Seriously, mastering this "Cozy Cottage" bass line I've composed,
to the point where I am ready to record it, is an elusive damned fox in the
hen house!
A major problem is that now my left arm is starting to fatigue. It was my
right hand that was wearing out to the point of a dull pain, but that has
stabilized. But now that I have a significant part of the arrangment in place,
there are a few spots during the song that are taxing the un-toned muscles
in my left arm as I am fretting some repetitive movements and some of the
walking bass line
spots. Plus, there are still some sore fingers, but those are healing a bit
and the callouses, which should have already been there, are starting to
solidify and do their job.
I have still had to take frequent breaks, as the result of the fatigue and
the dull little aches that develop, and, in a smaller manner, to not push
the finger tips back into being too sore to successfully play the bass line,
which moves along at a decent pace.
After a frustrating period where I kept forgetting the different lines for
the section that repeats four times that I'd worked out, or where I had not
yet completely worked out some spots, I now predominantly have the differences
of each pass-through composed and committed to memory. Although as of
yesterday/early this morning, I've flubbed where I've been at in the song
or I blew the execution of said parts. Some of the blowing the execution is
that fatigued arm or sore fingers, but mostly it's that I am not the practiced
bass player I could be.
This week, however, certainly has been one where I am getting practice in.
I have continued working in the bass line since last post, up into early this
morning with the headphones on ‐‐ not disturbing my apartment
neighbors thing again.
I like this bass line quite a lot, so I am going to keep wrestling with it
until I am the one who's kicking ass.
Despite that I still have the bass line and all the
MIDI horns to record for
"Cozy Cottage," and all the
mixing and
mastering of
several songs, and the album art work (save for the front cover), I still
plan on the album being out before January is over, as close to the middle
of the month as possible. This album has been delayed long enough.
More work on the "Cozy Cottage" bass line,
Thursday evening, but no recording session for it.
And yet more work on the "Cozy Cottage" bass line,
just after midnight this morning, bringing in the new year,
and still no recording session for the part!
THE ALBUM'S NOT THE ONLY THING DELAYED:
Well, my plan had been to launch the new version of this blog on the
new website today, but I don't have
all the past pages recoded yet. In fact, I'm only about 40% done. I have
45 pages left to go, so even if I did a page a day, which would likely be
the most I'd be able to do, it would be into February before I could move
the blog over.
Frankly, I'm not going to be able to do a page a day. My focus has to be on
getting the album ready for release this month, and as written above, there's
a bit to finish off on that project.
I don't want part of the blog sitting in one server with one website while
other portions are on the other server with the other site. So, for now,
this blog is staying with The WriteGallery.
When it moves, as you can see from the image on the right, there will be a
minor title change from K.L.'s Blog: a Diary of Artful Things to
K.L.'s Artist's Blog.
Sixty-four takes. Sixty-four takes over the course of two recording sessions
to get the "Cozy Cottage" bass line successfully into the master
mix. New Years Day it was 55 takes, clearly without a good take. Yesterday
I did nine more takes to get to the good take.
Actually, the "good take" is really three, maybe four takes, I
can't readily remember for sure. I never did play the line all the way through
from start to end. I had to
punch in and out
with the Tascam RC-3F 3-pedal foot switch
several times, each punch-in counting as a new take. But I needed to get
the bass line finished so I can move on.
STAMINA:
I don't have the stamina at the moment. I am talented enough to have composed
this bass line but not practiced and skilled enough to play it all the way
through without screwing up. But, again, I'm on a deadline so I had to do
what it takes to get the damned thing recorded in a good take(s)!
I've shot no more DV footage of rehearsing the bass line, but I did shoot
footage of recording the bass line. However, I only imported the footage
that covers the good takes. I have more than enough footage of me on the
bass.
A sax solo is pretty much carved in stone, and I'm thinking that there will
at least be a trumpet solo, but who knows, a second solo might be another
"horn."
I've decided to not go with a "faux" guitar solo in this one.
I've done that several times on the album and I don't really think this
one needs a guitar solo sound.
Working on the "Cozy Cottage" bass line, later
in the day, Saturday.
The first recording session for the "Cozy Cottage"
bass line, later, Saturday ‐‐ the first 55 takes!
More rehearsal, yesterday, before the second recording
session for the "Cozy Cottage" bass line.
A COZY HORN CHART, A VIOLIN STAND-IN, AND VIRTUALLY APPROXIMATE
MIXING, MASTERING, ARTWORK, & SONG ORDER:
Monday I started working on the "Cozy Cottage"
MIDI horn chart on the
Oxygen 61 Keyboard
pulling the trumpet voice from the
MIDI interface
in Logic Pro X. Clearly,
Monday was Trumpet Day. I worked out the trumpet part, making room for some
improvisation during the solo section.
That night I did a recording session with eight takes, but none were good.
I was going to drop back onto the seventh take, during the next
session, and punch in
to fix some errors, but later I decided to scrap that take and move on.
Tuesday night was my second recording session for the trumpet, and I got
in two more takes, with the good take being #10. I also worked out and recorded
the MIDI trombone part and got it in only two takes. I'd already navigated
all the key changes during the trumpet work, plus there was no solo work for
the trombine part, so it was easier to get this one down.
The horn chart quartet is filled out with two sax parts, both with solos.
And alto and a tenor sax ‐‐ both, of course, again, MIDI.
Wednesday evening I began work on the alto sax part, naturally, with the
hope to get the keeper take recorded that evening. I did not get to the
recording session for the alto sax until the next night.
The alto sax gets the second solo, that being after the bridge, and as I
was working out the part Wednesday night, I kept forgetting to go into the
alto sax solo after the bridge. I must have dropped back into the the
regular rhythm section part for the alto sax several time, before I finally
wrote myself an only partially successful note to set on the Oxygen 61
Keyboard to remind me about the solo. I still forgot several more times
before I started going into a solo, to work it out.
