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MORE PRODUCTION MUSIC AND NOW THE LAST OF BLOCKING, PLUS:

Empirical evidence has thus far shown that the hypothesis of Friday night composition and recording of Wednesday's Child production music is unsound. There have been two test of this hypothesis and neither have yielded a positive result. Like the previous weekend, this past weekend I did not get to creation of production music until Saturday, and this time it was Saturday night rather than later in the afternoon, as it was on September 23.

This Saturday evening it went slower than the previous because with that session I created one scene transition piece that has a drum track (via GarageBand), one that I put off last weekend because I knew I would be putting drums in and that it would take up more time, and last weekend I wanted to crank out as many individual pieces as I could. I wanted a drum track on this piece because of a particular upbeat mood I want for this specific transition music. Because of this, and because of more other instrumentation, Saturday night was all about this one scene transition piece.

I created the drum track in GarageBand, then, as is my standard practice, I played the drum part back on my laptop and ran it into my 24-track recorder, recording it in real time, as opposed to rendering a sound file on my laptop then importing it to the 24-track. Next I laid two chorded bass parts on my Embassy Pro. Last I finished it off with a lead bass line on my Viola bass. It was the whole session, but the pieces, a total of a five tracks and running at just about one minute, is finished and now awaits mixing and mastering, along with the other pieces already recorded.

Yesterday at Grant Park, not long before I realized I had lost my bearings.

Again, yesterday, only one piece was composed and recorded. That was partly because late yesterday morning I went for a hike at a park, new to me, Grant Park, and at some point I got totally turned around and thus, what was to be about an hour hike was a bit more than that, something like an hour and a half longer. It ate into my day far more than I had planned for, and it shortened the amount of time I could give to the production music that evening.

Along with that, I also had a difficult time consulting with my muse about the specific piece I was working on. It took me a while to compose to the mood I was targeting. Eventually, the muse guided me to music I was looking for. I did for this what I had done for another piece that I created the previous weekend where I tapped on deadened strings on my Embassy Pro to get a drum-like rhythm. I played the melodic notes on my Viola bass.

Then, this morning I decided to make the piece from yesterday the transition music out of the scene it had been written to go into. The main reason is that I've established a certain motif for the music going into flashback scenes; this is a flashback scene, and yesterday's music doesn't conform to the motif; and the music works just as well leaving as it would have entering that scene.

There are several more pieces of scene transition music to create. It really will best of I can get those done and also get the mixing and mastering done by the end of next weekend. I also plan to compose and record the underscore music for the trailer, and it's ideal that the trailer music be finished by this coming Sunday night, too. This all means that I am going to need to be sure I actually work on music this coming Friday (failed hypotesis be damned), and not let it slip away as an unproductive evening.

Tonight, we enter our third and final week of blocking rehearsals. Actually, with the exception of a few small scenes with one actor that will have very simple blocking, the blocking rehearsals will be wrapped at the end of tomorrow night ‐‐ not counting the tweaking we all know will happen.

As written before, tonight and tomorrow feature some special blocking that I felt it necessary to bring in an outside person to assist with. As promised I'll detail all this later. I am not wholly sure why I am being vague at the moment, but it's my instinct to do so, so I am.

Wednesday we will run chunks of scenes that quickly criss-cross from various locations, setting, and places in time. We have blocked them out of sequence so as not to have every actor be called to every rehearsal. But now it's time to start running these sequences in continuity so we can start working on pace and timing, and so that we can all start getting the flow of the scene sequences into our bones.

Thursday will start with the costume parade. Then, due to an unforeseen conflict that came up for one of our actors, we will run Act 1 for the first time, which was supposed to happen on Monday, the 9th. That is now a "To Be Determined" rehearsal, which was what this Thursday had been, after the costume parade was over.

My set-up over the weekend in the "bedroom studio."	You can't see the audio cord connecting to the Tascam 24-Track recorder from my laptop (out of frame), but I am recording the GarageBand drum part to the Tascam, at the start of the recording session, Saturday night.	Later the same night, laying one of the chorded bass parts.
Recording the bass line, Saturday night, on the Viola Bass.	Yesterday, using my Embassy Pro as a percussion instrument.	Another bass line, yesterday, on the Viola Bass.

AUDITIONS ARE NOT TOO FAR AWAY:

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REHEARSAL WEEK 4, DOWN & STILL, MORE MUSIC WORK ON THE AGENDA:

Wednesday we were back to our agenda, where we ran the scene sequences that quickly jump around in set location and time period. The scenes are often quite short and in many cases the light will not fade to black but rather there will be cross-fades of the lighting. There will also not always be scene-transition music. Essentially, as much as possible the pacing of these scene sequences will be that they are all melded together as one scene with as little interruption in the flow as possible. Sometimes actors will need to move from one part of the set to another for an adjoining scene, and there will need to be music and fade-to-black/fade-up cues; but the plan is, the hope is, to keep those as short as we can, which I believe is most attainable.

We did our first full run of Act 1, last night, save for the last scene, which has five parts, the very last part which introduces a character for the first time. Until we get to full runs of the show, that actor will only be called when we run Act 2, and we'll start the night with that last, short part of the last scene from Act 1. The goal had been to run all of the act except that final part of the last scene. However, for various reasons, we ran out of time and we'll pick the whole last scene up next week, when we run Act 2 for the first time.

We ran short mostly because this was the first time running the whole thing, and in continuity, and there were starts and stops to address issues, such as prop management and a few broad tweaks of scene transitions. Also, before we ran the act, our costumer, Barbara Jorgensen, worked with us during a costume parade. The highly significant portion of the costuming is now done, so it was a good thing, but it ate some time up.

My plan for the creation of production music is still to start back on it this evening and work steadily over the weekend with the hope that I write and record it all and then mix and master it all before bedtime Sunday night. We'll see how that goes. I will be getting my COVID booster, as well as flu shots, this evening and I note that a few of my friends have had some draggy side effects from this latest booster for a good twenty-four hours.

But there still might be music or other sound design tasks I can attend to if the booster doesn't put too much of a temporary slowdown on me. Maybe I could work on making that final decision on what the curtain call music will be, for instance. I have a clear frontrunner at the moment, but I want to seek other potential options before I close the lid. I also have done the majority of the curating of the preshow and intermission music, usually during lunch at the rent-payer, but I need to do a little bit of processing as well as sliding the songs into one of those two slots; plus, there are a few more songs I plan to add to the mix. There are also some sound effect sound cues I haven't yet grabbed from my library. I am 99.999999% sure I already have every thing I need for the show, that I won't need to purchase anything or do any sort of sound build or Foley work. If, for some portion of the weekend, I'm not up to sitting with my basses to create scene-transition music, I may be up to doing some of this other sound work. Catch me Monday and we'll see what the weekend brought.

AUDITIONS ARE EXACTLY A MONTH AWAY:

Another reminder to the local non-Equity actors that open auditions for True West, by Sam Shepard, are coming up exactly one month from today: November 6 & 7.

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THIS LAST WEEK:

"My plan for the creation of production music is still to start back on it this evening and work steadily over the weekend with the hope that I write and record it all [by the end of the weekend]...." That was what I wrote in the blog post, last Friday. Of course, I also wrote the caveat that I would be getting my COVID booster, as well as flu shots, that evening and I noted that a few of my friends have had some "draggy side effects" from this latest booster, some reporting it as, for a good twenty-four hours.

Guess what, I, too, had those "draggy side effects." Friday evening, right after the shots (for COVID, the flu and RSV), I felt extremely logy; I did not feel like doing anything, at all. I went to bed early, probably around 8:00. I did wake up, more or less, about twelve hours later, but I was deeply fatigued and didn't feel anywhere close to fully awake. I fixed breakfast and sat down to plot out the work on the production music for the day. But, by 10:30 or 11:00 Saturday morning, I was back in bed and slept through until around 7:00 in the evening. I was still fatigued and only about half awake. I listlessly watched TV and was probably back asleep by 10:00.

