I'm still making more
director'sscript study
passes through the play, still focusing on characters more than other
things, but not ignoring them either. In the other aspects, I'm
especially noting where I might or might not put
production music
and specific
sound effects.
That idea that I might compose the production music is pretty much
becoming the overwhelming likelihood. The scene change music will
be quite short, and may be bass guitar work. There's also a suggestion
in the script of a particular known song to go out of Act 1, and
I'm seriously thinking recording an instrumental cover of that
song for tha spot. Then I might stick the original recording in as
the first song of the
intermission music.
So, I'll be finally
pulling my music equipment out again, and sometime soon, I'd say.
Now to also be going on to filling out the production staff.
At my desk in my office space, reading and making
notes in my large-print copy of the Wednesday's
Child script.
ANOTHER
VACATION
& RECREATION EVENT UP:
It took a few weeks of off-and-on work, but I now have the pages
for my
Spring Vacation
2022 done and up on the site.
I believe I have already explained that I will be gradually
transferring many blog entries into this new subcategory of
Vacation
& Recreation. But the
first thing will be to move forward and add the things since
Spring Vacation
2022. Next will be my
Summer Staycation
2022, which will include my thrid time seeing stand-up comic
Jim Gaffigan, a camping
trip to
Caesar Creek State Park,
and also my third time seeing seeing
Sheryl Crow in concert.
That will be followed by
FutureFest 2022,
and then my September camping trip to
Stonelick State Park,
which includes a stop at the very cool
Loveland Castle & Museum (Chateau Laroche).
After that I'll backtrack and transfer
vacations
and more elaborate reports of my attendance at shows (theatre,
concerts, etc.) from regular blog entries to
Vacation
& Recreation. Of course, you
can count on none of this occuring in any sort of quick, timely manner.
It's gonna be another case of in a gradual manner.
Well, some production crew staffing is still in the air, but the
effort to fill those positions is still underway. Meanwhile other
preproduction
is progressing.
The passes through, reading the play, doing all sorts of different
script study
is continuing. I'm still paying attention to
character analysis,
as well as now focusing more on technical and mechanical things,
such as where specific costume needs will be needed, some initial
ideas about light focus on particular parts of the set, some thoughts
on set geography, looking at
set piece
and prop
needs, and
sound design
needs (SFX
& production music).
Next week I'll meet with our
scenic designer,
Red Newman, to discuss the set design. Of course, I'll bring in my
concepts for the stage, but will certainly be open to whatever ideas
comes from his fertile, creative mind. There are a couple things I
have in mind that are a must, but I can't conceive he'll have a problem
with those concepts; and I look forward to the magic he's going to
bring to the table.
Though sound design has not technically began, I am forming concepts
as I do my script study. I've already written that I plan to compose
production music for the show, certainly the
opening music
and the
curtain call music,
but also scene transition music. Unless something happens to change
my mind, I believe the music is all, or mostly, going to be
bass-guitar based compositions and performances. There are some
specific sound effects
that may be a part of some of the music, but I haven't made
my mind up on that just yet. As to whether it'll be bass guitar
only or if other instruments will be involved, such as a programmed
drum kit part, I don't know that yet, either, though I'm leaning
toward at least some of the scene-transition music being bass only.
The scene-transition music pieces will usually be short. There won't
often be a need for anything longer than perhaps ten seconds. They
are often going to be there solely as markers for specific sorts of
shifts in the story, especially time bounces. I'll be making decisions
about exactly what mood and feel each transition needs in
presently-upcoming script-study readings.
I am also noting what other sound effects are needed, both those
that the script specifically calls for and those my sound designer
instincts will feel should be added.
The casting call
for the show states, "stay tuned for the availability of
audition asides,
which will be coming by mid July." Clearly it's time to get on
those. Picking the sides and making them available is an eminent
priority. The casting call also says "Auditions will consist
of cold readings from the script," which for those who've
grabbed the sides, will not necessarily be true ‐‐ more
like slightly-chilled to room-temperature readings
‐‐ but I'll bet a lot of auditioning actors will not have
downloaded the sides, so it will be cold readings for them.
More script analysis, again at my desk in my apartment
office space, last Saturday evening.
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES:
There are a couple acting gig possibilities coming up. One is
professional (i.e.: there's a paycheck) and is pretty much a lock.
The other is non-professional and will involve an
audition,
so, is not a lock.
The paying gig will be acting in a troupe for this year's Dayton
Art in the City
festival on August 5. Like last August,
The Human Race will
be doing a Playwright Race ‐‐ a 24-hour play, where a
suggestion for a play scripts will be taken by playwrights on
Friday evening, then each playwright, a director, and a small cast
will meet and discuss. Then playwrights will write a short plays,
overnight. Then each group will meet Saturday morning and rehearse.
Then in the afternoon at the festival, the troupes will perform the
plays several times in different locations in downtown Dayton. I
did it last year and it was a blast.
The non-pro gig, which will likely involve a
screentest,
possibly a
DIY screentest,
will be for a locally-produced
web series.
However, a big issue for me is schedule conflicts. The producers
hope to wrap the project before the end of 2023, and I have chunks
of time where I won't be available, especially during
rehearsals
for Wednesday's Child.
I've been encouraged to still audition as there is flexibility.
THE PHYSICAL CD DILEMMA:
I keep forgetting to mention this, but as of last month,
CD Baby is only distributing
digital versions of albums and singles. They have stopped dealing
with physical CDs.
Thus, at the moment, the only way to purchase a CD of
my album or its singles
is through me, personally. And, unfortunately, at this immediate
moment that does not include any sort of on-line purchase unless
you were to email me and we work out
a transaction plan (payment, delivery, yadda yadda).
I'll be making myself familiar with how to do
PayPal transactions
as a short-term solution ‐‐ I do have an account.
I'll also be soon finally setting up a commerce page here at the website.
I need to first finally get the site verified and certified and made
more secure. And I need to get with GoDaddy
to get the commerce page set up. I'd like to get them to help me set
up an email contact form, too. I've tried putting form code on a
page several times and not been successful.
My big gripe about contacting GoDaddy is that I want to get help
from a warm body, and it's damn near impossible, as far as my
experience has been, to finally get past the help pages and chatbots
to connect with an actual human being.
Nevertheless, the plan from the start of the move to the new
domain service was to get the commerce page up and running, so it's
past time for that to happen. This CD distribution issue has just
been the impetus.
Last night I had a brief meeting with Director Jeff Sams about the
sound design for the
Beavercreek Community Theatre
mounting of
Bright Star,
by Steve Martin &
Edie Brickell.
I'll start working on it a bit more earnestly in couple weeks.
Truthfully, it's going to be a pretty easy show in terms of sound
design.
I am not yet a member of either of these unions. At
the moment I'm just a lowly
EMC.
But I have friends and acquaintances who are members
of at least one of the unions, and some of them,
both. I wholly support their strike and their beefs
about the wholesale bullshit that's being offered
to them, especially the AI aspects that the studios
want to shove down their throats. Plus, neither
actors nor writers are getting fair compensation
for streaming and downloads, and other formats.
Even if I never can join either of these unions,
(though I hope I do), I don't like seeing my friends
get screwed.
The audition sides for
Wednesday's Child
are now available, here.
My attempt was to pick scenes, or portions of scenes, so that the
culmination will explore the emotional range of each of the
characters. In the end, I created eighteen sides. I then was going
to scrutinize them and maybe trim the number down, but decided to
not do that. Some of the sides are pretty short. In fact there's
only one that is exceptionally long, but it employs all but one
character. I simply want to give the actors the opportunity to show
me the full range of the characters. I know I often am in auditions
and think to myself that there were other places in the script that
would have given the director a fuller sense of my and the other
actor's ability to play the breadth of the character's emotional
life. So, I picked eighteen cuttings. And, anyway, I believe I've
been to an audition or two with more.
As for sound design, as I wrote above, the big focus of recent has
been making notes about what sort of production music should go into
the show. More specifically, what should I be composing? My notes
have thusfar stayed on the concept that many of the scene transition
compositions should be bass guitar work, some with, some without
the accompaniment of other instruments. There are also a few places
where I am probably going to use some new-age-like music I created
a few years back. I only have so far gotten through the end of
Act 1, as I had to switch my main focus to the audition sides. The
plan right now is to finish this task tomorrow, and perhaps even
pull out the music equipment and begin some composing.
Though I don't want to go into detail at the moment, I will say
that I am thinking about adding another sort of expert to the
production staff. I just need to get a good referral for someone
who's good at the particular service. I know a few people who will
probably be able to steer me in the right direction.
Late afternoon, yesterday, I met with our
scenic designer,
Red Newman, to share and coordinate ideas and concepts, and to begin
plans for the design of the set.
We had a good meeting. Red brought in a great concept that I am very
much on board with. It's kind of both not at all what I had in mind
yet very much in line with what I had in mind. I'd explain that but
then I'd have to give you spoilers about the set that I don't wanna.
