You can see above that the promocast
is done and on the web, as it should be by Opening Night. No problems
connected with the DV movie or its
production/postproduction.
Comparably, Tech Week2
went otherwise fairly smoothly, as well. The gremlin behaved itself, for
whatever reason.
The show is on its feet tonight with me there as house manager, gala host,
and sound designer still scrutinizing the sound volumes and balances. I
have, of course, been tweaking the sound all week. I did my traditional
ritual of spending the night last Saturday/Sunday to finish off the
programing in Show Cue Systems
and to begin the process of sound balance. Then, with the advent of
Tech Sunday promptly began said
tweaks.
And so, here we go, off into Audience Land....
SING, SING, SING:
I still have every intention of auditioning, probably Tuesday evening, for
All Is Calm.
The specs say the auditioner should "prepare 32 bars of a Christmas
or Folk song of [my] choice to be sung a cappella." I have the song
picked out. As a tenor I am also to be "prepared to sing...1 verse of
'O Holy Night' in E flat in French or English." I'll be doing it in
English.
My damned voice/throat is still not at 100% ‐‐ I'm wondering if I ever will
find it so. I am doing the stuff one does: throat lozenges,
Throat Coat Tea,
room humidifier, lots of water. And though I've been working out my singing
voice, I have been doing so with a gentle approach. This weekend will be
largely me practicing the two audition songs, along with other acting type
work I need to be doing.
I'm not singing the way I want to, but I didn't sing up to par through the
whole run of Next to Normal
(Beavercreek Community Theatre),
either, and despite my general dissatisfaction, some people did
comment favorably about my work.
MONDAY'S GIG:
Monday afternoon will be the first of four installments, spanning the next
month, for the U.D. acting gig.
I'll spend some of my weekend brushing up on this same exercise that I
participated in a couple years back.
It will also make me about forty-five minutes to an hour late for the
Monday acting class.
I'll spend some portion of the weekend working on these pages, too. Not
sure, with triage of the other two items ‐‐ the audition and the gig ‐‐
that I'll walk in to class Monday off-book (lines memorized), but I will
be quite familiar with the pages and will have done some work on character,
that's for sure.
Of a few local shows that have shown recently, unfortunately this one was
the only one I could get to.
Fortunately it was a nice evening at the theatre. Pleasant overall
production. I'm not much for musicals of this ilk and I still enjoyed the
evening, so, there ya go.
Yep. The external hard drive I save and edit my graphics and photos to got
corrupted and could not be repaired. I have a backup
drive but I had not saved to it since about mid-July so I lost a bit of
material, not a lot and nothing that breaks my heart in two, but still, a
bit of a drag. I am thinking about extra storage space in
iCloud. Of course, I will still
need to heed that little voice, regardless of where my backups go to.
And I will probably still have a local backup venue. But the iCloud
contemplation is still not a bad one.
The first weekend went well for the show. I was only there Friday and was,
of course, pre-occupied with house management and the opening night gala,
but the audience was quite receptive to the performance. Reports on
Saturday and Sunday speak to the same reactions.
Also, I have received no reports of problems from the sound tech, Sarah
Saunders, so, that's good.
Not sure when I will actually sit in the audience, but I will be back as
house manager this coming Saturday.
Just as I said I would, I dedicated a lot of time to prepping for several
actor things. Though, a good portion of my Saturday turned out to be
focused in other directions.
The memory refreshment mark is close to 100% on the scenario for the
University of Dayton School of Law
gig, that which I first did back in 2013. I have my flash cards on me today
and will drill myself periodically during the day.
The first group of interviews by law students is this afternoon, then more
this coming Wednesday. The two groupings of counseling sessions will be
in a couple weeks.
The HRTC acting class with
Jennifer Joplin is listed second because chronologically it's next to occur;
in fact, I'll be late tonight for the class due to the U.D, gig. But in
terms of triage, I have placed this lowest in priority since it isn't
absolutely critical that I be off-book (have my lines memorized) tonight
for the pages from Craig Lucas's
Reckless.
Being on top of the U.D. scenario facts and story and being 100% prepared
for the audition, mentioned next, were both a higher priority. I've read
the scenes for class out loud a few times, and I did borrow a copy of the
entire play from the library,
but, because of the activities-detour on Saturday, I have not read the whole
thing, yet.
Stupid Life getting in the way of Life (!)
Still on to audition for
All Is Calm,
which auditions tonight and tomorrow night at
The Guild. I actually won't
be there until tomorrow. Since I have acting class until 7:30 tonight, and
I don't want to go in without "preshow" prep, I am waiting. I'll
rehearse some more tonight, when I get home from class.
I spent a couple hours working on both required audition songs last night.
I did well with the notes and the vocal phrasing; now all I gotta do is
get the @#$%&! words right!
Yesterday afternoon were those first several sessions of the gig for the
University of Dayton School of Law
where I play the small business owner seeking legal advice about a breach
of contract incident.
Each of the students (lawyers) had thirty minutes to interview me to get
the pertinent information, none of them used all their time. Some were as
quick as only being in the session for ten minutes. I was really hoping the
last student, whose session was 5:30-6:00, would get there early so I could
get out early, and lessen the amount of lateness for my acting class,
which starts at 5:30. But, alas, the last student arrived just at 5:30.
Tomorrow will be the last three students, then it's three weeks until the
first counseling sessions, where the student lawyers give us actors their
legal advice. "Us actors" being Wendi Michael, Anne Pesch and
myself.
I was probably only about twenty minutes late for class, which was a little
better than what I'd anticipated.
When I got there I was tossed on stage to do a theatre game where I had to
act out whatever the audience (i.e.: my classmates) threw out. Each new
action had to be added to ‐‐ not replace ‐‐ all actions already being done.
In my mind, the main point or goal is to pull the actor out of inhibition
of fearing looking stupid or silly on stage, to short-circuit self-censorship.
As the game ended with me hopping on one leg, holding the other foot, blowing
an imaginary trumpet in one hand while I waved an airliner to its parking
spot with the other and intermittently bent down to kiss a dog, I'd say the
concerning myself with looking stupid or silly train had left the
terminal.
I wasn't on stage alone, by the way; our illustrious instructor, Jennifer
Joplin, was also hopping, holding a foot, blowing a trumpet, air traffic
controlling, and kissing a dog, too.
We spent a portion of the class working with the Effort Actions of the
Laban Movement Analysis
theory. It focuses on several different attitudes, or really, energies,
that can assist an actor in finding such for a character: the
character's basic energy and attitude and then into other attitudes and
energies he or she will go to as reactions to the the dynamic moments of
the story.
The starting spot in the exercise is physical movement and can incorporate
vocalization. As i write this, I don't have, on me, the chart Jennifer gave
us that breaks down the elements of each effort action, with each action
having three elements under the classifications of Space, Weight, and Time.
There are eight action efforts: Dab, Flick, Float, Glide, Punch, Press,
Slash, and Wring.
Last night was my introduction to this so it's not possible for me to know
the full benefit of this technique. My introduction tells me that it at
leasts allows the actor to start off with a physical stance and approach
that can help to internalize the energy, the attitude, the viewpoint.
Another development last night was that I found that my scenemate for the
pages from Craig Lucas's
Reckless
has had to drop out of the class. So Jennifer is now my scene partner.
She gave various options for how to get to material, including if there was
anything I particularly wan to do. I asked her how she felt about playing
a seventeen-year-old and she said she was just fine with that; so, this
morning I sent her Greg Pierce's
Slowgirl.
Between the two of us, we will find some pages to do. Hey, I'll create
any opportunity I can to further develop Sterling, especially one where I
can get coaching from a seasoned pro.