I'm not sure what it was. Either I was lost in the groove of the alto sax,
the trumpet and the trombone and forgot to move on, or my instincts were to
keep the alto sax in that groove. If it was the second one, I am quite okay
going against my instincts. In fact, going against what seems the musically
natural thing to do, seems the way to go in this instance.
I finally conditioned myself to remember when the alto sax solo comes in,
but I wasn't rehearsed enough Wednesday night to record. I laid the alto
sax Thursday evening. I really had enough time to start working on that
fourth MIDI horn before bed Thursday, but decided to hold off until the
next night.
Friday, the horn chart quartette turned into a horn chart trio. The fourth
horn was to be a tenor sax. I just didn't like the sound of that MIDI voice
when played in the higher register of a tenor sax. It just didn't have any
verisimilitude in the higher octave. I tried a few other MIDI horn voices
but nothing was fitting. So I tried and went with the violin voice. I
rehearsed it and recorded it that same night.
Last night I rerecorded the trumpet solo via the punch in/out pedal. In the
original solo I left no breaks for the "trumpeter" to take a
breath; I just played the solo straight from start to ending; that
verisimilitude of a horn player is seriously compromised if it seems like
the player has lungs and breath the size of an elephant's. Plus there
were a few out-of-key notes that I was going to leave in as
accidentals,
but since I want to put "breath breaks" anyway, I might as well
fix the flat/sharp notes.
Of course, I shot DV footage for most of the work described above, except
the last two sessions, recording the MIDI violin and rerecording the MIDI
trumpet solo, both I did later at and needed to wear the headphones so as
not to have the audio coming out of monitor speakers to possibly piss off
my apartment building neighbors ‐‐ "One man's apartment
wall...." I have 31.5 hours of DV footage from the four DV cameras,
including about four minutes shot on my iPhone.
It amounts to 3.97 terabytes on my 5 Tb external drive.
I was a little surprised to see how much footage there is. It's the
multi-cam shoot
aspect. The footage covers just shy of eight hours of action but from four
(and in one instance, five) camera angles. What I'm going to do with this
footage, I am not sure. I can't conceive that even of I do a documentary
about putting the instrumental together, it would be longer than, say,
thirty minutes; ten to fifteen minutes would probably be much better. Since
all but two of the actual good takes are in the footage, I could also make
a music video,
though I have no designs on this song being a single. There are official
music videos for other than singles though, right?
Now that I've finished recording what is definitely the last thing to be
recorded for the album, it's major mixing
and mastering,
not only for "Cozy Cottage," but also for most of the rest of
the album. And there's the rest of the art work. As you can see, the album's
front cover is designed. But the back cover needs designed. I also want a
lyric booklet that will 99% likely have a little
liner notes essay.
Below is the probable finalized repertoire for the album. The song order is
not absolutely written in stone, except that the album will absolutely open
with "Identity" and close with "Into the Blue Dawn."
VIRTUALLY APPROXIMATE SUBTERFUGE song list:
Identity
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas
Icebergs
Chilled October Morning
Just One Shadow
Cozy Cottage
The Answer
Burning Bridge
Medley:
i) The Death of the...
ii) Memories of the Times Before
iii) Memory's Endbit
iv)The Death of the... (reprise)
Into the Blue Dawn
And, as is my long-standing habit, here is a gallery of mostly variations
on the same photo concept(s), within the current collection, and in comparison
to a myriad of previous photos:
Working on the "Cozy Cottage" MIDI trumpet part,
Monday.
The "Cozy Cottage" MIDI horns project in Logic
Pro X.
Later Monday during the first recording session for the
"Cozy Cottage" MIDI trumpet.
Tuesday night, after the MIDI trumpet track was laid,
work on the MIDI trombone part started.
Later Tuesday, recording the trombone ‐‐ as seen
from the lenses of three of the four DV camcorders.
The MIDI sax icon in Logic Pro X.
The note setting on the Oxygen 61.
POV from camera D of me working out the alto sax
part.
Thursday evening, laying the "alto sax" track.
Searching for a fourth MIDI voice to replace the tenor sax,
and settling on the violin.
Recording the violin, with the phones ‐‐ no DV
footage shot for this recording session.
Last night, rerecording the MIDI trumpet solo to get
better verisimilitude.
ON THE HOME STRETCH FOR VIRTUALLY APPROXIMATE SUBTERFUGE:
A shot of my laptop
screen with the Logic Pro X
up during the original mastering of "Cozy Cottage."
In what cannot be a shock to anyone who knows me or has read very much of
this blog, I thought I was finished
mixing and
mastering
"Cozy Cottage" Sunday evening. That, of course, turned out to be
a false-positive, as it were. I got into a little bout of slightly
remastering
the songs already mastered for this album project: "Just One Shadow,"
"The Night Before the Night Before Christmas," "Burning
Bridge," and "The Answer." In doing that, I realized I needed
to revisit "Cozy Cottage" to give it the same treatment as these
others.
There were a couple issues that prompted the remastering, and in a few cases
some slight remixing. One was that I wanted to
normalize
the volume across all the songs, to get a consistent volume level for the
album. I also discovered a great trick to get an enhanced stereo spread and
wanted to apply that to these songs. So the songs that have previously
released as singles will have "[remastered]" following them on the
album listing. The others won't need the designation since the previous
mastered versions have not been released.
another thing I have determined is that I need to also go in and normalize
the volume level within the span of some of the songs. I have a habit of
starting out songs a lot quieter and then have them get louder as I build
instrumentation. It lends itself to an imbalance from the ending of one song
into the start of the next, one that doesn't sound good. Whether I have to
go in and do that normalizing in the multi-channel mixes or can do it in the
mastering phase remains to be seen.
I have that normalizing to do as well as finishing, at least, the mastering
of "Cozy Cottage" then it's on to remixing and remastering the
rest of the album: "Identity," "Icebergs," "Chilled
October Morning," "Medley," and "Into the Blue Dawn."