There are still some things to work out, some specifics of Red's
initial floor plan, some logistics for the
staging
of the show, as well some determination of such things as
set pieces.
But we have a bit of time to deliberate and negotiate these things.
Maybe I'm not done with the initial notations of what
sound effects
the show needs, and when I need
production music,
and at least to some extent the mood of that music (based on what
scenes each piece falls between). If not, I'm close. I'll surely go
back and reassess, but probably on the fly as I begin to actually
compose and record the music. Disclosure: I have not moved off the
concept of this transition music being pieces that feature the
bass guitar, with little or no accompaniment.
However, I have decided to come out of Act 1 with a recording by
another artist. I also have several options of music by other artists
for the curtain call music.
I was planning on composing and recording the curtain call music
myself, and I suppose it's early enough that such is not completely
off the table, but the choices I have right now by other artists
are compelling.
The composition and recording of my music for the show has not
started, yet. Though, maybe some composition has begun since
I have heard bass line ideas in my head for various scene
transitions. The actual process of pulling out the equipment and
working directly on this task will soon start, perhaps before we
get to the weekend.
Meanwhile, more passes through the script for more
text study
are on-going, still taking all aspects of the production, from
character analysis
through all the different technical considerations, into account.
This will be a major part of the rest of my summer. I intend to
walk into the
rehearsal process
with a strong understanding and interpretation of
St. Germain's
text and that text's story, and I hope not understanding and
interpretation that betrays St. Germain's text.
Further steps have been taken to bring in another person to briefly
help behind the scenes. Again, I guess I'm "vague-blogging"
as I don't want to go into the specifics of this aspect. I probably
won't really delve very deep into commentary on this element until
I get to the
post-mortem
stage of this experience, in late November.
Already I've been contacted by a few women and am aware of a few
others whom I know are auditioning or are considering auditioning.
As of yet, however, I am not aware of any men, save for one. There
are two good roles for men in this show. All the roles are
ones that actors can sink their teeth into. For any Dayton-local,
non-AEA
male actors who might happen to be reading this, click on the
link just below and check out the specs for Martin Merrit (late
30s-mid 40s) and Det. Walt Dixon (50s-mid 60s) ‐‐ and note
that the specified age ranges are what the actors can credibly sell,
not necessarily their real ages.
A DAYTON THEATRE WEEKEND:
This coming weekend will be a weekend of theatre awards for me and
the Dayton theatre community in general. This is especially true
for those of us associated with DTG,
as on Saturday we will have our annual smorgasbord gathering that
features our in-house theatre awards, the Murphys. Then Sunday will
be the annual banquet for the Dayton theatre community in general,
the
Daytony Awards and Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame inductions.
Obviously, I don't know who will be taking home any awards at either
affair. However, the inductees into The Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame
have been announced. One will be long-time Guild boardmember, Debra
Kent. The other will be Marjorie Strader, who's been involved in
quite a few Guild productions. Both of these women with whom I have
worked a bit.
Debra is a local actress but she also is a local theatre
director
who usually directs one show at The Guild each season, also
occasionally directs at
Beavercreek Community Theatre,
and has directed plays for the
Dayton Playhouse's
new play festival,
FutureFest.
She also has served as chairman for The Guild's play reading
committee for several years. I believe that I have been the
producer
for all the shows Debra has directed at DTG.
I'm happy to see both these women making it into the Hall of Fame.
POTENTIAL ON-SCREEN
NON-PAYING GIG:
Though I don't know hardly any details, I have been made aware of
an opportunity to work on an
indy film,
in Columbus at the end of the month. I've been referred to the
producers
who will contact me shortly. Again, I know almost nothing about
the project except that it's
no-budget movie,
or at least, that there is no paycheck for my involvement. But, I'm
still game, as long as it won't be marketed for profit. I'm not on
board with working for free if the production is expecting a
financial return.
At the Sunday matinée, I attended as an audience member and
found the performances quite entertaining.
Annie Pesch directed. Her cast was a collection of talented local
women, (On Fire):
Gail Andrews Turner, Shanna Camacho, Becky Howard, Barbara Jorgensen,
Jane McBride, Fran Pesch, Jackie Pfeifer, Kerry Simpson, and
Gayle Smith.
There's only one song left, the song I knew from the moment I realized
I was making an album was going to close it, and almost was
the title cut. After that, I may still have commentary on the album.
Exactly what it will be, I can't say.
The Dayton
Art in the City
festival Playwright Race, put on by the
The Human Race is a
confirmed go! We actors, directors, and playwrights will meet Friday
evening, August 4 to team up and get the concepts for each teams
ten-minute play.
Then the teams will meet and discuss; then the playwright will pull
an all nighter to write the script. We then meet Saturday morning to
rehearse. Next, all teams gather together for "Show and
Tell," with each team performing their play on
The Loft stage.
Then we'll all be off to hit the streets to do our plays several
times in several locations during the Art in Dayton Festival.
If you're close by the Dayton area, you should come down and check
the whole affair out!
As of yet I have not heard from the producers of whatever is this
project that has
principal photography
next weekend in Columbus. It's possible they have already met their
needs.
I also haven't yet auditioned for the local
web series
I wrote of on July 11. I probably am going to follow through, though,
again, as I wrote before, there may be scheduling conflicts.
THE DAYTON THEATRE HALL OF FAME & DAYTONY AWARDS:
Here's to Debra Kent and Marjorie Strader, the two 2023 inductees
into the Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame.
And here's to all those who took home a DayTony award last night.
CLICK HERE for
the list of the award winners and pictures from the gala.
As for preshow and intermission music, as well as candidates for
the curtain call music,
I have thought of a couple more recording artists that are right in
the wheel-well of what I'm looking for. For this show, all the
vocalized music, preshow, intermission, or production, will be by
female artists.
I've already chosen the song that is taking us out of Act 1 and into
intermission ‐‐ it's a cover of a song that is quite
appropriate for that spot, but the original recording has a male
vocalist. I was able to find a good cover with a female vocalist.
Already, I have several female artists to choose from for all this
music, and now I have a couple more names to add. Tomorrow I'm going
on an expedition to get recordings for both this show and for
Bright Star ,
for which, of course, I'm also the sound designer. It's sort of but
really not multitasking.
BRIGHT SOUND IN THE WORKS:
Wednesday night I dropped by the
Bright Starrehearsal
to check a few things out. I needed to scope out channel assignments
for the Lavalier mics,
as well as other channel assignments, and what channels might
be free. I also needed to do some inventory of what equipment is
there and where it's at. Plus, I needed to see where the orchestra
will be and where back stage that back-stage singers might be placed.
I got most of my answers.
Though I haven't officially began to curate the
preshow
and intermission,
I do have a really good idea of what I'm going to do for both.
Gathering the music together is on my agenda for tomorrow.
NEW CONCEPTS & OVER-DUE COMPLETIONS:
Though I have no immediate plans for a major project of new music,
save for the production music for
Wednesday's Child,
I have had a couple ideas for new songs come to me recently.
Both are pretty bare-boned at the moment, one, really more of a
concept with nothing but the title and a strategy for writing the
lyrics, but with only a vague idea for music, even for genre. The
other song idea is only a stanza and a half of lyrics, with no
current concept of the music.
I still have a whole, thirty-something-year-old album to mix and
master ‐‐ plus adding a bass line to one of its songs
(or maybe to more songs).
PLAYWRIGHT WORK ‐‐
IS THERE A FULL-OUT REWRITE IN THE FUTURE? MAYBE, MAYBE NOT:
I'm flirting with the idea of restructuring how I tell the story in
my play manuscript. I'm talking a fairly big
rewrite.
I would not change the story but if I succumb to this flirtation
the structure would definitely change greatly.
It's a thought, but not one I am sold on. I have some reluctance;
it's fair to say I have resistance to this idea. Yet, it has
occurred to me, so I'm not dismissing it out of hand.
The thing is, there is a challenge to revising the play with the
structure it has to get it to the place where it tells the story
well. It is, however, written right now in a way that some find
difficult or unappealing. There are going to be some readers and/or
audience members who aren't going care for it in its current structure.
So what? Pleasing everyone, even every‐thoughtful‐one means
compromising down to mediocrity, and
FUCK that!
And I can name people who will not care for the play in its current
structure. There's a lot of memory dialogue, exposition. But it's
really as much exposition for the characters as it for the audience;
in fact, it's more so for the characters. It's these people finally
learning things; it's really the point of the story, these characters'
discoveries about each other, especially two of them.
I could write flashback scenes, but most all of the memories are
from when they are all much younger, and that would entail either
double casting each character with a younger and older actor, or
have the adult actors take on the personas of the child versions.
I don't want to do either. Plus it would mean that there would need
to be other characters cast, and I don't want that, either.
There is a less extensive rewrite, almost more of a
revision
border-lining on a rewrite, that I probably am going to do.
