And before ya know it.....
We're only two days away from
Tech Sunday!
I cannot believe how quickly
Tech Week
has advanced over that hill before us. But there it is, looming only
a few feet ahead.
We've just concluded another productive
rehearsal
week. I can't say it enough:
My cast is made up of rock stars! That, despite, or
maybe, actually, partially in light of, the fact we've had
several rehearsals with at least one cast member absent. Yet, still,
there simply is much good work happening on those boards.
The production team
is rockin' it, too. This show, being a
period piece,
puts special charges on the
costumer,
the props master
(in this case, props masters), and the
sound designer
‐‐
goofy dork that he is. That's not to mention the specific
set piece
and set decoration
needs, both for which
that goofy
dork has taken the lead, but on which I suspect the
scenic designer
is just about to weigh in; I know one piece of furniture will be
swapped out this coming Monday. The
set
is developing quite well, though I asked for something quite simple
so I could get a virtual
black box
feel for the space. The
lighting design
isn't fully implemented yet, that will happen on Sunday, but the
concept is conceived. We also, now have our full complement of
stage hands,
so we are in good shape, all the way around, and everyone is doing
their diligence and delivering.
On the sound design
front, though I've not yet begun to program the cue file in
Show Cue Systems, I
have mostly curated all the music,
production,
preshow,
and intermission.
I haven't yet determined what music is which category, with a couple
exceptions that are quite likely production music. But I collected
a large gathering of music, a lot from my own library, a few others
I procured based on my
dramaturgy.
I have had an idea which will likely have me getting one or
two more versions of a specific song, for which I only have one
recorded version of right now. The
SFX
files have all been harvest, all but two new ones from my
sound library.
This evening I'm processing the sound effects, probably
building
one, almost certainly getting two other versions of that one song,
and if I'm lucky, starting the programming of the cue file. I also
do have to tweak the movie that's in the show, too, just a tad.
Most of that has to do with fixing a couple minor
audio mixing
issues. I can guarantee the rest of the programming will be finished
tomorrow, minus the Tech Week adjustments, of course.
We are close to finished with our
prop,
set piece, and costume
agendas. Props, especially, were sometimes some work for our props
people, Heather Atkinson and Sarah Saunders, to ferrat out. There
have been some issues with set pieces, but nothing too big. Costuming
has had, I think, a few challenges but I can tell you that we did
the costume parade
last night and I only said, "no," to one costume. Once
again, we're in good shape.
A few images. 1) On the left,
the goofy dork working on show music this
past Wednesday. 2) In the middle, an actual propaganda
item used against
Upton Sinclair
by Baxter and Whitaker
(Campaigns, Inc.):
SincLIAR dollars. 3) On the right, a mocked-up
rendition of a propaganda flyer Campaigns, Inc. cooked
up to discredit Sinclair. The language here is all
from the original flyer, as is the cartoon, but the
layout and design are new.
Tech Week
is here! 10:00 this morning we kick off
Tech Sunday
with our dry tech.
And one last time, we're down an actor, but this was an absence I
knew about when I cast that actor, so I can hardly gripe. I have no
worries about this. Everyone has been staying on top of their
work, despite the missed rehearsals.
Today we start that last stretch to
Opening Night.
And, yes ,for you five who have been following this blog for a while
as well as many others who know me, I did honor that tradition of
spending the night here before Tech Sunday. I always bring my sleeping
bag, etc., on those Saturdays when I have to finish up the
sound design,
just in case ‐‐ though, between you and me, I like this
particular overnight stay.
Friday night I tweaked the show movie, as planned. I did that slight
audio re-mix
and I rendered a slightly bigger version (height and width) for the
projector. I tested it yesterday and the new version works well.
The biggest issue with the size projected on the back wall was
that the smaller one was being blown up to a point that it
couldn't be put into sharp focus. What I'd first rendered for the
projector was 25% of the original movie. The new reduced version
is at 40%. The 100% original, by the way, could not be zoomed
small enough on the wall ‐‐ It was bigger than the wall,
at its smallest zoom, in fact. And, the new audio mix sounds better,
a bit more volume balance all through it.