"Medley" will be first because the main song, "Memories of
the Times Before" is a composition collaboration with my music partner
of old, Rich Hisey, and I need to set up the song publishing administration
for that one as a collaboration, and think I ought to have the finished
master for Rich to hear, as soon as I can.
And, yep, there is still a whole lot of album artwork, both the back cover
and the booklet, to design and create.
Though the next item below lends itself well to both designs.
Meanwhile, I believe I have finalized the song order for the album
‐‐ though I know that beyond titles, this list has no musically
dynamic meaning to anyone, except to the tiny number of people who have
heard at least some form of all of the songs.
VIRTUALLY APPROXIMATE SUBTERFUGE slightly revised song
list order:
Identity
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas [remastered]
Icebergs
Chilled October Morning
Just One Shadow [remastered]
The Answer
Cozy Cottage
Burning Bridge
Medley:
i) The Death of the...
ii) Memories of the Times Before
iii) Memory's Endbit
iv)The Death of the... (reprise)
THAT VIRTUALLY APPROXIMATE HOMESTRETCH HAS MORE YARDAGE* THAN I
ANTICIPATED ‐‐ YET AGAIN:
*) I suppose "meterage" would be the right word for almost
everyone outside the USA.
I'm going to put on my
pretend tech-geek hat for this one.
It's not the "geek" part that's
necessarily pretend, it's that I am far less of a tech head than many people
believe me to be.
The mixing of
"Cozy Cottage" may be done, but I will have to do another
pass at mastering
it, after I have finished both
remixing
and remastering
all of "Just One Shadow," "The Answer," and "Burning
Bridge," and I may have to remix "Cozy Cottage." I am leaving
"The Night Before the Night Before Christmas" as it is currently
mixed and mastered (or, actually remastered).
This all has to do with my work to
normalize
the volumes both of the entire collection, and, to better facilitate that
first goal, also each song, within itself. Last blog post I wasn't sure
whether I could normalize each song within itself at the mastering level or
would have to go back in an normalize by adjusting volume differences in the
mix. It came clear as I started the process that I needed to go back into
the mixes.
To reiterate, the normalization issue is several-fold. It starts with the
practicality of the volumes of the songs being comparable on the album; you
want volume consistency on an album you're playing. What needs to be factored
in there is a music industry volume standard called
LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale).
Every streaming platform has a standard LUFS level that everything they play
is adjusted to. Typically it's -14 decibles, or thereabouts.
Of course, regardless of what LUFS I master the songs at, each platform
would adjust the LUFS to their standard. Again, the idea, is that all music
is at a relatively consistant volume level so the listeners can set the level
they want and not be bothered adjusting when new music comes on, the same
principle as for all the music on one album.
The LUFS number for a song is the average peak number for the duration of
the song. There may be sections with a much lower or a much higher peak.
Within this system of measurement is also the consideration of the LU range,
derived from the
loudness units (LUs),
each unit essentially equivalent to a decible. That range is the distance
at any given time during a song between the lowest volume and the peak
volume. I.E.: if the peak is -10 and the lowest level is -17.5, the LU range
at that point is 7.5. What I am discovering is that the smaller the overall
range in a song, the more it will be normalized to other songs that have the
same LUFS. In other words, the more there will be the perception of a
relatively even volume level.
I've mentioned before how my songs have a tendency to build both instrumentation
and, correlatively, volume as the song progresses. One of my songs can be
considerably louder at the ending than it was at the beginning. That's not
uncommon in general, but it is a habitual situation for my music. What that
can do, if you've been following along with this verbal monstrosity I've
written today, is cause a jarring difference between the ending of one of
my songs and the beginning of the next, that, for two songs that have the
same LUFS. There will be times when that is of no bad consequence, because
it works artistically. A made-up example:
A rocker ends with a bang then the next song starts with a low breeze
and windchimes delicately ringing, then a piano starts playing as
if in the distance, the volume gradually getting louder over a
period of maybe a half-minute, or more.
That contrast between the previous song's ending and this song's beginning
would actually be quite interesting. But there are often times when one
of my songs starts not with what is obviously a low level volume for
effect, but just an overall volume where everything played is much lower
than the ending of the previous song. Now it sounds like we're listening
to two songs at very different volume levels, as if someone had turned the
volume down on the device the songs are being played on. This is an effect
to be avoided.
One of the ways to avoid that is to be sure the LU range between the lowest
levels of the start a song and the peaks at the ending of that song are not
too drastically far apart. This is exactly what my going back to remix
then remaster the three songs mentioned at the start is all about. It's
about getting the over LU range for each song closer together so when they
are normalized to the same LUFS there will be a comparable volume level
effect. The reason I am not doing "The Night Before the Night Before
Christmas" is that there is a narrow LU range to that one and it is
now the benchmark that I will compare all the others to when they are
remixed and remastered. It's also what all the rest *(see below) will be
measured against.
For the record, I am targeting -12 as the LUFS for the songs. It's 2 LUs
above the usual streaming standard of -14, but I want the CDs to have a
little bit more volume. The streamers will turn the music down and that's
their prerogative. I'm not sure if Apple will turn down to -14 for the
album downloads in iTunes, but
I know they will for their streaming service. It seems to me I've bought
albums from iTunes with drastically different volume levels from each other,
however. So, I am thinking my -12 will stay in tact for the on-line purchases.
Of course there's the remixing and mastering of the other past recordings
for the album: "Icebergs," "Chilled October Morning,"
"Medley," and "Into the Blue Dawn." Last but not least,
there's "Identity," which has yet to have its first passes at
either mixing or mastering. With all of these, I'll be able to pay attention
to the LUs and the basic normalization from the beginning of the process,
and won't have to swing back through for remix nor remaster pass for any of
them ‐‐at least not for THIS reason.
The end result of all of this is that the album release is once again delayed.
