As the second hand passed from 11:59:59 pm over into 12:00:01+ am,
I was at the Williams Legato III piano
working more on composing what may just be the opening
production song
for the Dayton Theatre Guild
production of
For the Loyal,
by Lee Blessing.
Although, technically, it will be an instrumental, not a song
‐‐ a song has lyrics, or at least a vocal.
Working on this will be my focus for the rest of the
Christmas
2022 Artist's Retreat. Yes, the retreat
has now moved into 2023, but it's still the
"Christmas
2022" retreat.
Today, I hope to get the chords worked out and move on to some
recording and adding other instrumentation. The
Ep Viola
is likely to be the bass guitar I use. I'll probably also go with
a Logic ProMIDI horn voice
through the Oxygen 61 Keyboard,
with high odds it'll be a sax voice.
Back at it on the Williams Legato III.
CURATING LOYAL MUSIC:
Last Thursday I met with the show's
co-sound designer,
Sarah Saunders, and we did a significant amount of the music curation
for the show. We picked a hefty amount of the
pre-show music,
primarily based on Sarah's research and choices. We've not settled
on either of the production music
pieces as of yet. I still have to finish writing and recording the
potential opening music into the show, which is still not a lock as
being used for this purpose. We also haven't decided about closing
music. We will be attending a rehearsal this coming week to watch
the ending of the show so we have a better idea of what tone, what
feeling is being set by the script in action as the actors are playing
it out.
The sound effects
are a much easier task. They are sparse and if I don't have all of
sounds already in my library, they will be easy enough to get, even
if I Foley
what I don't already have.
Yesterday, I didn't work as much on the potential theme music the
Dayton Theatre Guild
production of For the Loyal,
by Lee Blessing,
as I had planned. It wasn't as much of a
Christmas
2022 Artist's Retreat day, as I would
want. Quite a bit of my day was all about various sorts of bookkeeping
for the just past and the new years. But I still got some
time in on the composition of this candidate for
production music.
When I got to the music, later in the day, I was still doing earlier
composition work, sitting at the
Williams Legato III piano.
I haven't yet moved onto the
Viola bass,
or the
MIDI horn voice,
(using Logic Pro
interfaced with my
Oxygen 61 Keyboard).
I am hopeful that I lay tracks with the piano and other instrumentation
today, at least to some extent. I am determined to make most of the
day about this music.
Working more on the instrumental composition last
night. It was later in the evening so I plugged my
head phones into the Legato III. It's that
"one man's ceiling is
another man's floor" apartment
thing.
The Christmas
2022 Artist's Retreat is now over and
it was not as completely productive as my ambitious agenda entreated,
but, you know what? ground was gained and my winter break lacked
stress so I am not unhappy.
All the ground gained was music related. First I digitized all the
four-track masters for the songs on an album I recorded in the mid
1980s so I can, at some point this year,
mix and
master
that for release.
Of course, the other music item is that I am in the midst of
composing and recording a new instrumental, which may be
production music
for both the beginning of the one-act performances of
For the Loyal
by Lee Blessing
at DTG and for its
promotional trailer.
The piece is looking promising to make the grade as the For the
Loyal production music, but it is still not yet a lock.
Yesterday I finished the chord structure and the overall structure
of the song, i.e.: when each section is, and how many times each
section repeats. I have programmed the drum kit part as well as an
auxiliary percussion part in
GarageBand,
since I have the structure set. The piece runs about 3:35, which is
rare for me ‐‐ to create such a short musical piece; I'm
usually good for at least five minutes, and often I pass seven minutes.
I ended the evening by recording the drum kit and the auxiliary
percussion parts into the recording project on the
Tascam 24-Track recorder
by feeding real-time playbacks from my
laptop into the
Tascam. I also laid the electric piano voice chords with my
Williams Legato III.
All of those were stereo recordings, utilizing two tracks each. I
worked out a second piano part on the Williams, this just a flat
piano voice, but it was getting late and I had already flubbed two
takes, so I called it a night.
As for other things that were on the
Christmas
2022 Artist's Retreat agenda list, I
just did not get to them.
One item I had kind of made a higher priority, was getting back to
work on my full-length play manuscript, which I have not attended
to for a year; and if I did do work on it in the last year, it was
not significant. I'm on draft 5f and, as I've written before, the
play needs serious editing; I need to ruthlessly
kill my darlings.
There were a few other items that were lower on the agenda,
including work on music tracks for what will be an ambient music
album (probably, sadly, the most commercially marketable stuff by
me), as well as editing a music video for the
Virtually Approximate Subterfuge
instrumental,
"Cozy Anxious Chaos."
I shot digital video of all the recording sessions for that one with
the intention that it end up a music video. I don't plan to release
it as a single, but I'd still like to do the video; a whole
multi-terrabyte harddrive is filled with the footage of the sessions.
Plus, I didn't hike, even once, even when the weather wasn't
doing a cheap imitation of the arctic circle.
Well, like I wrote above, I may not have done everything that was
on the agenda, but I still got some things done and I had a nice,
easy, stress-free break, so I'm good with what results were had.
Programming the drum kit part in GarageBand.
Recording the drum kit from GarageBand on
my laptop to the Tascam 24-track recording
console.
Tuesday, late, I laid two virtually identical piano parts on the
new instrumental, both, of course, on the
Williams piano.
One was on the upright, or what I call "the flat," piano
voice; the other was on the baby grande setting. These two acoustic
pianos are each on opposite and extreme sides of the
stereo pan,
which is an effective way to get an expansive stereo effect.
Thursday evening I pulled out the
Epiphone Viola Bass
and did most of the composition of the bass line for the piece. I
at least got the base of the line down. I worried about creating the
fills and the solo sections Friday.