YODLE-AY--EEH--HOO!:
Yeah, okay, that's not really true: there will not be yodeling, at least
not from this auditioning actor.
I did not, as it turns out, rehearse the audition songs last night. The
reason being that I wanted to go easy on my voice/throat as it is still
not in perfect shape. The work was on the words ‐‐ memorizing the words.
I'll rehearse this afternoon after I leave work from the
rent-payer.
Unfortunately, the report from Director Kathy Mola is that only five men
auditioned last night. I do hope there is a larger group tonight. Sure,
a smaller cohort means less competition for me, leveraging better odds that
I get cast; yet, this show needs at least a dozen strong singers...
I almost didn't audition last night. As we have already discussed, I have
been, of course, getting sick ‐‐ "of course" because, ya know,
there's a musical vocal audition in immanence.
Remember that I did not rehearse the vocals Monday night in order to not
stress my voice too much. The idea was to get the lyrics absolutely
committed to memory, well, the lyrics to "Oh Holy Night," at any rate.
Monday I did my U.D. Law gig, went to acting class, then worked on words
when I got home.
By the way, my other song was "How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours,"
the traditional gospel ballad that Michael Boyd had Chris Shea and I sing
a cappella at the top of Act I of
The Diviners,
which Michael directed at The Guild
just exactly eleven years ago, in 2004.
Tuesday, after the rent-payer
I went home and took a nap for about an hour, then got up to rehearse the
songs. The first thing I did after the nap was gargle with warm water with
salt and lemon juice in it. Then I did some not-too-aggressive vocal warmups.
But, I was simply not hitting the higher notes, at all, in either song.
"Well, this is not good," I said to myself. I tried some
more warmups but still was not getting the notes well, nor being particularly
strong on other vocal phrasings. I didn't think I was going to be able to
give even an adequate audition.
Before surrendering, before calling or texting Director Kathy Mola that my
voice was simply not in shape to perform, I heated some water and made
some Throat Coat Tea
with some honey and a lemon juice, and gave my throat and voice some more
time, going on the supposition that some of the problem was that my throat
and/or larynx had tightened up from the nap.
A few minutes later I started singing the songs more successfully, especially
"Oh Holy Night," which calls for much wider range of notes. After
a little while I was giving performances I was satisfied with. So, I went
to the audition. I did stop on the way to get a couple more boxes of
Thoat Coat Tea, however, as the bag I'd used earlier at home was my last
one. And, I managed to drink a couple more cups, at the theatre, before it
was my turn to sing at the audition.
In the end, I am happy to report that it was a successful audition. I did
go up on a line of lyric from "How Tedious..." so just sang:
"....and I forgot the damned words," then picked the lyric back
up on the next line. I went up at least twice during "Oh Holy Night,"
but, by god, I not only got
the notes right, but hit every damned one of 'em righteously in key!
So: success.
Only four of us auditioned last night. The show cannot at the moment be
completely cast. So Directors Kathy Mola and David McKibben are holding
another audition session this Sunday at 6:00 pm.
STILL NOT A BAKER, STILL JUST PLAYING ONE AT U.D.:
Heading to
University of Dayton School of Law
this afternoon after the
rent-payer for the last
three interview sessions for this gig....... That's it. Just mentioning that
it's happening.
The interview sessions of the
University of Dayton School of Law
gig are off the books now. Billy Lawson, owner of Village Bakery has made
his case as a client to his new lawyer (well, seven of them). Now the law
students do their research and in a couple weeks Billy goes back for his
counseling session(s). And I don't have to have anything memorized for
those; I just have to sit and take in the sage advice.
Meanwhile I just booked another U.D. Law gig, dealing with mock trial, in
November, and most probably a weekend U.D. Law gig in a few months. I'm
hoping there will be a little bit of conflict to work around for that 2016
one, but that will be up to the grace of the theatre godess and the wisdom
of a director.
Last night I was an audience member, albeit the only one who was allowed
to take photographs of the performance, as I am the facebook administrator
for The Guild and I took some shots to post on fb as publicity for the
rest of the run.
It was, a very fine performance, though I already knew that would be the
case. I sat with a friend and actually didn't scrutinize the sound design
too much. I still found a couple spots to be concerned about. This really
lends itself to an entry of some length, but I don't have the time today,
so, perhaps later.
Meanwhile, here are a couple articles about the show, one, an information
piece, the other, a review:
Here are three pics I took last night for social media publicity:
Audience members take their seats before the show
last night on October 9, 2015.
David Shough as Joe Alsop
David with Wendi Michael as Susan Mary, Joe's
wife
The text of a press release from The Guild:
A NEW SEASON OF PLAY READINGS
The Ohio Playwrights Circle, in association with the Dayton Theatre Guild,
is pleased to offer a season of new play readings at the Caryl D. Philips
Theatre Scape in Dayton. You are invited to come and experience these new
readings by local playwrights and screenwriters, including scenes, short
plays, full plays and screenplays.
The Dayton Theatre Guild is generously providing their theatre space for
these new readings at the Caryl D. Philips Theatre Scape, located at 430
Wayne Ave., Dayton Ohio 45410. Audience members will be asked to participate
in brief feedback sessions for the writers. Admission is free and refreshments
will be served.
The dates and times for the upcoming readings are:
October 24, 2015 at 7pm - Six short readings from new playwrights
December 12, 2015 at 7pm - New script reading
February 6, 2016 at 7pm - New script reading
The Ohio Playwrights Circle (OPC) exists to bring opportunities and
education to Ohio playwrights. OPC is a project of the American Artworks
Foundation. For additional information please contact Ohio Playwrights
Circle at:
Since this particular entry has been recurring as part of
each current post for a few weeks now, any of you few regulars
probably know by now that I'm not at all directly connected
to this event except that I am a huge Lewis Black fan and
I also want to see The Human Race Theatre Company thrive
and survive, for several reasons, some personal, some less
so.
On the selfish side of it, I am an EMC (an
Equity Membership Candidate),
which simply put means that I am in the midst of earning
points toward becoming a member of
Actors' Equity Association,
the union of professional American stage actors and stage
managers. Most, if not all, regional professional theatres
(Equity houses) and many in New York will both employ and
issue Equity points to EMC actors. HRTC is one such Equity
theatre. I live here in the Dayton area; it's the only
theatre in practical distance ‐‐ since I still
have a "day job" ‐‐ I can reasonably get an
Equity-point-earning gig. There are such houses in
Cincinnati and Columbus, even Indianapolis, but while I am
still employed at what I lovingly entitle "my rent-payer,"
there's no sense even auditioning in those cities. So, I
have a vested interest in The Race keeping her doors open.
Beyond that to what's bigger than my own self interest, I
don't want to see the town I grew up in lose its one
homebase professional regional theatre. Granted, there is
La Comedia Dinner Theatre
close by in Springboro, but it doesn't address the same
cultural need nor should it be expected to do so. Plus, in
concern of that self-interest, La Comedia is not an Equity
house and does not award Equity points.
For more than a quarter century HRTC has provided the
Greater Dayton Area with a local professional theatre
experience; it's one thing for a touring company to come
through; it's an entirely different thing for there to be
a stable of local professional talent, the artists in
residence, who can stretch their ranges in front of an
audience familiar with their work who get to witness the
further development of talented professional actors; it's
another thing to have a house that gives us a handful of
professional level productions, each year, that are, for
all practical purposes, "from home."
Back to more self-involved reasoning: I am part of a thriving
local community of actors, many not the slightest bit
interested in being professional (as in being paid, that
is), some of us at least at a level of semi-professional,
and many of us in that latter class with an eye on someday
making much or all of our income as actors. Having a local
house where we can snag some professional gigs for our
résumés is important ‐‐ and let's not forget
those Equity points! In some cases, having an HRTC here
keeps such actors in the area so their colors can remain
a vital part of the local artistic landscape, not just on
The HRTC Loft stage but in many other venues.