It is not unlikely that we are now looking at a February release. I am not
thrilled with this prospect, but I also want the better sonic results that
are to come from this delay. As I said in an exchange on
Instagram, early this morning:
"Late is better than sounding crappy."
Last night, (night 2), remixing the track volume levels for
"Just One Shadow."
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!"
trudge [truhj] noun: a laborious or tiring walk; a tramp.
I don't know what marker I'm at on that home-stretch toward the album being
finished and ready to put out. I know I am on the home-stretch, but I think
the finish line is further down the track than I want! But, I trudge on.
The mixing and
mastering is
still underway. It started with
remixing
and remastering
"The Night Before the Night Before Christmas,"
"Just One Shadow,"
and "The Answer," both to get some volume
normalization
and also to apply a new trick I learned to get a wider stereo spread.
Now I'm working on the remix of "Burning Bridge." I started
completely from scratch with it, as I did the other remixes. Last night, I
worked on individual tracks. I added or adjusted the
EQ
filters for most of the tracks. For instance, there are three separate
chorded bass parts, each acting as rhythm guitars in the song, and all having
been recorded with fuzz distortion. One of those "rhythm guitars"
is placed all the way left in the stereo pan,
one is all the way right, the third is in the center. I have varied the ratio
of bass and treble in the EQ in each of the three to help distinguish them,
thus getting a better stereo separation between the left/right ones, and
an over all better stereo-spread feel for the "rhythm guitars" in
general. I also have put a
compressor
on each to help contain the volume fluctuations a little. And I added a
Limiter on each.
I've done most or all of that to most other individual tracks including
the main bass line track, where I've punched the treble a bit to enhance
that Geddy Lee/Chris Squireroundwound-metallic
sound. I haven't done anything with the vocal yet, save for flatten the
volume to then readjust it in the new mix, which I've done with everything.
I probably will at least look at the EQ on the vocal track as well as the
compression ‐‐ I'm pretty sure there's compression on the vocal,
already.
"Cozy Cottage" gets treatment next, then I go back to remix and
remaster all the other music previously recorded for the album, going all
the way back to the very first thing, recorded before I knew I was making
an album, the instrumental "Icebergs" (written for
The Guild
production of the play of the same name by Alena Smith).
A lot of other details need attended to, as well. Like I've written before,
I need to finish the artwork, which means the back cover as well as the
booklet. I also need to check with CD Baby
to see what specs I need to follow for the booklet (and get a price estimate).
Also, I have a whole slew of copyright registrations to file with the
U.S. Copyright Office. I have to
pay for those, too.
WORKING ON SOUND:
Though the sound design
is from Director
David Shough, Monday I went to
The Guild
to write the sound cue file
program in Show Cue Systems
for our next show,
The Norwegians,
because I am far more familier with the software than David is. In this case
you could say that I am the construction foreman and David is the architect.
I didn't have all the music or many of the
SFX,
so I put placeholder music or effects in at many of the cue spots. I had
to do that because SCS will not allow you save a cue if a sound file isn't
associated with it. I'll just go in and swap these dummy files out for the
correct one's once they are provided.
Beyond the placeholders, what I programmed Monday is the foundation. There
will be a lot of tweaking and finessing of fade ins, fade outs, and sound
levels, etc. There already are some cue changes that need to be dealt with
when I go for pass number 2.
Monday, in the DTG
booth,
writing the SCS sound cue file program for The Norwegians.
The Dayton Theatre Guild is pleased to announce our 2022/2023 theatrical season!
THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT
by Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell
Directed by Tim Rezash
Showing weekends: Aug 26-Sep 11, 2022
A fresh-out-of-Harvard fact checker for a prominent New York magazine
is assigned to fact-check an essay about the suicide of a teenage
boy. It is written by a talented and established writer, and publishing
his piece can save the struggling magazine from collapse. The two b
attle over facts versus truth, with the magazine's editor, who wants
to run the story and who assigned the fact-checker to look it over,
serving as referee.
Directed by Marjorie Strader
Showing weekends: Nov 4-20, 2022
Broadway Bound is one of Neil Simon's highly acclaimed
autobiographical plays, and was a 1987 Pulitzer Prize finalist in
Drama. Eugene and his older brother Stanley are trying to break into
the world of show business as comedy writers, while dealing with the
break-up of their parents. They write what they know, which is what
is going on in their household, giving it all a comedic twist.
Directed by Doug Lloyd
Showing weekends: Jan 13-29, 2023
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.
Directed by Debra Kent
Showing weekends: Mar 17-Apr 2, 2023
In 1902, Albert and Mileva Einstein had a daughter. After 1904, the
child was never seen or spoken of again. It is now 1942, and a
reporter has come to interview Einstein about his mysterious family
history, only to discover far more secrets under the surface. As the
reporter questions Einstein about his theory of relativity and
personal past, she develops a new, more pressing query: To be a great
man, does one first need to be a good man?
Directed by David Shough
Showing weekends: June 2-18, 2023
This Broadway adaptation of Ibsen's timeless drama presents a
sympathetic, yet striking and powerful Hedda in the classic tale of
her struggle to find a means of escape from a loveless, ordinary
existence. Returning from her honeymoon, Hedda finds herself already
bored of her husband, and longing for the days when she was free to
exercise her wild and independent whims. With the return of an old
flame and a proposition from an amorous judge, she begins a dangerous
game, amusing herself by manipulating and destroying everyone around
her in an attempt to regain control of her life.
Audition dates: (to be announced)
(3M, 4W)
*all audition dates are subject to change
Stay tuned for ticket information including season ticket memberships.
THE ACTOR WILL GET TO ACT AFTER A YEAR AWAY FROM THE CRAFT:
Though I can't yet give details, I just booked a paying gig that deals with
the adaptation of a classic piece of theatrical literature.
The pay won't give me that downpayment on the Caribbean island, but, a
paycheck is a paycheck.