Friday I also acquired several versions of one particular song that
I'm using in the show. It's basically our theme song. A particular
version will open the show, another out of Act 1, then another into
Act 2, and then a fourth version takes us out of a pivotal scene and
into the denouement, then finally, the most raucous version will be
the curtain call music.
All the show music was processed into
MP3s Friday, as well.
That's the audio file format I use for
sound cues.
I mostly used Logic Pro X
to do that. I also used LPX yesterday to process the
sound effects,
doing a few sound builds,
other editing, and rendering the MP3 versions.
Of course, late afternoon into evening I programmed the show in
Show Cue Systems. If
you read the Sep 30 blog post
you know there are weird volume balance issue due to plugging my
laptop into the
DTG mixing board to
get the movie audio during the projection. So, a lot of my design
work yesterday was balancing the four channels for the
house's
PA speakers. Before I did that though, I put all the cues in the
SCS program. And before I did that, I chose the rest of the
production music,
i.e.: all the other scene-transition music,
save for the one particular version of our theme song, discussed
above.
The music and SFX are all in place, with volume levels set; it's
all ready for the inevitable changes that will be made.
I've heard this director
is a real dick about such things.
There'll be photos from yesterday posted, likely tomorrow.
Geez! it's on us!
Opening Night
is tomorrow! We're almost finished with
Tech Week,
or, as one of the cast members has referred to it:
Hell Week ‐‐
though I'm sure it's no reflection on
her director! Tonight is our
Final Dress,
and it's my totally biased opinion that these actors are incredibly
ready for an audience in
the house.
Tech Week kicked off with a quite successful
Tech Sunday.
We had a good
dry tech,
a good, traditional pizza lunch, followed by a relatively painless
cue-to-cue.
I'd originally planned to then do a
full run rehearsal,
but I nixed that. Our cue-to-cue got bogged down with several tech
issues that dragged it out, hence "relatively painless."
It was getting later in the day than I'd anticipated for when
cue-to-cue would be done, and we still had
principal photography
for the main section of the
promotional trailer
to shoot, so I cut the full run. We were down a
principal actor,
anyway, so it made sense to let everyone but the two actors needed
for the shoot go; I might add that nobody put up a fight.
Coincidentally, going back to the first paragraph above, there
will be an audience in the house tonight, because this final
dress rehearsal is a special, private performance opened to student
groups (high school and college). This particular special performance
is a new thing; I don't know if it's going to become a regular
occurrence. We have done special, extra performances in the past,
but it's been a while. They were bought-out performances, usually
added either Sunday evening after the matinée, or Saturday
matinées added before the 8:00 show on the first weekend. We
haven't done one of those since the theatre moved to Wayne Avenue.
Tonight's is a different variety of essentially the same special,
extra performance.
I'm sure I'll elaborate in much more mind-numbing detail when I get
to my post mortem
essay, but I could not be more pleased with this Campaigns, Inc.company.
The old adage, for stage and screen, is that 90% of the
director's
or producer's
job is casting
the right people. I certainly fulfilled that task. I have a rock
solid cast:
Stephanie Henry, Ryan Hester, Sandy Lemming, Matt Lindsay, Jamie
McQuinn, Dustin Schwab, David Shough, Carly Risenhoover-Peterson,
and Jim Walker. I also have a great
production team:
Scenic Designer Red Newman,
Lighting Designer Marjorie Strader,
Costumer Carol Finley,
Properties Coordinators Heather Atkinson & Sarah Saunders,
Sound Designer Dork E. Güfenheimer,
Stage Manager Shannon Fent,
Lighting Tech Rhea Smith,
Sound Tech Sarah Saunders (again),
and run crew:
Emma Allington, Abby Williams, & Sandy Lemming (yep, same one from the cast).