Friday I took most of the day off from the
rent-payer to finish
working the line out and then record it. As well, I worked out a
MIDI sax voice part
through the MIDI interface
of my Oxygen 61 Keyboard
and Logic Pro. Though,
again, as has been my practice, I laid the track in real time from
the Oxygen into a track on the
Tascam 24-Track recorder
to sit next to the rest of the instrumental tracks for the piece.
By the end of the day ‐‐ (meaning, about 1:00 this morning)
‐‐ I had the piece
mixed and mastered
and ready for scrutiny as a potential choice for
For the Loyal
at The Guild.
However, this instrumental is still not 100% locked as
production music
for the play.
Co-sound designer,
Sarah Saunders and I will make the final call on the production music
later this morning. Though, of course, I have decided to do just a
little bit of a tweak to the master recording.
Composing the bass line, this past Thursday evening
on the Epiphone Viola bass.
Breaks during the composing/recording session to
do the dishes and then to make and eat dinner.
Recording the bass line
Recording the bass line
Composing then recording the faux midi baritone sax
part
ON THE VERGE OF TECH WEEK:
Tech Week
for For the Loyal
is inches away.
Tech Sunday
is tomorrow. But,
Co-sound designer,
Sarah Saunders, and I have been on it, though. We attended the
full run rehearsal
Tuesday evening to get a feel for how the show is playing out. We
were especially interested in the mood and tone of the closing
moments as that informs us better about what sort of musical mood
and tone will be most appropriate for the music for the end of the
show, whether we have some music to take us out and the into the
curtain music,
ot the music taking us out of the show is also the curtain music.
That is decided today.
With a good feel for what is needed and we have options from
music we've curated as either
pre-show
or production music.
We also had ideas for more music to search out, and Director
Doug Lloyd also gave us a viable suggestion. Sarah and I will meet
this morning to make the decision about production music for both
the opening and closing of the show.
Meanwhile, I will pull together the small amount of
sound effects
the show needs and process the sound where necessary. It, however,
is not a monumental tasks and I have this afternoon for all that
work, as well as programming the cues for the show into the
Show Cue Systems
software. I can't imagine it will be a long day. I definitely will
not need to spend the night at the theatre as I have for some past
production; I will be home in plenty of time for a good night's
sleep in my own bed.
Though Playwright Lee Blessing
has given us clearance to use dialogue in the
promotional trailer,
because of the nature of the script, it's going to be difficult to
find a cutting,
or cuttings, that will make sense. It'll be a challenge, and by the
end of the day I'll need to have come to a decision. The
shoot
is Monday, at the start of rehearsal.
TECH WEEK HAS ARRIVED ‐‐ & ORIGINAL MUSIC FOR THE SHOW, (SORT OF):
Saturday morning,
oo-sound designer
Sarah Saunders and I met and determined the
production music
for the show. Then, I spent much of the rest of the day gathering,
and in one case creating, the
sound effects.
Then I programmed all the SFX and music into the
Show Cue Systems project
for the show. I did, as I predicted in the last blog entry, go to
sleep Saturday night in my own bed, but, I will admit I was at the
theatre longer than I anticipated I would be.
The instrumental I wrote and recorded as potential production music
did not make the cut as the opening music for the show. It's a good
piece of music, it just doesn't fit well into that spot. But Sarah
did suggest that we put it in the
pre-show music,
which I naturally found a good idea.
I also will use the instrumental for the
promotional trailer,
rather than using
royalty-free music
either from the library I've built or a new purchase. When I tweaked
the mix and
master
of the music, as I said I would, I also created an alternate version,
which does not have the percussion track. It has the drum track but
not the steady, constant rhythm of the auxiliary percussion instruments.
I'll be using this alternate version in the DV movie.
I'll be shooting the
principal photography
for the promotional trailer this evening. I've chosen a very short
cutting
for the actors to perform for the camera. It'll be about thirty seconds
of action. They will act that for the camera, then I'll shoot some
portion of the rehearsal for
mos
footage to play under the music.
Sunday morning I went in early to place a speaker back stage. The
production gremlin decided to have some mischievous fun, however.
First, there was a sound cord in the daisy chain from the mixer
in the booth
back to the speaker that was bad, and I had to locate the culprit.
Then when I got the signal to travel to the speaker, I got a ground
hum that I could not locate the cause of. It was getting late,
we were on the verge of the
dry tech,
so I surrendered to the little bastard gremlin and opted to send the
particular sound effects to the closest PA speaker tp that area of
the stage, rather than back stage, where it would have been just a
little more effective ‐‐ without the hum, of course.
Both the dry tech and the first full-run
tech rehearsal
were essentially hassle-free. There were, of course, some stops for
technical adjustments during the run, but, overall, things went
smoothly.
The big thing for me was a particular sound effect that I had
created for some scene transitions that, as the full run was
occuring, it became clear to me was not working. The feel was not
correct. Sarah, our director, Doug Lloyd, and I were in
consensus about this. Last night, at home, I created several
variations of something relatively similar, yet a bit different, a
bit darker of a feel. We'll give these choices some tries tonight.
If push comes to shive, we'll pull the SFX from these transition
spots: no sound is better than the wrong sound.
Me on Saturday afternoon, working on sound effects
and programming the sound cue software.
Co-sound designer Sarah Saunders during Tech Sunday.
Lighting designer John Falkenbach tweaking
the lighting design during Tech Sunday.
ON THE VERGE OF OPENING NIGHT,
GREMLIN SHENANIGANS, &
THE ULTIMATE FATE OF MY ORIGINAL INSTRUMENTAL:
Tech Week
wraps tonight with
Final Dress.