I'll reveal more when I get the go-ahead from the powers that be.
GOOD FIRST WEEKEND, IF A SHORT ONE:
The Norwegians,
is up-and-running, after a one-day delay due to the severe winter storm that
hit a large swath of the country last Thursday.
Tech Week,
which was kicked of with Tech Sunday
on January 30, went well. I of course was overseeing the execution of
Director David Shough's
sound design.
I actually am credited in the program as being a collaborative
sound designer
with David, which is nice, but not really true. I thinks it's more accurate
to say I am the construction forman bringing to life the design from the
architect, that being David. It's all his concept, even his curation of
music and sounds. Whta I did was write the
sound cues
into the Show Cue Systems software.
Well, at any rate, though it was a shorter weekend, they did have a good one.
There was a small sound glitch during the opening show, but I came in
Sunday and was able to identify the problem and fix it.
One must be prepared for Tech Sunday!
Sunday mornin, before the tech rehearsal, making changes to
and tweaking the programing in SCS for David Shough's sound
design.
Directed by David Shough
Produced by Christina Tomazinis & Rick Flynn
A funny, bitter, sometimes odd comedy about two women, single in a
cold Minnesota winter, who each hire a pair of really, really nice
Norwegian gangsters to whack their respective ex-boyfriends. Then
things get complicated.
THE INCREDIBLY STEEP LEARNING CURVE THAT CAUGHT ME OFF-GUARD AND STOPPED
ME IN MY TRACKS:
You may note that there's been no entries about the music project for a
month. I stepped back from the project for a while, for a few weeks, because
I was getting overwhelmed. To be forthright, I slipped into a little bit of
a depression. The mixing
and mastering,
or remixing
and remastering
in some cases, has been going slower than I expected. There's a much steeper
learning curve to this than I anticipated. I have become painfully in touch
with how much I do not know.
Before my little hiatus, I remixed and remastered "Burning Bridge"
and got sound that I am satisfied with, but there was still a volume match
problem. I have the LUFS
for all the songs at -12. I worked on mastering "Cozy Cottage"
and have found that I have some problems getting the horn chart voices to
sound in a manner that satisfies me. There are other small problems with
some other songs that I now feel I need to address, having listened to all
that is supposedly in finished mastered form.
Another problem is that there still seems a great level difference from
song to song. I believe it's because, as I wrote before, my songs tend to
get louder as they progress. So I need to go back a remaster some work that
I thought I was done with, and I have an overall
audio normalization
to get to. I just need get to over or power through the dread that overcomes
me when I think of sitting down to do any of this work.
The Logic Pro
screen for "Burning Bridge," filled with
volume level meters and gain controls, during the
normalization process.
Prototype image number 1 for the back cover of the
album.
Sunday morning, Jan 30, listening to a playback
during the on-going process to get a good sound for
"Cozy Cottage."
ACTING FOR DOLLARS ‐‐ NOW I CAN GO TO CANCÚN!:
Though I recently auditioned
for something that I was not cast in, I do have a couple paying actor's gigs
coming up. One of them will be on the
Human Race Theatre Company'sLoft stage,
the other will take place in a college's law school court room. The former
being the upcoming acting gig I mentioned, without detail, in the Feb 9
blog post. Of course, neither gig is actually paying me the numbers that
could finance a trip to Cancún, but, a paycheck is a paycheck.
Shuann has brought me into the team to put this on, on
The Loft Theatre
stage. The reading is free to the public. Be advised that COVID protocol
is in place and all audience members will be required to weak a mask.
My participation is barely as a supporting actor, I have a couple small
roles, but it's still going to a fun project to be a part of.
As the official promo write-up says, in part: "The adaptation is set
in Appalachia during the 1800s, and uses Appalachian dialect with the original
Shakespearean verse."
It continues, "'Shakespeare's words performed with this dialect are
really beautiful, as it turns out,' says local filmmaker Shuann Baker who
adapted the screenplay and is working to get the script produced as a feature
film. 'It's a rougher sound, closer to the Old English the play would have
been performed in originally. A very different experience from hearing the
story in the more traditional "heightened" dialect we typically
associate with Shakespeare. My hope is that the roughness of the Appalachian
culture and accent will make this adaptation much more accessible to
contemporary audiences.'"
Again, the reading is free to the public, on Monday, April 25, 2022,
7:00 p.m. at The Loft Theatre:
126 North Main Street
Third Floor
Dayton, Ohio 45402
The Midsummer entry was edited on 02/24/2022 to reflect the
new performance date.
I have also just booked a U.D. Law School
gig, playing a witness for a courtroom trial procedure class. That will
take place the Monday after the Shakespeare staged reading.
The icing on the cake is that this production marks the professional stage
debut of one young Miss Isabella Roberts, the prodigy of
Natasha Randall and
Craig Roberts, two of
my castmates from my first stage production as an adult,
The Cripple of Inishmaan
at The Guild
in 2004. Tosha would later direct Heather Atkinson and me in
Blackbird,
also at The Guild.
Isabella is absolutely the genetic offspring of her parents, clearly having
inherited Mom's and Dad's talent. The young women did a wonderful job Wednesday
evening, giving us some lovely subtleties and presenting a strong stage presence.
She plays the role of the young child, born a boy but identifying as a girl.
Isabella shares the role with a young man named Jax Heritage. I have not seen
his performance but have heard that he does a fine job, too.
This really probably ought to be more of just a personal essay and not
really relegated to a "My Music" entry, but, my music, and
specifically the Virtually Approximate Subterfuge album project is
directly affected by the subject matter here, so I might as well write this
under the banner of the project.
In the February 22 blog post, I wrote of the steep learning curve I came
upon and the wall I came up against because of it. I also wrote of how I
need to get over or power through the dread that overcomes me when I think
of sitting down to do any of the
mixing and
mastering
work on the project, as the result of what seems like the wide, towering,
deep wall in front of me.