They. Are. All.
ROCKSTARS!
I shot the promotional trailer Sunday afternoon and last night.
Sunday it was a portion of a scene with the two
leads,
Stephanie Henry and Dustin Schwab, where they acted for the camera.
This section, where the dialogue is used in the DV movie. Monday
I shoot footage of the rehearsal to be used
mos
with the credits superimposed. The trailer turned out pretty good.
I did have one dumbassed
DOH! event. Monday evening, I came home to transfer the
footage from the three cameras onto my computer. I ate, then promptly
fell asleep, but, not really an issue. I woke up at about 2:00 Tuesday
morning, still no issue. It's when I started to set things up to export
the footage from my camera that the problem presented itself. I'd
left all the A/C adaptors, for all the cameras, plugged into
the wall in the lobby of the theatre, where I'd charged the batteries
Sunday. I didn't want to risk using what battery power there was in
the cameras while doing the export, so, I had to drive almost a
round-trip hour to get the damned adaptors. I didn't start the exports
until after 3:00 am, Tuesday. Still, we made
final cut
by Tuesday afternoon!
We had a nice little, unofficial
preview
audience of University of Dayton
students for our
Final Dress
last night and the
cast,
techs,
and run crew
demonstrated in spades that they're ready for an audience. Late last
night, I emailed my final
notes
to the company,
and the items were virtually all kudos, with only a couple minor
problems noted. Now, the show is in the love and care of the
Stage Manager,
the cast, techs, and run crew.
If you're in the area, or will be during the run, I urge you to come
check out these stellar folk and this stellar show!
Total disclosure, the headline of this entry is a quote I stole
from the show's
lighting tech,
Rhea Smith. But, yes, we had an awesome
opening night.
You know you've got a hit when the audience claps after every
scene. Further evidence is when a significant percentage of a
close-to-full-house audience stays for the
Opening Night Gala. And,
of course, there's the many audience members congratulating the
director
and the cast.
So....:
8:00 tonight
3:00 tomorrow
8:00 next Friday
5:00 next Saturday
3:00 Sunday, the 20th.
COME CHECK US OUT!
PUTTING THE SOUND GUY HAT BACK ON:
Tech Week
for the Beavercreek Community Theatre
mounting of The Sugar Witch,
by Nathan Sanders
begins next Sunday. I'm the
sound designer
for the show, but I think I've explained before that I actually have
already designed the sound for the show, for the 2010
Guild production,
which was directed by Doug Lloyd, also directing this BCT run. All
I have to do is program the
SFX
from 2010 into Show Cue Systems,
which we didn't have back then for the DTG show. So, it's a pretty
complex design, but the overwhelming bulk of the work is done. I may
start the programing before this weekend is over.
We had a small but appreciative audience last night, but, a bigger
audience would be grand. This is a show worth seeing! This cast
deserves full-houses. You won't be sorry if you come to help make
that happen!
3:00 today
8:00 next Friday
5:00 next Saturday
3:00 Sunday, the 20th.
SERIOUSLY, COME CHECK US OUT!
SPOOKY
TRYOUTS:
Our Campaigns Inc. Upton Sinclair, David Shough, is the
director
of the next Guild
show,
The Woman in Black.
He's holding the auditions tonight and tomorrow night. There
are two men and one woman.
Yesterday was another lovely performance, this time for about a
half-house.
The audience was still responsive to performance, though less
boisterous in their laughs at the jokes than the high-energy Friday
night crowd was. But, all in all it was a good weekend, despite what
I consider mostly anemic attendance. The
cast
was on top of it, nonetheless. I'll write it again: this cast
deserves full-houses. You won't be sorry if you come to help make
that happen!
8:00 next Friday
5:00 next Saturday
3:00 next Sunday
AND THE SOUND DESIGNER HAT IS OFFICALLY BACK ON MY HEAD:
Last night I gathered together the sound files from the 2010
Guild production
of The Sugar Witch,
as well pulling up my sound plot from that mounting. The
sound tech
copy of the script from then is long gone, but the sound plot does
precisely identify and note the placement of every
sound cue.
