently listed as "TBA" on the schedule) that may necessitate vacation time. But, at least the ability to burn less in other areas will keep the overall use down from what it could have been.

I've sidestepped the true, convoluted complexities of the schedule because that's not necessary to spell out here, but I may be able to get away with as little as eight hours, maybe no more than twenty (if I have to take some or all of those TBA's off), of vacation leave hours used for the whole rehearsal and production period. Eight is better, but sixteen is not horrible.

And how grateful am I that I have a unit boss and department head at the library who will give me this ability to flex the forty hours of my work week?

GEORGE AND MARTHA:

Index flash cards creation time ‐‐ and time to start serious work, as I can, on the scene my classmate, in the HRTC acting class, and I are doing from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

The very next thing that happens after this blog entry is posted is that I break open a fresh pack of 3x5 index cards and start that process. I looked at the pages for the scene last night. My scene partner suggested we add the line right before where we had planned to start, and I agree that it makes sense. So we shall.

And, again, I am grateful that Kay has granted us the ability to call for line during the class performance.

I also was given a play to read, though I don't believe it was specifically an assignment. It's a play by Ben Elton, titled, Pop Corn. I started it a little over a week back but wasn't able to get very far. I need to get it back to Kay before the class ends.

DOH! ‐‐ Oh yeah, I will be seeing Kay every day but Mondays for the next month after class ends. Of course, who will have time to read a play during that month?

SHAKESPEARE FOR LIFE:

Truthfully, the "non-pay gig" icon isn't absolutely the correct one to use here, but it's the closest to accurate that I have for the blog.

Local actor Chris Shea has, through his theatre company, Free Shakespeare!, collaborated with Optum Nurses for a Cure to sponsor a 24/7, week-long happening that endeavors to have all the writings credited to William Shakespeare performed in dramatic readings as a fundraiser for cancer research.

I was going to be a shift captain for next Saturday evening but I had to cancel that ambition due to a social obligation it's necessary for me to meet. I am now going to, instead, read during the 8:00 am-noon slot next Saturday, under the command of Capt. Jamie McQuinn. We are, among other things, reading As You Like It.

Here's the official announcement text for the project:

Free Shakespeare! and Optum Nurses for a Cure, a registered team with the Centerville chapter of Relay for Life, will present Shakespeare For Life, a marathon relay reading of the Bard's works, starting at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, and running 24 hours through 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, at the Blue Sky Gallery, 33 N. Main St., in downtown Dayton. The event will start with a reading of Julius Caesar, with the goal of reading all 37 plays, 154 sonnets and five poems credited to William Shakespeare. While the readings will be organized into four-hour segments with some assigned readers, the public is invited to stop by anytime and read ‐‐ or just listen. Participants are asked to gather at least $25 in pledges to benefit a both Optum Nurses for a Cure and Free Shakespeare! A silent auction also will be held during the event. "Cancer is everywhere and affects everyone, and on the lighter side of that, Shakespeare is everywhere and affects everyone," Shea added. "Once I made that connection, this seemed a natural fit. This also is a community outreach and educational event. We want to raise awareness about Shakespeare and cancer prevention, while raising money for two great causes." To volunteer for Shakespeare for Life, contact shakespearerelay@gmail.com. Shakespeare for Life is a sponsored project of Involvement Advocacy. Contributions can be made at the event or by mailing a check, made out to Involvement Advocacy (memo: Free Shakespeare), P.O. Box 10506, Dayton, OH, 45402-7506. Free Shakespeare! is a professional, nonprofit theater company devoted to presenting performances of the works of William Shakespeare. The company strives to make these works accessible to a contemporary society and deepen the understanding of our linguistic and cultural origins. We are committed to projects either penned by Shakespeare or inspired by his work.

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GEORGE AND I IN THE WOODS:

In fact, it's October and this is the first I've spent any time in the woods all year. That doesn't make me very happy. I let almost the whole calendar year slip by without making time to be in one of my favorite places.

Nevertheless, yesterday I hiked a bit, index flashcards in hand, working on George's lines for the Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? scene that will be up, I believe, next week. I hope next week because I don't quite have it all.

I fell asleep working on the lines in bed last night and woke with the cards in a bit of a disarray. Later, at work, putting them in order I thought I'd lost a card during the toss-and-turn of my slumber. Number 8 was not there. I grabbed an index card at work to recreate "#8," but when I went to the script to find the missing line I found that what had really happened was I had skipped "8" when numbering the flashcards.

Now, as you can see by the surrounding photographs, I did stop for photo ops whilst in the forestry yesterday; did I mention how I've neglected this neck of my neighborhood all year?

Got a little less prep work accomplished over the weekend than I would have liked. I meant to sit down and do at least one good session working directly on the vocals. That did not happen. I'll at least say that I have listened enough that I have been able to sing some of it with accuracy.

So, that's a good sign, at least.

In the effort to meet my goal of a final cut on the podcast DV movie before the weekend, I edited together the start of the movie last night, the first few seconds, the podcast introduction up through the Lost in Yonkers logo.

I also dropped in the podcast intro flourish music and the first bit of the music I procured from D.A.W.N. Music as underscore for this one.

I've also got ahead of the game to some extent by gathering all the actors' headshots and creating the image presentations for the movie. As well, I've created, I believe, all the other graphics I need. I believe I have the template for the closing credits role complete as well. I'll just be a question of plugging this all into the edit when the time comes.

Plan to zip by again after the acting class tonight to get at least some footage. I may get some of the voice-over audio of some of the actors, too. That depends on whether Director Fran Pesch wants to allow anyone off stage during the rehearsal period. That may not be a s easy tonight, but we'll see.

I definitely can get some if this "interview" material tomorrow if anyone is ready and get there early, as I can be there before the official rehearsal start time. The cast has some guideline question and have been told that I welcome doing any of the "interviews" before Wednesday.

Thursday evening is slated as the start of the full-blown editing session(s).

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GEORGE AND MARTHA:

As did the rest of the HRTC acting class teams with their scenes, my scene-mate and I did a rehearsal of our scene from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in front of the class this past Monday evening. I was a tad more dependent on the script than I would wish, especially the first portion, but-what-a-ya-gonna-do?

George and Martha are up again on the last class day, October 17.

I'm starting to feel very much behind the game in terms of my prep for the start of next week's rehearsals. I'll be in a new environment, and the surer I feel about my material and my musical acumen in respect to that, the more relaxed I can be.

Now it feels like "GULP" time!

WRAP IT UP!:

I am forcing a wrap of the podcast production tonight so I can get on to the editing ASAP. If I can wrap early and get home in time I'll start the editing tonight.

Last night I recorded three of the seven actors' commentaries I need for the podcast, the other four must be tonight. I also want just a little more footage of one actor, then I'm outta there.

The set up for the actors' commentaries for the Lost in Yonkers podcast DV movie.

Snake wrangling.

Just as an FYI for the two of you five who care:

It does seem that the Fostex multi-track cassette player is in fine working condition. Though I haven't put it through the paces, I did do some recording the other night, what I'd call "bootleg" work, at least using tracks 1 & 2 to stereo record some live and rare music recordings on-line. But my immediate guess is that if that was successful, and it was, then the machine is up and running quite well.

Which is good because in the midst of all the other things going on or about to go on, I really have a need to compose and record a new song.

Got to give great big kudos to A-V Specialist, in Kettering, Ohio!

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Goodbye, Steve. Rest in peace.

I'M WRAPPING AS FAST AS I CAN !:

Finished recording the audio commentaries last night and got the footage I needed. By 9:00 I had started back on the editing, placing the commentaries into the movie. I didn't take out a large chunk but at least I have less to do now. I'll slide some in at lunch today, too. With luck I could have a final cut before bedtime tonight.

AM I CRAZY?:

Yeah, the tag is probably a tad hyperbolic. But, I now have an audition tomorrow, in Northern Kentucky, for the Ohio Lottery.

Callback will be next Tuesday, Oct 11. That should not be a scheduling conflict, as it will be during the day. The potential problem arises if I'm booked. The shoot date is either the 18th or the 19th and if the day runs long then I'm butted against or miss the 6:00 call for Caroline.

The shoot is going to be in either Cincinnati or Columbus, so I'll have to let them know tomorrow that I'd need to be wrapped from production and outta there by 4:00. I'll also need to put the Caroline production staff into this loop.

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An afternoon road trip on a crisp, sunny Autumn day in southern Ohio isn't a bad thing, whatsoever.