I must say, even putting all potential bias aside, this production
is shaping up to be damned excellent. There are stellar performances
happening on the boards. It's a dicey, difficult subject matter, to
be sure, but the script, the performances, and the production values
are all solid.
In terms of soundwork,
that |)@/\/\|\| production
gremlin reared
its ornery head again Monday night. In the last blog post I wrote
of the several variations a new transition music for the show,
because what I had before wasn't cutting it. The original was a steady,
rather fast beat of symbol hits with a slight amount of reverb. That
did not have the right feel. I created a different pattern of hits
on a lower toned symbol, much slower and with varying degrees of
much more reverb. There were four variations and Director Doug
Lloyd chose two of them as appropriate. I went with the one that
had less high frequencies. But when I called it up in the
Show Cue Systems
software, what I got out of the theatre PA sound sytem sounded like
gun fire, and not at all like what I had created.
I made a quick, hasty decision that there was some weird systemic
problem between my Mac system, where I created and processed the
sound, and the Windows system we run the cues on. This, despite
that this sort of thing has never happened before. I gave up and
deleted all the transition sound cues from the SCS cue project.
Enter the falling-on-the-floor giggling of the punk little
gremlin. Sarah
then hit a cue in the show project and we got more weird-ass bangs
and scratches that were definitely not the designated
sound cue. So we played other cues and it was clear there was
something malfunctioning.
After a moment of total panic that the
booth
laptop had a critical failure, I resorted to the infamous, shut-down
and re-boot manuever. Then all was fine. Of course, all the transition
cues had been removed from the SCS cue project for the show, and
my first inclination was to say, "Screw it!" and just
not have transition sound. But really, the transitions work better
with sound, so though we did the Monday night run of the show
without the transition sounds, I put them back in after the
rehearsal and they are in place now and working quite well.
I did use my original instrumental, "For Loyalty's Sake,"
in the DV movie. So it sort of makes an appearance as
production music,
though not in the show, itself. I also used the new transition
"music," if we want to call it that, in a couple spots in
the trailer. I suppose maybe just transition
"SFX"
might almost fit better. Also, as I wrote before, "For Loyalty's
Sake" is also included in the
pre-show music,
so if the gods of random playback choose, it will at least possibly
occasionally play before the show*.
*) My general practice is to have a playlist much longer than
the required thirty minutes of pre-show music, then set
the playback to random. Thus each of the nine performances
have a slightly-to-drastically different set-list of music.
It's not impossible that one or more particular pieces
of music happen to never be randomly played, while one or
more others might play in most or all performance pre-shows.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We
cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil
rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied
as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police
brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the
fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and
the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's
basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be
satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed
of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be
satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New
York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not
satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like
waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and
tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of
you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by
the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.
You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the
faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go
back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of
our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be
changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of
today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in
the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that
all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former
slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together
at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state
sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists,
with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition
and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and
black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white
girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and
mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the
crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With
this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of
hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of
our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will
be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to
jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be
free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a
new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee
I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every
mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom
ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from
the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening
Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every
mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring
from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we
will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and
white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to
join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at
last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Well, it's the same ol', usual story for me. I was on the premises
Opening Night,
but I was house manager,
as I usually am Opening Night, so I did not attend too closely to
the performance, itself. I do know that all the actors I spoke to
afterward felt good about the show, and the audience liked the
show, so we are in good shape. I wasn't there Saturday or
yesterday, but, I must assume the cast and crew gave as much as they
have been giving in rehearsal, which is a lot.
As for sound, there were no gremlin
shenanigans Friday night, and I got no reports of any during the
rest of the weekend, so, we were good there, too.
Next Saturday, at the 5:00 matinée, I am the pitch-hit
sound tech,
as Co-sound designer
Sarah Saunders, who's usually in that chair for this production, has
a schedule conflict.
I remixed and remastered because, well, because I am me. Actually,
as I listened to the rendered master recording, the baritone sax was
just a smidgen too loud during most of the piece. Plus, the stereo
wasn't as expanded as it could be ‐‐ the doubled pianos,
baby grand and upright, each heavily favoring opposite ends of the
stereo pan,
were buried a little too much, so in remastering I bumped the side
volumes (left/right) in the pan to bring those pianos out a little,
Of course, the alternate version, that without the percussion
rhythm track, makes a public appearance in the
For the Loyal trailer,
but that's probably only about a minute of the instrumentals total
3:50 running time. Who knows when the whole, and primary, version
will be published. Which of course means there will be plenty of
opportunities for me to decide to remix and remaster once again,
or more than once again. Not saying that's a sure thing, but, it
ain't a loser's bet that I might do such.
With the exception of obsessively paging through to be sure nothing
has been missed, I believe I am done reformatting all the blog pages
to the new design, after only about a year or so.
There may be some images that are not showing up on some pages, mostly
due to the images not making it to the necessary image folders on
the new server. That's a big part of what I will be policing as I
look at all 78 pages. But I'm sure I'll see other things to fix,
such as dumb-assed typos and the like.
I've started back on the
rewriting
of my
full-length play
So far it's just been clean up, again tightening up dialogue as I
have done a few times before.
I have yet to get to the
killing-my-little-darlings
phase, but I am about to. I am about to get to the first section
that needs many cuts, and I'll have a lot of hard decisions to make
about what can go and what must stay.
But the manuscript needs some fat trimmed.
THE SOPHOMORE WEEKEND:
As planned, I pinch-hit as sound tech
for the 5:00 Saturday show last weekend. Despite the fact that I had
not actually sat at the board and ran the sound since the
dry tech
on Tech Sunday,
I am still happy to report no screw-ups by myself. I missed no cues
nor blew no timing.