Lastly, The Human Race Theatre Company is, itself, a
vital and important part of the Dayton area cultural and
artistic world. Let's keep it around.
So, I know that the show is probably close to sold out,
but if it's early enough today (October 11, 2015) there may
be time for you to get your ticket to see a world-class
comedian, whose play,
One Slight Hitch,
by the way, the Human Race is mounting this coming April.
Get your ticket to help benefit our local artistic
community. While your at it, get some tickets for the
HRTC shows, in general.
Mr. Black's show was exactly what I expected it to be: classic Black angry
rant-a-thon hilarity.
Lewis did start the show talking about how important he thinks live
theatre is and that he was glad to see us doing what we can to keep our
hometown theatre up and running. He also mentioned, in jocular fashion,
but underneath that, sincerity, that it's rare to see cities the size of
Dayton having a professional theatre company ‐‐ his admiration for the fact
the Dayton does have an Equity house, if not explicitly expressed,
was certainly insinuated.
One particularly fun part of the evening was when he spoke of how the
forthcoming HRTC production of
his play, One Slight Hitch
came about. He said a friend had told him the Loft would be a good space to
produce One Slight Hitch. Someone in the audience (turns out it was
HRTC Properties Manager Heather Powell) yelled out the name of
Director Margarett Perry, who
happens to be who will direct the HRTC production, and who also has directed
at HRTC before, including the production of
Michael Slade's
Gingerbread Children,
which I was in.
Black response was, "No, not fuckin' Margarett Perry." Then he
said, "I'm not getting paid tonight so you don't get to fuckin' yell
shit."
Then Black corrected her, saying that it was
Lauren Ashley Carter, who
had appeared in
Miracle on South Division Street
in September of 2014 (when I met him the first time). Ms. Carter had also
been in a previous production of One Slight Hitch, which is, I
assume how she and Mr. Black first met.
Carrying on with the story from last night, Black said to the
"heckler" in the audience, "I want you to write that down
so next time I'm here and I tell this story, when it's time for your
portion of the performance......you'll say the right fuckin' line."
*Mind you, I'm quoting from memory so
what's written here is likely not verbatim, but it's reasonably close.
I can't remember the set up but he did a circle-back joke while he was
later talking about either theatre in Dayton or being back as a stand-up in
Dayton and said something about someone being able to again shout out
Margarett Perry's name.
It's kinda cool to be more or less on the inside
of the loop on all that; it gives me the chance to pretend like I'm an
ACTUAL insider ‐‐ or something akin to.
As for the photo of Lewis Black and me, that actual
Meet & Greet moment: it was, as I
suspected it would be, only a brief moment, not much longer than the first
encounter a year ago. But at least I have now twice had the opportunity to
tell him how much I love his work.
Just about the time I was heading in to Dayton to see the Lewis Black show,
the extra audition for
All Is Calm
was starting at The Guild.
There is a cast but the cast list has not been officially released. I will
post it here soon after it has been announced officially by DTG.
As for the promocast, I can't
remember if I've mentioned this here before but I have a very strong concept
for the promotional DV movie, one that requires no clearance from the copyright
owners of All Is Calm, but will require the use of some of the men
cast in the show as well as the talent of a fine photographer. The photographer
I have secured; the singers will be Musical Director David McKibben's call.
I will record the men, probably a quartet, singing a particular traditional
Christmas song, but not a copyrighted arrangement from the show score. The
movie will be another of the occasional ones, where I do a Ken-Burns-style
still-photograph slideshow rather than shoot and use DV movie footage.
There's a moment, some dialogue and a song from the show, we are going to
have to record for playback during the performances, anyway, so I can
record the song for the promocast during the same session.
I have suggested a scene to Jennifer Joplin for us to do from
Slowgirl
by Greg Pierce. I think a portion of
Scene 2, which takes place at a hedgerow labyrinth that Sterling has
created on a hilltop, might work.
I held off with the news that I was one of those cast in the show. Wanted
to wait until the official announcement was made by DTG. There was a first
rehearsal Monday evening, a "get familiar with the music"
sing-through. Tonight in night number two: real work on the more
challenging song. Stay tuned for updates. Meanwhile....
The cast in alphabetical order:
Gage Emerson
Michael Favors
David Gaylor
David Hallowren
Chuck Larkowski
Dave Nickel
Chris Petree
Jeff Sams
David Short
K.L.Storer
Mike Taint
Monday night, class was primarily about each of us pairings of scene mates
working on our particular pages, mine, of course, being
Slowgirl
by Greg Pierce.
But we did start out playing a theatre game that deals with who has the
power in the scene or on the stage, for which I forget the name of, one
that uses Shakespeare's
The Tempest.
The game works like this: one partner is
Prospero, the other
is Caliban. Prospero
has the power and whenever so chooses can give Caliban cramps, during
which Caliban experiences the pain of cramps while asserting, with whatever
intensity the actor gives to it, "This island is mine."
I don't know whether it's some sort of psychosomatic thing I do to myself,
some sort of weird coincidental happenstance, or the sense of humor of the
theatre godess, but it seems like every time there is a musical on the
books for me to participate in, I develop a sore throat with or without
further ailment; this time a bit with.
If you are one of the few ("the five," as I have lovingly
christened them/you) who have been following this blog lately, you
know that I am again in that self-same battle as I endeavor in the early
stages of rehearsal for
All Is Calm.
I, in fact, auditioned in this compromised condition, just as I had for
Next to Normal.
This has been a little more than just a sore throat; I'm not sure it's the
flue or just a cold, but I missed more than half the work week last week at
the rent-payer, and was
pretty lethargic over the weekend. I've barely cracked the out-of-rehearsal
study for the music; I'm hoping by the end of this coming weekend I'll be
caught up to where I should be with the full load of music that I am
responsible for (all of us cast members have a full load).
Last weekend, my more pressing priority was to get off-book
on the pages from Slowgirl
for the acting class. I was not fruitful at the endeavor. I just was not
retaining anything in my memory banks. I actually spent as much of the
weekend as possible, including Friday night, in bed, half or full asleep,
save for my need to be at the DTG
board meeting Saturday morning and then at strike
after the close of The Columnist,
Sunday. I was not at strike long, just long enough to deal with the strike
of the practical
phone and the camera that feeds the lobby and greenroom
TVs.
Besides a lot of dead-in-the-bed time, I've been continuing to nurse myself
back to health: medicine, throat lozenges,
Throat Coat Tea
with lemon juice and honey, occasionally gargling with salt and lemon juice
in warm water, yadda yadda yadda.....
Needless to say, I have been holding back, not pushing my voice during
rehearsals; all the rehearsals thus far have been musical. I have my
assignment of monologues, eight of them, though a few are really only a
sentence or two long. I have not began work on these at all, but that will
start soon.
Halloween weekend we will do the audio recording of a song from the show
that is supposed to be being broadcast over the radio; we will also record
an original, a cappella arrangement of "Silent Night" as the
scoring for the promocast.
I've used the "Sound Designing" icon here, but, really, as I believe
I've stated before, "designing" is a little off the mark. I am
really sound engineering more than anything else. Just this one sound file,
the radio broadcast, will be used in the show, and the design is really
implied by the script. I am debating requesting that I not get credit as
"Sound Designer" in the playbill; I have already insisted that I
not be eligible for a Daytony Award
for sound design. A few years ago I got an award of excellence for a show
that had one sound cue; it was both ridiculous and embarrassing to have
won that particular award, especially since various other authentically
excellent sound designs from that season, including true ones by myself,
were not recognized at all.