I dropped all the actors' commentary into the movie last night as well as the music. The volume balance isn't adjusted, yet, I'll do that as my last act before final cut.

A few minutes after I post this entry, I'll start adding the DV footage and then edit on to final cut.

With luck there'll be a podcast later tonight if not tomorrow morning.

DOH!:

"And, oh yeah! I do believe my EMC status is something else that ABSOLUTLEY belongs on that résumé update!"

Except that when I first updated everything yesterday, I forgot to add that particular significance. It's there now, except I have only bothered to add it to the general, comprehensive on-line résumé and the one that targets professional theatres. Non-pro theatres and camera auditors won't care about my EMC status.

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I did not make final cut on deadline.

One major problem was a skew of the aspect ration when I put clips into the canvas in Final Cut Express. The raw footage was 16:9 widescreen, but for some reason when I dropped clips into the edit timeline they were stretched to anamorphic, one of 2.2:1 or 1.85:1, I didn't bother to calculate which. I just knew all my actors had gained about 15 pounds, maybe twenty.

I didn't really notice this until I had been editing for a little while ‐‐ probably my sense of urgency filtering my eyes a little. But When I did I had to go back and adjust everything to 16:9. All the clip bits in the edited movie as well as the raw stuff. So what I would have in the viewer was a compressed 4:3 image but when I dropped the clips into the time line they would stretch to 16:9.

Don't ask me why this event occurred, I have no idea. But, at least I was able to fix it. But it took up some time.

Other problem. I'd assumed that I would be able to zoom into shots in the edit phase using HD video with less degradation of the image. There may be less, but it's not significant. When I enlarged the movie image to watch, I saw that I needed to zoom out, greatly in most cases. I think perhaps the final cut still has a few spots that might stand a little pull-back to improve the image quality.

I was up until 2:00 yesterday morning but didn't get a final cut until late last night/early this morning. I had to be at the Shakespearathon at 8:00 am yesterday, so when I got back home in the afternoon, it was most necessary to nap for a while. I got a little finishing edit work done when I woke, but them had a social obligation to attend. So The couple hours were out in after I got home last evening.

And I have done NO work on Caroline, or Change yet. I am doing laundry right now. I expect much of the rest of my day today to be work on melody and music.

Meanwhile:

Photo taken by either Jamie McQuinn or Hunter Johnson.

Despite only about three and a half hours sleep, I made it to the 8 am shift for the reading of As You Like It, yesterday at the Blue Sky Gallery in Dayton.

Talk about practice at cold reading!

I'd grabbed a volume of Complete Plays by... that contained As You Like It with the intention of at least reading the play out loud once before the actual appointment, but, Best laid plans and all that; I just could not fit it in, especially since the podcast edit ran into hitches.

It was still fun, sleep deprivation not withstanding.

I don't know if I am going to remember and report these verbatim, or in order, or if I'll remember them all, but here were the rules posted (and written, I would imagine, by the Free Shakespeare! founder, Chris Shea):

1. Have Fun
2. Don't worry about pronunciation
3. Keep the language moving
4. Punctation is your friend

When one is doing a cold-read of Shakespeare and has not done much Shakespeare (I.E: me), the "Don't worry about pronunciation" rule is most useful.

The real fun thing was making up melodies for the songs in play. Myself and fellow reader Carol Norigon had those honors.

Audience? You ask: nope.

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John ‐‐ Forgot to mention John's 71st birthday yesterday. In honor of him: CLICK HERE. Paul ‐‐ And congratulations to Paul on the occasion of his third marriage, made official in his London mansion over the weekend: CLICK HERE.

TONIGHT I STEP FOOT ONTO A NEW ISLAND AS AN ACTOR:

Part of me is saying, "Damn! Wouldn't it have been nice if this had happened, oh, forty years ago?" But, there's not much to be done about that now. The important thing is that it has come to be.

Right now I have no acute feeling about this first professional stage rehearsal and the initiation of what I hope is a new chapter. I am none of nervous, in anticipation, anxious, excited, or anything else. Or perhaps I feel one or more of them and just don't register it. There most certainly is an intellectual satisfaction, else, why would I bother to write about ti?

Perhaps one factor is that, though I am a bit behind what I'd hoped would be the case, I will show up to tonight's opening rehearsal with a relatively good familiarity with my songs. From this past weekend, yesterday was the only time I had an extended chance to study the songs, and I did, as I did laundry as well as after getting back home. Some spots I think I have pretty well. Others need work in one or more of words, pronunciation, exactitude of note, or exact count into the musical phrase.

One of the things I did last night was edit the songs I'm in (taken from the original Broadway cast album) to tighten everything up to the points where Grandpa Gellman makes his appearances. I have been listening to those all morning on my phone, with the repeat command on. But I have taken a break for lunch to give all of my ears, brain and the hard drive on the phone a break. After lunch I will get back to it though.

Again, I'm not sure about how this professional theatre gig gets recounted here. I think that it will have to be even more isolated into personal goal, achievement and lessons than is even the usual practice, being extremely careful about including other individuals in any way that identifies them. And don't count on many photos, if any.

Got a script for that close-ended web series project I mentioned about a month back that I was approached about. Looks fun. The problem is fitting it in.

In terms of the acting class tonight, I don't think I'm doing much but observing; and only for the first hour, then I walk over the next block to HRTC and my virgin pro-theatre rehearsal.

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AS SAUL CAPLAN WROTE, "WELCOME TO THE BIG SHOW!":

Saul wrote that early this morning in response to my following facebook post from just before bed last night:

"Well, hey," I replied, "neither William Daniels or John Cullum have fabulous singing voices but both are strong presences on a stage with a song. Something to grow toward."

There is a lot of talent in this show! Just gotta say I am in the midst of some good players, least-wise vocalists.

Not to suggest that I did not "hold my own," I did. Well, mostly. There were a few trouble spots for me; but then again, there were a few for some of those more impressive singers. Last night was, after all, the musical equivalent of a table read through. We are at the start of the process.

At least I was not anything close to lost. The problem spots for me, and not me alone, I might add, were "The Chanukah Party" and my last appearance, in "The Twenty Dollar Bill/The Clock." The first, which was what I auditioned for Director Scott Stoney, is far more of question of getting all the words in than getting the correct notes, though I still need to shore up some on melody. The second is all of words, melody, harmony and count.

Tonight my call is for "The Chanukah Party" so I isolated that in a song list in the media player on my phone and I am listening to it non-stop. Singing along when I can and certainly attending mentally and making mental marks and notes as I can. I have some time before I have to be at the theatre tonight so I will sit down at home and work on it in a more focused, concentrated manner.

I also managed to get a hold of the full score. I had simply printed out the pages relevant to me. But I have decided to print it all out, despite the expense.

HRTC ACTING CLASS:

Did another absolutely cold read last night and was quite pleased with my delivery.

Although I am a little embarrassed to admit I can't tell you the name of the play Kay Bosse had me read from.

Regardless, she gave me the line to start with, which was a few sentences in from the start of the longish paragraph. And I can't recall that line right now. But I made a choice to start, something strong. As I read on I had to adjust. Went I got to the part about the character having committed torture it became obvious I was too light in delivery, so I started taking him darker.

Remember, the idea with a cold read is not to deliver a deep, straight-on, dead-accurate interpretation of the character. it's to give an honest portrayal based on what you know and feel as you move along the words. And I did that. Now, had I been given a second opportunity at that same monologue, I'd have put an entirely different man and read in front of the class.

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SECOND REHEARSAL NIGHT:

The call last night was 7:00-9:00 for me, and the rest of "The Chanukah Party" scene-mates. We did go on from there and cover most of Act II from that point forward, with a few more short appearances by Grandpa and Grandma Gellman, then our more prominent involvement in "The Twenty Dollar Bill/The Clock," which I had not studied upon at all beforehand. And I did not quite get some of the harmonies in a section of that, last night. Fortunately, the B'Way cast album has the same harmonies, that's not always a given, so I've been listening and working on that most if the day today.

Call tonight is 9:00-11:00 for "'The Chanukah Party,'" but I am prepping as if we will again move on into "The Twenty Dollar Bill/The Clock" and all points in between. I have a pretty strong handle on "The Chanukah Party," save for not having a couple lyric sections absolute yet. So I am listening and working on all of my appearances in Act II. It can't hurt to work on it all, even if some is not dealt with tonight.

And like I said, I am in pretty good shape with "The Chanukah Party" and before tonight should have those problem lyrics down.

