"'We hold these truths to be self-evident,' they said, 'that
all men are created equal.' Strange as it may seem, that was the
first time in history that anyone had bothered to write that down.
Decisions are made by those who show up. Class dismissed."
‐‐ President Josiah Bartlet, (as written by
Aaron Sorkin),
The West Wing,
Season 1: episode 22
"What Kind of Day Has It Been?"
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness.
‐‐That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
‐‐That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them
shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw
off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.
‐‐Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such
is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all
having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny
over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a
candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till
his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has
utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of
large districts of people, unless those people would
relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a
right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into
compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for
opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of
the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to
cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers,
incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large
for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time
exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and
convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States;
for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new
Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing
his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure
of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither f f
swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their
substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies
without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and
superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws;
giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any
Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these
States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by
Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended
offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a
neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary
government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at
once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable
Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his
Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns,
and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign
Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and
tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally
unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the
high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the
executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall
themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the
merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress
in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been
answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus
marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the
ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their
legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We
have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and
settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and
magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common
kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably i
nterrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been
deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must,
therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies
in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America,
in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of
the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name,
and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly
publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right
ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved
from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political
connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and
ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent
States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract
Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things
which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of
this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in
the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton
As you will know if you are one of the five who have actually visited this
silly blog before, and most especially, recently, Thursday night I saw the
incredibly talented and entertaining Ms. Sheryl Crow
in concert at The Fraze.
I enjoyed her and her band's performance greatly, but I do have what I am
sure is not an uncommon complaint: her set, including the encore, was less
than ninety minutes, coming in at around seventy. The last time I saw her,
which was in the summer of 2003, it was a good two hour show. That's what
I'm used to from my rock stars. Hell, McCartney
is good for 2:45 from opening chord to the last wave goodbye to the audience
after the last encore.
Sheryl walking out on stage at the top of the show
Obviously Sheryl believes in the motto, "Always leave them wanting
more," well, mostly. The only one of her hits that wasn't in the set
was "Leaving Las Vegas." In fact, with the exception of a few
popular, well-known album cuts, as well as two fine covers as her encore,
that's what the show was, her hits ‐‐ it was essentially a Greatest Hits
show.
In fact, she completely ignored two of her albums:
100 Miles from Memphis
and, what I just recently purchased, became exposed to, and what has
quickly become my favorite album by her, as is heavily suggested by my
June 26 blog entry, her 2008 offering,
Detours.
She only does one song from her latest album, the country leaning, ‐‐ more
so than usual, that is ‐‐
Feels Like Home,
that being the song "Best of Times."
There was an opening act. I was under the impression that
Rascal Flatts was touring with
her, and that may be true, but if so, they sat this one out. The show was
opened by a Columbus, Ohio due named, Mama Drama. They did about thirty
minutes and I was quite impressed. It was just David Eidelberg on acoustic
guitar, with some effects pedals, including a looping pedal, to aid him in
creating a nice, full sound. Heather Pennington is the vocalist, and that
lady can wail. They did a wonderful version of "Me and Bobby McGee."
They don't seem to have a proper web page, but they do have a facebook page:
Mama Drama Acoustic Duo.
best dressed roadie ever
One other note, one of her roadies was unmistakably the best dressed
roadie I have ever seen on a stage, clearly confounding the stereotypical
"roadie look."
He also was a bit older than what you, or I,
anyway, would expect.
The man was in a suit and tie, as you can see from the photo to the left.
I had to get a few pics of this guy.
During the course of the show, of course, Sheryl introduced each of the
band members. I didn't bother to write those in my iPhone Notes app because
I made the mistake of assuming that I would find them on-line somewhere,
later. If the band line-up for this tour is out there, I don't know where
it is. I tried about every combination of search terms I could think of and
could not find the list anywhere. I did note the song line-up, however.
Here is Sheryl Crow's set list from June 30, 2016 at The Fraze Pavillion:
"Everyday Is A Winding Road"
"A Change Would Do You Good"
"All I Wanna Do"
"My Favorite Mistake"
"Can't Cry Anymore"
"The First Cut Is The Deepest"
"Strong Enough"
"Run, Baby, Run"
"Steve McQueen"
"The Difficult Kind"
"You're an Original"
"Best of Times"
"I Put Your Picture Away"*(excerpt)/"If it Makes You Happy"
"Soak up the Sun"
encore:
"For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound)"
"Rock & Roll"
And here are some songs I wish had been in the set, in no particular order:
"Motivation" *(my personal choice for the opening song)
"Leaving Las Vegas"
"Solidify"
"Maybe Angels"
"Superstar"
"Oh Marie"
"The Book"
"There Goes The Neighborhood"
"Maybe That's Something"
"Members Only"
"Lucky Kid"
"Hole In My Pocket"
"Shine Over Babylon"
"Love Is Free"
"Peace Be Upon Us"
"Gasoline"
"Out of Our Heads"
"Now That You're Gone"
Adding at least a large portion of these would have rounded the show to a
length that would have been far more satisfying to me ‐‐ of course, I
realize that if you aren't a Sheryl fan, many or all of these titles may
mean nothing to you.
So any of you five will know that this Sunday I see
Sir Paul
in concert, in Cincinnati, for the tenth time. I have decided to go ahead
and make a weekend of it. I'd already thought about going to the
Cincinnati Zoo
during the day on Sunday. I'll be buying a ticket today, and I will
go to the zoo during the day on Sunday. I'd also contemplated getting a
hotel room Sunday night so I didn't have to drive back home from Cincy
after the concert. I went ahead and booked a hotel room for both Saturday
and Sunday night. I'll also be buying a ticket today to the
Newport Aquarium
for Saturday. I'll probably drive straight from home to Newport, then,
afterward, drive up to Sharonville, where my hotel is, and check in there.
That way I can get a good night's sleep and still get to the zoo in time to
have a nice day there and still get a good meal and get to the McCartney
show early. This little mini vacation is gonna cost me a bit more than I'd
planned on for the Paul show, quite a bit more, like more than $300
more, and that's not counting the original $282 for the Macca ticket. But,
you know what? I don't care. This weekend's going to cost me in excess of
$700, all totaled, and I don't care. I'm just gonna:
ANNOUNCING THE CAST:
Auditions are concluded and Director Jeff Sams has his cast:
The Cast of The Last Lifeboat
CHARACTER
ACTOR
Actor 01:
J. Bruce Ismay
Matt Lindsay
Actor 02:
William Randolph Hearst,
Thomas Andrews, and others
Mike Beerbower
Actor 03:
Policeman, Sailor, Senator Fletcher, etc.
Zach Katris
Actor 04:
Captain Smith (of the Titanic),
J.P. Morgan, Thomas Ismay and John Jacob Astor.
Gary Thompson
Actress 01:
Vivian and other female characters.
Cassandra Engber
Actress 02:
Florence Ismay and others.
Heather Martin
Actress 03:
Margaret Ismay and other female roles.
Kerry Simpson
Actress 04:
A variety of female roles
Heather Atkinson
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, more steps have been taken in sound
design for the show.
Shortly I head to Northern Kentucky, way northern, as in right across
the Ohio River from Cincinnati, to the
Newport Aquarium.
I should be able to spend a few hours there. I've scoped out at least one
nice Thai restaurant that I may drop into on the way to my hotel room in
Sharinville, after the aquarium. Although I might visit there tomorrow
between the
Cincinnati Zoo
and Paul's concert
instead. I suppose it'll be the caprice of the moment.
And tonight, in the hotel room, I might even, most probably will, do a
little work on sound for
The Last Lifeboat.
I've packed my production script and will be taking my lap top.
My trip to the Newport Aquarium
yesterday was very nice, especially the sharks and penguins ‐‐ and the sea
horses.
And the frogs and toads....
....The snakes....
....Pretty much all of it.
Oh, yeah, the Brio Tuscan Grille
where caprice brought me for lunch after the aquarium.
I took a ton of photos, from which I will share a decent amount here. I
spent the late evening last night sweeting them as well as discarding some
that didn't turn out. Spent this morning processing some for here. I'll
post all that later, maybe tomorrow or later this week. I don't have time
to code it all into HTML right now. Got to head out of the hotel very
shortly for my day today, with the first stop, of course, being the
Cincinnati Zoo
And then, of course....:
By-the-way, I got turned around on the way to Newport Aquarium and ended up
driving past the back side of US Bank Arena. Didn't have a chance to take
pics, 'cause my camera was put away and my phone was busy GPS-ing, but I
drove right by the Paul McCartney tour buses. It made me more
anticipatory for tonight!!!!
The "stuff" I've been doing, since
last we met, was, as planned, visting the
Cincinnati Zoo,
attending the
Paul McCartney
concert, then taking a leisurely, more scenic drive home that included a
couple stops along the way, one being right at the start of the trip.
I'll post pics of it all ‐‐ after the laborious job of culling and
sweetening them as well as processing for the HTML. And of course, I'll
write a little about it all. That includes, along with the pictures, more
detail about the visit to
Newport Aquarium.
And I have a very cool story to share about the McCartney show, with
pictures to illustrate that story.
And, to repeat myself, from similar circumstance here in the past: Yes,
it's true that with the exception of something more review-like as per the
McCartney show, this will have nothing to do with "Artful Things,"
but, as I have asked those other times ‐‐ Whose blog is this?
Yesterday, I dropped by The Guild to meet with Director Jeff Sams about
some points regarding the sound design. I laid out my basic concept, for
which Jeff received well. He also gave me some more immediate needs for
rehearsals coming soon, this Wednesday to be exact. There is a
cotillion waltz the cast needs to start rehearsing with, and a section with
dramatic underscoring that Jeff would like in rehearsals so the cast can
have that layer added in for the cast to play along to as part of that
section. Meeting this deadline should not be a problem. I'm thinking Mozart
for the Waltz. I also need to record some voice-overs from the cast this
week.