It keeps the current concept and structure, adds or removes no
information, but pumps up the conflict in the early part of the play.
Another thing that I know many people will have a problem with is
that there are a lot of
off-stage characters,
and some people simply don't like that, especially the number that
are in my play. I have already gotten such feedback. That's just
too bad. I don't have such a problem when off-stage characters are
in a play I see, and I don't have a problem putting them in mine.
So, this flirtation with restructuring the play is likely to stay
a flirtation and never make it to an affair. But, it's not totally
dismissed as of yet.
Of course, when I get around to sitting down and opening up
Final Draft to make any
changes is another question.
STREET THEATRE IN DAYTON ‐‐ (That YOU Can
Help With):
Just a reminder about the Dayton
Art in the City
festival Playwright Race, put on by the
The Human Race is
this coming Saturday afternoon in
Downtown Dayton, and
that I'm one of the players.
We actors, directors, and playwrights will meet this Friday
evening to team up and get the concepts for each teams
ten-minute play.
Then the teams will meet and discuss; then the playwright will pull
an all nighter to write the script. We then meet Saturday morning
to rehearse. Next, all teams gather together for "Show and
Tell," with each team performing their play on
The Loft stage.
Then we'll all be off to hit the streets to do our plays several
times in several locations during the Art in Dayton Festival.
The DaytonArt in the City
Festival Playwright Race, put on by the
The Human Race Theatre Company
is tomorrow afternoon. The
playwrights,
directors,
PAs,
and we actors
will meet this evening at
The Loft Theatre
to get our teams assigned and find out what scenarios for each of our
ten-minute plays
will be. Although I understand that they may be more like
five-minute plays. I can't remember how long the one I was
in last year was, but it seems it was closer to ten.
This is a fun street theatre
event. All my co-conspirators and I had a blast at last year's
Art in the City and I expect it will be the same this year. To be
honest, there were times when we didn't catch people's attentions
because there were other things happening close by, such as a
concert at the Levitt Pavilion,
or there otherwise was a lot of street noise to compete with. But,
when we did capture attention, our audiences clearly enjoyed the
performances. I think the gamble is part of the thrill: Will
this next one come off? Will it be a good location? Will anyone
care what we're doing? Sounds abusive, but, hey, I've done a
reader's theatre
performance to a barely interested audience of one; once we did
a whole script to an empty room (in case someone did wander
in); and I've done several to very small audiences (3-6). Still liked
the experience, believe it or not. It's like a badge or a medal
that you earn as an actor.
But, tomorrow, we are going to
WOW at least
some of those folk on the street, at least at a few of our
stops, by gosh!
PREPRODUCTION SLOGS ONWARD:
I'm still cycling through passes of the text doing
script study
as Mr. Director Boy,
and still looking at all aspects of production and making
relevant notes as I go.
My recent attempt to procure some music by specific artists for
preshow,
intermission,
and, potentially,
production music
was not as successful as I'd hoped. I tried a local public library,
which had no music by any of the artists I was specifically looking
for. I did grab one CD by an artist I hadn't thought of. Her music
may make it into preshow or intermission, but nothing on that album
will work as the
curtain call music,
so nothing will make that list of choices. And, of course, I have
now thought of another obvious female artist that for some reason
ad not already occurred to me.
Meanwhile, though I have not yet sat down to compose or record any
of the original production music, I have made quite a few more
notes about mood and tone of specific music in specific spots.
BRIGHT SOUND WORK CONTINUES:
The curation of music for
preshow
and intermission
has begun; though I may not need music for preshow as there may be
a chance that the production orchestra (i.e.: band) will be playing
it live. I'll get a confirmation one way or the other shortly.
Meanwhile I have a relatively comprehensive list of the needed
sound effects
and where they go in the script. Unless I'm mistaken, I have everything
in my SFX library
already ‐‐ though I am contemplating doing some
Foley
work for one particular ambient sound need. I can do it right from
my patio at home.
Okay, technically more than only One Performance, still only
One Performance Day
The DaytonArt in the City
Festival is happening this afternoon in Downton Dayton. And, if you
didn't already know,
The Human Race Theatre Company
is producing some
street theatre
in the manner of a Playwright Race, as they did ast year. And, like
last year, I will be one of the players.
We all met last evening at
The Loft Theatre,
the playwrights,
the directors,
the PAs,
and we actors,
to get our teams assigned and our scenarios for each of our short
play ‐‐ (I've been referring to them as
ten-minute plays,
but they really will be "five"-minute plays). I am,
by-the-way, part of Team 5.
I won't give any substantive info about the story prompt for the
short play ur team will be doing. Frankly, I haven't seen the script
yet, I won't until later this morning after I've arrived at The Race
for rehearsal. But, I do know the basic premise; now to see what
our playwright, Jill Summerville, does with the concept. Our team's
director, by-the-way, is Matthew Smith. Steven Mongelli is our PA.
My fellow actors on Team 5 are Jamie Cordes and Addi Helms.
Here is the schedule/locations of our performances:
3:00 Dayton Arcade (4th St entrance)
3:45 Courthouse Square (steps)
4:30 PNC Arts Annex (front)
5:15 Dayton Metro Library (3rd St entrance)
6:00 Oregon District Arch (on Pine St)
*Each team will rotate at being the first up. Team 5 begins in
the last position (fifth), then moves up to fourth, and etc., etc.,
to be #1 for the 6:00 performances.
Me, Jamie Cordes, & Addi Helms performing at
the Playwright Race Show‐&‐Tell at
The Human Race Theatre Company on Saturday afternoon
before we headed to the festival for our street
performances.
Some of you reading this already know that Friday evening
the playwrights,
the directors,
the PAs,
and we actors,
met at The Loft Theatre
to assign actors to one of the five teams and for each playwright
to get their prompt ideas for their scripts. The players and prompts
were picked by lottery. The results were the following five teams
and their five-minute, pop-up plays:
Team 1: "Did You Read It?" (from the prompt of the
novel Lessons in Chemestry and one other novel title that
I can't recall) ‐‐
Kelsey Celek (Playwright), Christine Brunner (Director), Gale
Krakorka (PA), Andrew Ian Adams (Actor), Bryana Bentley (Actor),
& Shaun Diggs (Actor)
Team 2: "A Midsummer Night's Silliness" (obviously
based on the prompt of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream) ‐‐
Christine Duncan (Playwright), Tim Lile (Director), Becky Howard
(PA), Erin Butcher (Actor), Jason Podplesky (Actor) & Robb
Willoughby (Actor)
Team 3: "A Rock and a Hard Place" (based on the prompt
of the folktale The Stone Cutter) ‐‐
Chris Leyva (Playwright), Annie Pesch (Director), Brian Buttrey
(PA), Rico Parker (Actor), Fran Pesch (Actor) & Libby
Scancarello (Actor)
Team 4: (untitled) (based on the prompts of Greek mythology
& Agamemnon) ‐‐
Jake Lockwood (Playwright), Saul Caplan (Director), Sarah Caplan
(PA), Emma Alexander (Actor), Kiersten Farmer (Actor) & Marva
Williams-Parker (Actor)
Team 5: "Covered in Dirt" (Based on the prompt of the
novel Sense and Sensibility) ‐‐
Jill Summerville (Playwright), Matthew Smith (Director), Steven
Mongelli (PA), Jamie Cordes (Actor), Addi Helms (Actor), &
K.L.Storer (Actor)
*Who the f___ is that last dude
in Team 5?
Our Team 5 playwright, Jill Summerville, was one of two who had to
work the weekend remotely; the other being Jake Lockwood (Team 4),
who is in Florida. Jill is in the area but could not attend in person.
She and our director, Matthew Smith were in contact via phone calls
and texts during the whole process.
Addi was cast as Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bennet, Jaime as George Wickham,
and I as William Darcey, all from the novel. Of course, the take
of our play was a send up and the big twist was that the wildness
of William's character was represented him being a werewolf. Yep,
I spent a good portion of the five-minute play as a werewolf. The
idea was put across to the audiences by my voice, my physicality,
and a pair of wolf ears I was provided, those being the only
costuming
or prop
in our presentation. It was a fun little script to put on and I had
a lot fun playing with Ms. Helms and with Jaime, the latter whom I
have worked with once before, back in 2013, in
Michale Slade'sGingerbread Children at the Human Race.
In fact, our director, Matthew Smith was also in that cast.
Yes, our performances were a lot of fun, both performing our Team 5
play and witnessing the four other plays. But there are some challenges
to street theatre.
The biggest challenge, especially during an outdoor festival is
competing noises. That can mean other festival events such as bands
performing close-by to the spot where your troupe has been assigned
to be. In urban locations, where most street theatre takes place,
there's also traffic: loud engines like motorcycles, police or
ambulance sirens, yadda yadda. Sometimes there's also a quite
compelling event somewhere near, happening at the same time and
drawing the festival attendees' attention. We had all of these issues
at one point or another yesterday, along with there just being so much
congestion at one spot where we were supposed to be that we had to
slightly alter our location from the assigned one. The weather can
also be an obstacle, either rain or heat and humidity, even strong
wind. But it's all part of the game of performing on the street.