As for the work schedule today at the rent-payer, since I was to get out at 9:00 last night, I tentatively reverted my schedule in the office back to my norm: 7:00-3:30. Not only did I not make it in at 7:00, I was actually an hour later than the altered schedule (9:00-4:00 w/1 hr vacation). So I today I work 10:00-5:00 and am not able to avoid burning an hour of vacation leave as I'd hoped I could. Working till 5:00 still gives me four hours to eat dinner and work on Act II before the rehearsal tonight; a good thing.

Now to push toward off book ASAP. Really, I'm more or less in that neighborhood as it is.

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THIRD NIGHT OF REHEARSAL AND THIS IS STARTING TO EXCITE THE HELL OUT OF ME!:

Would love to report that I was absolutely and amazingly perfect last night; alas: no.

Over all, and in a big over-all manner, it was a great rehearsal, for me personally and all the way around. There is one close, tense, tight harmony for me in "The Twenty Dollar Bill/The Clock" that I got wrong. At least what I sang was in key, and it was a close, tense, tight harmony, just not the correct close, tense, tight harmony. It's the musical equivalency of paraphrasing lines. Musical Director Scot Woolley even encouraged that I was "in the ballpark, rounding third" and that if the notes were wrong, the "attitude was certainly there."

We did go over the little problem section again so the notes could also be there.

Tonight we have the full cast and will sing (and speak the few lines there are) all the way through the show. And I am feeling relatively good about being off-book. I'm not perfect but I'm not horribly far off the mark, either. Of course, I don't have anywhere as close to the amount to commit to memory as others do.

And let me say again that this cast is simply impressive.

Speaking of one such cast member, our Caroline, Tanesha Gary, is a principal in a short film that shows this Saturday on HBO Signature at 5:30 a.m, then next Thursday at 6 a.m. The movie is called The Cycle.

And on a closing note, check out my first wages from an Equity stage....:

A few minutes after midnight last night I checked my credit union account to find that my first paycheck from a professional theatre gig was deposited.

OH YEAH, I GOT AN ACTING CLASS THAT NEEDS MY ATTENTION, TOO:

George has not been a part of my consciousness as more than a passing thought for days now, as I have focused on Caroline....

That needs to change some. George is supposed to make an appearance in front of class next Monday. Off-book, or pretty damned close, would be good.

We're about to started staging/(blocking) Caroline..., with the first two full-day rehearsals this weekend. And being as close to off-book as I can be for that is important. Somehow, I need fit an off-book George into the mix before 5:00 Monday.

Hmmm.

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FIRST WEEK OF REHEARSALS DOWN AND ON INTO THE SECOND:

Well the first week (Mon-Thu) of rehearsals is down, and after a dark Friday it's the first two full days for the first weekend: yesterday and today. Then we start the remaining weeks of being dark on Mondays and working (rehearsal and performance days) Tuesday through Sunday, with the exception of a TBA on Monday, November 15, the last production week.

As for me in these first five rehearsals, I would surmise that I have done all right. I am running into one spot that is clearly more work for o get right. I have a few musical lines early, actually my first musical lines, that, well, I don't know the exact proper music theory term, but the notes are almost dissident, perhaps in a relative key and finding the start note is a challenge in both instances. Plus, I am fining it challenging to come in on the right count and to keep the tempi and rhythm at a good place for the need of the orchestra ‐‐ we haven't started work with the orchestra yet, but Musical Director Scot Woolley is obviously instructing us at this point about orchestral needs.

Meanwhile, the other Scott, Director Scott Stoney, blocked Act I yesterday and we should take out Act II, today. My call is a little later in the day, early afternoon today. Still need to shore up my pronunciation of the Hebrew prayer in part of "The Chanukah Party," actually just two lines of that. I get them when I have the text in hand, but I'm garbling them when my hands are empty. I really want to declare myself Off-Book Tuesday, with text in my hand only to write and read blocking notes, if for any reason at all.

I also want to perfect getting my note for one section of "The Twenty Dollar Bill/The Clock." If I get that first note of the section, I get it all. As soon as I post this, I work on that whilst prepping to head to Dayton for the call.

SHAKESPEARE FOR LIFE:

Friday night, the week-long Shakespearathon came to a close. I applaud Chris Shea and his Free Shakespeare! theatre company, as well as Optum Nurses for a Cure for the endeavor. I applaud all those who participated as readers and attenders (and whatever else). It may not have technically been what might be called a fabulous success, with standing room only 24/7 for its whole run, but it damn sure was not a failure in the least. Just the fact that it was conceived and executed is a major plus! And I cannot conceive that at least some one wasn't introduced in a positive way to The Bard during this week; or some ones ‐‐ which would be even better.

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REHEARSAL WEEK #2 IS IMMANENTLY AFOOT:

Tomorrow marks the start of the second-third of our rehearsal period, or thereabouts.

The truth is, as of tomorrow we are seventeen days away from the "official" Opening Night performance, but only fifteen days away from the first audience (the Pay What You Can performance for Final Dress). Counting tomorrow's rehearsal, we are thirteen rehearsals away from an audience.

The first "rough stumble through" is Wednesday, and I am reasonably confident that I can make it through that relatively unscathed. I did have photocopies of the relevant libretto pages in my hand over the weekend during rehearsal, but mostly I did so as a security-blanket act; I barely referred to the text. Mostly, I used the pages to write blocking on.

Last Friday I grabbed quite a few books on or that have chapters on the society and politics of Southern U.S. Jews. I hope I can spend some time tonight, after the last session if the acting class wraps, in these pages for a little dramaturgy.

THE ACTING CLASS WRAPS TONIGHT:

George and Martha, among others, are up tonight in this final class session for the HRTC acting class. Our instructor and my current stage wife, Kay Bosse has fortunately said that though being off-book is better, the character work and understanding is more important for this particular class. That is good because I will be close, but not entirely off-book for the ...Woolf... scene.

DTG PODCAST 1112-05:

I am now looking at exactly when I will be on set to shoot the podcast footage.

Since Caroline is dark Mondays, save for one potential rehearsal that is presently TBA, I know I will be in to shoot on Monday nights. The question is, how early in the process will I start coming in?

Looking at the size of this cast, I may need to do two, or more nights of interview shoots.

Think I'll try to grab some footage during the first and/or second night of Tech Week ‐‐ so I can get good footage of the cast in costume and the finished set ‐‐ didn't have a chance to get the Lost in Yonkers set as I had to have a final cut so soon.

Unfortunately that means that the final cut on this one is going to be up just before opening of the show. I'd rather it be the weekend before, but, what-a-ya-gonna-do?

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THE ACTING CLASS WRAP UP:

Martha and George had their fight last night, one more time, about the "Guests." My scene-mate, Julie, was off-book, one of those who was. I was not one of those, though I was close. I actually used the photocopied sheets of our few pages as a prop ‐‐ papers George was grading.

Based on feedback from Kay I adjusted George a little, made his emotional responses a little toned down and not quite as flabbergasted in a couple instances, but instead, annoyed.

Our scene went well and we got good response from the room.

Kay may be doing another of this same class in Jan/Feb of 2012. I have a big interest in coming back, but if I am John in Mamet's Oleanna then I will have a lot of words to commit to memory during the same period as the class sessions, so I am reluctant about the winer class right now.

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SAID ON FB:

Be it "foolish," "naïve," "dreaming," or whatever other word/idea one may wish to foist upon me, it's still my true sentiment.

AND, AGAIN, NOTE THAT STUPID LOWERCASE L THAT FACEBOOK FORCES ME TO USE FOR MY MIDDLE INITIAL!

INTO WEEK 2:

Good rehearsal last night despite some personal fouls.

Have I said lately how incredible most of the singing in this show is? I'm not part of that Incredible Factor, I'm part of the "Can At Least Stay In Tune, Usually" factor.

Seems that the section I was most concerned about I got right ‐‐ or, right enough ‐‐ but there is another cue, a beat count for a rest before I start singing that I keep blowing because we have to do it differently than they do on the original Broadway cast recording. I have to break the habit learned fro the recording and go with the organic new way. But the other section, my minor-keyed "Sondheimish-section," as I am referring to it, seemed to go well.

That's my assumption, based on the fact that Director Scott Stoney gave Musical Director Scot Woolley the last hour to work on his (Scot's) hit list of problems to address, and Scot didn't call on me as I had absolutely expected him to. The rush of the rest beats we had addressed earlier and then we (Kay and I) sang in that section while Scot was working with someone else. But he did not address the Sondheimish-section. I think that means there was no problem ‐‐ Or he has surrendered   .