The session was from 9:00 until about 4:30 with a forty-five minute dinner
break. I didn't get there until not long before lunch, and thus I did not
participate, though Greg had opened the session up to everyone on the
production team beyond the cast members. For things like this I'm kind of
an all-or-nothing guy. I was acutely interested but I had personal
business that needed attending to so I couldn't make it there for the whole
thing. You really, I think, need to be there when the session starts for
something like this. I had my lunch meeting with Jeff on sound and then
did stay to watch the rest of the day. I've been introduced to bits
and pieces of Viewpoints in various professional acting classes I've taken
with Kay Bosse,
and I think, also Marsha Hanna,
Brian Crowe
and Carrie Ellen Zappa.
It's been a while for those and I can't remember exactly which games we
played.
Viewpoint is essentially a method for actors to engage in movement exercises,
both on the stage space and in terms of how they move and hold their own
bodies, and to do these in ensemble with techniques to make each more aware
of the ensemble in general and their own individual self within that
ensemble. That's a simplified definition as there is a complex myriad of
benefits to the actor including tools to help the actor achieve better
emotional response from his or her character in scene.
One of the things that Greg had the cast do was walk the stage imagining a
grid to orientate each actor with a sense of space, topography, and
architecture. I've done that one with Kay in several classes. I can't speak
for when Greg introduced it Sunday morning, but when I've done it with Kay,
one rule was you were not allowed to run into another actor walking the
grid with you and you were not allowed to stop. If you were about to collide
you were to change your course. One benefit I found from the exercise was I
became acutely aware of where the other actors, also walking the grid, were.
So, one crucial point to the exercise is changing your planned direction
based on another actor suddenly in the path you had mentally laid out. For
me that translates into being in the moment with the emotional life of my
character on stage, because the other actor's character gives me something
in emotional delivery that renders where I was prepared to go no longer a
viable option. I have to respond to what there is to respond to, which may
not be what has happened in previous rehearsals or performances.
Sometimes, often, we're talking nuanced difference, but nonetheless, when
an adjustment isn't made the resulting interplay that does not exactly
work is often not lost on the audience, even if they are not sure what it
is they are discerning. All they may know is they are witnessing something
that seems inauthentic to them, because they don't feel they are seeing
living breathing characters interacting, rather they are watching actors
on stage playing their roles ‐‐ this is not a satisfying experience for the
audience; it's usually not for the actors, either. I write "usually,"
though it probably ought just be "it's not,"
The Last Lifeboat cast was eventually released from traversing the
stage in simple grid but they kept the principles of the original in their
further movements. Of course, the day was about a lot more than that but I'm
not going to detail that here, some of it because I missed it and don't know
the details.
There are going to be some very interesting moments, especially at the end
of Act I, of which this Viewpoints session will
do much to inform the performance of the ensemble.
Sound design is, with out a doubt, under full swing now. There's lots to do
so I am simply taking care of what's in front of me then moving on. The
first thing was, as I wrote before, to pick a waltz for the cottilion
scene in Act I, which has been accomplished. I
had suspected I would go with Mozart but it turned out that a Brahms waltz
works better for the scene. We also want underscoring for a particular
section of the act, and a Haydn composition fits the bill, a movement from
his Symphony No. 49.
Neither of the compositions, or at least the recordings I have found, are
long enough to cover the action they need to, so I have extended both
through the magic of my sound editing software. I have a few other sound
production tricks to enhance the dramatic impact of the Haydn underscoring,
including dropping the key of the music, adding reverb at one point, and
very likely putting the music into a fugue state toward the end of the
scene-- unless it turns out it is overkill, which it might just do. But
it's better to produce something you later decide needs pulled, than to
later discover there's more work to do to add something. Ask a movie
director; this is the same principle.
There's still a brief amount of a waltz for an earlier scene that needs
chosen. I've sent Director Jeff Sams two mp3s of choices, with my
recommendation for the better of the two.
The end of Act I needs music appropriate to the
dramatic chord it goes out on, and the first couple I chose as possibilities
turned out to have been composed after the historical moment that plays out
at the end of the act, one, a few decades later. Both were by Bartók,
and taking that as a marker, I came across a composition by him that does
work.
Need a few other compositions, some that need to play during scenes, others
as transitional music. A lot of the scene transitions, however, will either
have other sound files beside musical compositions covering them, or will
have no transition sound at all. Some will have none because the silence
works dramatically, others will be because some scenes flow seamlessly into
the next. I also haven't found the music to close the show and go into
curtain, yet.
Beyond all that, there are a lot of sound effects to build for this. This
is one of those shows where half the SFX, if not more, will be contained
in just a few consecutive pages. That is going to eat up a lot of
my time, coming up here pretty soon.
But......"what's in front of me to do next."
With a brief hiatus to spend a weekend at a new plays festival ‐‐ alas,
only as an audience member for all six plays......this year.
As I alluded to above, and as some may know from previous posts here, I
elected to not audition for
FutureFest 2016
at The Dayton Playhouse
because I am not yet ready to commit to a rehearsal schedule, not until I
have healed to the point that such stamina to do so successfully has
returned. But, I will be there this coming weekend, and this will be the
first time I will push the limits of my stamina.
I always have a big want to do the elbow-rubbing socializing, with
the playwrights, adjudicators, and quite a few fellow FF audience
members, after each festival day is done. I'm known to get much less
than a full night's sleep Friday or Saturday night. Usually, I don't
get to bed until certainly after midnight, and sometimes I know it's
been 2:00 a.m. Let's remember that the FF day starts at 10:00 a.m.
both Saturday and Sunday.
I'm always good for the after partying Sunday evening, too. I can't say
that I will be able to hold up to this practice this year, but I am going
to give it a shot. I will, of course, call an end to the round if it
seems I am going down for the count, but I'm going to give it a shot,
regardless unless it proves imprudent to keep up the behavior.
Later tonight, or maybe tomorrow, okay, very likely tomorrow, I start
working on some challenging sound effects. It's going to be a whole lot of
trial-and-error and whole lot of me yelling in frustration over the
"error."
Tonight I attend the annual Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame Induction and
Daytony Awards Gala. To be honest, as I do believe I have expressed in the
past, I have mixed emotions about this. I like the recognition of
individuals who have given a lot of themselves to the local theatre arena,
and I like the gathering of all the local theatre community to celebrate the
richness of said local theatre community. I am less and less enchanted with
the theatre awards, as I am with arts awards in general. I could go on a
whole tirade about under-appreciated excellent work and overrated mediocre
work, but what's the point. I have done it in the past and I know there
are many who get the observation and my frustration, thereof.
Then, tomorrow is the annual smorgasbord and in-house Murphy Awards for
The Guild. And I am in the same place attitude-wise about this as I am about
the DTHOF & Daytony Awards. I like the gathering and the camaraderie.
I am less enthused with the awards part.
The only "awards" that get handed out that I really am enthused
about are the volunteer recognition awards, which include the coveted DTG
mugs, which are given when someone has reached a milestone of involvement
in productions.
It's just the way it's got to be right now, believe me.
I'll just go on fb to admin the DTG page, at least for a little while.
Like, perhaps until November 8, and maybe not then.
This news has been under wraps for a little while, but we are now allowed
to let the cat out of the bag.
Luke Yankee,
The Last Lifeboat
playwright, is attending the Saturday, August 27 performance and will
give a talkback afterwards.
How
cool is THAT?
Tonight, I have a short meeting with Director Jeff Sams to discuss some
specific ideas for specific spots in the show. Otherwise, I must admit, the
design has come along a little slower than I'd like, mostly because of
interruptions that have demanded my attention, but I am not in panic mode,
there's still time to work with room for experiments to fail.
I have as yet to get to building those SFX
of the Titanic going under, but that's the next big agenda item. I still
also have some particular music to harvest ‐‐ some specific music the
script calls for, and some specific music for the pre-show. I pretty much
have determined the intermission music. And I have yet to process the audio
I recorded last Monday of various screams from the cast ensemble. The good
news is that I am getting a clear idea of how I want to procede with the
majority of the sound design.
This week I have no needs to stay later than my usual schedule in the
office at the rent-payer,
so I will get home earlier than I have the last couple of weeks, and will
have that much more time to devote to work on the sound. Although, I am
out-of-town at a rent-payer-related workshop on Tuesday, but I'll probably
get home by 5:30 or 6:00.
One thing that is imperative:
or I will inevitably be seduced by the distraction.
To all the theatres, directors, performers and designers who were awarded
recognition for their work during 2015/2016 theatre season, both in the
general Dayton theatre community and in-house at The Guild.
To all the Dayton Theatre Guild volunteers who were recognized for their
service to our fine organization.
I'll post a link that catalogues the Daytony Awards, as well as listing
the Murphy Awards as soon as there is a relevant Daytony link and I have a
comprehensive Murphy Awards list.
Back in April, there was a dedication of a renovated building on campus at
Wright State University. The building
used to be the Television Center, where I took many of my production classes
and worked on many production projects for my Communication major. It is
now the main facility for the
Motion Pictures Program,
and as the photo above may suggest, it was dedicated as
The Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures.
For was rallying for "The Hanks," which I believe has caught on
with or without his input.
In the above photo of The Hanks, note the building next to it. The edge of
the brown building in the upper-right of the frame. That is where I work
during the day; that is the rent-payer,
aka: The Paul Laurence Dunbar Library. A special luncheon was hosted on
the fourth floor of my workplace that day. No, I was not one of the guests.
No, I did not meet Tom. I did not even see him in the flesh. I did watch a
live stream of a master class, Q&A assembly that was held in the
Creative Arts Center, with the students from Dance, Theatre and Motion
Pictures in attendance. It was about ninety minutes and it was fun to watch.