But, the overall shortcomings of artistic awards is another essay within
itself ‐‐ perhaps another, very LONG essay.
Monday in class we worked
Slowgirl
a bit. Again, I'd like to say I was completely off-book, but i was not. I
had some of it committed to memory, from a cram session late the night
before, but I still had to refer to the text often. I have this week to
complete the journey to off-book, along with the woodshedding for All
Is Calm.
Next week is the final class, which will include a showcase, which is
essentially, in this case, a performance of the class to highlight the
abilities of the students. Guests will be invited to attend the class and
watch each of the several scenes that each pairing of students is doing.
This being the reason why I'd like to be off-book, though it's not an
absolute requirement by our instructor, Jennifer Joplin.
Of course, it is my privilege to be working my scene with Ms. Joplin,
which I am enthused about: to work a scene with an actor whose work I
always find impressive. We ran the pages a few times Monday and worked out
a loose structure of blocking. I am looking forward to this last class.
A NEW SEASON OF PLAY READINGS FROM THE OHIO PLAYWRIGHTS
CIRCLE BEGINS TONIGHT AT DTG:
Still want to remind everyone that The Ohio Playwrights Circle will
be holding a reading of six short works from new playwrights, this
evening at 7:00 at
The Caryl D. Philips TheatreScape.
The reading is free and open to the public.
It's the first of three events The Guild is hosting for the group.
The two remaining readings are:
December 12, 2015 at 7pm - New script reading
February 6, 2016 at 7pm - New script reading
The Ohio Playwrights Circle (OPC) exists to bring opportunities and
education to Ohio playwrights. OPC is a project of the American
Artworks Foundation. For additional information please contact Ohio
Playwrights Circle at:
I'll catch up on everything soon. Right now stopping to chronicle recent
events will get in the way and waste time better spent in the continued
doing....
While in to shoot the official archival production photos
for
All Is Calm: the Christmas Truce of 1914,
during Wednesday night's dress rehearsal, Craig Roberts
snapped this one with his phone and sent it to me. Pictured
behind me are, from left to right: Mike Taint, David Short,
Gage Emerson, Chuck Larkowski, Jeff Sams, Michael Favors,
and David Hallowren. Seated on the box next to me is Chris
Petree. Not present in the frame are David Gaylor and Dave
Nickels; both were on stage, just not where they can be
seen in frame.
If you are one of the few (the five) who do anything close to keep up with
this silly blog, then it won't be a surprise that the
"Been Doing Stuff" that I've been
doing was the
All Is Calm
rehearsal period, which kept me busy and focused.
But more on that later; first, Opening Weekend is now over and it went well.
The audiences loved the show. We had people stand both Friday and Saturday
night, and then on Sunday we were told before the show that audiences
members had commented that they'd wished we had stayed on stage a little
longer during curtain call. So we were asked to take longer pauses before
each of the several group bows on Sunday. On Sunday, we got a full standing
ovation, and the suggestion is that it was because we had given the
audience the time to get there.
I think this could be called a "working dinner."
This was taken during one of those
vacation
days off to work on the music.
The counter in the dressing "room" at DTG.
*It's really more of a dressing "area."
The dressing room racks with our costumes hanging. The
coats are actually Swish Army issue, which works, since
the idea is for the costumes to be military, but in a
neutral, or generic manner.
The little section of the racks for my costume. My neutral
Swiss Army issue jacket.
My area of the dressing counter. Note the red box with my
name on it for the
Kratt C to C
pitch pipe I recently purchased for the show. Also in the
shot are my flashcards for my few monologues as well as
for foreign-language lyric sections of songs I sing *(see
below).
A close up of the flashcards with the French of the
Military Cadence "Les Godillots" written out in
my own sort of phonetic spelling.
We are able to have water with us on stage, which is a
godsend. Some of us have canteens, some of us flasks. I have a
canteen, as shown here. I've determined a few key spots where
I am sure to take a good swig of water during the show, that
are both convenient and close to before some singing where I'd
rather my throat not be at or teetering toward dry. One is
most certainly before my "Auld Lang Syne" solo, and
with luck, there is a nice place just before I sing to take a
drink unproblematically.
Being live theatre, of course, none of the three performances were flawless.
We had some moments where the harmonies derailed or almost derailed, but we
were able to make corrections. That's what needs to happen with an a capella
ensemble: everyone is listening to everyone else and corrections are able
to be made. The most important one is when any individual member realizes
he is off-key or otherwise compromising the harmonization as a whole, he
drops out until he can get himself back on track. I did it myself, a few
times over the course of the weekend.
My own real major flub was to start my solo at the beginning of "Auld
Lang Syne" a half step high. At the Saturday evening performance, I
blew the appropriate C on my pitch pipe while Chuck Larkowski started the
monologue that takes us into the song. Then, at the mention of the song,
during his monologue, I began singing on cue as he finishes the monologue.
However, I started on a C-sharp. I felt it was the wrong key as I started,
then, shortly, when I had to slip into falsetto earlier than usual I knew
for sure. At that point, though, there's nothing much to do put push forward.
I think the half-step up caused some mischief but it was minor and the
ensemble recovered.
But you know, Live Theatre and the performances of, at least in some cases,
fairly complicated arrangements of a capella music, that leads to many
opportunities for imperfection to present itself.
Now for the "Been Doing Stuff": the
biggest "stuff" has been learning
said arrangements. No small task, at least in several cases. So I blocked
off many nice chunks of time over the last few weeks to attack the feat,
with success and with obstacles. The TV is an easy one. It's not an
obstacle if it's not turned on.
--
To be honest "No TV Zone" was not wholly accurate but was
reasonably close. The TV wasn't turned on until after I had burned out on
working on the show and needed to retire the work for a while. Plus, there
were the 11 am breaks most Saturday's for
Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
on the radio.
Have to have some priorities, ya know.
During that period I burned up quite a bit of
vacation
leave from the rent-payer.
I used more than sixty hours of
vacation
leave. As you five will know, I try to be stingy with the use of
such leave, but, since it's mostly for arts-related use like this for which
I try to hoard it, this is acceptable ‐‐ though I REALLY want to build
it up in case I ever manage to need a few weeks off for a nice role in a
feature movie production; a SAG/AFTRA
feature would be the best scenario.
Hey: Hope Springs Eternal ‐‐ but
I digress......
Gotta tell you, for a guy who's only barely musically literate, in terms
of music theory, a lot of the All Is Calm score is, well,
challenging, to say the least. "Silent
Night" is especially so, though not exclusively so. It is the hardest
of several more demanding arrangements from the show. The afore-mentioned
"Auld Lang Syne" is one of those that are a close second. Of
course, the other side of the coin is that the arrangements are impressive,
so it's a trade-off, and the pay-off for conquering them is that we can
make especially lovely music on stage.
Early on, some of this
"No-TV-Zone/vacation"
time was hindered from being used at peak productivity because, though on
the mend, my voice was much, much less than 100%. I tried hard to not aggravate
the condition into a backslide, so I used less of some of those days off
than I wanted to, to work on actually singing the arrangements, which is
the best way for muscle memory to be trained. I did, after some nursing,
start gently singing, then later using more voice, but I saved full singing
for actual rehearsal in the evenings.
In the end, though I got in much less time than I had budgeted for during those
vacation
days, being home from the rent-payer all day, thus not needing to talk
very much or at all, was still not a bad circumstance for my larynx and
vocal chords. There was great improvement in my throat health and
consequently my singing voice, but it still was fluctuating and was at
least compromised a little bit, throughout. Even still, during the first
weekend of performance I had sore-throat problems, albeit minor ones.