I even managed to find the CD that has all the
preshow
and intermission
music.
A page from the 2010 sound plot, color-coded because
this was back in our pre-Show Cue Systems days and
we manually ran the cues from four disc sources:
two mini-disc players and two CD players.
Thus, as indicated before, the overwhelming bulk of the work needed
was finished sixteen years ago. I was not able to get to the
programing in Show Cue Systems
over the weekend as I hoped I might ‐‐ or that I might
have at least started ‐‐ but no big deal. I've
scheduled a
vacation
day from
the rent-payer on
Thursday, and should be able to get the programing done then. I'll
try to get it started during lunch breaks before then.
Tech Sunday
is this weekend, but I should be ready, though I'll actually miss
the tech rehearsal,
even the cue-to-cue;
I have to be at The Guild
for our closing performance of Campaigns, Inc. and the
set strike
that follows. But, the sound tech for this BCT show is far more than
capable, and I'll be scheduling a one-on-one
dry tech
with him that morning. And, of course, I'll then be at the
tech rehearsals the rest of
Tech Week
for the inevitable tweaks that will be needed. I'm sure there'll be
some notes
for me from later Sunday, after I've left.
"KEEP THAT HAT ON, BOY":
MORE
The sound designer's
hat stays on for virtually the rest of the 23/24 season as I work on
another five shows:
The Minutes,
by Tracey Letts,
again at The Guild, for which I am also the
producer,
with Melissa Kerr Ertsgaard directing. That runs Jan 31-Feb 16, 2025.
Then I return to The Playhouse for The Cure, by
Alex Dremann. It's the
script that took first prize last summer in
FutureFest 2024
and now gets a full production, showing March 14-23, 2025. Like
The Sugar Witch,
I have already designed the sound for this one, last summer for FF24.
And this one is already programed into
Show Cue Systems. All
that might be needed would be any tweaking that might come up.
It's directed by the way, by Saul and Sarah Caplan.
Then, back to The Guild for
Chancers,
by Robert Massey,
which Marjorie Strader is directing and which is showing Mar 28-Apr
13, 2025. I don't think there will be a terribly complex sound
design needed for this one, either.
You know, I had my eyes set on starting a new music project,
just about now, to close out this year. It seems like that
will be late spring at the earliest, probably next summer.
But, maybe I can find a window to do a little bit of something
over this coming
Christmas
time.....
Our run is half over, we're about to go into the last three shows.
We had our
brush-up rehearsal
last night, with me on book,
because our stage manager,
Shannon, has a standing Wednesday appointment that she's graciously
cancelled the last several weeks. The brush-up was the traditional
line run,
though a couple actors got on their feet for a few scenes to do
their blocking.
Tomorrow night, the actors are back in front of the audience.
BROKEN RECORD TIME:
Speaking of audiences, I've said it before, I'll say it
again, maybe not for the last time:
This cast deserves full-houses. You won't be
sorry if you come to help make that happen!
8:00 tomorrow
5:00 Saturday
3:00 Sunday
SUGAR SOUND:
With Tech Week
for the BCT production of
Nathan Sanders'The Sugar Witch
looming, this soundwork
has obviously been a priority. With the sound files from the 2010
DTG mounting gathered
for this new mounting, I've now converted all those files into the
desired MP3 format
‐‐ SFX
and music.
The arrangement to get into the theatre early this coming
Tech Sunday
to do a dry tech
with the show's sound tech
is still on. You five regulars will remember that I can't be there
later in the day for the Sugar Witchcue-to-cue
with the cast,
nor the subsequent full runtech rehearsal,
because I must be at The Guild for the closing performance of Campaigns, Inc.,
to do curtain speech,
run the movie that plays during Act 2, stand in for our sound tech,
who's had an unexpected situation come up that's called her away,
then be there for the set strike.