This just in: there has been an unfortunate mishap involving the commercially published lyric-only libretto that was borrowed from the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library, the actor's libretto vocal book (provided by the producers) and a once-full bottle of aftershave. All in one carry bag, bottle cap popped off, bottle upside down, bottle empty; toiletry pack soaked, toiletry pack leaking; librettos absorbing some of the liquid and its fragrance. Actor now responsible to replace both publications. So-oh-well.

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Okay, so I may be a bit hyperbolic when I say that last night choreographer Teressa Wylie met her greatest challenge of the production:

Or, maybe not so hyperbolic.

The fortunate thing is that my choreography is for a double-left-footed man; being that I am that man, my having that choreography is a good thing. I suppose I got through it by the end of the session with some improvement, but I ain't where I need to be just yet. Not there at all.

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OPENING TODAY AT THE DAYTON THEATRE GUILD:

...still a cluster@#$%! Well, the last part of the dance was, last night. The rest was better but needs progression, all the same. I did get out of sync with my scene mates at one point, but things did not completely fall apart until the end. But, it was SOME progress, even if more is needed. The good thing is that Director Scott Stoney told me during the original choreographing session that Grandpa Gellman does not have to be a good dancer at all, that it would work to have him a little clumsy (I think the term "a little" is key here). And that is good and fortunate due to the dance skills of the actor playing Grandpa Gellman. I don't dismiss the idea that Scott watched me "dance" for a few minutes and decided that this was the best and logical direction to go. But, I may be second-guessing there.

Musically last was a very good rehearsal for me. I think I may have stumbled over one line that has been giving me trouble, but other than that I had a great night. Those two minor-keyed Sondheimish-sections came off close to perfect, so I am happy. But, I'll still be on my toes in regard to them, cocky provokes a flub, if you know what I mean.

And, let me say this: Last night we did the first rough run through of the whole show, in continuity. After participating in and experiencing the run I am more excited than ever about this show! Things are starting to fall in line so damned well! I am privileged to be a part of this and to be working with such a talented group of people.

GEM OF THE OCEAN AND JUNGLE JACK HANNA:

My callback appointment for The Human Race spring 2012 production of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean is now confirmed and the relevant sides have been emailed to me. I go in at noon on November 5, just after Caroline... opens.

Had somewhat of an opportunity to audition for a Columbus Zoo commercial where I believe I might have appeared with Jack Hanna, but I had scheduling conflicts so it could not be.

I need to find me a legitimate occasion or reason to create an animated gif for a post entry here.

I mean:

WHY NOT?

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Lunch break for Sunday rehearsal right now. Worked that Choreography for "The Chanukah Song" and, like the header here says, it was an "improvement."

An improvement ‐‐ relative term.

Scott has also given Kay and I some choreo-style blocking for "The Twenty Dollar Bill/The Clock," more specifically "The Clock." We also went over that. The Clock stuff is much easier.

Earlier today, I missed the pitch for the second of my two minor-keyed Sondheimish sections. I ended up sharp. Need to lock in getting my notes both times, especially the second.

Well, another rough full run coming up in just a few minutes....

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Sunday afternoon the Chanukah dance was better, but I still made unacceptable mistakes. A big one is a point where we all step left with some kicks involved. I need to step left, sideways with my left foot then step behind to the left with my right foot. My body wants to instinctively step first with my right foot and I am having a hell of a time anesthetizing that urge.

When we did the rough run of the show, I just embraced the errors as Grandpa Gellman's rather than K.L.'s. And I've been advised to do this. But I consider this the fall-back cover position and not what should be.

There was also one little mess-up in the Clock choreography, but that one is a simple matter of remembering new movement and is not something that must be conquered.

What the music theory challenged must do to read sheet music

Meanwhile, I still was also a little bit off with my two minor-keyed Sondheimish sections. I've taken the full score measures of these spots and written in the notes, so I can go over them a little faster than if I was trying to sight-read the actual cleft notes. I emailed Scot Woolley to be sure my Greek character designations of the notes were correct. They were. Going over that on the keyboard at the apartment was a chunk of my evening last night. I must say I am still finding it a challenge to start on the correct pitch.

Last night I used the Yamaha electric keyboard. Today, I am about to work the notes again, here at the apartment. I may also work them tonight, when/if I can at rehearsal before we get to those sections. I'll use a keyboard program on my lap top in Garage Band. They come pretty early, so I may not have the chance.

I Have been home all day today, in bed. Woke up with a chest congestion and a sore throat. Need to attack that vigorously. Now I'm up. I've finished the writing here, Have a couple more thing to touch on. Then, some gargling and meds and some music work. Then I stop into the office for a few to be sure a task is done for tomorrow. Then, I go give the right pitch in those trouble spots a shot.

I saw Lost in Yonkers last Saturday night at The Dayton Theatre Guild. There were some fine performances on that stage. Congrats.

I'm a little bummed that I am not likely to be able to catch Evil Dead: The Musical at the Beavercreek Community Theatre. I hear all kinds of good things about it and I know the cast is having a blast.

There are few more I am going to miss, too. To repeat the statement from a friend:

When you DO theatre you often don't get the chance to SEE a lot of theatre.

Wallet contents can play a part, too, however.

Started reading into Act I of Gem of the Ocean. I have that callback at The Race in a week and a half.

I have Oleanna, too. But first things first. That audition is virtually six weeks away.

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piano screenshot

Rehearsal last night was another rough full run of the show and the show is shaping up quite nicely. Or as one person wrote on facebook last night:

And they are!

As for the Chanukah dance, we made it all the way through with only a district-o moment at the very end. But we did it all in character. I played the Grandpa can't dance card, but, I'll have you know that I managed to get that step left with the left foot first then step BEHIND with the right foot move correctly.

And Kay and I were dead-on with the movements for "The Clock." And according to Musical Director Scot Woolley our notes and such were "absolutely perfect."

Mr. Woolley also told me that I got the pitch correct for my two minor-keyed Sondheimish sections, aka the packs of cigarettes solos. I ended up leaving my laptop at home and used the xpiano app on my myTouch 4G Android cell phone to go over these two sections after I arrived at rehearsal. Now, despite that I was successful with both moments last night, I believe I shall keep going over them though, to assure that last night was not a fluke.

Tonight is our first full night of rehearsal OTFS. "OTFS" is a Saul Caplan lexicon. Let's say it means "On The Final Stage." We are done using the dance studio we've been in. We did a few things on the actual stage last Sunday, but only a few things then we headed down to the dance studio.

I also have learned some phrases new to me: Sitzprobe and Wandelprobe.

A sitzprobe is a rehearsal with the orchestra but without blocking. It is usually done at the end of the stage blocking period. It's the big opportunity to work on the singers' and orchestra's interaction and iron out musical problems minus the distractions of blocking.

A wandelprobe, which is what we will do, is the same thing but with blocking. There are a few reasons to do it this way, in our case it's because the schedule is tight and we need all the stage time we can have. And we will be able to identify problems of hearing musical cues, etc.

Tonight we are without accompaniment, so our first full OTFS rehearsal will be about getting acquainted with the real playing space. Our wandelprobe is Friday evening.

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:

On The Final Stage....On The Full Stage....On The Fan-damn-tastic Stage.

Something like that.       whatever.

Regardless of the euphemism you attribute to that "F" (What? You mean that 'F' has another possible meaning?), we started working on the real stage last night and that is where we are from now on.

Yay.

It's a very cool set, too, with a revolving main stage. A nice place to work and play. Last night was all about us starting to get acclimated to the set. Us who are at one time or another on the revloving section as it moves began the process of making those moments smooth.

As I said before, there was no musical accompaniment last night so we often just spoke lyrics or took a shot at being on key. We really didn't run the show. We worked on the spots where getting to know the new playground was more important.

Tonight, we have a musical run (keyboard accopmaniment only) with body mics. Tomorrow is the wandelprobe, with the full orchestra, that I wrote of yesterday.

THE CAST OF BLUE MOON...DANCING:

CHARACTER		ACTOR
Connie		Henni Fisher
Bernice		Barbara Lurie
Nadine		Wendi Michael
Eugene		John Spitler
Pearl Jean		Angela Timpone
Howard		Rick Flynn
Leona		Fran Pesch
Roselle		Marcia Nowik
Rodney		Josh Lurie
Joel		Scott Knisley
Della		Debra Kent

Meanwhile podcast preproduction has officially begun for this one. I have set what really needs to be a locked shooting schedule and I have started the arrangments for a group cast interview on the Monday of Tech Week ‐‐ a little later than I'd like, but that can't be helped.