Hanks is a fun guy. There is a link to a video if it, but it's on a closed
server so one has to have a password to log on ‐‐ i.e.: I could link it
here, but unless you are connected to WSU, you can't watch it.
So how did this Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures come about? What
connection does Tom Hanks have to Wright State University? Well, for one,
he appeared on the festival stage as a young actor, still in college. He
was a member of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, based in Cleveland,
and that company did a short residency at WSU in 1978. Then, a few years
later, in New York City, he was cast in The Mandrake by Machiavelli.
The producer was a fellow named
Stuart McDowell,
who would later become the Chair of the
Department of Theatre, Dance, and Motion Pictures,
at, you guessed it, Wright State University. Tom and Stuart have maintained
a friendship over the years. Tom has been a benefactor to the program and
has otherwise involved himself in capital fund raising.
So that is how and why.
Goodbye Mr. Garibaldi,
one of the many great characters on the great sci-fi series,
Babylon 5,
and perfectly portrayed by
Jerry Doyle.
I've never known much about his career otherwise, and besides
that I understand he was once married to his Babylon 5
co-star,
Andrea Thompson,
who happens to be a fellow Daytonian like myself, the only
other thing I know about Doyle is that he and I did not
share political leanings, whatsoever. Still, as Michael
Garibaldi, he rocked! And I have a feeling we might have
been able to be friends, so long as we didn't discuss any
elections.
"PRESS RELEASE: PLAYWRIGHT LUKE YANKEE TO ATTEND THE
AUGUST 27 PERFORMANCE 0F THE LAST LIFEBOAT":
Here's the text of the official DTG announcement:
"We are pleased to announce that Playwright Luke Yankee, the author
of The Last Lifeboat, will attend the Saturday, August 27,
5:00 performance of the show at The Dayton Theatre Guild.
"Mr. Yankee will give a talk-back after the performance. He will
talk about his ideas for the play, how it came to be, and will also
answer questions from the audience.
"There are a limited amount of tickets still available for this
performance, but they are going quickly.
You five may recall that back in late June, once again, as I do every
year, I declared that I would get a jump on things and contact all of the
playwrights, or their representatives, for the whole coming season, to
request clearance to use dialogue in the promocasts.
I wrote that I'd get it all done by the end of this summer. Having already
contacted and secured clearance from our first playwright,
Luke Yankee, I have now
initiated communication with the rest of the new season's playwrights.
Actually, I haven't, technically, fully initiated the contact with
Lindsay-Abaire's agent. His agent is at
William Morris Endeavor and
I've dealt with him a few other times for this very reason, for
Mr. Lindsay-Abaire's
Good People,
and for works by others whom that agent represents. The routine here is to
draft a clearance agreement of which I mail two signed copies to the agent.
He keeps one for his records and mails one back to me in the SASE that I
supply. I have written the new cover letter, now all I need to do is use
a previous agreement document as the boiler plate and modify it for
Wonders of the World. I should be able to get that all in the mail
today or tomorrow. But since I don't shoot that video until May of 2017,
I'd say I have plenty of time if I can't get it out this week. Though
really there's no reason I can't get it out this week.
Full disclosure, the entire weekend didn't belong to sound design,
but a pretty big chunk of it did. And,
YIKES, there's still
tons to do, tons of SFX left to build.
In fact, I am now going to do something I was trying to avoid: I'm taking
tomorrow off as a
vacation
day from the rent-payer.
I'd already known I will need to take off Wednesday of next week, so now I
am burning sixteen hours of
vacation
time for the show.
The idea, you see, is to accumulate as much
vacation
leave as possible. Six weeks worth would be great; right now that can't
happen any earlier than November of 2017, and that's only if I take no more
vacation leave until then, which seems horribly unlikely. Yeah, it's just
not going to happen, or more appropriately, it is going to happen
that I take some, more than "some."
Be that as it may, right now my present dilemma is getting sound finished
by Tech Sunday which is this
coming Sunday. I am not worried. It'll be done. It'll probably be wrapped
at the eleventh hour, but it will be done in time.
I'm going to start attending rehearsals, beginning tomorrow night. I will
definitely be there this Thursday, too, and maybe this Wednesday, depending
on what I have left to build or otherwise work on.
Yep! Tech Sunday is only four
days away. We are in the proverbial eleventh hour. Am I close to finished
with the design?
The word is "closer."
I took yesterday off to work on it. Truth be told I incorporated doing my
laundry into the day, but without obstacle nor distraction. I got a lot
done, but I still have lots of work left. I'd thought I might be
able to attend the rehearsal tonight, but I cannot.
Last night I did attend, to trial run a few music cues, including a
crucial sequence at the end of Act I, which
worked as well as I'd hoped and pleased our director, Jeff Sams. I also
watched for timing, pacing, and the flow of scene changes. I discovered
that there's a waltz that plays under a scene earlier in the act that needs
to be extended further than what I had already done. I'd loved to think
that will be the last time I make such a discovery, but that probably
isn't true. I've not put everything to the action as of yet.
Then, it became clear that my original idea for scene transitions, and
actually going into each act, has to be nixed. I'd already changed some of
it; last night I came to see that what I'd wanted to do for most of the show
doesn't fit the feel of the show as it is playing on its feet. The idea was
to use single notes in many places and simple chords (sometimes dissident)
in others, even under a few of the scenes. The notes and chords would be
played on synthesized strings, either from one of mine or the Guild's
keyboards, or from
Garageband on my laptop.
Last night I told Jeff I want to go with excerpts from solo piano sonatas,
slower temple compositions from Bethoven or one of his classical siblings.
Some simple violin or cello solos might work, too, perhaps a mix of all
three.
Two evenings and all day Saturday, that is what's left to get this all
ready for Tech Week, never mind
the tweaks and adjustments that will inevitably need to be made during
said Tech Week. Two evenings and all day Saturday: that's tonight, Friday
night, (and Saturday) ‐‐ I am DETERMINED to make the rehearsal
tomorrow night.
Two evenings and all day Saturday:
What? Me worry?
WILL I OR WON'T I?:
I'm not completely sure yet. I'm leaning toward it, but I'm still weighing
things and measuring the day-to-day progress of my physical needs as my
recovery improves. I have just less than two weeks to decide.
Pluggin' along. Much has been done. Much is left to do. Still have sound to
build. Have some to tweak. Have some choices still to make. Also have
discovered a couple sound cues I hadn't realized I need.
But all is going well and I still am not in panic mode. These days, I'm
not too keen on panic mode, anyway. Never mind that I consider tomorrow
the official beginning of "The Eleventh Hour."
2015/2016 THEATRE AWARDS UPDATE:
I'm not sure if there is a comprehensive list of the 2015/2016
Daytony Awards out there yet, but I
do have a list of the forty-four
DTG wins:
DESIGN AND PRODUCTION AWARDS OF MERIT
Wendi Michael: Set Design for Slow Girl
Del Johnston: Set Design for The Trip To Bountiful
K.L.Storer: Sound Design for The Trip To Bountiful
K.L.Storer and Tony Fende: Sound Design for Night Watch
DESIGN AND PRODUCTION AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE
Carol Finley: Costume Design for All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
Carol Finley: Costume Design for Slow Girl
Carol Finley: Costume Design for The Trip To Bountiful
John Falkenbach: Light Design for All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
Jadon Bischoff: Light Design for Slow Girl
Jared Mola: Properties for Slow Girl
Kelly Engle and Debra Strauss: Properties for The Trip To Bountiful
Bruce Brown: Set Design for Last Gas
Chris Newman: Set Design for Outside Mullingar
Kathy Mola: Set Design for All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
K.L.Storer: Sound Design for Slow Girl
DIRECTION AWARDS OF MERIT
Craig Smith for The Trip To Bountiful
Debra Kent for Last Gas
DIRECTION AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE
Kathy Mola for All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
Rick Flynn for Slow Girl
David McKibben: Music Direction for All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
SPECIAL CATEGORIES AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE
Wendi Michael: Set Dressing for Slow Girl
Debra Strauss: Set Dressing for The Trip To Bountiful
ENSEMBLE AWARDS OF MERIT
The cast of The Trip To Bountiful
ENSEMBLE AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE
The cast of Outside Mullingar
The cast of Last Gas
The cast of All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
SUPPORTING ROLE AWARD OF MERIT
Dave Nickel as Tony in Outside Mullingar
Dave Nickel as Lt. Walker in Night Watch
Angela Dermer as Lurene in Last Gas
Jack Lewis as Troy in Last Gas
SUPPORTING ROLE AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Connie Strait as Aoife in Outside Mullingar
David Williamson as Dwight in Last Gas
Rachel Wilson as Cherry-Tracy in Last Gas
LEADING ROLE AWARD OF MERIT
Mike Beerbower as Anthony in Outside Mullingar
Debra Strauss as Elaine Wheeler in Night Watch
LEADING ROLE AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Rick Flynn as Stewart Alsop in The Columnist
Peter Wallace as Sterling in Slow Girl
Jenna Gomes as Becky in Slow Girl
Gayle Smith as Carrie Watts in THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL
Ray Geiger as Ludie Watts in The Trip To Bountiful
Amy Askins as Jessie Mae Watts in The Trip To Bountiful
Jared Mola as Nat in Last Gas
DAYTON THEATRE GUILD'S SEASON'S BEST PRODUCTION All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
OUTSTANDING OVERALL PRODUCTION Last Gas All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
Not a bad haul for us!