Now here's the risk for me, to put this out there in any sort of public
manner:
Beyond just the dread that I've experienced because of the learning curve
as far as mixing and mastering goes ‐‐ there is so much
expertise that I do not have ‐‐ I also have been experiencing an
overall depression these last several weeks, really, longer than that.
A while ago, several years ago, more than several years ago, I
self-diagnosed myself as occasionally suffering from chronic, low-grade,
depression. It's important to emphasize that this is a "self diagnosis";
I have not gone to a professional, be it a psychologist or otherwise. I've
been reluctant to see a therapist or even mention this to any sort of medical
practitioner because I have this inner-voice of self-doubt that stealthily
whispers inside my head that the idea that I have any condition that can
be legitimately labelled as "chronic, low-grade, depression" is
ridiculous, that the truth is that it's simply a character flaw, that I'm
really just some lazy, unmotivated, sad-sack schmuck who has conveniently
convinced myself I have these bouts of depression, low-grade, or otherwise.
Yet, the times arrise when, despite my ambitions, despite my desires to
meet certain goals, especially artistic goals, I find myself dreading the
goals, dreading the work, dreading everything. I find myself wanting to do
nothing but climb under the covers. Then, of course, I feel heavy, deep
stabs of guilt, which only aggravates the scenario, and a cycle then begins
to spiral. But I try to do it in secret. I do do it in secret. I live
alone so there's no one to witness any "down time" and I don't
exactly broadcast it.
I've casually mentioned it a few times, to a few people, but this little
piece of writing here is the most I've ever shared about it. And writing it
here is a sort of timid way to put it out there because this blog doesn't
get a lot of traffic. I never check the stats, but I would not be surprised
if I am virtually writing to myself.
One of the problems I have, I am absolutely sure, is the particular brand
of perfectionist I am. I am the type who is terrified "it" will
not only not be perfect, but that it will be a miserable failure. This
doesn't explain the contradiction of how I'm often pleased with what I have
done, except for this: that perfectionist fear is always preceding whatever
action will be, or is supposed to be, taken.
I also have a tendency to look at the projects I have going and the goals
the deadlines and let myself get anxious about them, which often leads to
feeling overwhelmed. At the moment for instance, there is this Virtually
Approximate Subterfuge album project, which at one time was supposed to
be wrapped and released by the end of last summer. There is also the goal
to get this whole blog collection re-coded and transfered to the new server
at klstorer.com. Right now, that
project is only about 40% done, and I've been at it, of-and-on, for almost
six months. I'd like to have it all transferred over with some re-direct
pages on the old server for at least a couple months before I close down
the old server, which I'd like to do on or before this coming July 1. Add
on that I have a lot of business admin sort of stuff to do for the album
project, as well as the artwork to finish, beyond the mixing and mastering.
I also would like to get what can be reasonably considered a
final draft
of my two-act play. This is a standard situation for me and sometimes when
I survey the projects on my table, my impatience and perfectionist's anxieties
get me to that state of feeling overwhelmed,
These last two years, it's clear I can add in the stress and anxiety from
this damned COVID pandemic, including a heavy dose of frustration and anger
about the anti-science, anti-community, anti-compassion, ignorant bullshit
from many politicians and an all-too-disappointing large sector of the public.
I have literally lost all respect for particular individuals in or close to
my circle, and I have no desire to reassess my decision.
All this together, I believe, in my admittedly pure layman's understanding,
has led me to this self-assessed depression, low-grade as it may be. I am
now trying to adjust my attitude, to do that "take the first steps"
action, that "just show up for the next thing" tactic. This
weekend, I intend to get back to that mixing and mastering of the
album. Let's see if I can overcome myself.
Though I'm still not deep into it, I have been doing some work on Draft 5h.
Mostly what I've been doing is
murdering my little darlings.
In some cases I have to sit there and debate whether I should cut particular
lines or sections, and in a few cases I have decided to not do it, or at least
to hold off.
The literary agent for the Arthur Miller
estate has granted us clearance to use dialogue from the
Price
script. Of course, now we are doing
trailers
rather than something that could more appropriately be called a
promocast.
I'm shooting for no more than a total of sixty seconds from the play, and
if at all possible, all the same moment from the play rather than cutting
in different sections.
I saw the Pulitzer-Prize-winning
August: Osage County,
by Tracy Letts at
The Dayton Playhouse
last Sunday afternoon. Kudos to the cast and crew. Some really fine work,
especially from the two leading ladies, Becky Milligan Howard and Mandy Shannon.
It's still up this weekend. If you're close enough to the dayton, Ohio area
to make it practical, you oughta check it out!
"NOPE" TO PAUL, "YAY!"
TO SHERYL:
Paul McCartney is doing a small
summer tour of the U.S. The closest he'll be, at least thus far, to where I
live is Knoxville, TN, which is about 320 miles and 4.5 hours away. I was
all ready to make the trek ‐‐ last time I went to Lexington, KY,
not quite as far, but not right next door, either. However, the ticket prices
are just too rich for my blood. Granted, last time Paul toured, in 1019, I paid
$1600 for my ticket, but that was a VIP Hot Sound ticket with access to the
sound check and the slight potential to meet the Man, himself. For this new
tour, there are tickets going for upward of $1000 more than that 2019 VIP
ticket, tickets which are not VIP tickets. The nose-bleed seats have been
selling for $300 to $500. It's that newer flex tickets system and so far I
have not seen the tickets flex down to a price I can justify paying. So, as
much as I would like to see Paul for the twelfth time, at this point, it does
not look like that is going to happen.
On the other hand, I do have a decent seat for
Sheryl Crow's July 8 show at
The Rose Music Center here
in the Dayton area. And though it topped $100 ($116 with fees), it is a
ticket price I can live with. This will be my third time seeing Sheryl.
I'm in the Center pit section, Row H (8), Seat 14. Approximately
where the dot in the image above covers the "T"
in the obscured word, "Pit."