Got some preproduction as producer of this one going, too.

Time to start putting the production team together.

And do note the audition notice below ‐‐ until it's past Nov 29, that is.

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MOVED INTO TECH:

Since I last checked in much has been done and lots and lots and lots and lots of progress has been accomplished. We've done the music tech, the wandelprobe with the full orchestra, the cue to cue and then have moved on into full tech/dress rehearsals.

The consensus is that we are ready for an audience, which is good since there is an audience for every tech rehearsal from this point on. We have tonight off. Tomorrow we have teachers and people associated with the Muse Machine. Wednesday is Pay What You Can Night (AKA: Can Night). So it's good we have progressed so well.

My personal progress was good enough. There are a few things I'd like to tighten up, however. There was some problem, at least during the first run Sunday, with the second minor-keyed Sondheimish section, but I think it was worked out. Musical Director Scot Woolley and I dealt with it after that run ‐‐ I went to him because I knew something was wrong but didn't know what. Turns out I had found the right note in run 1, but had sang some subsequent steps incorrectly. Later, Scot told me I was "in the right geography," which I don't think means dead on target.

The Chanukah dance is much better, though I could stand a little more finesse, despite Grandpa Gellman's lack of dance skills. And the dance on the whole has only one real chink to iron to a little smoother.

My portrayal is sufficient. Grandpa Gellman is an auxiliary character and what is needed is for him to be real in the story and react appropriately. I believe that is happening.

First official performance: This Thursday.

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LAST STRETCH OF THE RACE TOWARD OPENING NIGHT:

We performed the tech rehearsal last night in front of an audience of Muse Machine kids and teachers, a group of about fifty. Nice to do the show in front of an audience.

Tonight is the famous "Can Night," and if you are one of the local five who read this silly blog and you plan to come, the scuttlebutt is that a lot of people are planning to come, so get there early, at least 6:00 if not earlier. *See the blue box above in Monday's post for details on "Can Night."

With the exception of flubbing a few words during what was thankfully a chorus of singers, I had a damn good night. The only other glitchy spot was some movements later in the show. Ms. Bosse and I, as Grandma and Grandpa Gellman, are in a scene with Noah (played by Brendan Plate) Our costuming was giving us problems last night. It was the first chance we had to wear some particular new pieces and there are some logistic problems to deal with. We can't stand exactly next to each other so we need to adjust our choreography there. The pieces also needs adjusting, too. We both had problems keeping them in place. We hope to run this tonight before the rehearsal. Kristine Kearney, our costume designer, is going to work on a fitting adjustment, too.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Bruce Sabath as Stuart Gellman, myself as Grandpa Gellman, Saul Caplan as Mr. Stopnick, Brendan Plate as Noah Gellman, Kay Bosse as Grandma Gellman, and Adrienne Gibbons as Rose Stopnick Gellman. *Photo By Scott J. Kimmins

Then There's The Hair Coloring Fiasco ‐‐ Director Scott said at audition that if I was cast I would have to be aged. He came to the decision that all I really need is grayed hair. We spoke of using white shoe polish but then castmate Bruce Sabath (my son Stuart Gellman, in the show) suggested the Ben Nye brand temporary hair coloring.

When we did the publicity photo shoot last week, Lacee Rae Hart (HRTC Costume Shop Manager) grabbed some silver-gray Ben Nye coloring and helped me for the shoot. See one of the official publicity pics here to the right (photo by HRTC Technical Director, Scott J. Kimmins). Looking at me in that photo, my hair doesn't look to be very grayed.

And isn't it just a FLATTERING picture of me? . Must remember, it's Grandpa Gellman, not K.L.Storer,        Right?

I subsequently went on-line looking for a supplier of the product. I found some but then also discovered that our local Foy's Halloween Store carries the Ben Nye stuff. I dropped by there last friday and bought two bottles of the silver-gray; this was before I saw the pic which seems to suggest the color isn't light enough. To no matter: I promptly lost the bottles ‐‐ or misplaced them horribly.

I went back yesterday to buy more but Foy's was out of silver-gray. I bought a darker gray and a snow white and last night mixed them. I still think it was too dark. Tonight, I try another blend, heavier on the white.

DTG PODCAST 1112-05 BLUE MOON...DANCING:

I Shot the first footage Monday night for the Blue Moon...Dancing podcast.

I've also created some graphics to put together the opening flourish and splash for the podcast. I used the handy little Norrkros MorphX to add some animation to a moment of the flourish. Though I may redo that animation to see if I can get the morphing transformation to look a little smoother.

I further have edited more of the images into the flourish but, again, I think I am going to start over.

I shoot rehearsal again next Monday eve. We have scheduled a group cast interview for Monday, November 21. Fred Blumenthal is going to facilitate again, as he did for the Sugar Witch podcast, last year.

GOOD PRESS!:

Check out the glowing review by Russell Florence, Jr. in Dayton's Most Metro:

"Family Matters."

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NOT OPENING NIGHT BUT KINDA OPENING NIGHT:

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OPENING TODAY AT THE HUMAN RACE THEATRE COMPANY:

I am pleased to be appearing for the first time on an Equity stage (and beginning my Equity Membership Candidacy). I am appearing in the supporting role of Grandpa Gellman. To see the entire cast & crew list and for more information about the show, Click Here.

The lobby marquee poster. I took this last night as a token of my first pro theatre gig. I was then gratified to find out that some veterans of the stage do the same thing for every show they're in. Bet I shall, too.

Tonight is the "Official" opening of the show. Theoretically the show is now in our hands, we cast members. But I am sure Ms. Jackson, our incomparable stage manager, will weigh in whenever she sees the need. In fact, that's pretty much a given.

The preview performance last night went well. It was not the lovefest that Pay What You Can night was, but we were warned to expect the Can Night audience to possibly be the liveliest and lovingest* audience we may get for the run.

* I know "lovingest" is not a dictionary word, but I'm using it anyway!

Don't misread: last night's audience responded, just not with the fervor of the Wednesday audience. During notes last night Director Scott Stoney told us that both at intermission and after the show the audience expressed great response to the show and the performances.

Speaking of notes, my harshest note for last night's performance comes from me. I blew the movements with Grandma (Kay Bosse) during "The Clock." That new costume apparel was a bit of a distraction and I allowed the distraction to throw me. Scott's only note that was more directly to me was for Kay and I to make another entrance a few moments later.

Well. Seventeen more performances to go. As the freshman/sophomore level guy I am, this will be the longest run I have ever been in.

And, as a nice Dénoûement, here's an article about the show that focuses on our most-talented leading lady, Tanesha Gary, in today's Dayton Daily News, written by Terry Morris: "Musical's local premiere marks change of roles for lead actress."

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SO, K.L., DID THE OFFICIAL OPENING NIGHT GO WELL?:

Sixteen performances left. How much better can it get?!

TWO AUDITIONS TODAY:

First round of the DIY audition: recording directly into the laptop, this morning, while computer system problems were lurking about.

A DIY Audition ‐‐ Last afternoon I got a call from Agent Peter Condopoulos about a voice work audition. He asked if and when I could record an mp3. I said "tomorrow" (THIS) morning. I worked on campus until 5:00 and had to be at The Loft by 6:30-ish. There was no way I could recorded and prep an mp3 last evening.

My laptop was acting rather hinky, it reset to the factor time and date, something like 1969 or whatever. And all my saved passwords were gone. I had started to record the audition, going straight into my laptop, using Garage Band. But when the hink showed up, I took only enough time to email Peter to let him know I'd have to record the audition in the afternoon and send it. Then I ran a thorough diagnostic program on the computer, did a little prep for my next audition of the day, then went to it.

While out, someone suggested my problem may be that bad lithium battery that I've needed to replace for months. So I dropped by a local Mac store and bought a new one. It appears that is the solution.

I recorded the voice work audition this afternoon. I was a tad unhappy with the hiss of room tone I was getting, so I abandoned the direct recording into Garage Band and instead first recorded analog on the four-track with the Dolby noise reduction on, then ran that into Garage Band. The final editing was in Final Cut Express. But, then I converted the aif to an mp3 with iTunes. And now it's submitted. There's still a little more hiss than I'd like, but it's still audible.

It's also horribly difficult for me to triage which takes are good to use. So who knows if I sent something worth listening to or not!