Sugar Witchdirector,
Doug Lloyd, will need to give me notes
about sound issue that arise ‐‐ volume levels being the
most likely issues. I will, of course, be there for the rest of
Tech Week.
WHO'S GOT THE CALAMINE LOTION?:
On several occasions, in recent blog entries, I've mentioned how I
am feeling the pull to do another music project. As I believe I've
pointed out, at one point the plan was to start to work on one when
Superior Donuts
was wrapped.
But then, we ended up taking
Wednesday's Child
to the OCTA Regionals, then
I was the sound designer
for FutureFest 2024,
then for The Enchanted Cottage,
and the next thing you know, I was neck-deep in Campaigns, Inc.
And, of course, as I wrote in the last blog post,
I'm not done designing sound this theatre season.
But, as I've mentioned several times before, there are a few pieces of
scene-transition music
I composed and recorded for Wednesday's Child that I want to
develop into full songs. As well, I keep getting new ideas; just
this week I had a nice little lyric stanza come to me, as did a
musical idea for the words. I also have a few snippest of songs
I've started over the last few years that are worth revisiting.
There are also songs from my younger days that are worth dusting
off, a handful in particular.
So, what's been a tickle has grown into an itch, which is on the
verge of becoming irritating. As I wrote yesterday, maybe I'll at
least do something this coming
Christmas
break. Maybe it'll be another artist's retreat like last year.
Here we are, heading into performance number 4, the start of our
swansong weekend. As of the writing of this entry, all three shows
have plenty of tickets
left. I sure wish that wasn't the case. This is a good show getting
missed by lots of theatre-goers who would greatly appreciate the
script, the production, and certainly, the performances, if only
they would be here to see it all....
I'll be in the
booth
tonight and Sunday, covering for our
sound tech
who has business needing attention. I am familiar with the
soundwork.
I'll Say It Again:
This cast deserves full-houses. You won't be sorry if you
come to help make that happen!
8:00 Tonight
5:00 Tomorrow
3:00 Sunday
READY FOR TECH SUNDAY:
Okay, maybe not completely done, but I did program
the show's whole soundwork
into Show Cue Systems,
while also taking care of several loads of laundry. Hey, it was the
only window in this current period where it could be practical and
plausible to get that laundry done, and I was seriously running out
of clean clothes. So I did laundry while I programmed sound.
This was, by the way, notmulti-tasking,
which is a concept that is, with very few exceptions, a myth. It was
the "critical path method."
But, I digress....
I am now ready for that dry tech
Sunday morning, then all the tweaks that we know will happen during
that session as well as the rest of
Tech Week.
The part of that critical path workflow
that took place in the apartment laundry room.
Writing the sound cues into the script book.
Transferring the sound files and the Show
Cue Systems program file to a thumb-drive.
This afternoon's show is number 5, and the second to last one of our
run.
As I write this, the
house
is about at half reservations, which is good. But, ya know, I want
it to be more 'cause I'm greedy, and 'cause (see the box below).
We also had about a half-house last night, but again, quite responsive.
For an added bonus, the parents and sister of
PlaywrightWill Allan
were in attendance and enjoyed the show ‐‐ so that's
good.
You know the song:
This cast deserves full-houses. You won't be sorry if you
come to help make that happen!
5:00 Today
3:00 Tomorrow
Above, at the top of the entry, is a social media
image posted earlier today. Here is one from
yesterday:
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.
*Note: Campaigns, Inc. is a season extra, that only
shows 2 weekends. If you bought a season ticket package you
will specifically have had to purchase this show as an add
on, otherwise you will need to purchase an individual ticket
for it.
The Cast of CAMPAIGNS, INC.
CHARACTER
ACTOR
Leone Baxter
Stephanie Henry
Clem Whitaker
Dustin Schwab
Upton Sinclair
David Shough
Charlie Chaplin
Matt Lindsay
Frank Merriam
Jim Walker
George Hatfield
Ryan Hester
Franklin D. Roosevelt
(and others)
Jamie McQuinn
Eleanor Roosevelt
(and others)
Carly Risenhoover-Peterson
Reporter
Sandy Lemming
The promotional trailer for Campaigns, Inc.