Beyond that, the production
gremlin also did not seem to feel mischievous over the
weekend, as per sound or anything else.
So,
on all counts!
The gremlin may
have been playing it cool over last weekend, but
Old Man Winter
decided to make a dramatic appearance in the region on Sunday. The
Miami Valley,
and beyond, was hit with heavy snow. Like every other Dayton-area
theatre that had a show, that I'm aware of, we cancelled our
Sunday performance due to the hazardous driving conditions. Pretty
much everything in the region was cancelled or closed.
It looks good, though, for tonight's first show of the final weekend.
THE DTG 2023/2024 SEASON:
The Guild's next
season has been officially announced and the details of the five
shows are below.
The 2023/2024 DTG season is as follows:
AUGUST WILSON'S RADIO GOLF
by August Wilson
Production dates: Aug 25-Sept 10, 2023
Audition dates: to be announced
August Wilson's Radio Golf follows a black man named Harmond
Wilks on his quest to revive his childhood neighborhood and become
the first black mayor of Pittsburgh. He finds himself on the verge
of the business breakthrough of a lifetime, but the arrival of an
unexpected visitor and surprising news leads Harmond to choose between
his personal aspirations and his integrity. With humor and courage,ˇ
this play challenges the steep price "progress" can exact
upon the soul.
WEDNESDAY'S CHILD
by Mark St. Germain
Production dates: Nov 3-Nov 19, 2023
Audition dates: Sep 5 & 6, 2023
Wednesday's Child is a fast-paced thriller, murder mystery,
and more. Susan and Martin Merrit are unable to have a child on
their own, so they hire Becca Connor to serve as a surrogate. When
Becca is found dead, a police investigation explodes the lives of
everyone who knew her. As Detectives Valez and Dixon begin to put
the pieces together, secrets surface, alibis weaken, and lies are
uncovered. This dramatic play explores motherhood, passion, and that
thin line between right and wrong.
TRUE WEST
by Sam Shepard
Production dates: Jan 12-28, 2024
Audition dates: Nov 6 & 7, 2023
This Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony-nominated play examines the
relationship between two estranged brothers. It is set in the kitchen
of their mother's home in the desert, 40 miles east of Los Angeles.
Austin, a screenwriter and achiever, is working on a script he has
sold to producer Sal Kimmer. Lee is a demented petty thief who drops
in and pitches his own idea for a movie to the producer. Sal then
wants Austin to junk his bleak, modern love story and write Lee's
trashy Western tale.
FLIGHT OF THE LAWNCHAIR MAN
Book by Peter Ullian
Music & Lyrics by Robert Lindsey-Nassif
*(Based on a concept by Robert Lindsey-Nassif)
Production dates: Mar 22-Apr 7, 2024
Audition dates: Jan 15 & 16, 2024
Jerry Gorman is a regular guy from Passaic, New Jersey, who just got
promoted to Snack Bar Manager at Wal-Mart. But what he really wants
to do is fly.ˇWhile the neighbors think he's nuts, and his mother
disapproves, his girlfriend Gracie believes in him and encourages
him to follow his dream. Jerry soars to 16,000 feet with nothing but
a lawnchair and 400 helium balloons. Loosely based on a true story,
Flight of the Lawnchair Man is a musical that inspires hope,
and reminds us that dreams can come true if you believe in yourself.
SUPERIOR DONUTS
by Tracy Letts
Production dates: Jun 7-23, 2024
Audition dates: Mar 25 & 26, 2024
Arthur Przybyszewski, a former 1960's radical, owns a rundown donut
shop in Chicago's Uptown. His only employee, an energetic but troubled
young African American assistant, Franco, wants to update the
establishment with lively music and healthy menu options. The writing
is on the wall that things are going to change -- maybe even for
the better. Superior Donuts explores the challenges of embracing
the past, and the redemptive power of friendship.
Directed by Doug Lloyd
Produced by Barbara Jorgensen & Michael Welly
Toby and Mia are graduate students with a bright future ahead
of them: a baby on the way and a college coaching job for
Toby. But when Toby stumbles across a secret that threatens
to derail their future, he and Mia must decide between honesty
and loyalty, and whether doing something wrong is the only
way to do what's right. Inspired by the Penn State sexual
abuse scandal, For the Loyal is an emotional and
thought-provoking play.
WARNING:
This play deals with mature subject matter and
discussions of sexual abuse.
A BUGATTI AND A PRIVATE ISLAND ARE JUST AROUND THE BEND:
A 2023 Bugatti Mistral Roadster, now on my
"shopping cart wish list." Only
$4,999,975.19 more to go!
Yesterday I got an email from CD Baby
informing me that they were issuing a payment of a
whole $24.81
for album sales and composer royalties!!!
It's only taken about seventeen months, from the release of the
"Just One Shadow"
single, to generate enough income to get a deposit in my bank account
‐‐ this gargantuan $24.81.
I've done a little on-line research. The sticker price for a
2023 Bugatti Mistral Roadster
is $5 million. The average price of a private island is
currently around $85 million. At the rate I'm going, it
should be no time at all before these are a reality in my life.
The album must be bubbling right underneath the top 100,000!
PLAYWRIGHT WORK ‐‐
KILLING LITTLE DARLINGS & BUILDING ON THE FINE DETAILS OF A UNIVERSE:
I have been back working on the
revision
of my full-length play
manuscript. The main objective, as I've written here recently, is
to kill my little darlings:
those sentences or passages that I prejudicially find exceptionally
well-written or that otherwise I have some personal affinity for,
but yet can be cut without causing any harm to the scene or the
story.