The Gem Of The Ocean ‐‐ Of course, for those few who keep up with me, I had an appointment already for the August Wilson play at The Race. I was relatively prepared but it was in some ways a cold read. I think I did okay, yet I get the sense that the director is looking for something else. He only heard me once, thanked me and that was it. I did make a bold choice and played the character a little big. He did not ask me to read again differently, so either I don't have the look (or am not otherwise the physical type he is looking for), or I did not give him the interpretation he wanted. But, then, he didn't ask for another read, whatever that may indicate.

Anyway, I gave him what I gave him and I gave him something that I feel good about. It just was not what he is looking for, as far as I can tell. I don't expect to get a call that I'm cast, but am more than willing to be wrong about that.

Yeah, there is that hopeful guy in me that wants to believe that possibly the director saw in my audition exactly what he wanted and didn't feel he needed to see any more. Let's just let him go ahead and hope for a while.

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TWO PERFORMANCES TODAY:

So the opening weekend is now half over, the second half being two shows today. One at 2:00 and one at 7:00. It's been several years since I did two performances in one day. I think it may have been as far back as The Best Man at DTG.

Like I intimated above in the post from yesterday, our opening night was great. Yesterday's show was good, too, but it had it's hinks. But as a castmate said after closing curtain, "For a second night, I thought we did good!"

The audience was not demonstratively giving. At one point I even remarked, "So tonight we muster all our energy from inside, because we ain't gettin' none from these folk," for which I was met with agreement. Yet, they applauded fervently at the end of Act I and at the end of the show. And the few who were still in the lobby when I came out raved about the show.

So, there you go.

Well, a little producer business, a short trek to the store for coffee creamer, then off to The Loft.

CLOSING TODAY

The cast of Lost In Yonkers CHARACTER            ACTOR Jay Kurnitz            Philip Stock Arty Kurnitz            Joel Daniel Eddie            Rob Breving Bella            Amy Diederich Grandma Kurnitz            Barbara Jorgensen Louie            Saverio Perugini Gert            Rachel Wilson

I'll take a few minutes this morning to put my producer hat on to send a few emails. There are a few people who have indicated, via the DTG volunteer form, on-line, that they're interested in being stage managers. Going to query some about their experience and request résumés from those who have such. Already sent one email but that person has not responded.

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FIRST WEEKEND DOWN:

According to Grandpa Gellman, there's a southern U.S. state called "Ala-sippi."

That would have been during performance number two yesterday. I have two specific lines of lyric, which happen during The Chanukah Party scene, the first which references Mississippi, the second, Alabama. Kay (Grandma Gellman) sings with me here. The first of the two lines, I started to sing "Alabama," heard Kay start sing the correct "Mississippi" and changed in mid-stream:

"Ala-sippi."

Hmmmm.                Oh well.

All in all the two-show day went quite well. It being live theatre, each performance had its issues but, with the exception of my "Ala-sippi" goof, I'm not aware of anything that the audience would have possibly picked up on.

One observation: during the bulk of the Chanukah scene, many of us have big chunks where we have what I refer to as "jazz blocking." That is where the director has said something along the lines of "play in this area of the stage" but there are few specifics beyond what the general idea of the movement should be. Sometimes there are specific destinations one must be at at specific times, but how the actor gets there is his or her own improvisation as the character and in a manner that suits the scene and does not pull focus if that actor is not the focus of the scene or the moment.

As the Chanukah party scene opens, and the longish intro into "The Chanukah Party" songs plays. We arrive at the house, greet each other, schmooze a bit, and move set pieces about to prepare for the party. Some of that action occurs after the song has started. We were all assigned things to move but getting to them and out of them is improv. ANd there are many other spots where many of us have some freedom to our blocking choices.

I've noticed that we have settled into routine jazz blocking. It's not so much improv as it is now the blocking we have each assigned ourselves in collaboration with each other. This is my standard in such situations, and not that I'm surprised, but it is gratifying that we all did this all pretty much on instinct with only very little discussion. I suppose this means it's not quite in the spirit of "jazz blocking" anymore, save that there are variations from show to show. But then that's true about all specifically directed moments in the play, too.

And one last note: when I have the time I'm going to put together a comprehensive Who's Who type entry about the great cast and crew I am privileged to be with right now.

DTG PODCAST 1112-05 BACK INTO PRODUCTION TONIGHT:

Got a shoot tonight. Will head there after my ten-hour day at work (I'm flexing hours to accommodate Caroline so I burn as little vacation leave as possible during the run). The Blue Moon production is into early blocking, thus tonight's footage is far more likely to be b-roll rather than footage where the text is heard.

But then, one never knows until the editing is in progress.

None of the Caroline TBA rehearsals are going to happen, which means I have next Monday and Tuesday evening free to shoot. And I shall.

I have some concerns that some of the cast may not yet be available at 6:00 on Nov 21, which is when I prefer to shoot the group interview. But, I'll look into that tonight.

As of yet, I haven't gone back in to take another swipe at the opening flourish for the movie. But, since I have a holiday day off from the rent-payer this Friday, that seems like a good time to slate it.

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Blue Moon...Dancing Director Greg Smith.

I shot footage, as planned, of the first blocking rehearsal.

Not all the actors were there, but that's okay. This footage is most likely, as I wrote yesterday, to be b-roll for the credits at the end or cutaways for moments of the interview segment.

My hope is I catch everyone of the actors on screen, to some significant extent, between next Monday and Tuesday evening's shoots. Some actual dialogue from those shoots might end up on the podcast soundtrack, if it's not still a blocking rehearsal, though I don't think it will be.

Though most footage in the podcast with text dialogue from the play is likely to be from Dress/Tech week, probably Monday and Tuesday.

I'm thinking I'll be into editing during the Wednesday rehearsal. My big concern is, with it being Thanksgiving on Thursday, will there be anyone available to post the podcast at the DTG site. There are several who could, from our web manager to a past web manager who still has access. But who's going to sitting around a computer on that day? And how can he or she be expected to do such? Well, they can't be.

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GREAT SECOND WEEK OF THE RUN!!!!:

The run is more than half-way through and I am sorry to know we are (I am) on this side of the length of the run. This has been a great experience and even though my role of Grandpa Gellman is a minor one, whose largest function, especially in Act I, is as a vehicle for exposition, I could do this show for months.

We finished the second week of the run yesterday and it was another good week for us. My imperfections were not horribly earth-shattering but annoyed me all the same. The most annoying two were an instance of delay in choreographed movements during "The Twenty Dollar Bill/The Clock" where I laged just enough to make it noticeable and an instance of starting to sing the wrong lines during The Chanukah party scene. The other imperfection, also during the Chanukah scene during a different performance I let myself off the hook for, though I was still annoyed.

I had one of those tickles in my throat, right as I was about to sing a line, you know the kind so intense it almost burns? I was able to sing through it but almost lost pitch then barely made it to the end of the line. Fortunately it was a shorter line. The problem arose in the moments after that. I needed to cough very badly but my mic was still hot. I resisted with all my might but it made no difference; I involuntarily coughed and it boomed through the PA. I feel no culpability for this one, but it still exasperates me that it happened.

SEEMS THE NAME OF THE GAME IN MY HEAD IS "UPGRADE":

I decided it was time I position myself to upgrade to Final Cut Pro X. To do that, I need to be running OS X Lion (OS 10.6.8), which I am now, as of late Friday afternoon. I had been on OS X Leopard thus I had to first upgrade my system to Snow Leopard (OS 10.6) then to Lion. I ordered and received a CD-ROM of Snow Leopard, along with an extra lithium battery that I've needed for a while. Next I did the download upgrade to Lion.

When I upgrade to FCPX, which I hope is soon, I'll also probably buy an add-on program, Compressor 4, so that I can compress movies at an even higher quality than FCPX will give me. I want all the DV movies to look better, but I really want the items I post on-line to be as high a final quality at as small a file size as I can get.

Unfortunately, The upgrade to FCPX has been delayed a little because I discovered that my legacy version of Corel Painter did not function ‐‐ or open ‐‐ in Lion. I had to upgrade to Corel Painter XII, a $350 investment, which delays my Final Cut purchase a bit. But, I cannot be without a graphics creation software, and my Final Cut Express 4 does function in Lion, so it was a practical technical triage. But now I have to learn my way around both the massive upgrade to my operating system and the big jump to the v.12 of the graphics software.

In other terms of tech upgrading, I also really need a good HD video camera, and I am still looking at a HD SLR camera. Though I still have major holes in my knowledge about them, as in what exactly to look for. I have a very high level of technical ignorance. But I know a few tech geeks who can enlighten me.