Stay tuned for more words from me about the show....
We had a great second, and final weekend, to match our opening one.
The audiences were again responsive to the script and to the
performances. They laughed, Friday and Saturday, especially;
Sunday, it was more that they chortled and chuckled....politely.
But all the shows saw applause during the scenes, like most of
the previous week. We've had a good run for this show!
Our last show was, um, "fun." I'm not going to say that
the damned gremlin
was afoot in the house, but the show had some minor glitches, and
one, not so minor. There were some line glitches, but only
those of us intimate with the script knew; the audience had no clue.
The major glitch was a technical one. For some reason, that I never
did identify, when I started the movie there was no sound. It took
some quick, erratic trouble shooting to get that damn thing working.
I had to actually start it over with pretty much all the
"trouble shooting," as well as the jump back to the start
of the movie, on display for the audience to see.
Live Theatre!, right?
But, hey the audience was quite forgiving and I was the only person
I'm aware of that was talking about it afterward.
I don't mean to suggest that our closing show was a
disaster show
by any means, save for maybe a disaster-lite moment during the
movie debacle; it was, all in all a good show, with a more subdued
audience, but one that did rave about the show after it was over.
Despite knit-picky complaints from the pretentious
director,
we closed a good run on a good note.
You five regulars, and others who've read my blog, as well as any
other local theatre peeps, may know that our
playwright,
Will Allan
is a professional actor, and a native Daytonian, now centered in L.A.
What many may not know is that his day job (his rent-payer)
is working for the
Los Angeles Dodgers
organization. We had hopes, as did he, that he'd be able to come
back to his hometown, see the show, and even do a
talkback,
ideally after either the first Sunday matinée or after the
5:00 show on the second Saturday. However, the Dodgers made the
playoffs for the World Series,
and thus, Will couldn't get away from the west coast. So: no talkback,
no playwright in the audience.
Will does get to see our production, though. This past Saturday I
shot the performance, in a
multi-camera shoot
with three cameras in the
booth,
trained on different areas of the stage, and one hand-held that I
used from the
House Left/stage right
audience space in order to get good views of the actors in particular
scenes. Of course, being sanctioned by the playwright, the shoot
was not in violation of copyright. I told Will that I couldn't
guarantee exactly when the
final cut
would make it his way, but I also don't intend for it to be too
terribly long from now.
Some time soon I'll have the
post-mortem
essay for the production posted here. It's on that never-ending
agenda of material for this danged blog and website.
I still have recountings of my attendance at the
Neko Case and the
Ringo concerts to write
and get out. But jumping ahead a little bit, I do want to note the
gift the cast
and crew
gave me after Sunday's
strike:
they got me an original SincLIAR dollar(*), which
is relevant to the story of the play and an historical artifact.
The SincLIAR dollar was part of the propaganda campaign against
Upton Sinclair.
The item is encased in a polyvinyl casing. It's a cool little
momento.
*) SincLIAR dollars:
So-called "red currency" issued in opposition
to Upton Sinclair's EPIC (End Poverty in California) campaign
for the governorship of California in 1934. It is printed
in red ink and lists "Utopian Sincliar" as
Governor and "Tom Phoney" as Secretary of State.
It is said to be issued by "Uppy & Downey Bank"
and to be "Good Only in California or Russia"
but "Not Very Good Anywhere" and bears the slogans
"Easy Pickings in California" and "Endure
Poverty in California"
‐‐ Bibliomania.
Now, some pics:
The last two social media adverts for the show,
both that posted Sunday morning.
The set, the far right one, from the booth, with
one of the cameras on a tripod for the shoot of
the show for Will.
The set from the pov of one of the other cameras in
the booth for the shoot for Will.