Since the weekend there's been a further backslide, but I am taking the
measures to combat that and also get me closer to, if not all the way at,
100% vocal health. I'd loved to be there by this coming weekend for shows
4-6.
By the wrap of Tech Week and
Final Dress things were going
quite well despite that some cast members had to miss various of those last
rehearsals for various reasons; not ideal, but unavoidable.
Personally, I was, by some miracle, in good shape musically. It was some of
the German and French lyrics that were sticking points for me. It's clear
that when I am memorizing lyrics in a foreign language, one which I don't
know, those foreign lyrics are simply sets of nonsense syllables that my
mind cannot easily anchor to something meaningful. That makes it a
frustrating challenge for me. I've had practical proof, through present
observation, that others in the cast find this process easier than I. So,
for me it was been repetition, repetition, repetition. The results were
"positive," yet, improvement was slow to arrive.
Otherwise, in terms of being off-book
I was also a little behind the curve from where I usually am at by that
time, and with only a small handfull of short monologues. It's just that
learning the music was such a time-and-energy consuming priority. By Opening
Night I was where I should have been, but I got there much later than I
usually do. I, in fact, went up
on a line during Final Dress, an occurrence I was not at all happy about.
Technically, I suppose, I did do some sound design for this show; it was at
a minimum. There was the curating of the pre-show music, the production of
the two sound cues, and the choosing of the curtain call music.
The production of the two sound cues was more about the recording/engineering
and then mixing than it was "sound design." There is a song called
"Christmas 'Round the Campfire" that is supposed to be a radio
broadcast, and though I suppose it could be performed live on stage, making
a recoding to play back made better sense, especially since it could be
fiddled with to make it sound like a 1914 radio broadcast. In the mixing
phase I simply dropped a lot of the low-end frequencies from the equalization
as well as adding a sound file of slight radio static. There also is a
small monologue introduction into the song on the broadcast. We took about
twenty-minutes or so at the start of a rehearsal a couple weeks back to
record both the song and the monologue.
There is also
"The Last Post,"
a British Infantry bugle call, that takes place close to the end of the show.
Ideally, it would be live during the performances, but a bugle or trumpet
player was not found who could do the run of the show. So we settled for a
recorded performance for playback. Music Director David McKibben brought in
Trumpet Player Alex Lindon and I recorded him, actually, on Tech Sunday
before the proceedings began. Fortunately, I had enough time to get the
recording processed into the Show Cue Systems
program for the show and we were able to have "The Last Call" as
part of the rehearsal that day.
Earlier in the rehearsal process we recorded the several songs from the show
that are featured in the
All Is Calm promocast.
The license with Theater Latte Da,
which developed the show and owns the rights, only allows for a total of
thirty seconds of material from the show, for which I contained to music.
I edited together a fast potpourri of selected songs from the production,
the choices more David McKibben's than mine, but I had no objections to
his selections. The thing is, I needed more the a half-minute of music for
the DV movie. My plan had been to get a select small trio or quartette of
men from the cast together and improvise an arrangement of "Silent
Night" specifically for the promocast.
I actually discussed with David in a production meeting before auditions.
Things got a bit hectic after the show was cast and the alternate arrangement
with cast members was never recorded. So, the night before Tech Sunday, I
got with The George Spelvin
Choral Quintet and recorded an arrangent of "Silent Night" by
George's wife, Georgette.
The alternate version of "Silent Night" gave me enough to cover
the meat of the DV movie, which was a collection of still photographs,
taken by fellow actor and DTG board member, Rick Flynn, with a few photos
I took on another night. Rick came in and shot the Monday rehearsal of
Tech Week. There were a couple unfortunate happenstances about that night.
First, all the costumes were not ready as had been expected, so I elected
to not ask those who did have costumes to wear them. I did not think
a mixture of actors in and out of costume would work well. Also, two actors
were not able to be there, one because of his day job, the other who was
ill. Rick was otherwise booked on Tuesday so he could not change his night
to shoot. So I took some shots on Tuesday of the two actors missing from
Monday, as well as using some pics I had taken of them on Tech Sunday. But
the photography in the DV movie is overwhelmingly Rick's work.
For the closing credits I relied on D.A.W.N. Music
for a theoretically royalty free version of "Green Sleeves."
I say "theoretically royalty free" because right now, on our
DTG YouTube channel
there is a third-party royalty recovery ad attached to ever single DV Movie
that uses a royalty free song I have purchased from D.A.W.N. This is a
problem since the ads are intended to be attached to recover royalties from
videos that don't use licensed music ‐‐ AND WE
ARE USING
LICENSED MUSIC! But more on that after I get back from the warpath I am
about to embark upon.
So this happened: Last Wednesday, I took the day off
from the rent-payer to edit the promocast,
which is what I usually do on the Wednesday before a DTG show opens for that
specific purpose. Most of the time I am using eight hours of
vacation
leave, rather than arranging to make up the hours on other days of the week.
Making it up means four ten-hour days, which I don't mind, but, if I am
very involved with the production, on stage, behind the scenes, or both,
that extra two hours each of the other days can become problematic. In those
frequent circumstances I take a
vacation
day, instead, as I did last week. I had actually assembled a bit of the
edit over the previous weekend. I had the promocast intro as well the music
to go under Rick's photographs in the edit project. That preparation made
Wednesday mostly about dropping the photos in and processing them so they
have that B&W sepia coloring, a vintage-esque look to them.
Around 3:00 or 3:30 I had a final cut. I began the process of rendering
that edit into the master QuickTime movie. During the rendering I decided
that one of the credits in the ending scroll should be placed earlier in the
listing. I cancelled the render then went in to delete the partially rendered
movie. I also emptied the trash afterward so I would have maximum hard drive
space for the buffering during the next render.
HOWEVER:
when I opened Final Cut Pro X
back up to change the closing credits......
......there
was no project edit file for the promocast!
Yes. That's correct. Turns out I had not deleted the partially-rendered
master movie; I had deleted the FCPX project file. Had I not also then
cleaned the trash out, there would not have been a problem. I could have
simply went into the trash and recovered the file. But I HAD
emptied the trash and though a recovery was not imposible it would have
taken software I don't have or a trip to a computer doctor I had neither
the time nor money to spend.
After several minutes of loud verbal abuse against myself, storming close
to violently around my apartment (and do not assume I am being hyperbolic
about that), I settled down, called my boss at the day job and told her I
would need to take all of Thursday off, too. Which means another eight
hours of
vacation
leave. That means this show has now cost me almost two full weeks of
vacation
leave ‐‐ pretty steep. It was, in the end, willingly sacrificed, yes, but
still ‐‐ pretty steep, and a big invasion into that alloted savings for
the whatever-it-will-be big project for me as an actor......
All whining aside, I did get the movie done and out into the world by late
afternoon on Thursday. It was a faster process on Thursday since I had the
blueprint from the doomed edit assembly from the day before, and I was even
able to make a few improvements.
*A little clarification: I do also like
to use some of my
vacation
leave for an actual
vacation.
I don't want to only use it for acting or film making, etc. ‐‐ as an
example: "Chicago trips!", (of which which we know I am fond).
A few weeks back the HRTC acting class came to an end. The closing class
was a very small showcase
where my classmates and I did our scenes for a handfull of invited friends
and other guests. I, of course, was privileged, through the circumstance of
the student who was my scenemate needing to drop the class, to be able to
act my scene with our instructor, the talented Jennifer Joplin.
For those who don't know, Jennifer and I did a few pages from
Greg Pierce's
Slowgirl.
One point of interest is that when I suggested the scene I thought we
should do to Jennifer, I had a later part of the scene, where the two
characters talk a bit about their dilemmas. Jennifer suggested an earlier
part of the scene, a little more situational to the scene, that gives you
a taste of the characters through their reactions to each other. Also
interesting is that I did not have the bulk of the lines, whatsoever.