I did work on the production music on Sunday, however, rather than any composition or recording of new material, I mixed the music I had already created, though only for Act 1. I did it at The Guild. Our lighting designer, Marjory Strader, was at the theatre to focus lights for the show, and since she was up on the powered lift, working on the lighting, she did not want to be in the building by herself. So I came in, with my laptop and my portable speakers, and mixed in the booth while she did her work. I, of course, first had to import the raw tracks from my 24-track recorder to my laptop and on into Logic Pro X, the former which I did at home before heading to the theatre.

Since the vaccinations had knocked me out for most of the weekend, I sought and was approved for two vacation days, this past Monday and Tuesday, from the rent-payer. Monday I finished composing and recording the production music. Tuesday I mixed all of the Act 2 music. I have yet to master anything.

Will it surprise anyone who knows me or has read many of these blog entries that after finishing all the mixes and listening back to all the pieces, I'm second guessing a few of them? Each transition piece is unique and the idea is to not have any repeats. But: There may be repeats. I may nix a few of the compositions ‐‐ may ‐‐ then use a few others more than once. Thing is, I often do this second-guessing routine after I've done something creative, so I need to let some time pass before I can trust my judgement on some of these pieces.

I have also done some other sound design work for the show. You five regulars may remember that those five tracks older recordings of ambient sound/music that will serve as the underscore for specific scenes in the show; I have those prepped for their mastering, or remastering, as well. I also edited an extension of the intro to the music that we are going out of Act 1 and into intermission with. It's a precaution to help us with timing of the end of that last scene in Act 1.

Another call that I've made is that I've decided that what has been my first choice as the curtain call music will indeed hold that spot. I've done no more curating for preshow and intermission music, and probably won't unless I think of an appropriate artist that hasn't already come to my mind. I've also chosen the music that will be part of the background ambience for the bar scene in the show as well music the background of other scenes. Meanwhile, the sound effect sound cues will be harvested tonight or tomorrow, all from my SFX library; I just have to go into the library and retrieve them.

I'm meeting Margie at The Guild again tomorrow, where she will do some more lighting focusing, this time with the ladder, and we will do a paper tech of the lighting plot for the show. I'll likely bring my laptop in case I need to wait for while she focuses, then I can work on something that has to do with sound. Hell, I could at least start the programming of the sound cues in the Show Cue Systems software on the booth laptop.

Rehearsals are coming along. We've finished week four. This week started out with the very last blocking rehearsal, that second of two rehearsals with a pointed focus, and for which I brought in someone to facilitate the specific needs of said blocking. Now, we've moved on to running acts. As of next Wednesday, we start full run rehearsals.

We had to run Act 2 this past Tuesday night without an actor, who was out sick, which is not at all ideal for a show like this. There really is no character that we can smoothly rehearse a whole act, or the whole show, without. And running a scene with an empty void on stage and someone reading the lines from off stage is not terribly fruitful for that absent actor's scene mates. But, when your ill, your ill, and it's best to stay home, especially if you're possibly contagious. Plus, there's, you know, the whole taking-care-of-your-own-health thing.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to run either act last night, nor will we Monday, because another actor is out of town, that being aa already known conflict from the start. And, really, I'm, as suggested already, not a fan of running things with an actor missing on stage.

All in all, however, we are progressing along at a good pace. The cast isn't off-book as of yet, and I was generous about when their deadlines for each act would be ‐‐ probably too generous ‐‐ but they are all giving it a shot and, as our stage manager, Doug Patton, commented, they were all more off-book than they probably thought they were. And as I believe I've stated already, we are coaxing them to get all the way off-book as soon as possible. Those deadlines for each act are just that, "deadlines."

More importantly, the cast has already engaged in a lot of really good character development, and it's only going to get better from here. Though I am reminded of something that Director Margaret Perry said to me when she directed my in Banned from Baseball, by Patricia O'Hara: she told me during a rehearsal, a little while in, that she wanted me to give her the same John Dowd I gave her in my video audition but that she was afraid that I would start getting bored with it and begin screwing with the performance. I'm hoping I don't need to worry about that same thing with any of my cast.

Last night, though down two actors, one who is out of town, and that same actor who was sick on Tuesday having a relapse, we did a dramatic reading of the script. It wasn't a table reading; we didn't sit at the tables in the boardroom; rather I had the actors spread out in the seating of the mainstage space. They were spaced far from each other. It was a suggestion from SM Doug Patton, and the goal of the distance was to help encourage more vocal projection. The purpose of the reading was to have everyone dramatically deliver their lines, now they have a bit more character development, verbatim from the script with no interruptions in the flow. Again, we are pushing the goal of being off-book as soon as possible, and they have an off-book deadline for Act 1 of this coming Thursday, then the following Monday for Act 2. We're dark this coming Monday, so the cast has four days off to fit more memorization into their schedules along with all their living their life stuff. Mind you, I'm not at all suggesting they are behind on heading toward off-book; as a whole they're in good shape. I'd just love it of they were to get fully there sooner. We'll see if my little plan for last night was productiove or not, I guess.

Other aspects are swimming along at a great pace, too. Our props manager for the show, Sarah Saunders, has provided us with a high percentage of the props we need. Our costumer, Barb Jorgensen has, likewise, almost completely costumed the show already.

We are a whole three weeks away from Opening Night, so we are in good shape, all the way around.

Sunday morning, exporting the original music tracks, recorded at the time, from my Tascam 24-track recorder to my laptop, before heading to DTG to mix in the booth while Margie focuses light.
Sunday afternoon (into the early evening), mixing the production music for Act 1, in the Guild tech booth
Monday afternoon creating, the rest of the scene-transition music for Act 2
Tuesday, finishing off the last two pieces of scene-transition music.		The line out from my Ampeg bass amp that runs into the 24-track recorder.
The daisy chain of foot pedals I used, variously, for the music.
The props that have already been harvested for the show.

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WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN THE LAST WEEK:

I did still need one sound effect that was not in my SFX library: a line of dialogue, which, based on it's nature, I was confident I could find on-line. If not found on-line, it would be easy enough to bring an actor in, probably female, to record a voice-over. But I was able to find it on-line, so all the SFX are now harvested. I processed that one, Monday evening, to sweeten it to the right sound for its use in the show.

The plan for tomorrow is to load all the sound files onto the laptop in the tech booth at the theatre, then program the show in Show Cue Systems. I'd love it of that's done by the end of day tomorrow, but the end of the weekend is acceptable, so I could be back in the booth on Sunday.

Sunday and Monday I composed and recorded the underscore music for the forthcoming promotional trailer, which is scheduled to be shot the Monday of Tech Week. As to what moments from the script will be in the trailer, I have not yet determined that. It's about time to start considering what will be used, however. As for my original production music, I haven't yet mastered any of it; that will be this evening. Along with that, I'll finish mixing the trailer underscore music. I mixed it Wednesday during my lunch hour at the rent-payer, but did so wearing headphones, so I need to revisit the mix while running it through speakers. I listened to it Wednesday evening through the speakers and noted several adjustments that need to be made. I'll master this music tonight, too, along with the scene-transition music.

Tuesday morning I recorded an ArtsFocus interview spot with Larry Coressel at WDPR FM in Downtown Dayton, as publicity for the show. The spot will start airing this coming week. There will be a link to the on-line version of the spot at some point and when I have it, I will post it here. It will also be shared to the official DTG social media accounts ‐‐ and most certainly MY media accounts.

Monday evening I was able to work on the music for the trailer because rehearsals were dark for the night ‐‐ coincidentally as it would have been if we were an Equity production. We were back up Tuesday evening to do a run of Act 2. Wednesday we began our full run rehearsals, which will be the norm from now on with the exception of one night next week we have set aside to work on "problem spots." There is one the is slated for that rehearsal, for certain, and a few other potential spots, delending on what happens in the next couple rehearsal. Other than that, it will full runs unless it becomes evident something still requires focused work.

Thursday was the off-book deadline for Act 1, but the cast has already been giving off-book a shot. It was just time to not even have the book in one's hands for Act 1. As a whole, the cast has been doing reasonably well with off-book. Some are in better shape than others, which is not unexpected, which is the norm. But nobody is worrying me. This coming Monday is the deadline for Act 2, and it looks promising, based on what's been the norm thus far. Plus, they do have the weekend to get off-book on 2, and work further on 1, even considering that they have lives beyond theatre.