I've pretty much surrendered to, and accepted, this whole
"The album release is
greatly delayed" situation. It's too bad I don't have some kind
of name in music circles and some kind of following (cult or otherwise),
then this delay could be something to build anticipation. But, alas, I
think probably the only person anticipating or experiencing any kind of
impatience for this thing to be out is likely the dude typing these words.
But, in between my little hiatus I just took and the amount of work left
to do, I can't see this thing being out for at least another six weeks; and
I would guess six weeks is optimistic. However, this M-F'er is
coming out! Virtually Approximate Subterfuge will be a musical album
out there for consumption, even if it's not consumed by many.
Last night I finally got back into the race by
normalizing
"Burning Bridge." I used the newly-mastered
version of "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas" as the
reference goal post for normalization. I ended up doing it by ear because
when I did it by matching the
LUFS meter
readings, "Burning" still sounded much lower in volume than
"Night" when both were played back at the same level on the
monitors. So I adjusted the volume up in the master project for "Burning"
by ear. It now has a final LUFS average of -5.7, as opposed to -12.6 for
"Night." Yet they have virtually the same volume sound through the
monitors, though "Burning" does sound a slight bit louder,
but, as it's a rocker, border-lining on
prog rock,
I want it to be slightly louder.
The streaming services will pull the LUFS down to -14 for all the tracks
on the album, anyway, and if someone listens to the whole album on one of
the streamers, there will be that sense of no normalization between the tracks,
i.e.: "Burning Bridge" will sound much lower than "The Night
before...," despite that the metering will be -14 for both, and I don't
know what to do about that. But I will get the right consistent volume dynamic
on the CDs and the album down-loads. I do believe that Amazon
and iTunes leave the volume
levels for the music at the submitted levels. I certainly have downloaded
albums with drastically different volume levels from each other from iTunes,
so it does not seem they are normalizing what they sell, only what they stream.
As for further working on my album repertoire, there a few things I want to
adjust in some songs already mixed and mastered. I want to go back to do some
remixing, which mostly means I want to adjust some processing of some
instrument or vocal tracks. I think there are some effects plug-in on some
things that need to either be removed or adjusted. For instance, I think the
EQ
on the vocal for "Just One Shadow" can be adjusted, to make the
voice sound warmer. Likewise I want to adjust the EQ on the bass in
"The Answer," plus that whole recording could stand to be a little
louder. I also need to change the effects on the horn chart for the
instrumental "Cozy Cottage" ‐‐ I'm just not getting the
vibe I want from that horn chart. I think maybe there's too much reverb,
for one thing.
Then I also have to start the mixing and mastering of "Chilled October
Morning," "Icebergs," "Identity," "Into the
Blue Dawn," and "Medley: The Death of the..../Memories of the Times
Before/Memories Endbit/The Death of the (reprise)." So, yeah, even the
target of six weeks from now as an official release may be optimistic.
During the normalization of "Burning Bridge" last
night. The loudness and volume meters in the mastering
project in Logic Pro X.
ANOTHER GUIDED IMPROV GIG:
Monday night of last week I played an expert witness for a
U.D. Law School trial practice
class. I've just book another U.D. Law gig for Saturday morning, April 2.
Don't have the specs as of yet.
Last night I continued
remixing and/or
remastering,
and, of course volume normalizing,
the latter by ear and feel, ignoring the
LUFS meters.
If you haven't been following along, I've been doing all this for most of
the works that had already been marked as wrapped. I dealt with two pieces
last night.
First I worked, once again, on the remaster of "Just One Shadow,"
I suppose making it a re-remaster. As I said in this past Wednesday's
blog entry that I would, I adjusted the
EQ,
on the vocal track, as well as slightly lowering the high end on the
Multipressor
and slightly decreasing the dynamics of the Exciter
in the mastering project, all this to get a bit more warmth on the lead vocal.
I also bumped the overall volume of the mixed/master to match the dynamic
of my goal-post-reference recording, the finished master of "The Night
Before the Night Before Christmas."
Then I moved on to the pop-jazz ballad, "The Answer," which I
made progress on but did not quite finish revamping. I have the sound on
the bass I want, the tone, but I need to tweak the balance between the bass
and the sax during part of their duet during the middle solo section. But it
was getting to bed time last night and since I still have that
rent-payer day job, I called
it a night and went to bed.
The plan is to finish "The Answer" tonight and also remix and
remaster the jazz instrumental "Cozy Cottage," especially
addressing the unruly horn chart, which sounds pretty awful right now. Like
I wrote Wednesday, one think I believe needs done is the reverb on the horns
needs to be greatly cut, maybe even eliminated. I might be adjusting the
EQ, too.
Then I am taking another imposed break, albeit a shorter one, because I'm
the producer
and sound designer
for the upcoming production of The Price,
by Arthur Miller
at Dayton Theatre Guild,
and Tech Week
begins this Sunday. Tomorrow I will be putting the sound design for the
show together. Although it's not a major task, so I might be able to slide
in some more work on the album's mixing and mastering, at least tomorrow.
Maybe.
Screen shot of the channel EQ window for the lead
vocal track in "Just One Shadow" in
Logic Pro X.
The windows, in the Logic Pro X mastering project
for "Just One Shadow," for the Exciter,
the Linear Phase EQ,
and the Multipressor.
Running the master recordings of both "The
Night Before the Night Before Christmas" and
"The Answer" simultaneously to compare
the volume-level dynamics by ear.
Friday night I did a bit of
remixing and
remastering,
on the pop-jazz ballad, "The Answer," and of course the volume
normalizing
to match the other mastered songs. I'm nit done, however. I thought I was,
but on playback later, I decided the bass is a little to up in the ix in the
latter part of the song. So I'll drop that down next time I work on the
sing, which may be this evening after I get home from the
Tech Sunday
rehearsal for The Price
at DTG.
No photos today; really, all they'd be are screenshots of meters and effects
windows in Logic Pro X.