Meanwhile, here's our in-house awards, The Murphy's, for the DTG 2015/2016
season:
BEST SET DESIGN:
Bruce Brown for Last Gas
BEST LIGHTING DESIGN:
John Falkenbach for All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
BEST SOUND DESIGN:
K.L.Storer for overall 2015/2016 season
BEST PROPERTIES:
Deirdre Root for Last Gas
BEST COSTUME DESIGN:
Carol Finley for All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Rick Flynn as Curtis Appleby in Night Watch
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Rachel Wilson as Cherry-Tracy in Last Gas
BEST ACTOR:
David Shough as Joseph Alsop in The Columnist
BEST ACTRESS:
Gayle Smith as Carrie Watts in The Trip To Bountiful
BEST ACTING DUO:
Jenna Gomes as Becky & Peter Wallace as Sterling in Slow Girl
BEST DIRECTOR:
David Shough for Outside Mullingar
MUSIC DIRECTION:
David McKibben for All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
BEST ENSEMBLE:
The cast of All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
BEST SHOW: All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce Of 1914
Like I said right after the events, congratulations to all the performers
and production team award winners who helped make the 2015/2016 season
another great season at The Guild, and further to all the performers and
production team award winners for productions at all of our neighboring
theatres in the Dayton area, for their wins at the Daytonys and at each
theatres' own awards ceremonies.
July 9-11, 2016
From Kentucky to Liverpool & beyond
(or, a lot of ado about much less)
It's been over a month ago, I know. And let me offer my apologies
to those with short attention spans. This entry is a long one.
There're probably too many words and lots of "selected"
photos from the weekend. I've been writing here-and-there on this
one since it was over ‐‐ technically since before it was
over. Not sure how many people will ever read all of this, but I'm
sure some who do may find it an excessive recounting of my
little trip.
Oh well.
So saddle up, if you're going to give this whole thing a read.
To catch up anyone beyond the five regular visitors to this blog
thing, back in April I bought myself a ticket to the July 10
Paul McCartney
concert at the
US Bank Arena
in Cincinnati, Ohio. Shortly after I bought the ticket ‐‐ for my tenth
Macca show, may I add ‐‐ I thought, I ought to check out the
Cincy Zoo
too, whilst I'm down there. I got all day before the evening performance.
It's been a very long time since I've been to the Cincy zoo. Somehere
along the line I began to contemplate spending at least Sunday night in a
hotel, rather than driving back home that night. It is only about an hour's
drive, but as "the five" may know, while my recovery from my heart
attack and subsequent surgery is coming along more than just satisfactorily,
I still am getting tired a bit earlier in the evening than I used to ‐‐
though I am sure that will change with time. So, the Sunday night stay-over
was locked in pretty early.
Then, a few weeks later, I saw a TV ad for the
Newport Aquarium,
right across the Ohio River from Cincy. I've never been there, I
thought to myself. Then I thought, Hey! I can add that to the trip. I'll
head down Saturday and visit there then spend Saturday night in the hotel
and do the zoo and McCartney on Sunday!
And that is what I did.
In this blog entry, I'm probably making a bigger deal of the weekend than
it really was, but, ya know what? I don't do stuff like this weekend enough,
so it sort of IS a big deal on a personal level. Maybe I ought to
start doing more stuff. Somebody mentioned
Hocking Hills
the other day. I know I was there as a wee little tyke, but I have no
memory of it. Seems like a good road trip before the summer is gone, no?
Meanwhile, here's the recounting of my little July 2016 mini-vacation:
My goal for Saturday morning was to leave my humble abode by 9:00. That,
of course, did not happen. I'm pretty sure it was after 10:00, but it must
not have been much after that since I know I stepped foot inside the
Newport Aquarium around 11:30. And let's not forget, those who read previous
entries, that I also "got turned around" on my way, which ate up
a good ten-to-fifteen minutes in addition to the travel time.
Here's what happened: actually made it to the Aquarium, but
Siri's
GPS was telling me the last turn was onto "Aquarium Way." What
I saw was a driveway onto the premises and then, a little bit further,
another road. The assumption I made was that the road was "Aquarium
Way," that the driveway, which didn't really seem to lead anywhere was
for deliveries or something. I was incorrect. The road led to a bridge
back across the Ohio River into Cincinnati.
As it so happens, it led right into the complex with the
Great American Ball Park
and
US Bank Arena.
Following Siri's directions back across the river took me to the back side
of the arena. That's when, for those of you who read that post, I drove right
by all of McCartney's tour busses. I would have taken a picture, but my
camera was put away and Siri was busy on the iPhone.
Well anyway, second time around I turned onto Aquarium Way and found it led
to the parking garage under the Aquarium, that's actually for the whole
Newport on the Levee
complex of stores, restaurants, and such, of which the Aquarium is a part.
The Newport Aquarium is really a pretty enjoyable place. I must admit, it
was not the place of granduer that I expected based on the advertisements
I've seen over the years, but still, not at all a disappointment.
Afterward I dropped into the local
Brio Tuscan Grille
which is right next to the Aquarium. There's actually one close to where I
live, but I've never been. Had myself the Pasta Pesto with Torta di
Cioccolata as the evil dessert. Then I went a little bit north to my room
at the LivINN Hotel in
Sharonville.
Even managed to get in some time at the hotel gym Saturday evening.
So here's a nice sampling of the photos I took at the aquarium, with some
comments being rather vague because I don't really remember what some of
these particular sea creatures are; still, here are the pics:
That's one big-ass fish bowl!
That's one big-ass fish!
Cool tunnel under a really big-ass aquarium at the
Aquarium.
Sea horses.
If I remember correctly, this is not a shark, even
though it looks like it might be.
Turtle.
Despite appearances, I was not at Jurassic Park.
Blowfish? Maybe?
Frogs.
Small stingray ‐‐ at least it looks like one to my
untrained eye.
Next time I'm there, I'm going to have to check out
Naked Chopstix Sushi Pan Asian Food & Bar.
Though, this, too, is a chain, so I might end up
giving it a try some place else, which would have
to be one of the three Indiana locations.
Across the river, the Cincinnati Riverfront sports
complex, which includes,
US Bank Arena.
On the Newport, KY side of the river, the band
Icon X
plays a gig as part of a river fest.
I did some math: the last time I was at the
Cincinnati Zoo
was in the fourth grade, in the spring of 1969. For you playing at home,
that's forty-seven years ago. To be honest, I barely remember that
experience. I remember that one of the lions puked, but other than that, I
don't remember much. I am sure the Cincy Zoo has changed a lot in four-plus
decades, but I couldn't tell you how or by how much.
Got there Sunday morning, shortly after it opened, which secured me a
coveted spot under the carport awning in the zoo lot on Vine St across from
the park.
I spent a few hours at the zoo, from maybe 10:30 until about 1:30 or 2:00.
I'm not sure I hit every animal exhibit, but I covered much, probably most,
of the park. There was a lot to see, and I took way more photos than
you see below, just as I took way more at the aquarium than you see above.
(Just like I took way more than you'll see for McCartney, below, for
my travels home, below that, or for the eventual
FutureFest 2016
posting that will be up "shortly" - (my definition of shortly)).
That Sunday was a hot, sunny day with good lighting to take photos, but
the heat also meant that many of the animals were in the shade, and a lot
of those were asleep. I do realize that many of these animals, like the big
cats, sleep all day long as their natural behavior, though the African lions,
as you can see above in the banner I created from a pic I snapped, were
active. Though I did take a photo , which I haven't included here, of a
couple lionesses in a different enclosure that were sleeping on a wooden
platform. Still, despite the heat, the shade, the slumbering, managed a lot
of good shots.
My one brief statement about the
Harambe
incident:
Of course, I went to the gorilla enclosure. What I observed is that from
the fence to the drop-off to the mote is not really a long distance,
whatsoever. I can't speak about the fence that was up when the little boy
got under it and scurried toward that drop-off, but I can speak to how
quickly he could make the trip: the key word is "quickly." From
the beginning I was impatient with those who immediately jumped on the
let's-trash-the-mother's-parenting-skills bandwagon. These people reacted
and pontificated with self-superiority without much information, certainly
not enough. All the witnesses, you know, the one's who were there, so
actually know what they're talking about?, they all defend the mother. Well,
I saw the location, and I can tell you with authority, that it would be easy
for a four-year-old to make that trip in a moment. A point that I made a
few times on Facebook
is that, though I do not have children myself, I have plenty of friends
and relatives who do; how often have I seen a small child manage to get
away from a very good parent? A Lot. A few of those times a tragedy came
very close to happening. Fortunately I have never witnessed a tragedy;
that doesn't mean they could not have happened. And call these people whom
I know are good parents, bad at it ‐‐ do it to my face. That's it. That's
all I have to say on this. Which means: email me with an argumentative
comment and I will not respond.
Okay, I'm off my soapbox now.
Needless to reiterate, my zoo trip was a good start to a great Sunday. So
now it was on to a late lunch, then a living legend. The thing is, it was
still early afternoon; I had the time, so I drove back to
Sharonville
to catch a shower at the hotel. I had been walking around in a hot sun for
a few hours, after all.
Here's a sampling of zoo photos I took, again with comments, explicit or
vague, as the case dictates:
The entrance.
A great method for zoo patrons to cool off; or ‐‐
a wind fan from a Hollywood movie set. You decide.
Giraffes.
The King.
Gazelles(?)
Meerkat.
Polar bear.
Orangoutang.
Gibbon.
Chimpanzee.
Baby chimpanzee.
Silverback gorilla.
Important information to know.
Cougar.
White tiger.
I think this might be a caiman.
Big lizard.
Big-ass sea turtles. These are adolescents.
Interesting fact: the zoo staff do not yet know
what sex these are. These turtles don't reveal
their sex until they are about seventeen or so.
Horse. Not sure what species or breed. I don't
think it's any of the North American varieties.
Elephant.
The advantage of getting to the zoo earlier is you
can park under the carport and keep your basically
all-black interior at least out of the direct
beating summer sun.