The front and back of the Campaigns, Inc.
company gift to me, the encased SincLIAR dollar.
THE WITCH IS ABOUT TO CAST HER SPELL:
Tech Week
for Nathan Sanders'The Sugar Witch,
at Beavercreek Community Theatre,
is almost concluded. My obligations to Campaigns, Inc., at
The Guild meant that
I missed most of Tech Sunday,
but I was there Monday night and last night. I'll be there tonight
and tomorrow night (Final Dress),
as well. I'm not sure if I'll make
Opening Night,
but I'll certainly make at least one performance before it closes.
So far, tech has gone well for me; all I've needed to do was adjust
a few volume levels.
FINISH YOUR PLATE, K.L.....:
MORE
Then, there's the other shows I'm doing
soundwork
for this season, shown below, without comment. The first
Playhouse one, I'm
already gearing up for, since
Tech
is just around the corner; the next
Guild one is right
on its heels. Plus, I was recently solicited to design for a show
at the end of the season, which I'm on the fence about. Mostly I'm
wavering on a "yes" for this last one because of that
hope I've previously mentioned of getting into a new music
project. I also wouldn't mind getting back to work on the draft
of my play manuscript.
But, here are the sound design gigs that are on the rest of
this 24/25 theatre season agenda:
You five regulars and anyone else who read the
Sep 22 blog entry may
remember my writing about how my
MacBook Pro 16,
which is now a virtual relic at eight-years old, has been acting
up a little. There seems to be issue with the touch pad and some
of the keys. The machine would occasionally give me fits of a sort
of computer version of a minor seizure, with the cursor going crazy,
jumping all over the place, opening and closing apps, etc., etc. I
did find a work-around that makes it possible to get all the work,
the various, large scope of work, done that calls for my laptop.
Most all of what I do that I really care about involves extensive
use of my machine. As I wrote for the Sep 22 entry:
....As a work-around, I've plugged in my old Mac keyboard
and my external mouse, which has lessened the crazy cursor,
and like, behavior....Clearly, as soon as there's a good
window, the machines got to go to a Mac repair place; it's
gonna cost me, I'm sure, but not as much as buying new one
‐‐ which I REALLY don't wanna do just yet;
it's a financial draw I don't want or need at the moment....
At first, I still got some erratic cursor action but that soon stopped,
with the use of the connected external keyboard and mouse. I have,
on occasion, used the laptop without the externals, and the issue
reappears. I don't hink I'm going to bother taking the machine in
for repairs. I think that at some point, I'll be getting a new
MacBook. Let's face it, in this third millennium, a computer
pushing ten-years old is pushing obsolescence, which is probably
built in, but, that's another conversation. And at the moment, I'm
not wanting to spend the money to buy a brand new machine. So, I
have, instead, upgraded my work-around. Last night I bought a
MX Keys S for Mac
wireless keyboard and a
MX Anywhere 3S for Mac
wireless mouse. It was a little less than $200 for both, a little
more than I was hoping to spend, but a lot less than the new machine
would run me. The externals being wireless makes the setup just a
little more conveniently portable, which I need. And the new
keyboard is not clunky like the old Mac keyboard I've been using
is. And now I can hook that older keyboard, and the older mouse, back
up to my older Mac desktop machine, which I do occasionally fire up
to use some legacy software that will not run in the newer Mac OS
environments.
THE NEXT GUILD AUDITIONS:
Our first DTG show
of the next calendar year,
The Minutes,
by Tracy Letts,
will have
open auditions
in just five-and-a-half weeks, Dec 2 & 3. The
director
is the very talented theatre lady, Melissa Erstgaard, making her
directorial debut at The Guild. As well as designing her sound, I am
also her producer.
If you read this before Dec 4, click the auditions link at the bottom
of the most recent blog post on this page, to get the
audition specs.
(Note: the link will be gone when this Oct-Dec, 2024 page is no
longer the latest blog page)
I spent the last two weeks in the hot, muggy swamps of Florida, now
I spend some time in the chilly environment of Maine.