Tuning the Epiphone Embassy Pro Bass, Monday evening for the trailer music.	Laying the main bass line track with the Embassy.	Laying the melodic lead bass track, played on the Epiphone Viola Bass.
I took some rehearsal photos during the week, but they were specifically publicity photos for distribution to media, so they need to be exclusive to that forum. I actually took a few others, but I don't have enough to represent the whole cast and don't want to leave anyone out. So, I'll post some personal photos of rehearsal here when I can show you all of the actors at work. (I was busy being "the director" and kept forgetting to take pictures)

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IT WAS A SOUND WEEKEND; AND WE'RE APPROACHING THE HOME STRETCH:

I then spent a considerable amount of the afternoon mastering the scene transition music, some of it took me to task. I had a lot of trouble getting rid of some hum or buzz or hiss in some of the recordings, much of that coming from some of the foor pedals I used, especially the OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion pedal and the SY-1 guitar synthesizer pedal.

Then, when I was done mastering all that, I decided that some of it, specifically all the music meant to signify flashback scenes, are not cutting it. I spent pretty much the rest of Saturday evening working on creating something new to serve the flashback scenes. I finally got something I like, using a midi synthesizer voice in GarageBand. Rather than there being a unique piece of music going into each flashback scene, I'll use this same piece of music, with a couple variations. Originally I had bass riffs, and sometimes chords, that were playing backward. It was a nice idea, but when I sat back and listened to the pieces, they did not work. The new music works quite well. It's actually a little reminiscent of the music I created to go into the Mia-fantasy sequences in For the Loyal, not exactly the same but in the realm of the same concept.

Yesterday, I programmed the sound cues into Show Cue Systems on the booth laptop back at The Guild, from noon till mid-evening. Of course, the sound levels, though generally set, will be tweaked. And I have not normalized the preshow and intermission music; that'll probably happen tonight before rehearsal, or at least a lot of it will be done. I also realized when I woke up this morning that I had missed putting one sound cue in SCS, so that'll also be added this evening.

This is our last week before Tech Week begins. Tonight is the absolute deadline for the cast to be off-book, meaning it's the deadline for Act 2. It's hard to believe that Opening Night is almost around the corner. I'm nervous, but not for lack of confidence in my cast; believe me, the cast is doing just fine. Nerves are just what happens.

Saturday evening at The Guild, mastering the new piece of production music.	Yesterday, back at The Guild, programming the sound cues into Show Cue Systems.

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'TECH' IS UPON US, PLUS PUBLICITY, & OTHER STUFF, INCLUDING YUMMY BBQ:

In terms of promotion, the ArtsFocus interview spot WDPR FM Announcer Larry Coressel conducted with me last week is now up and running. It even features, as its underscore music, that which I've written and recorded to underscore the forthcoming promotional trailer for the show.

Click here to hear the interview.

Last night we wrapped our last pre-Tech week of rehearsals. It was, as those you who have followed along will know, the first week for the cast to be 100% off-book; they're doing relatively well ‐‐ some more than others, which is usual, yadda yadda.

We did full runs every night but Wednesday. That night I worked on a few selected scenes with a few selected actors. With one scene especially, I wanted the ante to be upped; our work Wednesday paid off in spades. By the last time we ran the scene that night it was just where I want it to be; and it was there last night, too. And the other cast who watched it felt it, as well.

Unfortunately, there was another absence due to illness last night, which handicapped us a little bit, but we coped. So now, we move on to that last 50-yard stretch before Opening Night!

Lunch time Monday at the rent-payer, where I finished writing the sound cues into the sound tech's script.	Down time at rehearsal for Stephanie Henry (Susan), Ryan Hester (Martin), &, in the background, Jamie McQuinn (Det. Dixon)	Stephanie & Ryan rehearsing a scene
Stage Manager Doug Patton & Ghiovanna Denis (Det. Valez)	Kayleen Nordyke (Becca) rehearsing a monologue.	Ghiovanna & Becky Howard (Strutt) in one of their scenes.
Heather Atkinson (Samantha) & Jamie rehearsing.	Ghiovanna & Ryan.	Kayleen & Heather.
Ghiovanna get's Birthday Flowers last night from her boo, Darbi.		Then Ghiovanna goes to work (on her BIRTHDAY, no less), seen here taking the order of some dork, with Becky back there checking out the menu & Darbi inside the Smokin' Dew's trailer fixing up some yummy grub for another cast member.
LAST THREE PHOTOS BY JAMIE McQUINN

NEW BEATLE MUSIC!!!!!:

Though the remaining Beatles, Paul, George Harrison, who was still living at the time, and Ringo Starr, tried to add to the original, crude cassette-tape recording, the technology of the time didn't allow John's original recording to be cleaned up enough to be used in a high-quality finished work. They'd had success with two other of John's demos, "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love," but, in the mid '90s, "Now and Then" was a lost cause.

Twenty-some years later, along comes Peter Jackson, who directed the six-part Beatles documentary Get Back. In that, his production company utilized an AI audio software to isolate some dialogue the boys were having during rehearsals while fiddling on their instruments. The software eliminated the sounds of the instruments and other extraneous sounds, bringing their conversations to the forefront.

Jackson, again used that technology to isolate John's vocals on "I've Got a Feeling" in the footage of them doing that song in 1969 for the famous Rooftop Concert. The result is only John's voice along with the visuals of him singing. Paul has been using this special footage, incorporated with him and his touring band playing the song; and thus he's been doing a duet with John, via this technology, as part of his in-concert encores during his still-on-going Got Back Tour. I saw the show last year in Knoxville at the Thompson Boling Arena, and watching and hearing Paul sing with John singing on the big screen behind was awesome. It may sound like it was cheesy or creepy, but it was not.

That's the technology that's been used to pull John's voice out of the crude "Now and Then" demo and clean it up for strong, high quality audio that, along with an acoustic guitar part that George recorded for it during their failed attempt on the song in the '90s, Paul and Ringo added to last year for the full arrangement we'll all hear next week.

So, "Now and Then" releases to the world, November 2. Then, one week later on November 9, expanded versions of the two greatest hits collections, originally released in 1973, The Beatles 1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970, will release; these two collections commonly referred to as the Red and Blue albums. The new editions have been remixed and remastered using this same AI technology.

And here's the thing to know: the AI technology has NOT been used for either "Now and Then" or the new editions of the Red and Blue albums to create any vocals or instrumentation that did not exist. It's not an AI replication of John's voice; it's a clean separation of that voice from a poor quality, muddled recording. For the two albums, it's used to separate vocals and instruments that were originally on one track in the master multi-track recordings (known as bounced or ping-ponged tracks), so that each vocal or instrument now is on its own separate track and can be mixed into a more robust stereo sound.

Here are a couple of the many, many articles on the releases and the methodology of the technology used to produce the recordings:

• A Variety article from yesterday by Chris Willman: "The Beatles' 'Last Song,' 'Now and Then,' Is Set for Release, Along With Expanded, Remix-Filled 'Red' and 'Blue' Hits Collections."

• By Bruce Spizer at beatle.net: "Now And Then ‐ A Fitting Last Song From The Beatles"

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AND TECH WEEK BEGINS:

Tech Sunday is upon us. I'm heading there shortly after posting this to the blog. 10:00 is dry tech with me, Stage Manager Doug Patton, Lighting Designer Marjory Stader, Sound Tech Sarah Saunders, and our run crew, Alexis Hirst and Christina Tomazinis. Then. about 11:30, pizza for crew and cast. Cue-to-cue is at 1:00. We'll do at least one full tech run after that. The final stretch is here and the Game is On!