#10!
US Bank Arena ‐‐ formerly, The Riverfront Coliseum, where
I first saw Paul, with Wings, in
May of 1976.
Some of Paul's tour buses. The same ones I passed the
morning before on my way to the
Newport Aquarium.
Best friends.
The arena begins to fill.
Yep, for those not already aware, this was my tenth attendance at a
Macca show! Here's how the second half of my Sunday went, post-zoo:
After my afternoon shower to get the sweat of the zoo off me, I went from
my hotel room in Sharonville
to Mariemont
and Mango Tree Thai & Sushi,
where I had Yellow Curry Chicken with a Tuna Tataki appetizer.
The restaurant was not what I'd anticipated. I'd expected at least a low,
high-end establishment in a stand-alone building, with a dinner price tag
of about $30. What I got was a small restaurant in a strip-mall with a
dinner price tag of about $30 ‐‐ before the tip. That's not to say that it
wasn't a fine meal that lived up to the on-line rating and rave testimonials,
about the food and the service. So, I made a good choice picking
this out, as I planned my weekend, as a Sunday afternoon stop.
Thing is, the Google page gave me the wrong time for the start of the dinner
seating. It said, "12-noon," but it was actually 4:00. Having
driven more than twenty minutes, and having had my mind set on eating there,
when I got there at about 3:30, only to find I was too early, I simply sat
in my car ‐‐ motor and AC running, of course, checking facebook on my
iPhone as well as starting a little bit of this mini-vacation blog entry on
the Notes app.
As I look back on those words I wrote I see one thing to use in this
actual blog entry, the fact that
Mariemont
is where I shot a US Bank commercial a few years back when I was still with
PCG Talent Agency. Well, anyway, I got in the door at 4:00, their first
afternoon customer, and had a very nice late lunch, or early dinner,
whichever. Then it was on to
US Bank Arena
and
Sir James Paul McCartney.
I got to the Riverfront sports complex early enough to get a "good"
parking spot in a close parking garage, on the second floor, a close walk
to the arena. After the show, however, the "good" part became
questionable, as the traffic inside the garage, was so heavy, I could not
back out of my spot and join the line. I actually just got out of my car
and walked down to the street for about fifteen minutes to let the herd
thin enough so I could get out. When I had pulled in, I'd thought how it
might not be a bad idea to back into the spot, but did not heed my own
wisdom.
On my walk to the arena, I passed those McCartney tour buses I'd driven by
the day before when I got lost on my way to the
Newport Aquarium.
The day before, I'd recognized them immediately, as I have seen them before,
such as at the Chicago show, in 2014.
I took the photos on Sunday before the show that I couldn't take the
morning before. Also took some pics of his semi trucks.
When I went around in front of the arena to snap a few shots of the front
of the building, I ran into a lady from Kentucky, Betty Ann Allen, who had
a cast on her right forearm. With her was her granddaughter, Emily. You'll
see pictures of them below. Emily had a sign to hold up during the show, as
many fans do. Her's read: "Paul, Please? Sign my nana's cast and she
will buy me a new car!" Betty Ann had a sign that said: "I'm Nana.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Yeah! It's true! She's sweet 16." I asked them
if I could take a picture and told them they had a good chance of this
coming true because Paul loves things like that.
Toward the end of the show, Paul did a little routine, which he usually
does, talking about how he tries not to read the signs because he's trying
to concentrate on the words he's singing, but can't help himself. Then he
mentioned several of the signs and what they said. Emily's was one of those
he talked about. I could then see where they were seated, across the arena
from me, because he pointed toward them and then Emily waved the sign. So
when someone from the tour came and took them back stage during
"Yesterday" at the start of the encores, I saw it. Halfway through
the encore section, they were brought out on stage, along with a pregnant
couple who wanted him to help them reveal the sex of their soon-to-be child.
It's a boy, by the way.
After he signed Betty Ann's cast, he told Emily, "You got your car."
In a news account, Betty Ann said he said, "There's your car,"
but my memory is that it was, "You got your car," though I guess
it makes little difference.
Click here for that TV news account.
By the way, the reporter says that no one expected it to happen ‐‐ WRONG!
I did!
Back to earlier now, a few minutes after I met Emily & Nana, I met the
two young ladies pictured up in the column on the right, who were behind me
in line to get in. They had signs saying they've been best friends for seven
years because of Paul. They explained to me that they struck up a friendship
in, I believe they said, the eighth grade. One had been wearing a McCartney
t-shirt and so they started a friendship off their mutual fandom for Sir
Paul. I also thought they had a decent chance of getting on stage, but it
did not come to be.
For those who don't know, I went to see
Sheryl Crow in concert
just a few weeks back. As I stood then in the courtyard at
The Fraze Pavilion
watching other concert goers milling around and newcomers arriving, it
struck me that the mean average of the ages was higher than the last time
I saw her, which was in the summer of 2003. Then I realized, well, yeah,
she's been around for a while. There were few people in their twenties, and
I don't think I saw one teenager. There are likely a lot of teens and
twenty-somethings who have no clue who she is or, at best, barely do.
Now, Paul's been around a bit longer, more than thirty years longer. I
think Sheryl's first real hit was, "All I Wanna Do," which peaked
at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1994, as opposed to Paul's first
big hit when he was with that one band from Liverpool, "Please Please
Me," which reach #2 on the U.K. Charts in 1963.
Well, besides the aforementioned best friends, there were many others their
age, somewhere around 19 or 20 years old. There were, as always, teens
through septuagenarians, excluding the man of the evening. Actually, later,
when I got to my seat, there was a mother in her thirties who had her
pre-teen son with her, and I saw a few other pre-teens in the place, as
well. It's always like this at a McCartney concert. I might add that it's
like this at a Ringo
show, too.
A few of the people I talked to before the show have actually seen
The Beatles
in concert, most of them, including Betty Ann (Nana), at one or both of
their two shows in Cincinnati. One man saw their last concert,
Candlestick Park in 1966, in San Fran Cisco.
That not counting their technically last live performance, the famous
Rooftop Concert
from 1969, on the top of
Apple Records,
in London, with performances of a few songs from that closing out their
final cinematic project,
Let It Be.
How cool would it be to meet someone who was at that show?
The "opening act" was, as he has been for several tours,
DJ Chris Holmes
doing
remixes of Beatles' and McCartney solo music
for about thirty or forty-five minutes. I don't really know if
"opening act" is exactly correct. I think, "pre-show"
might be a better label. I mean, Holmes is on stage, but its not like:
Okay everbody! Settle down! Chris Holmes is going to stand at his
turn tables now and do some mixology of Paul's career. Put your focus on
the stage now.
Paul's opening song?:
"A Hard Day's Night,
which, though credited as a
Lennon & McCartney
composition, was actually written by John Lennon,
who originally sang lead, with Paul on harmonies. Here, Paul took on John's
lead vocal with, I believe, Brian Ray
on Paul's original harmony vocal.
I was also happy to hear Paul's
"Temporary Secretary,"
from his
McCartney II album.
He also did it in 2015 as an addition to the play list on the last leg of
his mammoth, three-year
Out There tour.
The song has its avid fans, such as me, and its harsh critics, like one of
my friends and fellow Beatle fan, Lou. I love it! I love the joke, I love
what I call, its electronic campiness. I was happy to hear it live, but I
must admit, it doesn't come off as well as the studio recording. It was
still fun live, though.
Of the other songs I'd not heard live before I was especially glad to hear
"You Won't See Me,
from Rubber Soul.
Always liked that song. Besides the Beatles' original recording of it, the
only other version I've ever heard was Anne Murray's cover in the 70's,
of which I have never been very fond.
Of course there were a lot of songs present that seem a staple of his
shows. For those who don't know, the first of the ten times I've seen saw
Paul live, was the
Wings Over The World
tour in May of 1976. He has performed
"Live and Let Die"
every time, and with the pyrotechnics. He's done
"Hey Jude
(my favorite song) at all of but the Wings show. And there are a few others
that are usually, but not always, on the play list.
I have a long list of songs I would love to hear him do live. Songs that
would work greatly and most of the audience would respond to well. Here's
most, with the exception of the ones that didn't come readily to mind. Also,
he's done a few of these live, but not at shows I attended. Most of these
are from his post-Beatle career, but the first few are Beatle songs:
I am pretty sure most of these will never make it to the stage. But, one
can hope. Of course, I realize that unless you're an avid Macca fan, many
of the titles above mean nothing to you.
"But enough of these diversions, K.L., how was the show?"
Glad you asked. It was, you know, great. But I am a little bias, right?
Still, it was, you know, great. I mean, come on, it was--
--a key member of
The Beatles,
one-half of
the Lennon & McCartney song-writing team,
most successful song writer in modern history on his own, across his career
the most successful charted recording artist, master showman with amazing
stage presence, consumate musician--
Doing my best to put my bias aside, and probably failing badly, I contend
that this was as amazing and as fabulous and as excellent of an experience
as the first nine times I saw Paul in concert. Paul was as magical and
magnetic as usual. His voice is not what it used to be, but that's been
true for a while. Yet, he still puts on one hell of a show. And this band:
this band just simply kicks ass! It's been the same band, on the road at
least, since his 2002 tour, and is the prevailing line-up on the 2001 album,
Driving Rain
(an album I'm sorry to say he is now completely ignoring, in concert).
Suffice to say, I was happy with the evening. Will there be a number 11
for me? If he tours the states again, which he is likely to, then, yes,
indeed, there will be a number 11 for me.