Ultimately this was a better choice than what I had had in mind, first
because of that point that we learn about the characters through their
actions and reactions, and also because it gave me a chance as an actor
to show the character through his nonverbal reactions, his "internal
dialogue" as the thespian teachers are known to label such.
After a recent facebook post about this class, a friend wrote of thinking
about doing a beginners class, and then said, "I'm going to go out on
a limb and guess that wasn't the one you were in?" Of course, unless
you didn't already know, this was an introduction-to-acting class,
but I took it because Jennifer was teaching it and I didn't know if she'd
be back and wanted to seize the opportunity. Besides, even a beginners class
has something to offer for someone like me whose been doing the advanced
classes. There is always a new theatre game or warm-up game or something
that can be taken away from it. Jennifer had some of those; plus, I got to
act in a scene with an actor whom I respect ‐‐ can't beat that!
THE BAKER GETS SOME LEGAL COUNSEL:
The early part of the month I also wrapped the U.D. Law gig where I played
the bakery owner who had a breach of contract beef with someone. The
seven students came in and under the scrutiny of an actual lawyer in the
room with us, gave my character counseling on what action to take.
I originally had another U.D. Law gig booked for Saturday morning, Nov 14,
but I had to cancel due to a conflict that came up. There is supposed to
be a courtroom mock trial in February, that as far as I know, is still on.
I've done some pre-production for the promocast for
Night Watch.
I emailed Dramatist Play Service
seeking the contact information for Dorthy L. Hermann and/or Wendy E.
Harlow, whom are Playwright
Lucille Fletcher's
daughters and the executors of her estate. The sisters control the
copyrights on the Fletcher intellectual properties, so they are who would
grant clearance to use dialogue from the play in the DV movie. I've been
unsuccessful in otherwise obtaining good contact information for the two
women, so I tried DPS.
I got a response but it was not helpful. Rather than give me contact
information, the email just told me what I already knew, that DPS cannot
grant me rights for the DV movie ‐‐ that would be because DPS does not
control such rights. Which is why I need to get in contact with the
sisters, who do control such rights.
LAST MONTH'S PLAY READINGS FROM THE OHIO PLAYWRIGHTS CIRCLE:
I have no first-hand knowledge of how the playreading went Oct 24, but the
report was that it went well. Remember there are two remaining events from
OPC to happen at The Guild, one coming up soon:
• December 12, 2015 at 7pm - New script reading
• February 6, 2016 at 7pm - New script reading
The Ohio Playwrights Circle (OPC) exists to bring opportunities and
education to Ohio playwrights. OPC is a project of the American
Artworks Foundation. For additional information please contact Ohio
Playwrights Circle at:
Once again, a lot of friends and acquaintances are, or have recently been,
in local productions that I have not been, and/or will not be, able to
attend.
It was late this day before I realized it was the
fourteenth anniversary of the death of George Harrison.
What a loss. This man's gentle soul was a key element to
the make up of The Beatles and was instrumental in the
strength of love that emanated from his music as a member
of The Beatles and afterward.
The second weekend went as well, if not a little better than the first. We
had close to, or actual, sold-out houses and the performances were good,
too. Several connected to the show believe the Saturday performance was
our best thus far. Myself, I can't say; I can't tell from my point of
view on stage. I do know we have on most nights had the audience on their
feet at curtain call ‐‐ actually all but one, and even a few that night.
I have an overall satisfaction with my own work over the weekend. But, of
course, there were sone flubs on my part: at least one substitution of a
synonym for a correct word; a mis-delivery of a line "we hadn't seen
any ourselves in ages" rather than the correct, "we hadn't seen
any ourselves since we left England," and one place where I stumbled
slightly on some words. Now that I think about I flipped the syntax in a
line, too.
Though close, my vocal health is still not quite at 100% and at Sunday's
show that played a big factor at one point. During my solo at the beginning
of "Auld Lang Syne" my throat was a bit dryer than I'd like, and
I had just drank from my canteen and about half-way through the solos I
got this tremendous tickle in my throat that threatened to sabotage the
solo; I wasn't sure I would make it to the end without my voice failing.
But I pushed through to the end. My voice did fail later in the song when I
was in with the ensemble, so it was easy to drop out briefly without being
a detriment to the performance.
A cast mate asked me what that look of panic on my face was during the song.
When I told him he replied that he heard no problems in the solo, which is
good to hear. Of course, I then worried that the audience saw the look of
panic, too.
Pictures from before the show this past Sunday, November
29, 2015
The greenroom
The tech booth
The stage from the booth
AND THE NEXT SHOW IS UNDERWAY:
Last night I attended the first meet-and-greet for cast and crew of our
next DTG venture,
Night Watch.
I spoke shortly about the sound design, Very shortly as I have not
really began to work on sound for this show due to concentration on
All Is Calm.
I also spoke some about shooting the DV movie footage for the promocast.
Basically warning them that I would be around toward the end with cameras.
-- As to whether we will be using dialogue from the script in the DV movie,
that is still up in the air. I'll send a clarifying email to
Dramatist Play Service explaining
that I am not seeking clearance rights from them, which I was already aware
they cannot grant, but that I am seeking contact information for those who
can grant the clearance I need, namely Dorthy L. Hermann and Wendy E.
Harlow, who are
Lucille Fletcher's
daughters. Now I'm awaiting what I hope is a more productive response from
DPS.
As a nice little aside, over the weekend I heard a segment on
Studio 360 about Lucille
Fletcher's 1943 radio play,
Sorry, Wrong Number,
which was recently added to the Library of Congress
National Recording Registry. You can hear the Studio 360 segment by
clicking here.
Gage Emerson
Michael Favors
David Gaylor
David Hallowren
Chuck Larkowski
Dave Nickel
Chris Petree
Jeff Sams
David Short
K.L.Storer
Mike Taint
The Promocast for All Is Calm
The Final Weekend, OR, MOST OF IT:
It started late Wednesday evening, or more accurately, early Thursday
morning. I woke up very sick with acute dizziness and nausea that did
become vomiting, to the point of dry heaving.
I thought it was a mild case of food poisoning, which I chose as the
hopeful outcome over a potential influenza bug. The food poisoning, at a
mild dose, would have been history in probably twelve hours or so, and
there would be no associated vocal health problems. The flu, however, could
be a threat to my performances over the weekend.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be the latter, some sort of a bug, because
by Thursday afternoon my throat had backslid into being quite sore, then
got worse. As of about 1:00 pm on Friday I was not able to competently sing
my "Old Land Syne" solo. As it stood at that point I would only
be able to sing as ensemble and gently so. I texted Director Kathy Mola and
Music Director David McKibben and warned them we might have wanted to
seriously think about who could take that solo Friday night, just in case.
I found when I got to the theatre Friday evening that my castmate Dave
Gaylor was on call to step in if I was still too bad to take on the solo.
I had worked at nursing my throat and voice all afternoon:
Throat Coat Tea
with honey, gargling with salt and lemon juice and warm water. I was able
to rally back to a decent capability to sing the solo. Of course, I needed
to pull back most of the night so that I could give the solo its due when
the time came.
So I successfully performed Friday night, but there were problems. First
was that pesky vocal thing. It helps that my castmates and some audience
members assured me they could not tell I was having vocal problems. I,
however, know I wasn't up to snuff, that I had to pullback a bit, even on
the solo. The other problem was I was a little weak and had several moments
of light-headedness or dizziness. There were several times when I almost
lost my balance, especially at points when I was to be in a soft freeze,
just standing there.