TECH WEEK BEGINS:
Shortly after I upload this blog entry to the server I'll be heading off
to Tech Sunday,
kicking off our Tech Week,
with a detour to the grocery store to pick up liters of soda for the lunch
break.
I dropped by The Guild last night and programmed
the sound design
for the show. Didn't take long; it's not a complex nor extensive
sound plot.
There are a total of 17 sound cues for the entire two-and-a-half hours.
I'll be shooting the trailer
tomorrow night. I'm not sure what moment in the play I am shooting just yet,
I'll make that decision during today's rehearsal. Then, of course, Tuesday
is a vacation
day from the rent-payer to
edit the DV movie to final cut.
Tech Week
is well underway and things are going well for the show. This past weekend
we all pretty much experienced what our
production stage manager,
Deirdre Root described as "one of the easiest
Tech Sundays
I've ever been a part of," which seems to sum it up for all of us, I
think.
It's also the first time that I have done absolutely no tweaking on the
soundwork
since having programed the sound plot
into the sound cue software (SCS).
Oops, wait! I lied. One change was made: a 10-second fade was changed to
15 seconds, to coordinate with a slow light fade. But other than that, no
changes have been made. No sound levels nor anything else has been altered
besides that fade length. Though we are having a problem with one of
the channels sometimes going out, but, that's a separate issue, that has to
do, I believe, with dust inside the mixing board.
Two more rehearsals to go, tonight, then tomorrow's
Final Dress,
and then the show is up.
By-the-way, the DV movie trailer is finished and out in cyberspace:
youtu.be/BM33P70CXHA.
Now that Tech Week
for The Price
at DTG
is wrapped,
the remixing and
remastering
should resume tomorrow, during the day. If not tomorrow, it'll be Sunday.
But I see no reason why it can't be tomorrow. The first order of business
is to lower the volume on the bass toward the end of "The Answer."
Next is dealing with the horn chart effects on "Cozy Cottage."
Whether or not all of that is done this weekend remains to be seen.
Late tomorrow night I will attend a student production in the
Wright State University Jubilee Directing Lab
of the play, Breaking the Shakespeare Code, by
John Minigan. The pay feature's
WSU acting students Zavi Odetta and Dylan Roll.
I made John's acquaintance a few years back at the 2018
FutureFest
weekend, where his play, Queen of Sad Mischance was one of the six
finalists.
I have a front row seat, albeit the far house-left seat. Still, it's a
good seat. It wasn't the first ticket I bought, however. The thing about
Fraze is that the seats in the front section are "plaze" seats,
and I always have it in my head that they are "orchestra seats."
So, when I frist ordered tickets I chose "orchestra" from the
pull-down menu and got Orchestra A, Row A, Seat 5 as the best choice. I
interpreted that as a front row seat. It wasn't. I didn't realize my
error until I got the confirmation email. I wasn't willing to accept that
seat, despite that it's not really a bad seat. I just figured I could still
do better. I went back in and got my Plaza C, Row AA, Seat 17 ticket
‐‐ FRONT
ROW!
I requested the cancellation of the orchestra seat and also a refund, and I
am grateful that both requests were approved ‐‐ otherwise this
Gaffigan show might have cost me twice as much, if I wasn't able to sell
the extra ticket.
My front row seat and my erroneous orchestra seat:
My anticipation about the recent progress of the album project may be
laced with a hefty dose of frustration, but still, there has been progress
made, even if some of it has involved steps backward before forward again.
This past weekend saw me
remixing and
remastering
both the pop/jazz ballad, "The Answer," and the jazz instrumental,
"Cozy Cottage".
I did remix the bass volume on "The Answer," as planned. As well,
I slightly remixed the drums, primarily by pushing the volume of their
introduction, which occurs going into the first bridge, by about a decibel
or so. I also brought up the volume on both piano parts for the ending
section, to enhance the rockin' outro. That all happened Saturday night &
early Sunday morning, right before and right after I was at the
Wright State University Jubilee Directing Lab
to watch John Minigan's play,
Breaking the Shakespeare Code, *(see the blog entry, below).
During the day proper on Sunday, I worked on "Cozy Cottage." The
big job was to fix the sound of the horn chart, which was phasing with a
dynamic pulsing that was drawing far too much attention to itself. Some of
that process was reducing the reverb on the whole horn chart. I also
adjusted some volume levels for individual instruments in that chart, was
well as in various spots in the piece for the drums kit and the bass. Also
I slightly tweaked the
EQ
on the bass. For several tracks, I altered the
compressor
and limiter settings.
In the mastering project for this one, I again tweaked the compressor and
limiter, as well as the
Linear Phase EQ.
I thinking that I may re-render this master version, as volume of the
finished track might need boosted just slightly.
I do believe that "Medley: The Death of the..../Memories of the Times
Before/Memories Endbit/The Death of the (reprise)" is next on the
agenda. This one will take a bit of work. I might start on it tonight and
work on it throughout the week. Although I do have an acting gig this
coming Saturday morning for U.D. Law,
for which I need to study the facts and figures. That will have to take up
a bit of my time budget this week.
OPENING WEEKEND:
To the best of my knowledge, Opening Weekend went well for
The Price.
I was only there for the
opening night performance,
as the house manager,
and I know the audience seemed to like the show. I assume that held over
for the next two performances.
BREAKING BARD:
Late Saturday night, I saw the student production of the play, Breaking
the Shakespeare Code, by
John Minigan, which was presented
in the
Wright State University Jubilee Directing Lab.
The play featured WSU acting students Zavi Odetta and Dylan Roll. I enjoyed
both Minigan's script, which I found quite good, and the performance of the
two young actors, who did John's words justice.
As I wrote before, I met John, who's a
Bay Stater, at
FutureFest 2018,
here in the Dayton, Ohio area,
where his play, Queen of Sad Mischance, was one of the six finalists.
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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.