Here's the set list from the One on One show (sorry, no links this time):
1. A Hard Day's Night*
2. Save Us
3. Can't Buy Me Love
4. Letting Go
5. Temporary Secretary*
6. Let Me Roll It
7. I've Got a Feeling
8. My Valentine
9. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
10. Here, There and Everywhere*
11. Maybe I'm Amazed
12. We Can Work It Out
13. In Spite of All the Danger
14. You Won't See Me*
15. Love Me Do*
16. And I Love Her
17. Blackbird
18. Here Today
19. Queenie Eye
20. New
21. The Fool on the Hill
22. Lady Madonna
23. Four Five Seconds*
24. Eleanor Rigby
25. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
26. Something
27. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
28. Band on the Run
29. Back in the U.S.S.R.
30. Let It Be
31. Live and Let Die
32. Hey Jude
Encore:
33. Yesterday
34. Hi Hi Hi
35. Birthday
36. Golden Slumbers Medley
* = songs I had never before heard him do live
Next, my Macca photos. I identify songs if I remember which one was playing
when I snapped the shot. Honestly, though, some if them I am not sure
about or have no clue. By-the-way, the banner for this section is built
with a photo I took at the show. That one, I know, is during "Band on
the Run." But here are some more. I actually took something like 500
shots, but a good 350 or more didn't turn out. I regret that I didn't have
any salvageable pics that focus on Paul's excellent, long-time keyboardist,
Paul "Wix" Wickens, who's been playing with Paul, in the studio
and on the road, since the late 80's.
But, here's a sampling of the photos that did turn out:
The second part of his tribute to his late,
remarkable bandmate,
George Harrison,
during his now standard tribute performance of
George's beautiful
"Something,"
which he starts out playing on the solo ukulele, but
then switches to acoustic as the full band comes
in at the famous guitar solo. Rusty, by the way,
is faithful to George's original solo, as Brian
Ray is faithful to Paul's original bass line, both
being signature works by these two Beatles. Note
that I chose a shot that has both Beatle Georges:
Harrison AND the Beatle's brilliant producer,
the late, great
Sir George Martin
on the back screen.
My memorabilia from this show. I got a blue
"Ram On" baseball cap, too. But the
whole batch they were selling were nicked up and
had loose fibers all over them. I bought it, but I
probably shouldn't have. I was recently informed
that this is actually a new fashion style. much
like the pre-torn designer jeans fad. Got a t-shirt,
too.
Since I was staying Sunday night, rather than coming into work late on
Monday, I took Monday off, and I took my time getting home. On my way
down Saturday morning I took the major highways because getting to the
Newport Aquarium
with haste was the thing. Monday, I had all the time in the world so
major highways were off the agenda. My trip home was going to take a
common trajectory for me on the back end of a vacation: a round-a-bout,
more rural-route journey.
Some time during my web-search preparations and planning for the weekend
I saw a reference to
Sharon Woods,
a local park in Sharonville,
where I was staying. A stop in forestry was added to the Monday itinerary.
Around noon I arrived and spent something like two hours. I walked along a
nice creek with several small waterfalls along its length, then followed a
path to the park's lake that the creek flows from. There's a boathouse on
the lake called the
Sharon Woods Harbor,
but I didn't walk around to it.
Instead, I sat on a shaded bench along the far shore from the boathouse,
watching a few paddle-boaters, some motor boaters, and water foul
(mostly ducks), for a nice, peaceful, quiet almost hour. Then I hit the
road to continue my "lingering, capricious, sojourn home."
Sharon Woods is on
U.S. Route 42,
which, sixty miles north of the park, runs virtually past my front door,
relatively speaking, so I figured that would be the rural pathway for my
"sojourn home." Fortunately I was being as Zen as it is possible
for me to be, which allowed me to not be at all frustrated or otherwise
discombobulated when I hit a detour that took me west to
State Route 48,
for quite a few miles home. That led me through
Labanon, Ohio
where I drove past the
LM&M Railroad, Lebanon Station,
which I am going to have to go back and experience. They actually offer
train rides, which look pretty cool. So there's a To-Do list item. I did at
least have to stop and grab some pics.
Ten Minutes north of Lebanon, on State Route 48, I drove past
Hidden Valley Fruit Farm.
I have heard about this place all my life; there are radio commercials, maybe
TV commercials, too. I've never been there. I drove past it, got maybe a
quarter of a mile up the road, and decided that, Hey, I need some
produce! So I turned around a went back. Nice, quaint little place, a
bit pricey, but isn't all that gentrified mercantilism?
Well, anyway, The "Lingering, Capricious, Sojourn Home" took
about four hours, if we want to include the stop-over at the park. If I
remember correctly*, when I got home I took a nap. (*IT'S
NOW BEEN OVER A MONTH, AFTERALL).
Pictures:
Spring Creek at the Sharon Woods Park.
Spring Creek at the Sharon Woods Park, again.
And again, Spring Creek at the Sharon Woods Park.
And again.
The Lake at Sharon woods. This is another view that
doesn't show the Sharon Woods Harbor or its
boathouse.
Ducks on the Sharon Lake.
Be thankful that through this entire recounting of
this over-celebrated "Mini Vacation/Weekend Get Away"
event I have spared you the usual plethora of
"selfies," but I had to do at least one.
This is on a bridge over the Spring Creek at
Sharin Woods Park.
The LM&M Railroad, Lebanon Station.
A little explanation about the station.
My last stop before my nap.
The Poorly-Traveled Man
Yes, I cannot deny it, I made a much bigger deal of the weekend than
it really was, but, AGAIN, I don't do stuff like this weekend enough. I'm
starting to really recognize how I've gone almost nowhere on this little
blue planet. I am truly a Poorly-Traveled
Man. I don't do almost any big trips, and I rarely do little ones.
I think about places I have been to, and how long it's been since
I've been these places, so long, it's as if I've never been. Once again,
there's Hocking Hills,
a little bit less than two hours away, right here in Ohio, that I've
been too as a very small child. Then there's
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force,
right in my back yard, yet I haven't been there since I was about twelve or
thirteen, almost as long as Hocking Hills. I also haven't been, since I was
a tyke, to Mammoth Cave
in south-west Kentucky, about 270 miles, or a little over four hours away,
which, relatively speaking, is not that far.
I've been to
New Orleans,
when I was a kid. I got to see the
French Quarter
and sort of remember it, but I didn't get to experience it the way an
adult can. One side note: my dad and my Uncle Dwight met
Al Hirt
in his club, and sat and had a drink with him. I, being barely adolescent,
was not there. I've twice been to
Florida,
once on the same trip as New orleans, then in my mid-twenties, with my,
then, girlfriend. I have not been back.
Some buddies and I drove through
Manhatten (NYC)
on our way to
Boston
about a year after my Florida trip with my GF. NYC was a drive-through.
Boston was a few day's stay. The
Boston Commons
by-the-way, is a great park! I've been to
Colorado
twice. Once when I was twenty-two, to visit a grade school &am; high school
buddy who'd moved out there, to
Colorado Springs,
then a group of my friends and I went to
Denver
a few years later. And my big ("ONLY") international
travel was to
Montreal
in the same era of my life, with many of the same friends as Denver.
And let's not even get started on the other major U.S. places and sites
that can't be remotely called "local," such as, to name the most
obvious one, one of unquestionable international wonder,
The Grand Canyon.
Yeah, yeah, I go to
Chicago
as much as I can, and will continue to, but that's not exactly tantamount
to a broad horizon of travel, now is it?
Okay, so this has become a bit of a rant, and, yes, I'm not an
Absolutely-UNtraveled Man, but I am
still, indeed, Poorly-Traveled, my puny,
relatively limited travel experiences not withstanding. I must do at least
something to change that to at least some small but still
somewhat significant degree!
In my haste and push for time when I posted yesterday, I didn't mention
that Thursday night I attended the rehearsal, to again play those key musical
moments in Act I as well as adding a few other
sound cues that were ready. Still nothing was ready for Act
II, but I did stay for the whole run so I could
note the feel and moods that transition music needs between scenes, though
there are a few scenes that transition so quickly and seamlessly that no
transition music or other sound are needed.
Last night was not quite as productive as I hoped. Things got in my way
and I didn't even get home for the night until late. I wasn't able to
do much work at all on the sound, barely any. But today is all clear from
any distractions, at least any that I am aware will be there.
I'm just about to head to the theatre for the day. I'm going to be there
allllllllllll day! I'm taking
my sleeping bag and appropriate supplies because there aren't small odds
that I spend the night. It's virtually a tradition, anyway, so what the
hell!
Tomorrow's Tech Sunday starts
Tech Week with a 10:00 a.m.
dry tech with Director Jeff Sams,
Lighting Designer John Falkenbach, and myself. Then the cast is in at 11:00
for a cue-to-cue
to start then or as shortly after 11:00 as we are ready. I rather doubt we
will be finished with dry tech for an 11:00 start, but may be wrong. I have
however learned that with productions it's better to over-estimate the time
needed to do anything than to under-estimate it; that's both for stage and
screen productions.
Meanwhile there's a glitch in my plans for promocast
production. One of the key actors cannot make the Monday rehearsal, so they
are doing a script read through rather than a tech run. I don't need such
footage so I won't be there, and I have to shoot what I shoot, Tuesday, with
one exception. I am going to grab audio of all the lines in the prologue
tomorrow, right before the full run of the show. I just need audio. The
prologue makes up the major part iof what I want to highlight in the DV
movie, but shooting it would prove difficult because of the way the cast
is dispersed in a tablea on stage. It would be especially difficult to
capture well in one rehearsal. Even with two I might not be able to get
impact. What I'd really need to do is shoot it like a movie, with close to
individual set-ups for each actor as he or she does their lines. I don't
like to take that much of the cast and crews time, especially during Tech
Week when the time-crunch is already on. But getting the audio will be
quick and easy.