Saturday the weather wasn't too awful. It was a bit hot at times,
but last year it was hotter and quite humid with practically no
breeze. We also got rain last year for a little bit, but just long
enough to aggravate the humidity. Last Saturday's weather was much
kinder, in the end.
My big personal issue was that I did not either do proper
vocal warm-ups
nor proper physical warm-ups.
More to the point, I didn't do any of either, and I paid for it. My
William/werewolf spent most of the five minutes using a gruff, gravely
voice, and one big ol' howl, and I did a bit of a physical workout.
Mind you, the physicality wasn't horribly demanding, but for this
sixty-something, slightly out-of-shape dude who did not stretch or
otherwise warm his body up ahead of time, it was demanding to a certain
extent. My voice was not sufficiently warmed up, either. I ended
the day with sore legs, a sore lower back, and a sore throat. All of
it was preventable had I done my warm-ups as I should have. No
regrets though. I still had a blast and the audiences seems to
enjoy us all.
The Race plans to do the Playwright Race at next year's Art in the
City Festival, and if they again approach me and my schedule allows,
I'll be there!
It's possible that I will be adding more photos from
the event, here, at later dates, as I become aware
of them and am able to grab them and post them.
My team, Team 5: Steven Mongelli (PA),
Matthew Smith (Director), me (Actor), Addi
Helms (Actor), & Jamie Cordes (Actor);
not pictured‐ Jill Summerville
(Playwright)
‐‐ Photo credit: Human Race Theatre Co.
Our team in Friday night discussion of
our prompt idea
‐‐ Photo credit: Human Race Theatre Co.
Rehearsing Saturday morning; Addi & I,
with Steven & Jaime in the foreground
‐‐ Photo credit: Human Race Theatre Co.
Our theatre version of
craft service
during the Saturday morning rehearsal period.
‐‐ Photo credit for 1-3: Human Race Theatre Co.
The Human Race staff active in the Playwright
Race: Tara Lail (Creative Producer),
Tiffany Countryman (Engagement & Learning
Coordinator), & Emily N. Wells (Artistic
Director)
‐‐ Photo credit: Human Race Theatre Co.
Our Team 5 director, Matthew Smith, announcing
us at the Show‐&‐Tell.
‐‐ Photo credit: Human Race Theatre Co.
Me & Addi performing at Court House Square
‐‐ Photo credit: Ken Harnish
Still me & Addi at Court House Square, with Jamie
joining us in the last photo
‐‐ Photo credit for 1-3: Ken Harnish
Team 1: Shaun Diggs (Actor), Kelsey Celek
(Playwright), Christine Brunner (Director),
Bryana Bentley (Actor), Andrew Ian Adams
(Actor), & Gale Krakorka (PA)
‐‐ Photo credit: Human Race Theatre Co.
Team 2: Becky Howard (PA), Tim Lile (Director),
Robb Willoughby(Actor), Christine Duncan
(Playwright), Erin Butcher (Actor), &
Jason Podplesky (Actor)
‐‐ Photo credit: Human Race Theatre Co.
Team 3: Libby Scancarello (Actor), Fran Pesch
(Actor), Chris Leyva (Playwright), Annie Pesch
(director), Rico Parker (Actor), & Brian
Buttrey (PA)
‐‐ Photo credit: Human Race Theatre Co.
Team 4: Kiersten Farmer (Actor), Emma Alexander
(Actor), Marva Williams-Parker (Actor),
Saul Caplan (Director), Sarah Caplan (PA);
not pictured‐ Jake Lockwood
(Playwright)
‐‐ Photo credit: Human Race Theatre Co.
Saul Caplan introducing his Team 4 at the
Show‐&‐Tell
‐‐ Photo credit: Human Race Theatre Co.
Andrew, Bryana, & Shaun during Team 1
rehearsal
‐‐ Photo credit: Kelsey Celek
Robb, Erin, & Jason (Team 2), first performing
at the Show‐&‐Tell, then at Court
House Square.
‐‐ Photo credit for 1: Human Race
Theatre Company; 2-3: Ken Harnish
ANOTHER USEFUL, PRACTICAL TOY, IF NOT BOUGHT AT A PRACTICAL TIME:
It's not like I comfortably have the cashflow right now to do it.
Nevertheless, yesterday at lunch at the rent-payer,
I ordered a
Boss CEB-3 Bass Chorus Pedal,
along with an AC power adapter for it, from Sweetwater.
Recently I read something in a facebook
bass players group I belong to about how handy this pedal is.
It's been a while since I've bought something to add to my bass work,
hell, for my music in general. While reading the post about the Chorus
pedal, all I could think is how it would be most effective in some
of the scene-transition
production music
I'll soon be composing and recording for
Mark St. Germain'sWednesday's Child
at the Dayton Theatre Guild.
You know, the one I'm directing? It'll be most effective after that,
too.
The Boss pedal, with Boss
being a brand I like, was more affordable than some of the other
choices. It still was a little more than I'd wished before I got to
the site. I have to admit, though, I wasn't shocked at the number:
$129.99 ‐‐ "was $157.99!".
I have no doubt the other brands are good pedals, too, but the CEB-3
was more in my price range, with the whole purchase, pedal, power
adaptor, and sales tax, still coming in under $200.
The little dilemma, really quite little, is that it's going to arrive
at my work place no earlier than tomorrow, probably on Friday. I
will not be there until next Wednesday, and won't be able to drop
by. I will not have it in hand until I return to work next Wednesday.
Another quandary is that now I am thinking that I really need to
get a preamp pedal.
A preamp bass pedal is going to run in the neighborhood of
$250-$300‐plus. So, not something that I'll be
getting in the near future. I actually have an old analogue preamp,
from last century, that needs some repair, repair that I'd planned
on doing back in 2020 during the depths of the pandemic shutdown,
but didn't. I still could make the repairs, but, I am more
interested in a newer digital preamp.
What's been on my computer screen at the
rent-payer
whilst I've been out of the office.
Last Thursday, I went on
vacation
to Cowan Lake
for five nights/six days of camping. I was quite looking forward to
the trip, despite that there was rain predicted at a higher probability
on some days.
The plan was to do some kayaking at least once if not a couple times.
I also had a bit of an artist's retreat planned, where I would work on the
revision
if not at least partial rewrite
of my play manuscript. I also brought my
Wednesday's Child
script for potential
script study.
Having brought my laptop there was the chance of some work on the
sound design
for Bright Star
(opening soon at Beavercreek Community Theatre).
though these things didn't happen. Of course, hiking and fire pits
were part of the equation, too.
For a lot of what was palnned, this ended up being the
vacation
of things interrupted. First, Friday, I did go kayaking,
wanting to be on the lake for about four hours. I didn't make the
two hours that is the minimum rental charge for the kayak, however.
At about 90 minutes in, while trying to take a photo with my
iPhone, it stopped
functioning at all. It was quite wet from the kayaking adventure.
I went back to shore to dry it out, with the hope that it would
return to working. It did, by the way. Having eaten a bit of the
rental fee, I went back to camp, ate lunch, then took a hike on the
trail that was close to camp.
The second thing interrupted, was ultimately the entire trip to Cowan
Lake. Friday night I went into Wilmington to get ice for my cooler.
The next morning I could not find my wallet anywhere in my tent or
car. I drove to the Speedway where I brought the ice the night before
and no one had turned one in. I did a hail Mary search outside the
store to, of course, no avail.
When I got back to camp, I got on the phone and cancelled my credit
cards and then put a freeze on my credit. Having no cash on me for
further ice or firewood*, or anything else, and no immediate spending
power ‐‐ I had my checkbook, but no ID, staying at the
park wasn't looking good.
*) For the record, I had purchased 80 pieces of firewood
for my fire pits, more than a week prior to the trip, from
the same farmer I have been for several years. But could
not get any of the pieces to catch fire well, and I
ended up buying a couple bundles for Friday night's fire
pit from the park. And I knew I would have to do the same
for the rest of the fire pits on the trip. This is not the
first time I've had trouble getting his wood to burn, but
I've always managed to FINALLY get it started. This
time: no. So, I've decided that the 50¢ per piece of
wood isn't a good enough draw for me. From now on I budget
to spend a bit more for my fire wood for camping and cabin
vacations.
Yep, my
vacation
evolved into a
staycation.
I went home for the rest of my days off. On the way home, I stopped
at my sister's to write her a check for some cash to get me through
until my new cards arrive (no ID needed for Sis). Then I started
laying plans to replace my driver's license, and various other
credentials and cards that were in my wallet. I was not looking
forward to the hassle of the next few weeks.
However,
when I got home to my apartment there was a business card from a
local police officer asking me to call "about a missing wallet."