My big concern about starting to shoot a lot of HD is the size of the hard drive on my laptop. It's a total of 320 gigabytes and when I have no movie files on it, I have just a little more than 100 gigs free. I'm not at all sure about using an external hard drive for movie editing and processing. I don't believe I can't get a drive much bigger than 300 gigs for the Macbook Pro. It may mean heading toward a Mac Pro Tower. Depending on how powerful I would want to go, that's $3500 to $7000 or more.

*The good news immediately about Corel Painter XII is that the new version incorporates the PNG graphic format which I like to use for web graphics. I used to have to save images I created as JPGs or BMPs, then open the graphics in another program, like "Preview" for instance, on my Mac, then save a copy in the PNG format for uploading to the web.

SAVE THAT RECEIPT!:

I am woefully behind on recording mileage and expenses. I'm only a little over halfway through the year with mileage and even further behind on expenses. With the Caroline, or Change paychecks, though the earnings are not fabulously extravagant, I most certainly need to get my write-off ducks in a row this year.

DTG PODCAST 1112-05:

One Flip MinoHD DV camera borrowed for tonight and tomorrow night, to shoot rehearsal footage.

Two Flip MinoHDs reserved for next Monday evening along with a second tripod and one lavalier mic to shoot the group interview.

Not sure exactly how I am shooting the interview save that I am once again going for external audio and let's see if this is one of the times I don't get it wrong somehow.

The big question is am I bringing in a second camera operator or am I going another route. A few possibilities on the close horizon. First, I set up one camera on a tripod and free-hand the other. Then I periodically stop the interviews to either focus the free-hand cam on a subject or to move the cam on the tripod. The second is that I procure a third camera and set up two on tripods and use the third free-hand. Another is a variation on the second where there is a bit of repositioning going on. I have to write up some guideline questions for our interviewer, Fred Blumenthal, too.

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MID-WAY THROUGH THE LAST WEEK:

The show is, as I type this, about 1:45 away from curtain tonight.

And I am in the throws of slight emotional turmoil at the moment. I feel a warmth of gratitude that I have been fortunate enough to have been involved with this truly wonderful production. And I regret that it's coming to a close. I will miss this production so very much.

I will miss just simply doing the material. And I will miss the collaboration with this particular grouping of people. Clearly I have stated how impressive my castmates are and how privileged I feel to be associated with them in this venture. I am as equally impressed with the rest of the creative team. Musical Director Scot Woolley has put together an excellent orchestra that adds a marvelous dimension to the cacophony of musical brilliance that is this show's score. And Director Scott Stoney communicated a very cool vision for the show and herded us right into the fruition of it. Dan Gray's set is very cool....

...The gushing LoveFest will be revisited more elaborately on a later date!

*Notice that my facebook name is now "KL Storer" not "K.l. Storer." The compromise was to nix the periods between my initials, which, by the way, I'd tried before to no avail. But at least the L is uppercase now. Tried to go back in today, right after making the successful change, and then add the periods, but Got "K.l." again. Oh well: progress, anyway. I like it to be, in all situations, "K.L.Storer," with no spaces at all; in most programs and media accounts it's "K.L Storer," and there's little use fighting the battle to change it. Though I do try in most playbill situations, but half the time that is in vain.

DTG PODCAST 1112-05:

Shot rehearsal footage both Monday and Tuesday evening. I don't know what the explanation is, but when I look at the mp4 files in QuickTime, the quality of these clips, shot in 820p HD on a Flip MinoHD DV camera, looks like crap. Yet, when I throw a clip into the edit viewer in Final Cut Express it looks much better.

Hmmmm.

Blue Moon...Dancing Director Greg Smith and cast members work on a scene from the show.

As far as I know it's all set for the group interview next Monday. I write it as "as far as I know" because my email to verify that appointment, which was not even close to the first time I have mentioned this to the production team, was met with "Sure. Why not?"

Here's how it will have to go:

Whoever is there or the interview is there for the interview. Whoever is not will not be a part of the interview portion of the podcast. The schedule is tight. I put the word out several weeks back. The info is not last-minute in any argument.

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CLOSING TODAY

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OPENING TODAY AT THE DAYTON THEATRE GUILD:

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THE PODCAST WAS FINISHED AND ON-LINE A BIT LATER THAN I'D HAVE LIKED:

I have been sick all week. Fortunately it held off until the close of Caroline, Or Change, or mostly did. I felt it coming on last Sunday but it really held off until Monday. I did finish shooting the podcast footage at both the Monday and the Tuesday night tech rehearsals. As well, I shot the group interview Monday, though one actor, I'm sorry to say, could not be there.

I went to work at the rent payer both Monday and Tuesday but I made it far less than a full day on either. I put in only an hour and a half on Monday. I came in late and left ninety minutes later. Tuesday I again came in late then left after only three hours. I did still do the podcast productions both evenings, but only because I either got the footage those nights or sacrificed it, and these two shoots (or three, if we split up the Monday interview and the actual dress rehearsal) were the meat of the DV movie.

I was dead in bed all day Wednesday. I pretty much knew on Tuesday that I would not make it to the office on Wednesday, but I half saw a chance to get the post production editing started early, during the day. Well, that editing started about 11:00 that night ‐‐ so even later than if I'd not been sick. Had I not been sick I would have got off work at 3:30 and likely have started editing about 5:00 in the afternoon.

Beyond the lost time due to sickness, I also had quite a lot of technical problems with the editing that ate up the so-premium time that I did have available to me. There was a serious audio synch problem that did not get wholly corrected. You may note some words coming out of people's mouths slightly askew to the movement of their lips. It was often much worse in the editor viewer while I was actually editing. I found myself closing Final Cut Express a few times and completely rebooting the laptop to clean out all the memory. The Flip MinoHD DV cameras, which I used for this podcast as well as for the Lost In Yonkers podcast, create MP4 movie files and I am wondering if that isn't part of the problem. I suspect that Final Cut Express v.4.x can't handle HD MP4 files well. I had contemplated converting all the source files to QuickTime .mov files, the pure native file format for Final Cut.

I also had to render every MP4 clip when I placed it in the timeline for the assembly edit. And whenever I added video transitions or did any other alterations to those clips in the edit timeline I would have to re-render whatever was affected. On occasion I would get a message that the render commend failed because the needed file was not accessible. I found if I saved the project then I could render the clip. But all these renders, at five minutes here, ten minutes there, sometimes as much as twenty minutes, added up to a lot of delay to final cut. When I would have to save and render again, the time for that transaction was doubled ‐‐ because I would not get the fail message until the thing was about 99% finished, which in one instance was about 30 minutes (x2=1 hour).

I may do a little experiment to see if converting the .mp4's to .mov's will cure these ills, until I get Final Cut Pro X, which I have already had I not had to immediately upgrade to Corel Painter XII after the OS X Lion upgrade. And, I hope that in FCX this potential work-around won't be necessary.

So, I began the post production editing at about 11:00 Wednesday night, as I said. At about 11:00 Thanksgiving Morning, I had some work left, but I went to bed to get a few hours sleep before I was off to the family gathering.

If you're wondering, this is all why my "Thanksgiving Day" post was not actually posted until today. I did not have time to finish the graphic until this morning.

I came home and intended to finish the edit after the holiday visit with family, but I slept for a good ten hours or so. So, I finally finished to final cut in the late afternoon. I started the upload of the DV movie to The Dayton Theatre Guild YouTube page at about 4:00 p.m., or thereabouts. But I needed to be sure I got to the theatre to host by 6:00 at the latest. And I had to stop and get cookies first. When at 5:30 the upload was still only at 49% I knew I'd have to head out and hope there were no complications that would need my intervention, or else they could not be dealt with until I got home, circa 11:30-ish. But I was able to verify on my smartphone at about 7:15 that the movie was at the site and processed.

I wasn't able to post it to The DTG facebook page until around midnight last night. I've sent embed code to the DTG web manager but this being a holiday weekend, she has not had a chance to post it at the official site, yet.

Well, audio synch problems aside, at least it's done now.

Meanwhile, the show opened last night to a modest but appreciative audience. I was the host ‐‐ but, may I remind you, NOT the house manager. We had perhaps a little more than half a house, which isn't the worst box office, if not the greatest. You have your ticket(s) yet?

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PODCAST.

I still have a postmortem of sorts to write and post.

Perhaps it will be written later today and posted tomorrow.

Perhaps.

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AUDITIONS ARE UNDERWAY:

First round was last night.