Ultimately such eliminations improve the manuscript, for one or more
of a variety of reasons. The single most important reason is that
the offending text is giving the audience unnecessary information
unimportant to the scene and the story. The audience will assume
that information is relevant and thus their focus is blurred as they
try to make sense of this extraneous material. The "little
darlings" often bog down, slow down, the action of the story,
even if the action is just people talking to each other, which is
the central action technique of my play.
Another danger is that the text in question is redundant. There is,
of course, the powerful literary trick of repeating a key element
or point so the audience is sure to understand the significance. But
the author has to ask themself, is this a key point that needs to
be driven home, or is it a less significant aspect where the
restatement will cause the audience to say, "Yeah! Okay! I
get it! Move on!"? That happens too often and the audience
members start thinking:
This play is too damn long! If the yahoo playwright had
done some editing, I'd get to dinner forty-five minutes
earlier!
If you're a serious theatre-goer, you know you've thought a similar
thought, probably more than once, maybe even stated such out loud.
I know I have. That interruption in audience attention can kill their
suspension of disbelief
and reduce enjoyment of the show.
A lot of my "little darlings" fall into the categories
above and also are mostly
exposition
passages. Much of the play deals with the past, so a fair amount
of exposition is important. But, exposition is tricky. It's too
easy for it to be awkwardly forced, which becomes readily obvious
to even a less-seasoned audience member (regardless of the medium:
play, movie, novel, etc.). Exposition definitely can get in the
way of the story's action, if handle poorly. In my play, almost
all the exposition is one character exposing information to
another, which, in my mind, actually makes it action in the story.
I see it as action because the character getting the new information
reacts both emotionally and intellectually to the new things they
did not know before, and much of this information changes them.
Thus, a significant amount of the exposition needs to stay. My
challenge is making sure I avoid redundancies. I also need to ask
myself if I am overloading the characters, and more importantly,
the audience, with too much information, when just a fraction of
that information would make the point. So the big questions I've
been asking myself during this current revision are:
do the characters and the audience need this
information?
do the characters and the audience already know this
information?
am I dragging down the action?
With that last question, if the characters and the audience need the
information, but the passage is currently slowing things down, then
I need to figure how to rewrite
it to make it fit in smoothly.
One more reason to "kill a little darling" is that the
author may come to realize that it's not so "darling." I
certainly have come back to a passages after some time has passed
and reread that brilliant prose only to realize what a ridiculously
pretentious bit of writing it is. There's no debate about such
"little darlings": they are out.
During this revision I've also been doing some minor clean-up of
dialogue. Mostly this means I have been improving the dialogue of
the characters after realizing a character would say another word
or phrase. I've been better tailoring each character's words to
their personalities and specific intelectual approaches.
The other thing I have been doing, tangentially related to the play,
is working on the overwhelmingly massive
story bible
for the universe in which the story and the characters of the play
reside. All of what I worked on happens later than the time frame
when the play takes place. What I've recently added only has to do
with one character from the play. That character is definitely the
protagonist of the universe, though not of the play. Some of the
details, circumstances and actions I've added are about five years
after the play takes place, but go up to eight years past then. In
recent times I've also added material to periods over three decades
later than the play.
Whenever I work on the story bible material I am apt to go into a
rabbit hole and end up dedicating quite a bit of my time for at
least a few days to the project. During that time, as I am creating
what appear to be simple, cold facts, I still end up seeing drama
that could ensue, a good story for one medium or another: novel,
short story, play script, screenplay. If you didn't already know this,
this is how the play manuscript came to be. I'd been trying to come
up with a good idea for a play. I made a story bible entry with a
brief description of a conflict that arrises during the event, then
realized that would be an interesting play.
I will be working more on the revision of the play as well as on
the story bible, covering periods nowhere close to the setting of
the play, both in the immediate future.
FOLLOW-UP ON THAT 2023 BUGATTI MISTRAL ROADSTER:
....and
that private island.
There's a 64-acre island in the Grenada Grenadines, off the
southern coast of Carriacou, with a list price of
$26 million. I could probably talk them down to
$20 million.
The $24.81 deposit from CD Baby
hit my checking account on Wednesday.
Most of those earnings are my cut of CD sales off
Amazon.com.
There were quite a few performance and composer royalty payments
from streams of songs on
YouTube and
YouTube Music. There was
also some income from plays on
Spotify and
Apple Music. But
none of those added up to much money ‐‐ each play is a
mere fraction of a cent on any of the streaming services. To make
even $10 would take many thousands of plays, and it could
take 100 thousand or more.
So, with the $5 million for the Bugatti and the negotiated
$20 million for the island, I only have to have 1,007,658
more deposits like this one and I am on easy street with my
high-performance car and my fortress of solitude.
SCRIPT STUDY TOWARD AN AGENDA:
A big part of my immediate agenda of things to do is reading a small
handful of plays.
I have plans.
We'll see if I have any news to share any time soon....
I wasn't completely merciless and brutal while cutting things but
I did excise passages, or parts of passages, I think are interesting
but either had a difficult time justifying the relevance of, or I
recognized some as slowing down the action too much. In making
the cuts, I used the three-question criteria I recently outlined:
do the characters and the audience need this
information?
do the characters and the audience already know this
information?
am I dragging down the action?
In a few cases what I cut was information or moments that were not
exactly redundant but were more elaboration or emphasis for points
already made. It would not have necessarily hurt greatly to have
left some of that, but it also did not hurt the story at all to cut
those words, those moments, mostly because killing them helped the
pace.