Someone in Wilmington had turned it in to the Wilmington Police. I
had to drive back 45 minutes one-way to retrieve it, but, you know
what? that was a small price to pay in time and gas to get my
credentials back. I may have already cancelled my credit cards, but
at least dealing with the BMV,
Social Security, the insurance
companies, AAA, etc.,
in terms of card replacements was no longer going to be necessary.
I just wish I knew who it was that turned it in. I'd send them a
reward.
For a couple reasons, I elected not to go back and re-make my camp,
though I had the lot until Tuesday at 1:00. Some of it had to do with
not really feeling like pitching the tent and setting up camp again.
But also there were things I could attend to during the new
staycation
phase that I would have had to rush at when I got home Tuesday
afternoon from camping. My ambitions were not completely realized,
but I recorded a bit of
voice acting
for DTG's upcoming
run of
August Wilson's Radio Golf,
which I would have had to rush to get to the show's
sound designer,
Sarah Saunders in time for her to easily work it into her design.
I never did do any work on my play manuscript, nor anything for
Bright Star, though I did conduct a bit of administrative
business for Wednesday's Child, via email, while I was still
at Cowan Lake.
As well, the
Boss CEB-3 Bass Chorus Pedal
which I ordered from Sweetwater
was delivered to the rent-payer
Thursday while I was on my way to the lake. I dropped by the office
on Subday and picked it up. Naturally, my goal was to plug that baby
in during staycation
time and play around a bit. Didn't happen. But you can bet it will
happen soon!
I decided to end my
vacation
days off with at least one more recreational-type event. So,
yesterday I went to
The Columbus Zoo. I hadn't
been there since before the COVID lockdown; in fact, it's been five
years. This was another thing that was interrupted, though not too
badly. The chance of rain was forecasted, and while I was there
there were times when it was lightly showering. But it started to
rain heavier so I cut my day short by about and hour or two. Still,
it was a nice day.
So, this was not the
vacation
I had planned, but it could have been worse.
Last night, after a couple day's wait, I finally gave my new
Boss CEB-3 Bass Chorus Pedal
its first test run. I tried out a few musical ideas I've had for
the production music
for Wednesday's Child.
Mostly though I was just getting to know the pedal a little bit.
I still have a bit more experimenting to do before action starts
happening.
Last night, playing around with the Chorus pedal,
daisy-chained in with my other pedals, which I
sometimes employed along with the new one in
various combinations.
BRIGHT SOUND ATTENTION:
Before playing with my new toy last night, I dropped into
BCT during the
Bright Starrehearsal.
The team was
working Act 1;
I had thought it would be a straight
run.
I ended up not staying very long, but I knew that the
musical director,
Lorri Topping, had some technical questions for me. I still have to
find out the answer to several of them. If you've been here before
you are aware that I don't know the BCT sound system set-up terribly
well, and I almost know nothing about their mixing board. But these
are questions that need to be answered ‐‐ and I can't
believe that one of them hadn't already occurred to me
SLIGHT BUT IMPORTANT CHANGE TO THE SITE:
It's been a little longer coming than I'd hoped, but
klstorer.com is now
SSL secured.
This means I may start doing some attempted commerce at the site.
Well, the auditions
for Wednesday's Child
(by Mark St. Germain)
are coming up; they're just a short thirteen days away. I'm anxious
to get back to script study,
which has had to take a back seat while I concentrated on the
soundwork
for Bright Star,
opening Sep 1 at
Beavercreek Community Theatre.
I want to get back to script analysis for auditions and because
rehearsals
begin in less than three weeks, and I'd rather have had more time
and effort put into scrutinizing the text than I've had these last
few weeks.
I've met with the
scenic designer,
Red Newman, a couple times, and we both just met with the
lighting designer,
Marjorie Starder, along with the show's
producer,
Scott Madden. The set is still not carved in stone, but the concept
is pretty much formed. Scott and I also discussed a couple specific
prop
needs as well as having found our
prop manager,
who happened to be at the theatre working on the current show. So,
Sarah Saunders, who will also be our
sound technician,
is on board for props.
AT THE CORNER:
Monday night I was on hand at the
tech rehearsal
for August Wilson's Radio Golf
to shoot the footage for the
promotional trailer.
I didn't stay for the whole run, just long enough to get enough
interesting movement from all the cast members. I wasn't able to
secure permission to use dialogue in the trailer, so
mos
footage has to suffice for this one. Though I didn't see a whole
lot of the rehearsal, I can tell you that the actors are doing an
excellent job and this one will be well worth seeing.
DTG is definitely
opening 2023/2024 strongly.
Sunday evening I attended the
sitzprobe
for Bright Star. Beyond being impressed with the band
‐‐ and the singers ‐‐ I also had a few
questions arise concerning
sound design.
The questions that arose for me are not regarding
SFX
but rather microphone issues. Without going into detail I have what
may be an unfounded concern that will either be verified or
invalidated sometime soon.
Meanwhile I have harvested, and some cases,
built,
sound effects for the show. I've also curated and processed most
of the intermission music;
I still may add just a few more songs to the play list.
The Bright Star,
BCT company kicked off
Tech Week,
yesterday, with
Tech Sunday.
I had come in on Saturday and spent a good portion of the day at
the theatre, programming and implementing the
SFX,
as well as other sound-related stuff. We also had an early
dry tech
yesterday, before the cast arrived. So, I again, spent a good part
of the day at the theatre.
Not all tech elements were incorporated yesterday, but will be tonight.
There are still some questions about exactly what mics need to be
on during certain songs. My hope is that I flush that out at tonight's
rehearsal.
The show opens this Friday.
SHOW SEEMS TO BE OFF TO A GREAT START:
I was one of the
house managers
Friday evening, so I didn't really attend to the performance, as is
the usual case. But the response from the audience was tremendously
positive. And even though it is a two-hour-forty minute show, a
quite large portion of that
Opening Night
audience stayed for the
Opening Night Gala, and
not just for a few minutes. Most of them stayed for 45 minutes to
an hour. This is a strong indicator of a high audience approval
for the show.
ON "TEMPORARY" HOLD, ONLY:
No progress toward
Wednesday's Child
has been made. I do have a meeting scheduled this week with my
stage manager.
As soon as Bright Star is on its legs, I'll be focusing on
this one.
I had a brief sit-down with Doug Patten, the Wednesday's Childproduction stage manager
to get him up-to-speed on a few things from some recent
production meetings
he had to miss due to conflicts; and, we otherwise got on the same
page in general.
And, of course, auditions are this coming Tuesday and Wednesday,
at 7:00 both nights at the theatre. I'm in the process of prepping
all the documents, etc., for Tuesday. I still am only aware of a few
men who are planning to audition, far less than the women I am
aware of. But, I have myself, as an actor, for whatever reason, not
told (or, maybe, not "warned") the director of my plans to
audition, and I think some actors simply never announce their intentions.
So I'm hoping I have some good choices to choose from from all genders.
Otherwise, a big portion of this long weekend will be dedicated to
me getting back to the
script study
that had to be put on a back-burner while I dealt with Bright
Star. First off, I just want to dig even deeper into the story
and the characters. There are also still some production decisions
I need to make, in one case, our
costume designer,
Barb Jorgensen, has some questions I need to answer. And there are
light transitions I need to consider to consult about with our
lighting designer,
Marjorie Strader ‐‐ the recent
Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame
inductee, Marjorie Strader. There's other production minutia
to ponder as I re-read the script. So, it's getting several reads
this weekend.
I know there's probably a tinge of bias here, since I am part of
the production team, but I believe I am righteous in declaring this
a really excellent production. It starts off with strong material;
Martin and Brickell's book, lyrics and music are top notch. Jeff
Sams' direction is also strong, as are the performances of the
cast in general. And some performances are just down-right excellent.
Add on the beautiful set and lighting and costuming, etc. and then
finish it off with great choreography and an impressive pit band,
and you got yerself a good time at the theatre.
Seriously, if you are close enough to Dayton, I highly recommend
you check this out:
TICKETS.
The open auditions
for Mark St. Germain'sWednesday's Child
are upon us tomorrow. With the exception of one organizational
document, the director
has his material ready. In other terms, such as psyche and emotion,
he's pumped and ready; and, of course, as all directors do, hopes
for a good turn out of strong candidates for the cast. He does
know of a few good contenders for the roles, but is hoping for some
real competition, despite that it will make his casting decisions
harder.
Tonight we host Night One of
open auditions
for Mark St. Germain'sWednesday's Child.
Tomorrow, about 9:00 pm, or so, we will wrap it up, then I will be
charged with casting these seven juicy roles for actors to sink
their teeth into. Though I don't know all of who will be standing
in front of me tonight and tomorrow night, I do know several, and
I also know that at last to some extent, the competition will put
me in a position to not cast some talented people. That's a
bitter-sweet proposition, sweet because of the strong choices;
bitter because I can't choose all the good ones. But, it comes
with the territory.