Tech Sunday is now behind us,
and Tech Week is officially
underway. Tech Sunday went rather smoothly, and pretty much as
planned. We did get the dry tech
started at 10:00 and we were done in time for an 11:00
cue-to-cue rehearsal, that did
not start until 11:30 ‐‐ but that 11:30 start was not at the feet of the
dry tech crew. There was a full Tech run
at about 3:30, after a dinner break.
Yeah, well, a dinner break for most. For me it was not. It was a
"fix-and-add" period. A few minor problems did creep up both
during the dry tech and then cue-to-cue. There were a couple sound files
that for whatever reason lost quality when running through cues for the
show. Possibly, the memory buffer is getting taxed and the software can't
process them well enough. I say that because I played one of them during
that break, and it sounded fine. But during the tech run it again sounded
bad. There was another one. Jeff and I have agreed to just cut both of
these bad-sounding cues rather than replace them. They were not critical
sound cues, anyway.
Otherwise, I missed a few things in my all-nighter programming, usually I
forgot to program in the stop or fade command for a sound cue. Jeff also
asked that an additional scene be underscored. I pulled a transition music
piece for the tech run, but I decided it needs something more appropriate.
I haven't found that more appropriate music, yet, but it will be
chosen and in place by tonight's run.
Of course, there were tweaks to be done, volume levels, especially. Without
question, more tweaks will come during the rest of Tech Week. Hell, I've
been known to make adjustments after the performance run begins.
Oh, and by-the-way: when I left for the theatre on Saturday morning, in
anticipation of the 99.9∞% probability that I'd do an over-nighter
at the theatre, I did take my sleeping back, a pillow, toiletries, a
change of clothes, my meds, and enough food to cover meals from lunch
Saturday through lunch Sunday. Turns out I did not really need the sleeping
bag nor the pillow. Oh, I did the over-nighter; there just wasn't much time
for sleep. At about 12:30-ish a.m. when I was still building sound, though
somewhere in the finishing stretch, I knew it was going to be a much later
night than it already had become. I had a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ot of
programming to do.
In my last post I wrote that I've found "that with productions it's
better to over-estimate the time needed to do anything than to
under-estimate it." Boy, did I under-estimate the time it would
take to have the sound program ready for Tech Sunday. I finished just about
7:30 Sunday morning. Then I sat on a sofa in the
greenroom and got at least a nap
in. I slept about ninety minutes before I woke just in time for the dry tech.
This was the first time I have done anything like an all-nighter since
the heart stuff. I survived it, but I gotta say, I was still feeling the
after-affects, feeling a bit logy, yesterday. I got to the theatre at 10:00,
Saturday morning; I left at 7:00, Sunday evening. That's thirty-three
hours; thirty-three hours with an hour-and-a-half of sleep. That was not
the plan, nor was it my preference, but that hard Tech deadline was in my
face and I had underestimated the job. I'm not too keen on this happening
again, even after my stamina wholly recovers.
As for the promocast DV movie,
another challenge presented itself when I tried Sunday to record the audio
of the lines in the Prologue, though I suppose blaming the theatre gremlin,
as the inclusion of the graphic implies that I am, is not strictly fair.
Some electrical work was being done in the building Sunday so I was getting
a strong electric cycle ground hum the channels of in my
Tascam digital audio recorder.
I'd originally thought about using one of my
Canon Vixia DV movie cameras
to get the audio, but changed my mind since I could get better audio with
the Tascam. Had I brought a camera I could have gotten the audio using the
camera on battery power and the problem would be solved. Likewise had I
had batteries for the Tascam.
Tonight I will try one more time. This time I am using a camera since I
will have them for the promocast shoot. I'm also going to go ahead and
shoot individual close-ups of each actor saying the lines. There aren't
that many lines, in total, so I can get this done rather quickly.
Besides the Epilogue, I am only shooting a very few other very specific
moments, so I definitely will meet my goal of leaner, more concise
promocasts this year, at least with the first one. It will be the
templet for the rest of the season ‐‐ and beyond, I think.
You five may recall my whining about not wanting to design the sound for
every DTG show this season, as I virtually did last season, with two
collaborations (one due to my heart incident) and one other show,
All Is Calm,
really not having a "sound design." Still I might as well have
been the "House Sound Designer," which certainly has its flattery,
but, I really do not want to design all or almost all the sound
this season.
I believe another very fine sound designer is on board for our
second show,
The Outgoing Tide,
which makes me quite happy. I am working on persuading another, who hasn't
been involved for a while. Plus, there are two, newer to DTG, who both are
very interested in learning. One has a goal of learning enough to
design our last show of the season,
Wonder of the World.
I have invited both to shadow me whenever and as much as they can during
the three shows I have signed on for: this one, of course, plus
The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin,
which I will also assistant direct, and
Luna Gale.
One of these two apprentices, if you will, spent a few hours with me this
past Saturday. I also plan to do one or two, or more, training sessions.
The good thing is, with either of them, when they take the plunge, I will
be available whenever they have problems or questions; I can be an advisor.
After debating it a little, I decided I am up to muster to be in a
production, at least a non-professional one with less of an intense
rehearsal schedule, so I did audition for Bruce Graham's
The Outgoing Tide.
My belief, or "feeling" if you will, is that I gave a good
audition. However I wasn't the only one who gave a good audition for the
role I seek, so we'll see.
IN MOST WAYS, I'M ENTERING VIRTUALLY VIRGIN TERRITORY:
Sometime soon there will be a meeting between the director of
The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin,
Marjorie Strader, the producer, Barb Jorgensen, the stage manager (SM),
Melanie Brenner, and myself, the assistant director (AD). It'll be to do a
little coordination, and especially, for me, what gets assigned to the SM
and what to the AD.
I think I wrote here recently that I AD'd a show at DTG quite a while back,
I Never Sang for My Father,
back in the spring of 2006. The whole point of doing this now is that I
have my eyes on directing a show in the 17/18 season, providing that the
particular show is chosen by the board as part of that line-up. It's one
that I have submitted to the play-reading committee.
Though I've directed narrative short films ‐‐ and, one feature length
that may never make it to a finished version
-- I've not directed a stage play; well, I did direct a couple pages
from Robert Anderson's
Tea and Sympathy
in an high school liberal arts class, Stage Directing, during the 1975/76
school year. Here's what I remember about that: pretty much nothing. I don't
even remember who were the two who acted in the scene.
I've been thinking about taking the plunge into stage directing for a few
years now, maybe longer than a few years. Many of my cohorts in theatre
keep saying, "Why aren't you directing? You'd be good at it." I
certainly armchair direct and second guess the directorial decisions of
others enough.
I actually have no direct knowledge of Marjorie's directing, but I am
impressed with the woman and her rep is good, so this seems like a
worthwhile, learning venture.
Most of the cast and crew for those productions went to see the movie the
first weekend it was open, but I was unable to join them. I happened to
be in Yellow Springs, this past Sunday, and saw it is playing there, so,
tonight....
DIALOGUE CLEARANCES FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON - UPDATE:
Last Saturday afternoon, the
Last Lifeboat
playwright, Luke Yankee,
was in attendance for the nearly sold-out performance (technically it
was sold out, but a few people didn't show ‐‐ perhaps it was the
monsoon-like downpours that were falling, on-and-off, all day).
After the performance, Luke did a talkback with those from the audience
who stayed, which was about three-quarters those who'd attended. The
audience asked thoughtful questions and Luke gave thoughtful, entertaining
answers. It lasted about forty-five minutes, then we held a reception for
him.
He is a thoroughly charming, charismatic man. One interesting tidbit: he is
the son of the late, very gifted character actress
Eileen Heckart, who
was a staple of television for decades and won an Oscar as Best Supporting
Actress in
Butterflies are Free.
Seriously, if you haven't seen her work, you didn't watch TV ‐‐ or, see
Butterflies are Free. Luke wrote a memoir about her,
Just Outside the Spotlight.
Luke with the show poster.
He signed the sound design script.
And he signed my personal copy.
Comedy genius and clearly beautiful soul
What else needs to be said?
This afternoon I have a brief meeting with Director Marjorie Strader to
discuss exactly what my AD (Assistant Director) duties will be for the
production. I'm not sure if Producer Barb Jorgensen or Stage Manager (SM)
Melanie Brenner will be there or not. If so, clearly other items will be
discussed, as well.
Actor 02:
William Randolph Hearst,
Thomas Andrews, and others
Mike Beerbower
Actor 03:
Policeman, Sailor, Senator Fletcher, etc.
Zach Katris
Actor 04:
Captain Smith (of the Titanic),
J.P. Morgan, Thomas Ismay and John Jacob Astor.
Gary Thompson
Actress 01:
Vivian and other female characters.
Cassandra Engber
Actress 02:
Florence Ismay and others.
Heather Martin
Actress 03:
Margaret Ismay and other female roles.
Kerry Simpson
Actress 04:
A variety of female roles
Heather Atkinson
The Promocast for The Last Lifeboat
2016 AD:
Had a lunch meeting with Director Marjorie Strader and Scenic Designer
Bruce Brown, though really it was that Marjorie was having a meeting with
her set designer and her AD.
For my part, we discussed a bit more of the specifics of my role in the
production since AD's are not always in theatre production teams,
especially at the non-professional level, so many of what might be AD
responsibilities become stage manager
(SM) responsibilities. I also got my first official pre-production assignment,
having to do with the dissemination of production scripts.
Today would have been my father's ninety-seventh birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD
George A. Storer
1919-1995
DEMON BARBER:
Lately I have missed attending several local theatre productions for
various reasons, including, in some cases, lack of funds. I have
every intention of attending the Final Dress, "Can Night",
tonight, for the Human Race Theatre Company
mounting of Sweeney Todd.
A few whom I have worked with are in the cast or crew, including Sweeney,
himself, as played by
Jamie Cordes,
Drew Helton, David Shough, and
Christine Zavakos.