As I finished up this pass, I continued to tweak the dialogue for
each character, honing the grammar and word choice to better suit
each personality. I also sometimes made little cuts just to make
the language more concise, so long as such didn't betray the way
the character would speak.
I plan another pass through soon, probably this weekend, with the
same agenda as this pass. Then I'll let it sit for a few weeks and
do another. I'm sure I've spared some passages that really are best
eliminated, and probably will again over the weekend.
I've added an essay about the first single off of
Virtually Approximate Subterfuge,
and I guess is what can be called my love song to my friends, loved
ones, and the world about the Covid pandemic, especially during the
heavier lockdown period:
Also, as I predicted, since I had just finished the previous pass,
I didn't really cut much more. Certainly I did not make any
significant cuts. In most cases I trimmed a few dialogue sentences.
I also cut a few directions, usually short ones, primarily
directions to put a
beat
or two between two pieces of dialogue. I think it quite possible
I've peppered the manuscript with too many such rhythmic beats.
Again, I swapped out a few word choices for ones that I believe
better fit the particular character speaking. In one place, I
actually added a short piece of dialogue. In a couple other places
I rewrote
some particular lines.
Now, I will probably let the play sit for at least a few weeks
before I do another pass. I might contemplate having someone, whose
judgement on play manuscripts I trust, read it to give me
kill-little-darlings feedback ‐‐ and try my damnedest
to not completely disregard the recommendations out of hand!
GOING BACK TO THE ROOTS OF MY PLAY MANUSCRIPT ‐‐ THE
DUST-ENGULFED NOVEL MANUSCRIPT:
First things first: on my
revision
work of my
full-length play,
I've been calling the daft I've been on Draft 5g; that is incorrect.
I just finished Draft 5"h" and when I come back to it,
I'll be on Draft 5"i."
Second, you five regulars and a few others may recall that the play
is from the same universe as a novel manuscript, which is still in
draft form, that I had finished within the year before I began acting
as an adult. It was, in fact, my return to acting that put getting
the novel to final draft on the back burner.
The novel takes place in an earlier time period than the play, the
latter which is still not present-day, and there actually are many
references to events from the novel in the play. In fact, a key
element in the novel is also a key element in the play, only in
retrospect.
The colossal
story bible
for the universe that both works are from was engendered by the novel
manuscript some twenty-three years, or so, ago when I started said
manuscript. The story bible has grown exponentially in the years
since its inception. Some of those reading this may already know
that the play comes directly from an entry I made several years ago
in the extensive historical timeline of the story bible. It's a brief
paragraph about one occurrence of an annual event in the family of
the universe's protagonist, one that made me go, "Hmm. That
might be a good candidate for the play idea I've been looking for."
I dove into it and it was rife with realized potential. And having
an already rich story bible, where the facts and details have given
me strong notions of the characters and of their conflicts and
emotional lives, and, really, their personalities, I had a good
handle from the beginning on each of the characters in the play.
When I finished my latest
kill your darlingsrevision
of the play, last weekend, I started thinking about the original
novel, which has been laying dorment on the shelf since 2003. To be
honest, I did do a little bit of work on it somewhere around 2005,
but not much. I thought about how that draft needs some overhaul.
There needs to be a bit of a
rewrite
of the novel manuscript.
For instance, I introduced a character later in the book and then
wrote some flashbacks about the character, however the flashbacks
are in time periods that are in the timeline of the novel. I need
to place those actions where they occur in the novel and thus
eliminate them as flashbacks and rather make them direct action.
There are also some details about
community theatre
I had written, in supposition, before I became involved in such,
and now I have working knowledge that some of those suppositions
are incorrect, so I need to fix those. Other details need fixed,
too.
Clearly, I am contemplating delving back into this long-dorment
piece of work, blowing the dust off, making it an active project
once again. I haven't touched it for something like eighteen years,
but because I have spent many of those years sometime frequently
immersed in further adding to the story bible, and the last few
years, working off-and-on on the play, the novel has not been too
far in the background of my consciousness.
Over the years, working on the story bible material, I've spent a
lot of time with the protagonist, his family, and a large host of
other characters at various stages of their lives, from teenagers
to older adults. A lot of these characters, whom I have fully
developed understandings of, aren't even in the novel because they
haven't entered the picture yet at that time. Now, for the novel
I'll go back to when the protagonist is a child, and the other
characters in the play, all who are also in the book, are younger.
So, I may be in this weird place as a writer where I am simultaneously
working on a story about these people that takes place in the late
60s and one that takes place in the early 80s. Fortunately, the novel
(late 60s) greatly informs the play (early 80s), so there is some
strong advantage there.
The big quasi-schizophrenic thing will be the two entirely different
voices the two works have. The novel has always had a problematic
voice. It is written in limited, third-person narrative, using the
grammar and syntax of the protagonist, who is ten years old in the
novel. It's not first person, yet it is clearly and deliberately his
voice, his mind, his perspective. That has always been a challenge
and I have found in the past that there have been readers who did
not like the language of the narrative because it is that of a
ten-year-old.
There are passages, many, many, many passages that absolutely are
not as concise or precise as they could be. There are descriptions
that are purposefully awkward because they are coming from the mind,
and language skills, the vocabulary, of a ten-year-old boy:
He'd just come down to the bottom of the stairs, right at
the start of the one-story part of the house where the living
room was. He was on his way to turn on the living room TV.
Mom and Dad were in the kitchen, behind the dining room
that was next to the living room on the other side.
There are better, less awkward ways to word that, but not from the
voice of a ten-year-old boy, at least not the ten-year-old boy in
the novel. Back in the day, there were several people who read the
various drafts and strongly urged me to clean up the prose of such
passages, passages I actually painstakingly constructed in their
awkward, convoluted glory. In fact, the passage shown above might
actually not be worded awkwardly enough.