On my apartment patio, Sunday, doing some
script study
in (at?) that unbearable home office to which I
often am forced to subject myself.
A big stack of audition documents, which includes
copies of the
sides
and audition applications tailored for this show.
Tonight is Night Two of
open auditions
for Mark St. Germain'sWednesday's Child.
Last night we had a really good turnout of actors: four men and
SIXTEEN women. As the result, no one was read a
considerable amount of times. I encouraged them all to come back
tonight, so they could be read at least a few more times. I do
know of a few more actors whom are 99% probable to be there this
evening, and a few others who were at least thinking about it the
last I heard. There will be some new faces to read first. I can
tell you that if no one new shows up I could cast the show, and
that a few actors have definitely set the bar for the roles for
which I am considering them. But we'll see what tonight brings us.
The different audition documents, spread out before
the audition, waiting for use. First, the audition
forms in the lobby, then the
sides
in the theatre, and lastly, my paperwork for use
as I audition the actors.
Today would have been my father's one-hundred-fourth birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD
George A. Storer
1919-1995
WE HAVE A CAST!:
All totaled, we had twenty-four actors audition for the show, a
fact that thrills me to tears. As I wrote in my email to the
seventeen that I did not cast: I was put "in a bitter-sweet
predicament. Sweet: because I had a lot of great options. Bitter:
because I have to not cast actors absolutely worth casting. But
there were 24 of you for 7 roles."
Here's our cast list:
The Cast of WEDNESDAY'S CHILD
(in order of appearance/speaking)
CHARACTER
ACTOR
Becca Connor
Kayleen Nordyke
Det. Aleece Valez
Ghiovanna Dennis
Susan Merrit
Stephanie Henry
Det. Walt Dixon
Jamie McQuinn
Molly Strutt
Becky Howard
Martin Merrit
Ryan Hester
Dr. Samantha Sutton
Heather Atkinson
I'm also most pleased that there are five actors on this list who
are new to Guild productions, though, technically, Becky Howard
was recently on our stage, but in the guest production by
Young at Heart Players
of Women On Fire,
by Irene O'Garden.
It also pleases me that three of these actors are brand new faces
to me.
I got me a good cast, and as I told one of the production team,
earlier today, if some of the actors who were cast had not been
there, I could have cast somene else and the calibre of the cast
would yet be the same.
So we have our
table read
for Wednesday's Child,
this coming Monday, with additional production business being conducted,
such as some measurements and fittings with our
costume designer,
Barb Jorgensen, and various and a sundry business that our
producer,
Scott Madden, will attend to (bio and
headshot
deadlines, various publicity business, etc.).
Meanwhile, last night I began the process of scheduling the
blocking rehearsals.
My plan is to schedule in such a way that not all actors are
called
every night, so that at least during the first couple weeks of
rehearsals all the actors have more free week nights than later
when we will be doing
rehearsal runs
four nights a week and will need everybody.
This means that we'll be blocking the scenes out of sequence,
which for this process is not a problem. I'm also shooting for these
blocking rehearsals to be a little shorter, to get people out a
little earlier. When we get to
full runs
of the show, the nights are going to end a little later, so a
lighter schedule, early on, will be good for the cast as well as
myself and PSM
Doug Patten ‐‐ although Doug and I don't get the luxury
of a rehearsal off like cast members will during the early weeks.
My deadline to have this schedule finished is by the table reading.
Next up will be the foundation of the my actual
blocking
plot, so we have at least a starting point for the scenes during
the blocking rehearsals. I'm sure there will more than a few
modifications as we get to work on the stage, and probably more as
we move on into later rehearsals.
Speaking of the stage, our
scenic designer,
Red Newman, intends to have the platforms for the set in place by
the time we start the table read this Monday; so, when we start
blocking on the next Monday, we will have our actual playing space
to work on. That is a very good thing. It's always better to get
the blocking down, from the get-go, in the actual space, on the
actual stage where the performances will be. Of course, good
actors can make the adjustment from temporary spaces to the real
ones, but why deal with it if we don't have to?
Anyway, I greatly appreciate that Red is making sure we have our
playing space as early as possible ‐‐ quite literally
the day after the
Radio Golf
set will be struck.
Another of my missions between this Monday and the next will be to
get at least temporary set pieces
onto that playing space (desks, tables, chairs, etc.) If I can find
what will be the actual set pieces, that's okay, too.
PINCH-HITTING TONIGHT:
Tonight I am to punch-hit as the
sound tech
for the performance of
Bright Star
at BCT. The original plan
was for me to deal with the
SFX,
while another pinch-hitter worked the mixing board on the mics.
However, that gentleman has a potential conflict that may come up
that he won't be able to avoid if it does.
The bottom line is that I may end up on both the sound cues and the
mic cues. I actually have not rehearsed the mic mixing, but, I'm
not too worried about it if I have to take the job on.
Shortly after I upload today's blogpost I'll get back to scheduling
what we cover in each of the
blocking rehearsals.
I had to take a break from it yesterday because of my pinch-hit
obligation to BCT'sBright Star
perfomance last night. I was gong to at least work a little on it
during lunch at the rent-payer,
but I had personal business that I needed to deal with. But most of
this weekend will be about getting the
blocking
schedule finalized, until it's done, which I might be able to
accomplish in the session I'm about to embark on this Saturday morning.
Then, of course, the next new job is to work on the base blocking
plan for the scenes before we go into the blocking rehearsals on
September 18. I could start that this weekend, but I think I want
to wait until I see the actual playing space this Monday, which
scenic designer,
Red Newman intends to have in place by then, at least the platforms.
I have the concept sketch, but it's not to scale and the different
areas (platforms, etc.) are not truly proportionate against each
other.
What I'll do when I'm finished with the blocking schedule this
weekend is go back and do more
script analysis.
There are all kinds of things to go deeper into, including my visions
of each of the characters, which I will collaborate with each actor
to get to fully-realized people on the stage. There's also gaining
deeper thoughts and understandings about the overall story, as well
as the stories for each character and the various couplings of
them. And there's more for me to look at and decide upon regarding
technical things: lights,
props,
set pieces,
costumes,
production music,
sound effects,
etc., etc.
On the subject of production music, many of my upcoming weekends
will be taken up, to some large extent, by composing and recording
the scene transition music for the show. You five regulars here
will recall that I will be doing this music on my basses ‐‐
the Embassy Pro bass
and the Viola bass
for certain, and maybe the
Giannini acoustic bass,
too; not sure on that last one, but the two electric basses are
locked in. I also have some music that I created a few years back
that I will be using for
underscore,
after I
remaster
the recordings.
DID I SAY, "FAMOUS LAST WORDS"?:
When I made my little "famous last words" crack in the
last blogpost, I intended it to be facetious. It turns out is was
either a self-fulling-prophesy or a psychic premonition. My one-night
stint as the sound tech
for Bright Star
at BCT had its problems.
Rather than only doing the SFX cues, I did have to also mix the mics
during the show because the gentleman who was to come in and do
that, to cover that part of the regular sound tech's work, could
not make it because of that potential conflict I mention in
yesterday's post. Now, I did write the mic cues in the script, but
I never actually ran those cues ever before last night. I had
never rehearsed mixing the show. The result was that, more than once,
a mic or two was not turned on or muted when such should have been.
It also took me well into Act One to start getting the volume
levels to a good place.
Here's a thing: sound techs should not be running sound
from a booth. They should be in the back of the house,
actually in the theatre with the audience. That's
where one can hear the actual dynamics of the sound volumes
against the room atmosphere and against any orchestra or band
that is playing. It's true for mic balance, and it's true
for sound effects volumes.
Rant over. Back to last night. The sound tech made quite a few
errors. Everyone was gracious, kind, and understanding, which I
appreciate. But, still:
DAMN IT!
GOING TO PITTSBURGH LATER THIS AFTERNOON:
I'm attending the 5:00 performance of
August Wilson's Radio Golf
at The Guild. I
haven't seen a
full run
of the show. When I shot the
promotional trailer,
during Tech Week,
I stayed long enough to get at least 45 seconds or so of interesting
movement from the cast for the DV movie. But, I left that evening
knowing that this cast is on fire, and that, no surprise, the script
is excellent. Between that and the great buzz the show has been
generating, I am much looking forward to the experience.
Indeed I was able to get the schedule of
blocking rehearsals
done in that session right after I uploaded yesterday's blogpost.
The last thing it is, is the show in continuity from start to
finish. Frankly it jumps around like a movie shoot. But this stage
is about "Say that, then cross
down left
to the up stage
side of the desk," etc., etc. We'll be getting into the
flow of continuity when we start
running
acts, then the whole show, in October. The last two weeks of September
are the mechanical blocking sessions.
I'd declared that my next thing would be to spend the rest of this
weekend back on Script analysis,
but I've realized I should actually plan out the rest of the
rehearsal schedule, which will include a few TBA nights to
accommodate working on problem points that creep up, or, for
potential nights off.