AUDITIONS COMING:

I haven't done one of these for a celebrity for a few years, since before the pandemic lockdown. The death of Matthew is one I can't not do one of these about. Like millions and millions around the world I am a big fan of F•R•I•E•N•D•S, where, again like most of those other millions, I first encountered Matthew Perry and his talent. It goes without saying that along with his five co-stars, Matthew (and his Chandler) are carved into not only American pop culture but the pop culture of all of western society, plus. Still today, it's true that there is an episode of F•R•I•E•N•D•S playing somewhere in the world evey minute of the day. Matthew's brillance as a comedic actor was certainly displayed on this signature, hall mark show. But his range was demonstrated, his ability to not only be a brilliant comedic actor but a savvy dramatic actor was shown by his subtle, restrained performance as Joe Quincy on The West Wing, then his dynamic performance, in his staring role as the complicated Matt Albie on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I admire his work. I admire his vigor in his struggles against his personal demons. I haven't read his memoir. I probably will now. It's kind of pathetic that it's taken this to motivate me. Rest in Peace, Matthew.

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A DV TRAILER & A SHOW ON THE VERGE OF OPENING:

Click here for the trailer.

We now have half of our four tech/dress rehearsals under our belt. And the cast and crew are zipping themselves to the ready-set-go in front of an audience state. They're like a tenth of an inch away. We're just about at the BIG Game On moment.

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Click here for the promotional trailer of the show

Rehearsals came to an official end with last night's Final Dress. We are at Opening Night. The cast is ready and I so hope they get the audiences they deserve. I feel very fortunate to have been able to put together this wonderful cast. I am bias, of course, but if you're close by you should come see these players play.

Never mind that I woke up this morning with a stress headache. I'm not feeling anxious, but clearly I am anxious about tonight.

I suppose this is permissable.

On another note, I will be posting production photos shortly.

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LAST NIGHT'S OPENING:

I'm afraid that because this is a lesser-known show that the cast isn't going to get the audience sizes they deserve. I do know that there were beaucoup of theatre production openings last night, which affected our attendance numbers, at least to some extent. Usually our Opening Night is at or close to a full house. So maybe I'm being unduly pessimistic and the attendance sizes will swell some. I can hope, because these actors should be able to play, to tell this story, to good, full houses. They are awesome.

That's it for now; but, believe me, I'll be writing more about the show.

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MY FIRST COMMENTS ON "NOW AND THEN":

In case you haven't been made aware, what is being called, and I think with veracity, the last Beatles song, "Now and Then," released to the world this past Thursday. A brand new single of a brand new Beatles song some forty-five years, or so, in the making.

The late John Lennon laid the basis of the song and the recording down on a simple, portable cassette tape recorder in the late 1970s, making a demo of a new song idea that may not have even been completely finished, but certainly was more than just the kernel of a song idea; there was a lot of development there. In the mid-90s, Paul McCartney, the now late George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, with Jeff Lynne as producer, began working on cleaning up the crude cassette tape recording and adding instrumentation and vocal backing to it. But the quality of the recording was too poor at that time to get a viable foundation to add on to.

But last year, with the help of AI audio technology developed by Movie Director Peter Jackson's production company, John's voice could be cleanly separated out and sweetened a bit. Plus, there was acoustic guitar work from George recorded for their attempt on the song in the 1990s. So, Paul, Ringo and Producer Giles Martin ‐‐ son of The Beatles' legendary producer, George Martin ‐‐ took John's vocal and George's acoustic guitar work, and added the rest of the instrumentation and more vocal work.

It's not the greatest, most brilliant song to come out of their amazing cannon of work, or John's solo cannon, for that matter. It's still quite beautiful with a lovely melody. I'm not convinced, as I mentioned above, that John was finished with the composition. There may have ended up being another musical change in the song. The may have been revisions and/or additions to the lyrics. That supposition i s academic, though.

I can't say whether John was writing to Yoko or Paul, or all of the Beatles. But I do find it interesting that Paul has reported for years that the last thing John ever said to him, on his doorstep as Paul was departing John and Yoko's Dakota apartment was, "Think of me every now and then, old friend." In 2023, for me, the melancholy of the music, the sentiment of the lyrics, the arrangement, and the production, all make "Now and Then" a love letter from John to his old band mates and a love letter from Paul and Ringo to John and George. These men are family, they're brothers.

Peter Jackson's excellent music video absolutley enhances the whole concept of the love letters from John to them and from Paul and Ringo to him and George. Jackson's brilliant merging of new footage of Paul and Ringo with footage of them with George in the 90s and then of all of all four from their early days in Liverpool, through the different Beatle eras, and then severel clips from home movies from Beatle days and post-Beatle days, makes the video, showing over that lovely music, a perfect mixture of sorrow, sentiment, and joy. It's touching and fun, and captures the spriti of how much these men love each other. Because despite the business conflicts and all the petty sibling disputes, these four men were brothers who loved each other. And the song and video, are, to me, about that.

Like millions of others, I find the song and the video a suitable denouement for the Beatles' cannon and their legacy. To have them all playing together, despite the disjointed method, is surreally awesome. Some, I think are underwhelmed, but I also think they set their expectation too high. Paul, Ringo and company had a crude, poor-quality demo where John wasn't going for a studio performance, just getting a song on tape, and they worked magic on it.

Some have complained that the production and some of the instrumentation is too modern, too third millennium. I guess they wanted it to sound like it's a recording from 1968. I find that criticism shallow, maybe even a little ignorant. These men pushed the boundaries of musically evolving. The difference in that band from their first album they recorded in 1963 and their last album they recorded in 1969 is a spellbounding evolution. For all practical purposes it's an entirely diffrent band. Others did similar at the time, but not as much and I willing to bet the others were motivated by seeing how The Beatles sounded so very different every damn year of their brife existance as a band. A new, 2023 Beatles recording should sound like a new, 2023 recording. It sure as hell would have if they were all alive and still a working band.

You can count on me revisiting this when I have better digested the song and the viseo.But for now I'll just leave with this:

I find the song is awesome. Paul, Ringo, and Giles did great. And Peter Jackson is so frickin' good at what he does. But, then he did have a cornucopia of good footage to work with.

Click here to see the official "Now and Then" music video.

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ONE GREAT WEEKEND DOWN, SIX SHOWS TO GO!:

They had good audiences, who seriously appreciated their work and the overall production. Some audience members gushed. One said it the best thing they'd seen in a long time. Now, I didn't ask for a litany of the recent shows he's seen, but the comment still stands as damned complimentary. I just wish more seats had been filled this past weekend. Maybe there will be better attendance these next two weekends.

As for my contribution as director, I have mixed emotions and a mixed review. There are some aspects of the production I believe I did pretty damn well with. But I believe I utterly failed in other ways. I'll get specific in my post mortem essay after the show has closed. I may be less negatively critical of my inequities by then.... we'll see.

But with the work from the cast and the crew, this show is worth your time and money to come see!

Here are some official production photographs from the camera of Photographer Kirsten Pribula.
Kayleen Nordyke (Becca Conner) & Heather Atkinson (Dr. Samantha Sutton)	Ghiovanna Dennis (Det. Aleece Valez) with Jamie McQuinn	Jamie McQuinn (Det. Walt Dixon) with Stephanie Henry
Stephanie Henry (Susan Merrit) & Ryan Hester (Martin Merrit)	Becky Howard (Molly Strutt) with Ghiovanna Dennis	The dorky, delusional director who thought he was some magnificent leader.

WILL THERE BE ANOTHER SINGLE TO BUBBLE UNDER THE TOP 1,000,000 ON BILLBOARD?:

Over the course of many weeks, a few months, really, I've notice a trend. Though we're not looking at Beatles or Taylor Swift numbers by any wild stretch of the imagination, I am noticing that one track from my album, Virtually Approximate Subterfuge is being streamed repeatedly. Now, it's not some major amount. I'd be surprised if I've made 1¢ as of yet. But it's the song ‐‐ instrumental, actually ‐‐ that keeps being played on Apple Music and I'm going to guess, Spotify and other streaming services. It's the jazzy instrumental, "Cozy Anxious Chaos." Several, maybe a dozen or more streams on Apple Music have been by one person in Copenhagen, which I find most interesting. The most recent one I know of was from Texas.