The dizziness put me a bit off my game at several points. In fact as I was
walking downstage to give my first monologue, I got dizzy and it threw me
a bit. So I struggle some to remember my lines. I stumbled over some words,
drop some of it and the had to make up my character name. The weakness and
dizziness made my overall performance lackluster; I just didn't have the
gusto, the energy, and the finesse of reactions I usually had. Our director
insisted I did not let my condition show ‐‐ that pleases me.
Yesterday I was in much better shape, no line screw-ups, and my voice was
in better shape ‐‐ at least better shape than Friday night. I did drop out
during a couple spots as I sang ensemble, because I could tell my voice was
going to crack, and my voice falter for a moment during the trio I am part
of in "Old Land Syne" just after my solo. But it was a good
show for me, nevertheless.
I actually was moved close to tears several time during yesterday's
performance. I was feeding off some audience members who were moved. At
several points during "Old Land Syne," in fact, I got so choked
up I almost couldn't sing. That happened a few times earlier in the show,
too. Toward the end of the show, on my last monologue, I got very choked up
on my last four words, which are "We will remember them." Choked
up to the point that I almost didn't get "them" out. I have
gotten choked up there before, but yesterday it was worse.
All things considered, this weekend has, thus far, been as successful as
the first two were.
I'll do a full-blown
post-script
about the production sometime soon. Meanwhile, onward to the next thing....
"An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News
in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment
building on the West Side of New York City, the most
famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the
back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival."
Howard Cosell, Monday Night Football, Dec. 8, 1980
Reposted/Revised From Previous Dec 8's:
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY: JOHN LENNON
Wow! So it's been thirty-five years since the assassination of John
Lennon. In some ways I remember it like it was yesterday,
cliché, I know, but still true. On that day, thirty-five
years ago, I was twenty-two years old. I was, and still am, a major
Beatles fan, as was, and are, most of my friends whom I grew up with.
I had just recently been on the phone with one of my friends, whom I've
known since first grade, Jerry Spencer. A few years earlier, Jerry had
moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. We had talked of the merits of John
Lennon's new album, Double Fantasy. Of the pros and cons of him
sharing space equally with Yoko Ono, and of the surprisingly good B-side to
the single, "Starting Over," a song written and sang by Yoko,
titled "Walking On Thin Ice." It stands, still today, as the best
thing Yoko has done musically, and actually good enough that if I were to
catch it while changing stations, I'd actually stop and give it a listen.
Not that there's much chance that would happen.
Jerry and I also talked of how excited we were that John was preparing to
announce a U.S., then international, concert tour to support the new album.
We were stoked!
December 8, 1980 was a Monday. For whatever reason, I had gone to bed
earlier than usual that day. I was still living with my parents and after
I'd been asleep some period of time, my mother came in and said,
"Jerry Spencer's on the phone."
Groggy, I picked up.
"Hey man, did you hear about John?"
In a fog I said, "Who?"
"John Lennon. Some nut just shot and killed him! Howard Cosell just
announced it on Monday Night Football."
"Yeah, right. And we know it's happened because he's barefoot on the
front cover of the album, right?"
"No, man! It's true! Some nut shot him and killed him."
Still, really not totally awake, I sort of acquiesced to the fact and said
goodbye to Jerry. I remember that I lay there for a moment and thought:
Well, guess I'm not going to ever meet John Lennon. Then drifted
back asleep.
It was getting ready for work the next morning and hearing the report on
the news. That's when it hit me. It was as if I had just found out that one
of my best friends in the world had died. The impact was overwhelming. I
sat down on the edge of the bathtub and wept.
John Lennon is dead.
John Lennon is dead!
JOHN FUCKING LENNON IS FUCKING DEAD!
Even as I write these words, three decades later, I feel the drop in my gut,
the hole in my chest, the sorrow.
"John Lennon is dead."
John Lennon and Paul McCartney, are to me, like many others, my major
artistic influence. I don't simply mean my major musical influence, I mean
that they had, and despite that many don't believe it, Paul still has, an
artistic approach that basically says, "Why not?"
As one in thousands of examples: Why not end a pop song with a major sixth
chord and dissident vocal harmony? ("She Loves You").
I was pretty young when the Beatles came out. I turned six in June of 1964,
so, though I was certainly aware of pop music, that the Beatles were
injecting rock and pop with a radical new twist on the genres was beyond my
thought processes. But I remember what in retrospect I think was my first
aesthetic appreciation of John. It was when I heard "Rain." I say
"think" because I know that in the studio, The Beatles were very
democratic about the arrangements and the process of recording their songs.
Any good idea to make the end product better was considered and often chosen.
John wrote "Rain," and as I got older I developed great poetic
appreciation for the message of the lyrics.
But as a kid, my first impression and what appealed to me was the sonic
presentation. There is this powerful wall of sound that stampedes like a
title wave of dark rich guitar chords and booming bass. It's one of the
first times I can remember really recognizing artistic craftwork. Somewhere
in the same period I heard "Eleanor Rigby" and I was starting to
know there was something special about The Beatles.
Of course, being the age I was, The Monkees were more my speed (inspired by
The Beatles movie Help, which, though I don't dislike it, is my
least favorite of all Beatles movies). The Monkees existed, in fact, because
The Beatles had no interest, whatsoever, in an offer to make a sitcom in
Hollywood.
Well, then, in 1967 my older cousin Greg bought the album, Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band, and was fanatically raving about it. My family
and his spent a lot of time together in those days so I heard the album a
lot. And my enthusiasm for The Monkees as my favorite band began to quickly
fade. By the time I was ten, I was a die-hard Beatles fan.
I personally have a little bit more of an affinity for Paul McCartney, but
don't be mistaken: my love of John Lennon as an artist and human being is
strong. And there is no question that lyrically, John Lennon is the
strongest of The Beatles. He is, I believe, one of the best lyricists in
rock and pop history.
Sometimes beautifully poetic, other times, straight-and-direct-to-the-juggler
plain spoken.
"Words are flowing out
Like endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away
Across the universe
Pools of sorrow
Waves of joy
Are passing though my open mind
Possessing and caressing me"
-- "Across The Universe"
"You say you want a revolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know you can count me out
You say you got a real solution
Well you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait
You say you'll change the constitution
Well you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well you know
You better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow"
-- "Revolution"
John was probably a bit pretentious in his early 1970's anti-war
presentation, because, as anyone who's studied Beatles and/or John know,
his ego was pretty big and strong and certainly matched Paul's, and really,
in many ways dwarfed Paul's. That doesn't mean that there was anything
insincere about John's anti-war sentiment. It was not a PR stunt. And when
John said, Hey, the press is going to be following us (him and Yoko)
around, anyway. We might as well use the space they're going to give us,
no matter what we are doing and saying, to do and say something of value,
when he said this, it was not disingenuous.
As for his personal life, John was open in both his art and his interviews
about most of it. The raw honesty of his 1971 album Plastic Ono Band
makes it one of the greatest artworks of his career. Just as Paul had done
with his home-grown McCartney album the year before, and The Beatles
had done with their last released album (second to last recorded) Let It
Be, John also returned to a simpler presentation of the music: the
arrangements and production were bare boned, even more so than
McCartney. The opening cut, for instance, "Mother," is a
solo vocal, a piano, a drum kit and a bass guitar, recorded live in the
studio. No over-dubs. no double tracking. The only production trick is the
bongs of the tower clock at the start, which John slowed down and edited on.
That album is lyrically raw and relentlessly honest and unapologetic.