Nevertheless, I do hope to squeeze in at least one pass through
reading the script before I go to bed tonight.
Directed by Robert-Wayne Waldron
Produced by Rick Flynn
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, this
play challenges the steep price "progress" can
exact upon the soul.
The Cast of AUGUST WILSON'S RADIO GOLF
CHARACTER
ACTOR
Harmond Wilks
S. Francis Livisay
Mame Wilks
Jena Perry
Roosevelt Hicks
Lessley Scott
Sterling Johnson
Andre Tomlinson
Old Joe Barlow
Franklin Johnson
The promotional trailer for AUGUST WILSON'S RADIO GOLF
I saw the show yesterday and must say it was as good as I was sure
it would be. Major kudos to Robert-Wayne Waldron and his excellent
cast for bringing this fine script to life with such in-your-face
ferver. And kudos to the production team: Red Newman
(scenic designer),
Andrew Darr (lighting designer),
Sarah Saunders (sound designer/sound tech),
Melissa Ertsgaard (stage manager),
Rhea Smith (light tech),
and Rick Flynn (producer/prop manager).
TWO THEATRE STRIKES TODAY ‐‐ BUT NOT THE LABOR STRIKE KIND:
I'm in this weird situation today where I need to be at two
set strikes
for two shows: Bright Star
at BCT and
August Wilson's Radio Golf
at The Guild. And,
they're both 3:00 mantinées. The good thing is that
Radio Golf is a good half-hour or more longer. So, I can
go to BCT and at least deal with the items I brought and set up,
then head to DTG just about in time for that strike to start. Then
go home and get back to the
Wednesday's Child
work I wrote of above.
It's not just New York
It's not just Washington
It's not just Shanksville
It's not just the buildings
It's not just the airplanes
It's not just the field
It's not just the symbols
It's not just the pictures
It's not just the dead
It's not just the heroes
It's not just the hearts
It's not just the sorrow
It's not just the nation
I did manage to work out the entire
rehearsal
schedule for the show, yesterday. However, I did not get to
a script analysis
reading last night as I'd hoped I would. I was simply too tired to
well attend to one, and I opted to go to bed a little early,
instead.
No worries.
Meanwhile, tonight, rehearsals officially begin with our first
read-through
‐‐ plus various production business that will be
attended to. I am quite pumped to get this game afoot! I can't
wait to start collaborating with these fine actors that are assembled
to tell this most-interesting story.
Yesterday, on my patio, working to complete the
rehearsal schedule.
We've started off the
rehearsal period
with a good
table read
last night. Plus our
costumer,
Barb Jorgensen, came in to coordinate with the cast a little bit.
And, of course, our
producer,
Scott Madden did his producer's business with the cast. Being the
first table reading, we did not stop and I gave no directions nor
notes to the cast.
Tonight we will do
table work
on Act 1, and tomorrow, Act 2. I will give direction. As well,
we as a group will do
Script analysis
both nights. I'll pose questions to actors about their character's
motivations, mindset, emotions, yadda, yadda. And the cast can
pose their own questions, make their own observations, share their
interpretations, etc., etc. We're about to go into two-and-a-half
weeks of almost purely mechanical rehearsals
(blocking rehearsals),
where the focus will not be
character work,
so I want a foundation on character and story laid before we get to
that.
Our Wednesday's Childrehearsals
are absolutely off to a strong start. The last two nights we did
table work,
with at least the overall beginning foundations of
character work
laid and a nice dose of
script analysis
from the room as a whole. Unequivocally I can say that I am most
pleased at this early juncture. I happy with my casting choices.
We'll be back Monday evening to start our
blocking rehearsals.
Including today, most of the cast has the next four days off; some
have more than that. I do not. I will be spending the next several
days plotting out the initial
blocking
for the show. I have to plot the whole show out, despite that we
are jumping around in the script, because with whatever scene we
are blocking, whenever we are blocking it, the actors need to
know from what place on stage or off stage they are entering each
scene. So I need to determine those starting points, and the best
way to do that is to block the whole show. I start tonight, and if
I stay on it I should be done by bedtime Saturday,
or before.
Sunday I have a wedding to attend: two
local actors who are also fellow
DTG
Board members, Jared Mola and Kayla Graham.
An example of my reuse of Painter to help me
visualize the blocking of the show. With icons for
Becca, Susan, and Dixon visible and placed in a
scene.
To plot the blocking, I'm repurposing my
Corel Painter
software. I'm utilizing its graphics layer attribute to assist me.
There's a base image of an aerial-perspective sketch of the set;
it's not precisely to scale, but it's close enough for my purpose.
Then I've created little circles, each with the initials of a
character, and each with a unique color. I can make each circle
visible or I can hide it depending on who I am dealing with on stage
at any given moment. And I can reposition them. This will give me a
visual reference as I am working through the script and blocking
each page.
This will be the first time I will actually block for a
Guild audience.
Though it was done on The Guild mainstage, when I directed
The Roommate,
our only offering during the 20/21 season, that was directed for
the camera, being an on-line production. I did not have to concern
myself with the sight lines for the audience members, sitting in
the seats on the three sides of our
thrust stage.
I was actually kind of bummed about that. I've been looking forward
to the challenge of staging a play on our stage for a long time.
Of course, whatever blocking I conjure over the next few days, it's
all fair game for tweaking, revising, or completely replacing as it
later may be deemed appropriate.
Thursday evening marked the start of my plotting the
blocking
for the show. I was at home, using the image of the sketch of the
stage, rendered in a
RIFF file
in my
Corel Painter 2023.
I had thought that the sketch not being more to scale and to correct
proportion wasn't going to be an issue, but I found that it was.
In conjunction, I had other thoughts about staging, such the
replacement of
set pieces
and other ideas that made me realize I needed to go to the theatre
and plot this out in the space, in the house with the stage, AKA:
the L. David Mirkin Main Stage.
Friday evening, then yesterday afternoon, after the morning
DTG board meeting
& brunch with some fellow board members, I was in the space,
finishing out the initial blocking plan for the show. I finished
Act 1 Friday evening, which included going back and re-plotting some
things I'd worked out Thursday. I also switched out some set pieces
for others that work better for the show, in most cases as I came
to plotting the scene where the original's problem became obvious
to me. Saturday afternoon, after the board meeting and brunch, I
plotted Act 2, again, swapping out some set pieces on occasion.
At about 4:00, yesterday afternoon, I finished.
There are some scenes that happen off the main set, and I played
around with the best spots on the
thrust
to stage them and I believe I have found those spots. The big issue
is where to place them so as many audience members as possible will
see most of the action in the scene ‐‐ i.e.: the actors'
faces, mostly. On a thrust stage, every audience member has their
turn at a bad view, usually, for at least a few seconds during most
scenes, but you want to make sure nobody has a bad view for too long.
Of course, all this placement staging as well as all this
initial blocking plot are subject to change during the course of
rehearsal as we perfect the show. Tomorrow night the cast begins
showing up for two weeks of
blocking rehearsals,
with no one called
to every rehearsal, so no one's Mondays‐through‐Thursdays
(no Friday rehearsals) are filled with this show until we get
to the
rehearsal runs
of full acts. Well, actually, there will be one night before that,
when we will run complicated sections of the show, to work on
timing and pace, which will happen right before we start running
acts.
But tomorrow night, and for the next two weeks, it's all about:
Enter from the
up stage right
escape and cross down to the
down stage
end of your desk, yadda yadda yadda....
Next weekend I will start several weekends of composing, recording,
mixing, and
mastering
scene transition music for the show. However, to be honest, much of
the time there won't be much mixing involved as a heavy amount of
the music will be solo bass riffs on my
Embassy Pro
and Viola
basses, and, as I wrote before, maybe on my
Giannini acoustic bass.
I haven't ruled out percussion in some pieces, and perhaps some
specific types of
sound effects,
and such pieces would need mixing. Also, as I indicated in previous
blogposts, I'll be at least
remastering,
if not also
remixing,
some music, which I created almost a decade ago, as further
production music
for
Wednesday's Child.
As for the scene-transition music, I have some ideas and concepts,
but nothing wholly formulated. It'll gel as I'm working on the
music.
Plotting out the blocking at home Thursday
evening.
Back at it in the Mirkin Main Stage space
at The Guild, Friday evening.
A break and pizza for dinner at the theatre
Friday night.
Finishing up the blocking plot, yesterday
afternoon.
The last page, blocked.
Grabbing some set-piece chairs from the
upstairs prop area.
This week, our second, we did the first half of our
blocking rehearsals.
Monday, we got off to a good start with five of the seven cast members,
then the same five on Tuesday. Only one of our cast was not
called
to at least one
rehearsal
this week ‐‐ remember, not all cast members are called to
every rehearsal until we got to the
full runs
of the show, though some are called more often due to being in more
scenes.