There was a small turnout but some good reads.

The auditions conclude tonight.

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NOT AT SUNDANCE:

Got an email this morning from the Sundance Film Festival that told me what I was prepared to be told about my submission of Be Or Not:

"Unfortunately, we are not able to include it in our Festival program."

Hey, at least I submitted. And, honestly, I was pleasantly surprised to receive even a rejection email.

Oleanna auditions are next Monday and Tuesday at Springfield StageWorks. It's time to read a play....

My agency, PC-Goenner, submitted my headshot about a week back for a possible audition last Tuesday. Nothing.

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THE MOVIE IS NOW PUBLIC AT YOUTUBE:

	Be Or Not has actually been posted at my YouTube Channel since early September, but it was a private posting for sharing with invited guests. My membership at Withoutabox affords me an opportunity to market the movie, I think in both download and DVD formats. But I had not investigated that very deeply. I am proud of the movie but I still concede that the production values lean toward crude.

CAST LIST:

Director Fred Blumenthal conducted his auditions this past Monday and Tuesday. The turnout was small but still impressive. I know for a fact that some who did not get cast were seriously considered. Following are the three men who did get cast.

CHARACTER		ACTOR
Henri		Thomas N. Stiver
Gustave		Gil Martin
Philippe		Richard Young

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Have an audition through PC-Goenner on Monday for U.S. Bank. I believe this is the one my headshot was submitted for a little over a week ago.

And, of course, I am gearing up for Oleanna auditions for Springfield StageWorks on Monday and Tuesday evening.

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VARIOUS GUILD THINGS:

IF I am cast as John in Oleanna there will still be windows to produce/(shoot) the podcasts for Heroes and Wittenberg, but they will be narrow ones, especially for Heroes which opens while Oleanna will still be in rehearsal. Wittenberg opens a week after Oleanna does, which means the Mamet play will be dark the start of Tech week for Wittenberg; so, there's my opportunity there. For Heroes, Tech week starts Jan 1, and I put Jan 2 as a potential schedule conflict for Oleanna rehearsals, and that might be a dark day for Oleanna, anyway. Of course, this is all moot if I am not cast in the Mamet play.

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CLOSING TODAY

The cast of Blue Moon Dancing CHARACTER            ACTOR Connie            Henni Fisher Bernice            Barbara Lurie Nadine            Wendi Michael Eugene            John Spitler Pearl Jean            Angela Timpone Howard            Rick Flynn Leona            Fran Pesch Roselle            Marcia Nowik Rodney            Josh Lurie Joel            Scott Knisley Della            Debra Kent

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Seems clear I did not get the gig on Army Wives, see below. And no word on Prevacid. Though, since today is the callback day for the Prevacid commercial that's clearly another in the line of busts.

I'm just SO bookable!

Constantly, I have this anxiety about the agency that sooner or later they are just going to brand me un-castable and stop bothering to send me out. And having to turn down a gig doesn't help my cause. Of course, it's not like I'd be missing a lot of work. But, I did get onto the Clooney set and really want those opportunities to screen test for small principals in the SAG movies that come around. At some point, I may not get those chances if the tide doesn't turn.       But wait,

And along comes a ripple on the waterscape. I got a call later in the day, yesterday, about another screen test for another episode of Army Wives. This time, if cast I'll work the scene with Sally Pressman. I'm going in Friday morning to the PC-Goenner Sharonville office.

In the non-pro theatre world, with Oleanna out of the picture, I decided to audition for Wittenberg. I'd love to sink my teeth into Faustus. I am not sure about most of the rest of the Dayton area theatre season, though I was invited ‐‐ along with many others ‐‐ to audition for a particular show.

As for the Wittenberg, I don't feel all that hot about the Monday session. I just didn't feel like I ever got into the zone with it. I feel much better about all the other one's I've done lately. I simply wasn't on my game Monday night. Tuesday night was better; but as you can see in the section not far below, it is all more than a little of a moot point.

And as an EMC, looking into the nearish future, I will, of course, do the Generals at The Human Race in Spring 2012.

PRODUCING HEROES:

Sound design?: I had big plans to take out a lot of the sound design this past weekend. That did not happen. But I have gathered all or mostly all of the elements together. Time to ramp up the attention to this aspect.

ADULT ACTING CLASS (The Sequel):

I have sent in the registration, but if I land Faust in Wittenberg, though not as taxing as John would have been, Faust still has a nice word-count. But, I do like these classes; they are sort of meager compensation, or something more-or-less like "compensation", for that BFA in Acting that I foolishly did not pursue in college.

Click here for the relevant page for the class (while it exists).

THE CAST OF WITTENBERG:

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See the proud parents at work:

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BREAKING A LEG IN FRONT OF A CAMERA:

No word on the recent auditions, most especially that second Army Wives screen test. And at this point, I'm in the "no news is bad news" state on mind.

But I will be back in the PC-Goenner Sharonville, Ohio office this morning to do a screen test for a feature length independent title, The Song.

Leaving right after I post today's blog entry.

PRODUCING HEROES:

Things are coming together with a few hitches. I secured then lost the person who was going to come in and share lighting technician duties with our lighting designer Nick Vanderpool. But our stage manager, Travis Dalhoff, who is brand new to that particular duty, is doing quite well.

I have some properties to get to, as well. I have a mock-up of a 1959 le Monde in the works and a line on a Croix de guerre

I have some sound design tweaks to do as well. Probably much or most will get done this afternoon.

ENHANCING THE BOOTH AT DTG:

I'm collaborating with The Guild's past web master, Bob Mills, to look at some ways to enhance the sound gear in the booth.

One of the things we are looking at is software that will run all the sound ‐‐ and perhaps even the lights.

We've seriously looked at two programs. The Windows based Show Cue System and the Mac based QLab.

The determination is that lab outclasses Show Cue System but the license for the pro module for sound is pretty hefty and we'd need at least a pretty new iMac and even a refurbished one will run a little over $1000. We can't possibly go that route for less than about $1300.

In at least the short term, if we go with software it'll be the open-source SCS.

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THE HEROES ARE MOVING TOWARD TECH WEEK AND OPENING NIGHT:

In many ways, this is the fourth star of our show. You'll have to see the show to find out why.

Needs are getting met left and right. We have re-filled that alternate lighting technician position. I have absolutely confirmed the sound technician. The properties needs are almost completely taken care of, and what is not, should not be difficult to address if the current lines end up petering out.

For the most part the printed program material is with our graphic artist, Wendi Michael. There are going to be some additions and probably a few corrections, but she has far more than the bulk to start the set up.

Since our DTG house photographer, Mr. Craig Roberts, became "Daddy" just last week, I took the publicity photos and the production-specific head shots and cast portrait, myself, last Thursday. He may or may not be able to be in next week to shot the archival dress rehearsal photos. If not, I'll bring in another photographer to shoot that photo set. I have none of the camera, the lenses or the honed skill to do right by such pictures.

The podcast production shoots are scheduled for this weekend. The "Dialogue Session" gets shot Friday before rehearsal. Despite that I get a slightly better picture, especially void of remnants when rendered on-line, I am abandoning using the Flip MinoHD DV camera, because there is a troublesome audio sync problem as well as the major pain of having to render the editing timeline stream every time I add a clip or virtually every time make almost any changes, while editing. I will be back to using the three CCD small hand held SD DV cameras. I am borrowing three to do a multi-camera shoot of the dialogue, and probably of the Friday night rehearsal as well as portions of the Sunday tech rehearsal. My plan is to have a final cut Monday afternoon. We'll see. I will be able to edit the dialogue section, which will be the meet of the DV movie, on Saturday. So Monday will be dropping in the rest of the b-roll and finishing off the closing credit segment.

Sound design is pretty close to done. A slight amount of editing and all that will be left to do is tweak the cue volumes, which really starts on Sunday.

Richard Young, Gil Martin & Thomas N. Stiver rehearsing.

Stage Manager Travis Dalhoff & Director Fred Blumenthal during rehearsal.

All five men ‐‐ and the dog ‐‐ during the same rehearsal.

AND THE NEXT ONE:

It's now getting into time to start looking at the sound design for the next show, Wittenberg. There's a production meeting tomorrow night before the Heroes rehearsal.

This sound is going to be a little more complex than Heroes but still nothing as complicated as Sugar Witch, Kimberly Akimbo or the vexing Park Your Car in Harvard Yard.

But this one will have its challenges. At least one Director Saul Caplan already spoke to me about and for which I believe I have a solution.

I am not running this one in the booth, either.