Because it's somehow getting attention, I'm contemplating releasing "Cozy Anxious Chaos" as a single, through my current distributer, CD Baby. If I do, I'll likely have physical disks pressed, despite that CD Baby now only handles electronic distribution. And if I do release it as a single, I'll very likely tag on an extra track, which will almost assuredly be one of two instrumentals I've composed and recorded as theme music for a Dayton Theatre Guild show I've been involved with. That addition will be in spite of the fact that CD Baby will categorize the release as an album because there is more than one track attached. But iTunes, where I'm hoping to eventually, actually make a sale, will CORRECTLY consider it the single that it would be.

I'm not wholly convinced yet I'll do the single release. However, I did shoot a couple terabytes of DV movie footage while I was recording "Cozy Anxious Chaos" so the odds of me firing up Final Cut Pro X and creating a music video for my YouTube channel are high, exceedingly, as in: it will happen. I'll likely get started before the closing of the current production of Wednesday's Child (see above).

Click here for my commentary for "Cozy Anxious Chaos" on my On-Liner Notes page.

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OPEN AUDITIONS WRAPPED, AND NOW....:

Stay tuned for the cast list.

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THERE'S A CAST HEADIN' TRUELY WEST:

CHARACTER		ACTOR
Lee		Jared Mola
Austin		Ryan Hester
Saul		Philip Trickey
Mom		Libby Holley Scancarello

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BRUSHING UP INTO WEEK 2:

Last night was the brush-up rehearsal (see the photos). I attended, but at this stage of the production it was Stage Manager Doug Patton's rehearsal. I attended in case there were any direct questions for me from the cast in terms of performance. I will address any such questions from the cast, but, except for compliments and cheerleading, I no longer am instigating any notes. Essentially, the director's duties are over once the show opens. Though Doug did come to me with something last weekend that needed addressed because it's still really part of the director's vision for the show idea, and we then addressed the issue together, last night. Otherwise, last night, save for that one item, all I did was attend while the cast ran their lines. Two more weekends (six more shows), starting tonight at 8:00!		Kayleen Nordyke (Becca Conner)
Ghiovanna Dennis (Det. Valez)	Stephanie Henry (Susan Merrit) Doug Patten (stage manager)	Jamie McQuinn (Det. Dixon)
Becky Howard (Molly Strutt)	Ryan Hester (Martin Merrit)	Heather Atkinson (Dr. Samantha Sutton)

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OUR SOPHOMORE WEEKEND IS WRAPPED:

The audience sizes were still a little anemic. It was a little better for the Saturday show, but still, this cast ain't gettin' the audience members in the seats that they oughta be.

We have one weekend, three shows, left. If you're close by the Dayton area and you haven't seen it yet, Click here.

AND THE NEXT GUILD SHOW BEGINS ITS JOURNEY TO OPENING:

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MUSIC VIDEO, POSSIBLE NEW SINGLE, BETTER PROMOTION, & MERCH(?):

However, I discovered that I didn't actually shoot footage of myself recording a couple of the MIDI keyboard instrument parts, or at least not the takes that made into the final recording. There's no footage of me playing the faux trumpet take that is on the recording, most especially the solo section, which I was hoping to use. There's also none of the actual recording sessions for the faux violin part. There's plenty of footage of me working them out and rehearsing them, and some of that might work being synched with the finish product ‐‐ I'll find out. I recorded "Cozy Anxious Chaos," and thus, shot the footage in December of '21 and January of '22, so it's been a while ago so I didn't recall all that I'd shot footage of, but I was sure I got some of all the final takes of the audio recording. Oh well, there's still plenty of footage to use, a-few-hours worth.

I actually haven't audited exactly everything, but I am reasonably certain I have footage of the good musical takes of me on the midi sax voice and the midi trombone voice. I know I have the bass and the regular and electric piano parts.

Honestly, I haven't completely envisioned what the whole concept for the music video will be. Obviously I'm using the footage discussed above, and I've had firm thoughts on filters and effects to put on that footage. If I had the budget, I'd hire an animator for some sequences. I'd have animated players on the trumpet, sax, trombone, and violin (the midi keyboard voices). At this point I have an idea to do a poorman's animation where I use images of the instruments and make them move around on the screen by manipulating them in the editing process. But that might end up looking too cheesy. However I end up producing the music video, the final cut isn't likely to be posted to my YouTube channel anytime soon. I doubt it beats December 31 of this year.

Whether or not I release "Cozy Anxious Chaos," or possibly an edited version of it, as a single isn't decided, yet. I'm leaning toward doing so, despite that my first two singles have had absolutely no traction. Also up in the air is whether or not I put out physical CD copies of the single. With the exception of "out of my trunk," I have no venue to market a single; actually, that goes for the album now, too, since CD Baby stopped handling physical CD distribution earlier this year.

If I do release a single, whether there's a CD or not, it's highly likely that I will have an extra track, a proverbial "B-side" (for those of you old enough to remember vinyl 45 RPM singles). You five who have read previous blog posts may remember that I plan to use one of two instrumentals that I've composed and recorded for Dayton Theatre Guild productions. It would either be one titled "For Loyalty's Sake," done for the play For the Loyal, by Lee Blessing, or one titled "Wednesday's Child Theme," composed for the current DTG show, Wednesday's Child, by Mark St. Germain, the latter, for which you five regulars will know that I am the director. There's some possibility I would tack both of them on as extra tracks. The extra track, or tracks, would be for both the electronic version, which could be purchased at Apple Music (iTunes) and Amazon Music, among other on-line services, and the CD disk, if it's published.

You can hear portions of both "extra tracks" as the main theme music for the promotional trailers for the respective DTG shows:            For the Loyal trailer for "For Loyalty's Sake."            Wednesday's Child trailer for "Wednesday's Child Theme."

One issue in the far-less-than anemic sales of the album and the nill sales of any single is my admitted ineptitude at anything closely resembling good marketing strategy of myself and my music. I swear that even the majority, the overwhelming majority of people I know, of my friends, have not even bothered to listen to any of my music, even when it's been a link to a music video on my YouTube channel. And if they have they haven't been impressed enough to even give the weakest of a compliment. There have been a handful of friends who have supported me with a purchase of the album, and others who have given me positive feedback. But, overall: nothing.

As I've written here before, I also can't seem to get even the local public radio station, WYSO, to pay attention, much less actually play anything. Like I've said before, I have no evidence the CDs I've sent WYSO were even listened to; if they were, and if there's been any airplay, I am not aware of it.

There's a push to marketing that I am not good at or even versed at. That's my fault. I'm not versed because, I must admit, I'm intimidated by what seems the complexity of it all. That's all on me. I also have been needing to set a virtual market place up at the klstorer.com website proper, and I haven't done that yet, somewhat because of the setup cost. I could however, have a page where people could contact me to purchase the album CD or the single CDs through PayPal, in the interim, before I set up a market page through my domain provider.

Also, the issue of merchandizing came up again. I was telling someone last week how it had been suggested a few months ago that I create and market some merch related to my music and my album, and that my response was, and still is, that I find it presumptuous for me to offer merch for sale when there is not yet a following. Their response was that the merch might help spark a following. That seems a bit counter-intuitive and I'm not convinced. At this point my thought is that for me to offer K.L.Storer t-shirts, etc., would be a vanity proposition.

But I DO need to up my promotional game.

Last night, auditing the footage of the "Cozy Anxious Chaos" sessions.

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OUR FINAL WEEKEND:

Last night was our second and last brush-up rehearsal as we head into our final weekend of the show's performance run. Our curtain tonight is at 8:00; tomorrow it's 5:00; and our final performance starts at 3:00 Sunday. Then Wednesday's Child at DTG goes permanently dark.

THE NEXT DTG SHOW HITS THE TRACK:

The techs and run crew haven't been drafted yet. I'm about to embark on that task. There are a few specific people I'll approach first, then go on a general search for whatever spots are left unfulfilled. So, there'll likely be an entry here about a tech and/or crew call. And, of course, on social media as well as asking for references from my connections, though I don't have the wealth of connections I'd like to have.