Just as to be expected, there were some tweaks to the
blocking
I'd plotted out for the scenes we worked, especially Monday night.
All of it had to do with the tight space the actors have to work in
on some locations of the set and the number cast members who occupy
those spaces during certain scenes. But between myself,
SM
Doug Patten, and the actors themselves, alterations have been made
that work.
This was the blocking M.O. for all four rehearsals, and will be
for next week, too. The tweaks for more than simply the scenes where
the space ended up being tighter than anticipated or desired. When
I auditioned this show I was looking for evedence of actor's
instincts in those who took to the boards. It was mostly their
instincts for what might be a good
reading
of the lines for the character they were auditioning for. Some
actors I know and already knew or had a strong idea of their
instincts, but the new faces, I had to discern that from the
audition, naturally. I have a cast of actors with good instincts,
so, it behooves me to pay attention to their thoughts and
interpretations. This should be a collaboration, even if I get
final say. They have also given me good ideas for blocking, and I
have been smart enough to go with many of those ideas. Though, of
course, in terms of the blocking, every movement and placement that
has been determined is subject to later revision.
Tuesday, it was same five actors as Monday, then Wednesday and
yesterday had some change ups. We actually only worked with three
actors Wednesday and two yesterday. What I'm glad about, and that I
actually built into the blocking rehearsal schedule, is that we've
been wrapping the rehearsals early, circa 8:30-ish each night rather
than going to 9:00. I promised during the auditions that I would make
9:00 the goal for wrapping rehearsals until we got to full runs of
the show, and that if we did go past 9:00 before then, I'd try to
make sure not to go too far past 9:00. Between that and the fact
that right now no one is called every night, we're not taking up too
much of the actors' time during the week until we get to the second
half, or so, of our rehearsal process.
On another front, our
props manager,
Sarah Saunders, who will also be our
sound tech,
has been getting busy on the show's
properties,
having already given me some good options for several key props,
including an important prop that makes limited but vital appearances;
I'd say it was a
MacGuffin,
but that's not exactly true.
Our set pieces
are also relatively complete, I'd put them in the neighborhood of
90% chosen. We still have a few "do-fers," (as in:
"they'll do for now"), a couple that
Scenic Designer
Red Newman is going to replace with ones he builds, and one other
that will be replaced with something SM Doug and I will retrieve
this evening from
Beavercreek Community Theatre,
that which was left there by Jeff Sams (used during
Bright Star),
and is being donated to DTG by
Franklin High School.
Starting tonight I launch multi-weekends of composing/recording
sessions to create
production music
for the show with my
Embassy Pro
and Viola
basses. The pieces will all be quite short, most averaging around
ten seconds, or so, as scene transition music. I may compose one
that is a couple minutes long to use as movie
underscore
in the
promotional trailer.
But for the stage production, nothing needs to be too terribly
long, though I may create a few at about 30-45 seconds just to
cover any potentially long scene changes, though we are hoping to
keep anything longer than a few seconds to a bare minimum.
You five regulars may recall that I will also be
remastering
some music I created back in 2014. It's ambient music that was
originally created as
preshow music
for the Dayton Playhouse
production of
George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead™ Live.
There are five different tracks and I will use them for the
live-theatre underscore
of specific scenes in the play. As for preshow and
intermission
music, I have been gradually looking at what I want to curate for
these. I also plan to use music other than my own for the
curtain call music,
and I already have the recording, by someone else, that we will
be going out of Act 1 with, based heavily on the written
suggestion in the script from Playwright
Mark St. Germain.
PRODUCTION MUSIC THIS JUST-PAST WEEKEND, BLOCKING, PHASE 2,
STARTS TONIGHT:
The plan was to start Friday night, but I didn't get to the
production music
until Saturday evening. But between then and yesterday evening,
I have most of the scene transitions in Act 1 covered. There are a
few transitions that will have that ambient music I've written of
above that will then also be
underscore
for the scene moved into. There's also one transition that I will
be programming a drum track for, using
GarageBand,
probably, because I haven't yet mastered the drum programming in
Logic Pro ‐‐
something I really ought to take on, at some point. I will
further add that for one transition piece I double-tracked the
Viola bass, with one track being a rhythm that I beat out with my
fingers on deadened strings; I like it.
Saturday, I composed and performed on my
Embassy Pro bass,
that with the roundwound strings
for the more metalic, punchy sound. It felt to me like some transitions
need that, and having now laid the tracks, I find that is correct.
Conversely, some need the more mellow, softer (if you will) tone
and attack of the
flatwound strings
on my Viola bass,
which was what I wrote and recorded with last night. I haven't yet
pulled out the Giannini
acoustic bass and I'm not sure I will.
if you're wondering, I recorded on my
Tascam 24-Track recorder.
As for finishing the production music off, I predict one or two more
weekend will do it, including the
mixing and
mastering.
Tonight we hit week 2 of the
blocking rehearsals,
which will round up the predominance of the initial
blocking
‐‐ though we have some special blocking that will be dealt
with at the start of next week, and that I'll comment on at a later
date. Yes, yes, there's still that caveat that all blocking
is subject to revision at a later time, well, virtually all.
Saturday evening, composing & recording with
the Embassy Pro.
Listening to playback, Saturday night.
Last night, on the Viola bass, for mellower tone
& attack.
On the 29th of September, 1982, I came off of what
has been, up to today, and most probably will
always be, my last drunk. I claim this as my sobriety
date. Since that time I have not indulged in any
alcohol, pot, or any other mind or mood altering
substances, save for a few necessary instances in
the ER or while on the surgery table.
As I have written on past sobriety anniversaries,
I most certainly did not do this alone. I reached
out to a community of fellow alcoholics and attics
who have found a solution to their addictions, shared
that solution with me, and gave me strong, loving
support as I took on the task of learning sober
living.
But it's important to state, and for me to remember,
that I HAD to be a part of the solution. I
had to take action. I had to do things to changed
my thinking and my human spiritual condition. I
would not have been able to do so without the
wonderful love and support of my fellows. But, if
I had not taken the action, the solution would not
have come to be. Believe me, my execution was
less than perfect, far less than perfect,
but that's okay; as it turns out, everybody's
action toward sober living is imperfect. The phrase
I heard a lot was, "progress not perfection."
But here's what I know: I have seen so many
introduced to the solution, either by force or
through their own cries for help, who would not,
for some reason, could not, take the actions. And I
have seen such people die, or live years in the
misery and dispare of alcoholism and addiction,
taking their loved ones along with them.
I have certainly not had the life of a king. I
have, however had nothing close to a bad
life. And though I often feel like I have achieved
very little, I would not have the good things in
my life I have today had I not finally had enough
of the crappy life I was living in late September
of 1982 and reached out, in defeat, to a community
of strangers who would soon become my great friends
and life mentors, who showed me what I had to do and
held me up on the days that it seemed imposible that
I could do it. Not only would I not have this
life, I might have already been dead for a long time
now. I'm grateful I was desperate enough to reach
out and somehow, miraculously managed to let those
loving people lift me up.
REHEARSAL WEEK 3, DOWN & MORE MUSIC WORK:
This week, a little bit of schedule reshuffling had to be done
because one of the cast members had an emergency conflict come up.
So our Wednesday night
blocking rehearsal
was cut a little short since we couldn't
block
scenes the actor who was absent is in. Those scenes were moved to
last night, which was not much of a shake-up since last night was
originally scheduled as a lighter rehearsal to begin with, so adding
the missed scenes didn't turn it into a long night. Essential which
night was the lighter night was simply flipped.
Next Monday and Tuesday we have special blocking-type rehearsals of
a different nature, which I probably won't go into detail about or
even share much about here until I get to the
post-mortem
essay in November, after the show has closed. I will say that I am
bringing someone in who is trained to help us with certain aspects
of some scenes and that I am looking forward to the learning
experience the two evenings offer.
The second installment of composing and recording
production music
theoretically begins this evening ‐‐ but, ya know, that's
what I wrote last week about last Friday night, and I didn't get to
it until late Saturday afternoon.
I'll also shortly start attending more to curating, for the show,
music by other artists, music that will play on a particular
character's stereo in a few scenes, and music that will be on a bar's
sound system in another. I also have not yet decided what I am using
as curtain call music.
I have a few choices for the
curtain call
but before I settle on the finalist, I want to add a few more
candidates.
It will soon be time to fully curate the
preshow
and
intermission music.
First, all the rejected choices as the curtain music are pretty
likely to make the cut, as well one or two others by the same artists.
Plus, a song or two more by any artists, who differ from the
curtain-music rejects, will probably make the grade as production
music; it'll be any artists' music that seems to fit the feel and/or
the theme and/or the characters of the play. I have set a
parameter that all the artists be female and at this point I'm not
going to alter that rule. It's close to time to start gathering the
SFX
files, too, although this show is going to be pretty light on sound
effects. There'll be a good amount of
sound cues,
but most of them will be music: production music, plus, of course,
preshow and intermission music.
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