It's directed by Scott Stoney,
with musical direction by Seam Michael Flowers,
sound design by Jay Brunner, and Kristin A. Sutter is the stage manager.
Also, of course, the lighting design is
John Rensel's.
"ADULT ACTING TECHNIQUES":
Speaking of The Human Race Theatre Company, I have once again enrolled in
an acting class there, this one, like last year, taught by the talented
Ms. Jennifer Joplin.
It runs September 19 through October 24.
I know what you're going to say, if you actually exist ‐‐ "you"
being someone who actually knew to be waiting for this particular post on
FutureFest 2016.
You're going to say, "Pretty long wait for such a short post."
It was all about getting the pics ready, you see.
First thing I want to say about this year's festival is that it was an
exceptionally fine batch of plays.
Playwright Scott C. Sickles
took first place for his play
Shepherd's Bush,
and though the play was a deserving win, there was strong competition. The
audience favorite from the weekend was Memories of the Game, by
Kristy Sharron Thomas.
I hung out a little bit with Scott and we even came to discover that we
have a mutual acquaintance,
Tina Gloss,
one of the stars of a movie I appeared in a few years back,
Still Me.
As well, Tina played Ned's mother in the flashbacks on the too-short-lived
Pushing Daisies
TV series. Meanwhile, Scott is a writer on
General Hospital
and previously wrote for
One Life to Live,
and he's a graduate of
Carnegie Mellon University.
For the festival in general, there was a lot of very good acting happening
on stage during the weekend, as well, with several most excellent
performances. I thought the directing was good overall and, of course,
Chris Newman's set designs were, well,
Chris
Newman set designs.
Stage Manager: Jared Mola
Costumes: Carol Finley & Sandy Lemming
Dresser: Kathleen Durig
Properties/Sound Design: Fran Pesch
Audio Recorder: Gary Thompson
Sound Engineer: Bob Kovach
Chris "Red" Newman (Scenic Design); Anita Bachmann &
Rachel Twardzik (Lighting Design); Bob Kovach (Sound Design); Rachel
Twardzik (Light Board Operator); Jim Latham (Sound Board Operator);
Cathleen Carroll (Costumer); Matthew Smith (Program); Art Fabian
(Photographer).
And now, photos:
Memories of the Game director, Robb Willoughby,
and the cast: Franklin Johnson, Nabachwa Ssensalo,
Marva Williams, and Andre Reece Tomlinson.
Brian Sharp with Memories of the Game
playwright, Kristy Sharron Thomas.
The cast of Shepard's Bush: David Shough,
Scott Knisely, Bonnie Froelich, Ella Wylie; and
Director Michael Boyd.
Brian (also in the Shepard's Bush cast) with
Playwright Scott C. Sickles.
The cast of N (starting 2nd from the left):
Shawn Diggs, Shyra Thomas, and Sean Gunther; with
Director Cara Hinh. *I have not identified the
person to the far left of the photo.
Brian with N playwright, Adrienne Earle Pender.
[Miss] cast & crew. Front row: Cynthia
Karns (director), Jennie Hawley, Jennifer Lockwood,
Mark Anderson, and *a person to be identified
soon. Back row: Renée Franck-Reed,
Ted Eltzroth, Jon Edward Cox, Chuck Larkowski, and
Anna Masla.
Brian and [Miss] playwright, W.L. Newkirk
The Violin Maker director,
Saul Caplan,
with the cast: Jess MaGill, Bryana Bentley, and Dave
Nickel.
Brain and The Violin Maker playwright,
Christopher G. Smith.
The Griots director,
Fran Pesch,
and the cast: Judi Earley, David E. Brandt, and
Annie Pesch.
Brian with The Griots playwright, Gwendolyn
Rice
The FutureFest 2016 adjudicators: Peter Filichia,
Janna Robbins, Craig Pospisil, Helen Sneed, and
Ashley Rodbro.
Not only am I in Jennifer Joplin's
six-week-long "Adult Acting Techniques" course, which starts this
Monday evening and runs through October 24, but I have also enrolled in
a one-day writing seminar, "Building Character," which features,
as the lecturer,
Playwright Michael Slade,
whom I had the privilege to work with when I was a cast member in the HRTC
workshop production of his
Gingerbread Children.
Michael is also the author of the intense
Under a Red Moon
and the lovely
Family Shots,
both which have been produced on the HRTC Loft Stage, as well. Plus, almost
simultaneously with our workshopping of Gingerbread Children,
The Zoot Theatre Company
produced his
And a Child Shall Lead.
So Michael has a bit of a relationship with Dayton professional theatre.
The first class of the Adult Acting Techniques course with
Jennifer Joplin
at the Human Race Theatre Company
is now under wraps. This past Monday was a good start to the five weeks.
It's a bigger class than I am used to for the HRTC acting classes; there
must be about a dozen students ‐‐ in the past they've been restricted to
something like six or eight. We will be doing scene work, with sets of us
working on a particular scene together.
As for the upcoming one-day writing seminar, "Building Character,"
with Playwright Michael Slade,
I need to contact him to find out if it would be appropriate to bring the
few scenes I have written recently for a play ‐‐ recently meaning within
the last twelve months, so it's not like it's "fresh" work.
We have a production meeting this coming Saturday morning. I'll be attending
it mostly as the AD, more so than as sound designer. But I will look the
script back over a few times before Saturday with both hats on my head.
Last Saturday evening I watched
Ron Howard's
Beatles documentary on
Hulu. I had vague plans to track down a
movie theatre that was showing it and experience it that way, but it wasn't
all that important to me. I watched it at home. I enjoyed it greatly.
Without getting too much into "reviewing," I wouldn't call it
amazing but it's still a strong piece of film and I recommend it, especially
if you're younger and think that all the reminiscences of Beatlemania are
hyperbolic ‐‐ you'll get perhaps a little bit of understanding of just how
immense and unprecedented The Beatles' fame actually was.
The talk back happened back in April on the day of the dedication of the new
Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures,
on the Wright State University campus.
After going to the streaming link,
click on "Watch Video-On_Demand Programming" then find and
click on "Events" from the menu that you'll see next to
the video window, then after some scrolling you'll see the Tom Hanks
talk back. The dedication ceremony is also there. The Hanks talk
back is 95 minutes. I watched it when it streamed live ‐‐
alas I weren't important 'nuff ta get in ta da room ‐‐
Tom is very entertaining and tells some great stories.
We are now through our second class session of Adult Acting Techniques,
at the Human Race Theatre Company,
instructed by
Jennifer Joplin.
This Monday we touched on ways to find the attributes of the character one
is portraying: physical features, demeanor, gestures, identity, emotions,
motivations, and more. We also looked at archetypes, with the basic ones
being such as Hero, Villain, Innocent, Magician, Sage, Commoner, Caregiver.
Jennifer also gave us our sides
for the scenes we will be in. I am with two other gentlemen in a few pages
from Pick Up Ax,
by Anthony Clarvoe.
Each if us, in our specific scenes went off to start some exploratory
read-throughs. At the
moment, in overall terms, I'd label my character's archetype as
well-groomed thug.
Speaking of "Character," I'm also looking forward to the
three-hour playwright seminar, "Building Character," coming up
this Saturday at HRTC with
Playwright Michael Slade
(Gingerbread Children,
Under a Red Moon,
Family Shots,
at the helm). Still not sure yet whether it's practical to bring pages I've
been working on. I have put a query in to Michael. I expect that with there
only being three hours, it will not be practical.
"UNAVOIDABLE" PRODUCTION MEETING:
Saturday morning we had a production meeting
at The Guild. I read through
the script a few times the few days beforehand, both as assistant
director and as sound designer, really a bit more as the sound designer.
The meeting was really a pretty general meeting and there was little
definition of my duties as AD determined.
We also only briefly touched on sound design. We did get some handle on
rehearsal scheduling, at least as far as the model; many of the exacting
particulars won't be set until Director Marjorie Strader knows the exact
availability of the cast members. Marjorie also had a few questions about
SOP at The Guild. And we saw the blue prints for Bruce Brown's set design.
This is a well-written two-hander,
and my hat's off to the cast, Director Teresa Connair, and the crew, for a
nice production that did the script its due justice.
Coble, by the way, is the author of our closing show of the 2013/14
season, the dark comedy,
The Dead Guy,
of which it just so happens Teresa was a cast member, as was I.
Today, I again have reached another year sober. I am now at 34
years. As I have written before: it's all thanks to what, in the
wee early hours of the day on Sep 29, 1982 seemed like a misfortune
‐‐ but most certainly was not ‐‐ the love and support of a group of
sober people who held me until I could walk on my own, and, most
importantly, the love of power greater than me. My life still ain't
near perfect but it's not the hell it would have been.
CHARACTER WORK THIS WEEKEND:
In preparation for the three-hour playwright seminar,
"Building Character," coming up Saturday at HRTC, with
Playwright Michael Slade at
the helm, I am looking at a few pages of a play I started sometime in 2015,
as potential to bring to the event. I contacted Michael about whether that
would be appropriate and responded that it would be, in fact he is
encouraging all the participants to bring a couple pages, keeping in mind
that they should show character features or character development. I'm
not sure what I have so far does, but then, I am close to it; it's better
for those who don't have any picture of the characters to look at the words
to see if character is showing through, since all they have are the words
to define the characters for them, not the creation of the characters in
their heads.
PROMOTIONAL WORK THIS WEEKEND:
Last I attended most of the run-through
of the Outgoing Tide
rehearsal in order to help me decide what brief moments I'll use for the
promocast. Rather than shoot during
a dress rehearsal, next week,
I'm going to come during this weekend's
Tech Sunday and shoot these
selected moments, with the actors performing them for the camera. Director
Kathy Mola has scheduled the shoot into the day. I haven't yet chosen the
moments, but I have picked the potential moments.