We needed a fight choreographer, too, but that's been crossed off the list, just this morning, in fact. I secured Kayla Graham, who is close and personal with one of the cast members, having married Jared Mola only two calendar months ago to this very date. We already had our scenic designer (Red Newman), lighting designer (John Falkenbach), sound designer (me), and costume designer (Carol Finley). Still need a props manager for the show but I have a few candidates for that, too.

THE NEXT DTG AUDITIONS:

Click here for details.

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Directed by K.L.Storer Produced by Scott Madden Wednesday's Child is a fast-paced thriller, murder mystery, and more. Susan and Martin Merrit are unable to have a child on their own, so they hire Becca Connor to serve as a surrogate. When Becca is found dead, a police investigation explodes the lives of everyone who knew her. As Detectives Valez and Dixon begin to put the pieces together, secrets surface, alibis weaken, and lies are uncovered. This dramatic play explores motherhood, passion, and that thin line between right and wrong.

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

If it's still early enough this fine Sunday, and if you're close enough, you still have one last chance to see this great cast killing it on stage.

Meanwhile, I'll be back soon with my personal post mortem on the production that will especially focus on my assessment of my own involvement.

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There are a few things on the docket I planned to get to work on. So place your bets! Let's see which gets a lot of, or any, attention.

This one must get my full attention since it's not just my own project but a Dayton Theatre Guild project. Sam Shepard's True West opens at The Guild this coming January 12. Not only do I have producer's duties for this show, but I also have sound designer's duties, which is usually the case if I'm the producer. As producer I still have some production crew to bring into the production and some budgetary items to hash out. As for the sound design, I've not even begun, but probably will before this long weekend is over. Tech Sunday is only six-and-a-half weeks away; I state "only" because though it's not right around the corner, it's really not all that far off and could sneak up on me before I know it.

This long weekend will probably see me giving at least some attention to the music video for the instrumental, "Cozy Anxious Chaos," off my album, Virtually Approximate Subterfuge. The thing is, before I really start to edit the music video, I need to decide if I am going to release "Cozy Anxious Chaos" as a single or not. If so, am I going to release the full 6:41 off the album or am I going to edit a shorter single version? The music video should probably be whatever the single version is, whether it's straight off the album or a truncated edit. I could still gather some graphics ideas I have for the concept of the video, even if I don't have the exact sound track yet to edit video to.

After a break of several months, or more, I'll be getting back to work on the restructuring of my two-act play. I know it's going to be a major revision, since I'm going to move things around in the manuscript. There may be rewriting, too, at least to some extent. And I'm sure I'll kill a little darling or two. I also feel the urge to work more on the extensive story bible that governs the universe of the play, as well as my novel manuscript, which has been in limbo for a couple decades now. I likely won't get to the play over this weekend, but I am fairly sure I'll work some on the bible, because my mind is starting to obsess about working on a particular aspect of that tome ‐‐ and believe me, the story bible is indeed a tome, really many tomes. Actually, what I call "the story bible" is really many Word docs, text docs, and Excel spreadsheets. It's currently 1.45 gigs consisting of more than 1800 items in dozens and dozens of sub-folders. There are literally decades of the universe covered in the combined documents, with some periods more heavily saturated with detail than others (for now).

Sometime in the close future I need to finish and post my post mortem on Wednesday's Child, which just closed this past Sunday. I've started the essay, and I'm sure it will be part of this weekend. I think I still have some internal processing to do; of course, the act of writing the essay will help me with that processing, so maybe I won't do too much mental processing before I start keying words again.

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MORE WORK FOR MY FICTIONAL UNIVERSE:

Yep, my obscenely robust, and ever-expanding story bible contains dozens and dozens of spreadsheets.

A couple entries from one of the the story bible's timeline Word docs, covering 1987.

As always happens, I sort of went down the rabbit hole again when I went back to working on the story bible for the universe of the protagonist of my novel manuscripts, who's also one of the lead characters in my play.

"[S]ort of...down the rabbit hole...." because, based on the nature of what I've been adding, I knew it wasn't going to be a quick get-in-and-get-out. Honestly, I guess I have gone down the rabbit hole with this current work, but here I didn't suddenly get caught up in it, which is how I generally see this colloquial use of the term. For instance, when I go to Rob Squad Reactions on YouTube, a channel ran by this lovely young couple from Oklahoma (I think) who react to music from before their time, I sometimes end up spending a couple hours watching their videos as well as other reaction videos by other YouTubers that show up on the suggestion feed on the side of the screen. I always know that I might, but also: I might not and often don't. It's the same with watching a series on Netflix or another streaming service. But, again, in this case, it's different since I knew I was going to be working on an extensive bit of material.

In my attempt to be a pseudo-Tolkien I have, as I have written in this blog before, literately thousands of files that make up the grounding, the support, the backstories, and more for the world my protagonist and his family, friends, colleagues, etc., occupy: text documents, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, JPGs, PNGs, and other image files. The master folder currently contains 1.46 gb of content ‐‐ currently, it'll grow bigger, undoubtedly much bigger.

There are two key elements to this universe's story bible. The first is a series of Word docs that are the chronology of the universe, each document being a timeline of certain spans of years. The second key element is a series of excel spreadsheets that, among a few other related data, has annual financial calculations for the protagonist's personal earnings and those of the two businesses he owns.

The first timeline doc covers 1900 to 1957, the second, 1958-1970. The protagonist is born in 1958. The rest of the docs cover two year increments until the last one, which is currently, 2021-2030, but that one will eventually be broken down into two-year increments as more entries are added. The denses docs cover the 1960s through the 1980s, with the 1990s starting to fill up, and the 2000s through 2010s following just a little behind.

The protagonist has two businesses. One is a mulitimedia conglomerate that consists of several entertainment related companies; the other is an incorporated entity that handles his personal income as a talent in the entertainment industry. So I have a separate spreadsheet for each those two aspects; then, there is his personal income. There are also supportive spreadsheets that feed into each of those, especially the two business entities. Right now I am working on income and finance for 1987, and there are a lot of different spreadsheets and other documents to update and to refer to, including the 1987-1988 timeline Word doc which needs both referred to and entries added or edited.

Over the course of the last week or so I've worked a bit on this and thus far all I have finished is most, but not all, of the income and expenses for the protagonist's incorporated entity for his personal work in the entertainment business. I have yet to even start working on the multimedia enterprise, which is a bigger business and is far more complex. I have to get both of those done first before I can work on the personal finances, because that one depends on the dividends from the other two.

If you're thinking, "Well, THAT'S a little obsessive and overly-complicated," I'm not sure I can argue against your point.

Why am I doing this now? Because it's been a while and it's been bugging me. And this (the 1987 finances) will be on-going, off-and-on for a few weeks.

Again: "I'm not sure I can argue against [the] point."

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WHAT I'LL DO ON MY WINTER VACATION:

What I will be working on is not completely defined, probably ought to be, but it's not. I'm certain to get back to the recent project of editing a music video for the instrumental, "Cozy Anxious Chaos," coincidentally one of the pieces started on Winter Vacation 2020. The big holdup for me, after an initial beginning on the video, has been my contemplation about whether or not to edit a shorter single version for release. If I edit a shorter version for a single, then the video should probably be edited to that version. I'm not 100% sure I'm going to release it as a single, anyway.

It's also guaranteed that I'll work on the sound design for True West at The Guild. That show goes into Tech on January 7, so the sound cues must be finished and programmed into Show Cue Systems before then.

I'll probably work on other music during this period, too. I have a few ideas for new music that have been percolating and I'm feeling the itch to at least get something started. Plus, some of the production music I composed for Wednesday's Child, the scene-transition pieces, are just begging me to develop them further, a couple in particular.

There are a couple things dealing with the universe of my full-length play that I can work on. There's some additional material for the story bible that needs finished. I also am bracing myself to sidle up to a major rewrite of the play manuscript. That will consist of substantially rearranging sections, possibly restructuring some portion, and certainly will include a hefty amount of killing my little darlings. Plus, some parts need serious rewording. Whether the rewrite starts during this artist's retreat or not, it does need to start soon.