In "God," he basically says, among other things, "Suck it up
fans, The Beatles are over. I'm not a Beatle anymore.":
"God is a concept,
By which we can measure,
Our pain,
I'll say it again,
God is a concept,
By which we can measure,
Our pain,
I don't believe in magic,
I don't believe in I-ching,
I don't believe in bible,
I don't believe in tarot,
I don't believe in Hitler,
I don't believe in Jesus,
I don't believe in Kennedy,
I don't believe in Buddha,
I don't believe in mantra,
I don't believe in Gita,
I don't believe in yoga,
I don't believe in kings,
I don't believe in Elvis,
I don't believe in Zimmerman,
I don't believe in Beatles,
I just believe in me,
Yoko and me,
And that's reality.
The dream is over,
What can I say?
The dream is over,
Yesterday,
I was dreamweaver,
But now I'm reborn,
I was the walrus,
But now I'm John,
And so dear friends,
You just have to carry on,
The dream is over."
In the famous interview on Tomorrow with Tom Snyder in 1975, he
explained that as a song writer all he's ever been doing is, "reporting
on the state [I am in] at the time."
In an interview not long after The Beatles broke up he was straight forward
about being a professional musician and a pop star. Asked if he was ever
worried of being accused of "selling out" his response was,
"Selling out to where? Any rocker who signs a contract with a record
company is selling his wares. 'Now I'm singing for my supper.' To think
you're not is to be fucking lying to yourself." (I'm quoting that from
memory but I'm pretty sure it's verbatim).
With the last album that John saw through to the final product, Double
Fantasy, his honesty was much less radical but no less straight forward.
The songs, mostly written toward the end of his self-imposed five-year
hiatus from the business showed the migration of philosophy toward a
middle-aged man who was at peace with himself much more than he'd ever been
in his life.
The philosophy of "I don't believe in Beatles" is clearly less
important than the idea of his family. There is an inherent message of being
a husband and being a father. Granted, the love-torn, "I'm Losing
You," is on the album, but that was written during his separation from
Yoko in the mid-70's, when he was bar hopping with Harry Nilsson to escape
his misery. Lennon included the song because it's a good mid-tempo rocker,
a good track.
Along with McCartney and some others of his generation, John is so
incredibly important to the movement forward of rock-and-roll and pop music
in general because of artistic inquisitiveness and his ability to think
outside the box. If he's not THE leader, he is one of a very few on a very
short list. Lennon didn't think there was anywhere that a rock artist
couldn't go musically and artistically. Anything was fair game to throw
into the mix. This was why he, McCartney, and George Harrison, (who is
arguably the first to be responsible for the fusion of Indian music into
rock and jazz), were so compatible artistically. *I didn't include Ringo
here because I'm addressing songwriting and major musical arrangement.
As one of my cultural icons, John Lennon transcends his musical appeal and
innovation, by his intellect and his use of his fame as a platform to ask
for, to appeal for, to try to influence us toward a better world, one where
love rules and hate and war and greed are relics from a yesterday.
I can't believe the world has been without him for over three decades. I have
relived my weeping for him from that morning so long ago so often since;
it has become a perpetual yesterday morning.
I'm still saying Goodbye, today.
*originally posted on Dec 8, 2010, this latest
version has been on slightly updated/revised to reflect current
time
The Ohio Playwrights Circle, in association with the Dayton Theatre Guild,
is pleased to offer a season of new play readings at the Caryl D. Philips
Theatre Scape in Dayton. You are invited to come and experience these new
readings by local playwrights and screenwriters, including scenes, short
plays, full plays and screenplays.
The Dayton Theatre Guild is providing our theatre space for these readings
at the Caryl D. Philips TheatreScape, located at 430 Wayne Ave., Dayton
Ohio 45410. Audience members will be asked to participate in brief feedback
sessions for the writers. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.
The next event:
December 12, 2015 at 7pm - New script reading: Just Her Imagination by Wayne Wolfe
directed by Jene Rebin Shaw.
Future events:
February 6, 2016 at 7pm - New script reading
June 18, 2016 at 7pm - New script reading
The Ohio Playwrights Circle (OPC) exists to bring opportunities and
education to Ohio playwrights. OPC is a project of the American Artworks
Foundation. For additional information please contact Ohio Playwrights
Circle at:
It's starting to look like there will not be clearance for use of dialogue
in the promocast for the show.
The week before last I contact a different person at Dramatist Play Service
and that person referred me to the
William Morris Endeavor
agency. I called them only to find that the agent who handles Lucille
Fletcher's work was transferred to the agency's London office. I have left
several messages on that agent's voice mail and have received no response.
She's American so I'm wondering if she hasn't traveled back to the States
for the holidays. I may not hear back from her until it's too late, even if
clearance would be granted. I have to have a final cut by January 6, which
means I have to be in production before I may likely hear back, if I ever
do hear back.
CRUMPET AT THE RACE:
Saturday evening I saw the final performance of Tim Lile in
David Sedaris's
Santaland Dairies
at The Human Race Theatre Company,
directed by
Scott Stoney.
The play is a one-man show, adapted by
Joe Mantello
from Sedaras's short story of the same name. Our protagonist is Crumpet, as
played by Tim Lile, who chronicles for the audience his experience working
as an elf at Macy's in New York City. I enjoyed the performance and the
production and, as is usually the case when I see a one-person show, I
couldn't help but consider whether I could pull one off.
A side note: we produced this at
The Guild a few years back
at Christmas of 2007. We presented it with Mark Diffenderfer in the role,
and with the companion piece of
Season's Greetings,
another Sedaris piece, also adapted by Montello, with
Katrina Kittle in the role of
Jocelyn Dunbar.
It seems to always take me a while to get these post-mortem essays about
shows I've been in into shape. The better the experience, that more
difficulty seems inherent. It took me a few days to start this one, and
then writing about it has been start-and-stall. I also had some medical
drama thrown in there that took me out of the game for everything for
several days. I am working on the post-script and it'll be up sometime this
week..........
I've been attending rehearsals and building concepts for the sound design.
I started gathering jazz music from the era the play is being set in,
specifically 1974, but the concept has migrated in another direction,
probably, so I may use little if any of that jazz. I also started gathering
together Top-40 hits from the era, at least the more "adult
contemporary" style hits of the era. Those may not be used, either. I
haven't come to a firm decision, but at the moment I am inclined toward
almost exclusively string and orchestral music, for all of production music
as well as pre-show and intermission. I also have to put together sound
effects, but that won't be difficult; some will be built by editing sound
files from my library together; and I may Foley
some sound effects, as well.
Since I've still not received any response from the agent at the London
office of the
William Morris Endeavor
agency, she who oversees the work of our playwright,
Lucille Fletcher,
it's looking more and more like there will not be dialogue from the play
in the promocast DV movie.
Ya know......working on it......yadda yadda......
BRITTANY'S SEXY DARTH VADER:
Though this is technically not a "gig," here's a new music video
from Brittany Campbell
for the song "Sexy Darth Vader" from her album
Heroes.
As some of you may know, I met this uber-talented young woman on the stage
at
The Human Race Theatre Company,
when she and I were in
Caroline, or Change.
I'm telling ya, sooner or later she's breaking it big, big, big:
*Just a reminder this is only a small sampling of the
professional work of my friends and colleagues. I'm simply not
going to be aware of all their good fortunes. Plus, I may screw up
and learn of something and forget about it ‐‐ I can be that
way, easily. But if I know (and remember), I'll give a shout
out for the pro gig successes! And I know that in the last few weeks
and months I have failed to mention a lot of stuff from a lot of
my friends. Chalk it up to schedule and mental disorder conflicts.
--
To be honest "No TV Zone" was not wholly accurate but was
reasonably close. The TV wasn't turned on until after I had burned out on
working on the show and needed to retire the work for a while. Plus, there
were the 11 am breaks most Saturday's for