If I do pick back up this sword of the novel ‐‐ and I
most likely will ‐‐ messing with the grammar, vocabulary,
and pros from the ten-year-old's mind is not gong to be part of the
endeavor, save for maybe making some passages more so into
the language of said kid. What absolutely will happen will be attacking
the changes that are written about earlier in the post. One can also
be reasonably certain that some little darlings will be killed along
the way.
Now, I just have to fit the novel rewrite into my current, on-going
artist's life.....
So I went down the rabbit hole again, mostly over the weekend,
working more on that already obscenely colossal
story bible
for the universe of my
full-length play
manuscript and of the novel manuscript that precedes it.
And, of course, since I am ever so efficient, none of what I worked
on has anything to do with the time period of either the play nor
the novel. Some of it is material in 2004 and 2005, other material
is from 2009 to 2013.
STEEL MAGNOLIAS IN FAIRBORN:
Though it's too late to recommend the show, because it closed
last Sunday, I saw that closing performance of
Robert Harling'sSteel Magnolias
at Actor's Theatre Fairborn,
directed by Craig Smith. The cast did a nice job and there were
several exceptionally fine performances. Kudos to everyone involved.
The cast in order of appearance:
Carly Risenhoover-Peterson as Truvy
Rachel Terrell as Annelle
Debra Strauss as Clairee
Katie Gainey-West as Shelby
Elise Laskowski as M’lynn
Melissa Kerr Ertsgaard as Ouiser
And, no, I did not audition.
The Guild has done
this show three times, and I was involved with the first two mountings.
Those were my only theatre gigs as a
production stage manager,
and I also took the role of Peggy, aka: Mama ‐‐ the corpse
in the coffin in the funeral scene. There was a time in the past
when I had an interest in playing the role of Brother Boy, a role
made famous by the wonderful
Leslie Jordan,
who just recently passed away. I really have lost interest in doing
the show, as an actor. But, I am on board as the
sound designer
for BCT's production.
Though I have directed on our DTG stage once before, it wasn't a
pure stage-play
production, but rather a hybrid stage/screen production: our
streaming
production of
The Roommate,
by Jen Silverman,
which was our only show during the 2020/2021 season and the depths
of the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown.
Wednesday's Child will be my debut directing a pure stage-play
production; and, correspondingly, in reality, my first time directing
for the
thrust stage.
When I directed The Roommate, the audience
POV
was the cinematic POV, that being the camera. There was a bit of
theatre stage POV in there, in that I tried to simulate, to some
extent, the feel of a stage production. We did a lot of
wide shots,
and long takes,
but I often cut between angles from the different cameras in the
multiple-camera production,
and also shot and edited in
close-ups
and cutaways.
So, The Roommate was ultimately more cinema than it was
stage play, and I never had to consider
blocking
the actors for the thrust stage.
This time, I have to attend to their presence on our DTG thrust stage,
and more importantly, the viewpoints of the audience members on the
three sides of that stage. But, hey, I've been involved in productions
at DTG for nineteen years, I've been the
AD for
three shows on our stage, and most of my time walking the boards as
an actor has been on one thrust-stage or another. I know the
environment.
I really like the script. Of the shows I was interested in directing,
it very definitely was my first choice. The concept has some elements
of magic realsim
and it is an intriguing murder mystery. All seven characters offer
each actor a chance to do some lovely work; the
supporting roles
have some real meat to them.
Auditions
will be September 5 & 6, 2023; more information will follow,
later.
The show runs weekends, Nov 3-19, 2023.
For the record, here are the other four directors for the
2023/2024 DTG season:
Robert-Wayne Waldron for August Wilson's Radio Golf
,
by August Wilson
Production dates: Aug 25-Sept 10, 2023
Audition dates: to be announced
Doug Lloyd for True West, by Sam Shepard
Production dates: Jan 12-28, 2024
Audition dates: Nov 6 & 7, 2023
David Shough for Flight of the Lawnchair Man
Book by Peter Ullian
Music & Lyrics by Robert Lindsey-Nassif
*(Based on a concept by Robert Lindsey-Nassif)
Production dates: Mar 22-Apr 7, 2024
Audition dates: Jan 15 & 16, 2024
Jared Mola for Superior Donuts, by Tracy Letts
Production dates: Jun 7-23, 2024
Audition dates: Mar 25 & 26, 2024
Did a bit of soundwork
for Relativity over the weekend.
Last night I did another, minorkill-your-darlings
pass through my
full-length play.
I cut a few things, but made no major cuts. One cut I did make
was to cut the name of a character who is only incidentally
mention. I had done that with several other such names earlier. There
are a few other
off-stage characters
who are pretty significant to the play and have active roles in the
story. Their names are important to be spoken. But because there are
a few of those, I cut all the names the audience does not need to
know just so they have less to keep track of. Usually, I like
naming even such incidental characters, but in this case, keeping
the name count lower is more important. I also, again, did some minor
clean-up edits and reworded one piece of dialogue to make it clearer.
I still kept the draft identified as "5i."
But while I was passing through I decided that more conflict is
needed toward the end, so I now plan on a
rewrite which will take
us to "Draft 6." Actually, it's really going to be less
of an actual rewrite and more of the addition of some action, and
not really a big addition, but a significant one that I hope will
boost the energy toward the end. Plus, it will introduce friction
between two characters who previously did not experience any with
each other.
I won't be getting to Draft 6 immediately. It'll have to wait until
after this upcoming The Guild
show opens. But, the delay will give me time to deeper contemplate
this additional action I want to add.