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Tech Sunday for True West is only sixteen days away, so the soundwork for the show is a top priority, a must. This show calls for a straight-forward design, so it's not going to be a major challenge. In his playwright's notes, Sam Shepard did specify the sound of the coyotes, or rather, what they should not sound like. As I told our director, Doug Lloyd, I believe I have the specific coyote sounds Shepard wanted, but if I don't, they are not going to be difficult to procure; it'd probably take me mere minutes to find and download them. Other than that, I need to curate some mid-70s, and earlier, production music, preshow music, and intermission music. A lot of that will already be in my personal music library.

Off and on, since Wednesday's Child closed, I've been working on my post-mortem essay about my first time directing a full-on stage play production. Those of you who know me or who have perhaps visited this blog more than infrequently (if such an animal exists) may know that prior to Wednesday's Child, all my directing credits were for directing for the camera, including The Guild's summer 2021 streaming production of The Roommate, by Jen Silverman. I've written quite a bit on this post-mortum but I am not finished. I'm hopeful that I can finish it off, perhaps edit it down a little, then get it posted here on the blog before January 1.

I also need to read quite a few scripts during this time off from the rent-payer. I have a theatre colleague who's entrusted me to read three of her plays ‐‐ one full-length and two short-shorts ‐‐ and give her some feedback, for whatever my feedback will be worth.

There's also the six plays that are on the Dayton Theatre Guild 2024/2025 season *(see below), the list which we just made public last night, though I have read one of them already. I need to read them for an eye to return as a director, plus, the actor in me is looking for roles     .

Then there is the music video for my jazzy instrumental, "Cozy Anxious Chaos," off of my Virtually Approximate Subterfuge album. You five regulars(?) will know that when I composed and recorded "Cozy...," in December 2021 & January of 2022, I shot the whole process in multiple-camera shoots and that I have several hours of DV footage that takes up most of a 5-terabyte external harddrive. There's the potential for a mini-documentary on making the instrumental, but any such potential project is wa-a-a-ay back on a back-burner; it's really not even a proposal at the moment. It was in my mind as I was working on the piece, but only as a potential idea to entertain at a later date. As for the music video, it would be nice if I have a final cut by the end of this year. In fact, I have plans to work on this project later today.

Like I wrote in yesterday's blog post, I'm also feeling the urge to compose some new music. The muse has been whispering ideas in my ear and tickling them into my stomach and chest. Not to mention that I wrote some short, scene-transition, production music for Wednesday's Child, of which several of them should be developed further. They have some serious potential, I do believe. Besides, it occurs to me that I haven't had a bass in my hands or sat at the keyboards too very often since I finished the album.

I believe I have addressed my shitty discipline at being an actual "practiced musician" a few time in the past.

There's also some work that can be done on my full-length play manuscript and/or the universe it takes pace in. I have been recently working on additions to the rather lengthy story bible ‐‐ as you five(?) will know. Without getting into the mundane details, I'm in the ballpark of midway through a particular sort of story-bible addition that I could allow to steal most of my time and energy over this Artist's Retreat ‐ Staycation 2023, but I will not. But, I will admit I'm likely to put some time in on it today. There's also the planned, forthcoming, major rewrite of the two-act, which may or may not start during this staycation, but is certainly short-listed on my artistic agenda.

Looking at these items above, it's a pretty damned full plate. I guess I better get started.....

ANNOUNCING OUR 2024/2025 DTG SEASON!:

*(Note that we are seeking directors for the shows, see the end of the show descriptions for details)

The Season:

1) The Enchanted Cottage, by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero
Showing Aug 23 ‐ Sep 8, 2024
(Auditions: Jul 8 & 9, 2024)
5M, 4W (plus) w/intermission

The Enchanted Cottage is a charming and romantic fable, written in 1921. It ran on Broadway for 65 performances in 1923 and was made into a film in 1945. It was, in fact, produced here at The Guild in the 1953/1954 season. Socialite Oliver Bradshaw returns home from WWI disfigured by war wounds and convinced that no one will accept him as he is now. He hides from his family and the rest of the world, taking a secluded cottage overseen by a mysterious housekeeper. Laura Pennington, a painfully shy young woman from the village comes to look after Oliver. She tells him that the cottage in which he is staying is in fact a very old honeymoon cottage. The two begin developing feelings for each other and ultimately fall in love and marry. They discover the enchantment of the cottage has the power to transform. This play is about true beauty lying within, and about acceptance. Everyone deserves to love.

*** Season Extra ***
Campaigns, Inc., a new play by native Daytonian Will Allan
Showing Oct 11 ‐ 20, 2024
(Auditions:Aug 26 & 27, 2024)
6M, 2W (plus) No Intermission

A comedic docudrama based on the actual first American political consulting firm, formed by Leone Baxter and Clem Whitaker, Campaigns, Inc. is a behind‐the‐scenes look at orchestrated political dirty tricks executed through what may be the original "fake news" strategy. With dark humor, the play examines Baxter and Whitaker's propaganda machine that sabotages novelist Upton Sinclair's 1934 bid to become the first Democratic governor of California.

*Campaigns, Inc. is a season extra and not in the subscription package.

2) The Woman in Black, Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt, by Susan Hill
Showing Nov 29 ‐ Dec 15, 2024
(Auditions Oct 14 & 15, 2024)
2M, 1W ‐ w/Intermission

The Woman in Black is a 1987 stage play, adapted by Stephen Mallatratt. The play is based on the 1983 book of the same name by English author Susan Hill. Arthur Kipps, an attorney, is sent to handle the estate of the deceased Mrs. Drablow. He makes the trip to her funeral in a bleak and lonely part of England, where all of his enquiries into the details of her estate and her family are met with silence. At the funeral, Kipps alone observes a strange young, ghastly‐looking woman dressed in black. The next morning, Kipps is taken to Mrs. Drablow's eerie Eel Marsh house. The house is reached by way of a narrow causeway that is passable only during low tide. As Kipps investigates the house and the surrounding property, he again sees the woman in black, but is unable to follow her. His apprehension and fear grow. As he cautiously explores the inside of the house, he uncovers a large number of documents and information he must sift through in order to settle Mrs. Drablow's affairs. His efforts reveal secrets and unexplainable events. Who is this woman in black? Why are the townspeople so hesitant to answer his questions? What happens to haunt Kipps years later? As Kipps and an actor he hires to help tell his story, struggle to tell it all and exorcise both their demons, we learn the chilling answer to these questions ‐‐ and more.

3) The Minutes, by Tracy Letts
Showing Jan 31 ‐ Feb 16, 2025
(Auditions Dec 2 & 3, 2024)
7M, 3W ‐ No intermission

The Minutes is a dark comedy. It had its premiere at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago in 2017, and moved to the James Earl Jones Theatre in New York City in 2020. This play takes a hard look at the inner workings of a city council meeting and the hypocrisy, greed and ambition that bubble to the surface when a newcomer to the small town of Big Cherry starts to ask the wrong questions. Why is someone on the council mysteriously missing? What happened to all those bicycles? Is there something going on with the city's finances? What's the deal with the available parking space? And why are the minutes from the last meeting being kept secret? Sometimes the "history" we've been taught isn't the true "history" at all! Part Parks & Recreation, part Twilight Zone, this powerful, resonant, and funny portrayal of democracy in action proves that everything you know can change ‐‐ it's just a matter of minutes. After all, the smallest towns keep the biggest secrets.

4) Chancers, by Robert Massey
Showing Mar 28 ‐ Apr 13, 2025
(Auditions Feb 3 & 4, 2025)
2M, 2W ‐ No intermission

Chancers is a fast and furious comedy, set in Ireland, about the lengths we will go to when our backs are against the wall. Aiden and Dee are on the verge of losing it all. They've had to rent out their home to a fellow from Dublin (who was previously Dee's boyfriend), and move with their two young sons into the back of their nearly bankrupt convenience store. And now Dee is out at a job interview (which doesn't go well). Aiden never thought their situation would come to this. But salvation may have arrived in the form of local battleaxe, Gertie Graham. She literally has their ticket out of the poorhouse ‐‐ they just need to get their hands on it without her knowing. CHANCERS premiered to great acclaim at the Viking Theatre, Dublin, in 2013, before touring the following year.

5) Between Riverside and Crazy, by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Showing May 23 ‐ Jun 8, 2025
(Auditions Mar 31 & Apr 1, 2025)
4M, 3W ‐ w/Intermission

This play won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 2015 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the 2015 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off‐Broadway Play and the 2015 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Play. It closed on Broadway in Feb 2023. Walter "Pops" Washington is a retired NYC policeman, and he has had enough. He has been pursuing a discrimination suit against the Police Department, because he, a black police officer, was accidentally shot by another (white) police officer. Meanwhile, his landlord won't leave him alone, his wife recently passed away, and the liquor store can't keep up with his thirst. Pops' last living relative, his son Junior, has recently gotten out of jail and moved back to Pops' house with his girlfriend, Lulu, and his newly sober buddy, Oswaldo. With his heels dug into the floor of his rent‐controlled Riverside Drive apartment, Pops holds onto old wounds, both physical and emotional. Pressure reaches a boiling point when an ultimatum comes from an unlikely source, pinning Pops squarely "between Riverside and crazy." This Tony Award‐nominated, Pulitzer Prize‐winning play, is passionate, contemporary, and bracingly funny.

Seeking Directors for this season's shows:

We are seeking directors for each show. If you're interesting in directing one of these shows, please contact Rick Flynn at RickF413@gmail.com for more information. Friday, January 12 is the last day to submit interest for directing.

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EARLY PROGRESS REPORT:

The funny thing is, none of what I worked on last night was related to the bible entries that I'm "supposed" to be working on.

Oh well....

Meanwhile, I hope all of you are having a lovely holiday period, regardless of what your creeds, beliefs, or non-beliefs are. And wouldn't it be lovely if the sentiment of joy, peace, and goodwill toward each other were the norm the rest of the year? I guess that's on us, huh?

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WHAT I DID ON

DAY:

Though not exactly Artist's‐Retreat stuff, (yet still maybe part of it, kind of, since it's part of my time off, it's good for my soul, and, Hey! It's Christmas time!), one of things I did yesterday was watch a few of my usual Christmas movies and TV episodes, mostly while I was doing the Artist's Retreat stuff mentioned above. I started it off with Holidate, then went to Holiday in the Wild, then several Christmas episodes of The West Wing, while I did my first work on the True West sound design. Then I watched my annual viewings of Love Actually and Elf right before bed. There'll be a few more Christmas movies an TV episodes today and probably tomorrow, including the big one for me, which I have yet to watch this year. It'll be tonight.

By the way, I started off Friday evening with Gremlins, followed Saturday by a Hallmark-kind-of-a movie, Christmas Inheritance (actually a Netflix production).

Jan 1, 2024 addendum: I forgot to mention my annual viewing of A Very Murry Christmas

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EIGHT YEARS AGO I KISSED DEATH: Time for my annual (or almost annual) mention and recounting of my closest known brush with death. On the morning of Sunday, December 27, 2015 I had that brush. On Monday, December 28, 2015, I underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery. The events leading up to that surgery began about twenty-four hours earlier. Sunday morning I was awaken by a sharp cramp in the middle of my back. I spent some time trying to stretch the cramp out, to no avail. Then it began to radiate, pulse. Not long after, it moved to my right shoulder; actually it was more that a radiating cramp in my right should was added. Then it was the back of my neck; then, I started to feel the cramp in my upper left arm. That last one, as most of us know, is a well-known sign of a heart attack. I, by-the-way, did not experience any chest pains, though I suppose eventually I would have, likely when it was too late. I was already starting to suspect I might be having a heart attack for a few reasons. First was that I had been diagnosed well over a year earlier with hyper tension and high cholesterol, two conditions that I knew put me at risk for heart disease. Believe it or not (for those of you who don't already know this), the other reason is my acting experience. For several years I had done a gig for the U.D. Law School where I played an emergency chest trauma doctor, and an expert witness for a mock trial about a wrongful death case that involved a heart attack. For us actors, the exercise is one of guided improv, where we have a parameter of facts and information that we draw from. Our performances are not scripted but our improvisations are restricted to the info and facts we have been provided. Besides the facts of the case, my prep material also had much information about heart attacks, the symptoms, treatment, and preventions. Because of that I was educated in the fact that a person can have a heart attack without experiencing chest pains, and that all the cramps I was having, and the nature of them, were indications that I might be having a heart attack. I called 911 and said I believed I might be having a heart attack. The paramedics came, took an EKG reading in the ambulance and then told me they were taking me to the hospital because: "there are some issues." There, the man who's now been my cardiologist ever since, Dr. Akber Mohammed, inserted a catheter into a major artery, probed my heart and then gave me the news: I had 90% blockage in one coronary artery, 60% in another, and 40% in two more. He had placed a stent in the severely blocked artery; and, he told me that I would be scheduled for heart surgery the next morning. He didn't say he was going to consult with a heart surgeon who would then make a decision to do surgery or not; he said, before he'd consulted with a surgeon, that I would have surgery. He knew the surgeon was absolutely going to arrive at that decision. I found out later that the stent was solely to keep me alive until the surgery. That surgeon was Dr. Surendar Neravetla. Dr. Mohammed had said I would get at least a double bypass, and possibly a tripple bypass. As we now know, it turned out it was the quadruple. Those doctors, along with the paramedics (or EMTs, I don't really know which), saved my life. But let me not end this without my highest of praise for the rest of the medical staff, with a special mention to the amazing coronary care unit nurses at Springfield Regional Medical Center who gave me such lovely care with great kindness and patience ‐‐ and skill. And then after them, the rehab nurses. I am here to write this today because of this village of people. And they were able to do what they did for me and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of others because of their dedication and because of.....wait for it...... medical SCIENCE

I MUST KEEP THE TV OFF:

First will be some serious progress on the True West sound design. I have to completely finish processing the coyote SFX for the show ‐‐ which will also be a permanent addition to my sound effects library. I should work on curating the rest of the SFX; and , I should gain some ground on curating the music for the show: production, preshow and intermission. That last one I have, as yet, to begin, at all.

My Christmas viewing Tuesday and yesterday were a few movies and TV episodes (some of them, admittedly a bit cheesy, but, so what):

And there are two I have yet to get to, but suspect I will: How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Merry In-Laws

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WRAPPING IT UP, SORT OF:

The lofty agenda of items I listed to address over this break was barley realized and I anticipated this was how it would play out, anyway. I had no unreasonable expectations that I'd take all those targets down. A lot of my time off has been me being leisurely, doing nothing except napping a lot, and I am very okay with that.

The top priority, which I have spent the most productive time on, has been the True West sound design. I've dealt with the needed southern California coyote SFX, and now have some new items in my sound effects library, and I've also mostly curated the music for the show: all of the production, preshow and intermission music. I've selected all the pieces, now I need to fully curate which music will be for production, thus regulating the rest to preshow or intermission. There are a few that are top contenders for music in the show. For instance, there's a 99-plus% chance I have the curtain call music, at least a 90% chance I have the opening song into the show, and a 100% chance I have the music taking us out of Act 1. I also have a few strong contenders for the scene-change music. The final decisions on these will come after I've attended the full run rehearsal Tuesday night and I get a feel for what mood and tone the performances are asking for. Then, of course, I need to run it all past Director Doug Lloyd, because even though he tends to give me my lead on these decisions, he still is the captain of the ship.

Much of my remaining time before I must return to the salt mines of the rent-payer will be taken up reading play scripts for a variety of reasons. The actor in me is looking for roles to audition for; the director is likewise looking for shows I want to throw my hat into the ring for; a couple playwrights are looking for feedback on their manuscripts ‐‐ not just from me, my opinion is not that sought after. There is a bit of a deadline on the director's thing, so I'll probably read those plays first, probably at least one or two before we close out this year, this evening.

I think I wound down the Christmas viewings last night with the Lifetime/Hallmark-like Merry In-Laws, with George Wendt and Shelley Long as Santa and Mrs. Claus, respectively.

I did not get to the Jim Carrey-driven How the Grinch Stole Christmas, this year, and probably won't bother now. Next year.