BACK ON THE MOCK WITNESS STAND:
I just booked another paying gig with the
U.D. Law School. It's a
mock trial exercise that I have done before so memorizing the info
for the guided improv
work will be less strenuous, as it will be re-familiarizing myself
with the facts of the case, rather than learning all new stuff,
cold.
The gig is Saturday, March 25. It's not going to be a gargantuan
paycheck, but it'll help. And right now, with the money I recently
dropped on auto repairs and am about to drop again on more
auto repairs, any little bit of extra cash is good.
Right now I am in the midst of the study and fact memorization for
the guided improv
mock trial gig coming up this weekend for the
U.D. Law School.
Currently I am in the process of creating my flashcards on index
cards.
I've played this character before, but it's been a while. I also,
probably have some flashcards and notes from before, but the act of
writing the information on the index cards is part of the process
of study and memorization for me ‐‐ or, in this case,
reacquaintance with the information.
LAST SHOW OF THE 22/23 SEASON HAS BEEN CAST:
Monday and last night were the
open auditions
for the 2022/2023 season finale production,
Hedda Gabler,
adapted by Christopher Shinn.
The show is now cast, and here is the roster:
CHARACTER
ACTOR
Hedda Gabler
Kelli Locker
Jørgen Tesman
Matt Meier
Eilert Løvborg
Jared Mola
Thea Elvsted
Kayla Graham
Judge Brack
Zach Katris
Juliane Tesman
Melissa Ertsgaard
Berthe
Stacey Brewer
REZA AT THE PLAYHOUSE:
Once again, I am posting my attendance at a show too late to
recommend the show. Nevertheless, this past Sunday I saw the
closing performance of
God of Carnage,
by Yasmina Reza,
at the Dayton Playhouse,
and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The production was directed by Tim Rezash and featured Jeremy
Gingrich (Alan Raleigh), Kellie C. Kelly (Annette Raleigh),
Mike Beerbower (Michael Novak), and Amy Askins (Veronica Novak):
really nice performances on that stage.
Were I a bit shorter in tooth I might have auditioned myself, but
I'm afraid I am no longer typed
for this show.
I have done a Yasmina Reza show. Almost seventeen years ago
I was in Art,
which was a joint production between
Springfield Civic Theatre
and the Springfield Museum of Art.
That was in the autumn of 2006. It was directed by Jerry Boswell,
and I was on stage with Randy Benge and Dennis Lattimer. It was a
fun show. Reza's biting, semi-dark humor is fun to bring to life.
Kudos to Tim and his cast for bringing her humor to life last weekend!
Flashcards and other study materials, including
courtroom exhibit photos (on the laptop screen)
Saturday I did my
guided improv
for U.D. Law School,
reprising my role as an "expert witness" for a courtroom
trial class.
If I remember correctly, the last time I did this particular practice
case I played both expert witnesses, both for the plaintiff and the
defense. That's been quite a common occurrence over the years that
I've been doing these U.D. Law gigs. This time, however, I only
testified for the defense team.
My prep study for the gig didn't start as early as I had planned;
I didn't start working on it until last Tuesday when I began
creating the new flashcards. My intensive work re-memorizing the
details of my witness's testimony didn't happen until Friday. It was
like my college days, cramming for an exam.
The gig came off well, though I did have an odd brain-freeze and
could not call up the word, "exhibit," from my vocabulary
while I was on the stand.
ALREADY DOING THE FITTINGS FOR THAT DIRECTOR'S CAP:
Though I haven't gotten full-tilt-boogie* into the play yet, I did
start working on a few things related to
Wednesday's Child,
by Mark St. Germain,
which I'll be directing in the fall.
I've created an Excel book, the "Director's Book," and have
begun three spreadsheets in it:
a scheduling calendar that currently has all
potential rehearsal days. Eventually it will be adjusted to adhere
to actors' conflicts. It'll will also have the assignments of
what pages and scenes will be covered at each rehearsal, what
actors will be
called,
and what sort of rehearsal it will be:
read-through,
table work,
blocking,
on-your-feet,
tech,
or dress.
Of course, the schedule will also designate if it's an actual
performance night, those having already been determined.
a scene breakdown page that currently only lists what
characters are in each scene. There's a note field for each
scene that I'll fill in as I start deep study into the play.
The range of what will be relevant notes is wide ‐‐
everything from character notes to props, set pieces, lighting,
sound, or anything else that seems relevant technically or
creatively.
a character breakdown page. Currently only the bare bones
of character description, including the age range for the character,
and the scenes the character is in are noted. The descriptions
will likely get more meat to them, and will be all or mostly what
I'll use in the
casting call,
which I need to have ready to put out there by June 7, since
the auditions are September 5 & 6.
Shortly I will begin the intensive
script study.
I have an over-arching understanding of the script, and though not
exactly vague at the moment, it's also nowhere near the depth of
understanding that the
director
must have. I guarantee that long before the September auditions I
will have that depth of understanding.
In case I haven't already stated this, I absolutely will
also be doing the
soundwork
for this show. As I first read this, I instantly came up with ideas,
especially for certain moments in the play. I have been mulling over
ideas ever since, and much so lately, including music:
pre-show/intermission
and production music.
The three current documents in the Wednesday's Child
director's Excel book.
*) "full-tilt-boogie": THERE'S a term that dates me!
This weekend I'll start in earnest, which may include starting the
programing in
Show Cue Systems, which
fortunately is one of the programming options at BCT.
I also have an appointment at the theatre on Sunday to get more
familiar with their sound system set up.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We
cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil
rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied
as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police
brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the
fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and
the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's
basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be
satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed
of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be
satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New
York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not
satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like
waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