My theatre-agenda list for
soundwork
now has the
The Dayton Playhouse
mounting of
Almost Maine
by John Cariani
at its top. The list of
sound effects
in the back of the script is not extensive, and though I don't
have all the listed SFX, as needed, what I don't have can either be
easily acquired or easily
built.
My biggest issue is that there isn't a
full run rehearsal
scheduled until Tech Sunday.
I'd like to see the show in continuity before I get down to brass
tacks on the design. But, it's not a detriment if I can't; it's
just better if I can. And, of course, the design needs to be finished
before Tech Week,
save for those unavoidable tweaks. But, all of the scenes will be
ran the first half of this coming week, so I'll at least be able to
see them ‐‐ and they may just be done in chronological
order, which would be good. I think there'll be
scene work
done, which I'll have to be patient through, but that's not going
to kill me.
I cast my vote yesterday in favor of democracy, decency, civility,
statesmanship, sanity, and against tyranny, misogyny, homophobia,
transphobia, xenophobia, authoritarianism, theocracy, and American
neo-fascism, not to mention that I voted against pre-adolescent
pettiness and rage.
A PREVIEW OF A DISCOVERY:
My plan yesterday for after I voted was to drop by a park and do a
hike, probably at
George Rogers Clark Park,
which is on the way home from the Board of Elections, but, I remembered
that we have a new, recently opened state park,
Great Council State Park
in Xenia, Ohio, close
enough to my drive home to be a convenient stop. So I went there,
instead. The park honors the indigenous people of the area, especially
the Shawnee nation.
At some point, there'll be something more detailed, and with more
pictures, that will be found in the
Vacation
& Recreation section of
the site, but for now, here are a few photos:
The Great Council park center, fashioned
as a "contemporary version of the
historic 'longhouse' or council house
familiar to the Shawnee in the 1700s."
The sculpture, "Panther Across the
Ohio Sky," by
John Nativio,
representing Tecumseh's "spirit,
intelligence, and legacy as a fierce
warrior, uniter, and guardian of Shawnee
culture and tribal history," as per
Mr. Nativio.
The trail at the park isn't extensive nor is it at
a hiking level close to difficult, i.e.: I did
not need my hiking stick. But it was still
a good walk and it does have a path down to the
Little Miami River,
for a nice little scenic view.
AN INTERIM UPGRADE TO MY LAPTOP BAG:
Well, the computer bag I've had for several years has been beaten up
pretty bad by my strenuous use of it. I've needed to replace it for
weeks, maybe a couple months. A few days ago I finally ordered a
replacement; but, I think I've only ordered a temporary replacement.
I bought a mens messenger bag for fifty bucks. I don't believe it's
going to have a long life span with me. It has arrived and it is a
nice enough piece, but it doesn't seem have the durability to handle
my usage, long term. I suspect that within the year I'll be spending,
probably, $200-plus for something that has both the stamina and the
space for my use and needs. Yes, space is the other issue. With this
new messenger bag, I've had to hone down what comes with me every
day. Certain lesser-used items, like my portable phone charger, have
to be left at home in this interim. Hey, the bag does look
nice, and the essentials, including the new additions of the wireless
external keyboard and mouse, will still be on me as I go about my day.
My old, dying computer bag, just before I sent it
to its "burial" in the dumpster.
My new messenger bag, with its life expectancy of
maybe a year or so, tops.
This week I did my
sound designer's
audit of the
Almost Mainerehearsals,
taking notes and getting a feel for the performances ‐‐
although the actors were making their first
off-book
attempts, which is always a struggle. So, of course, the actors weren't
at the stride with their roles that they'll get to, but there certainly
were enough of their characters present to feel the general mood of
the production. All the vignettes were rehearsed this week, but I
missed a few because I had a personal-life thing come up Monday, so
I couldn't attend. I'll pick up the three scenes I missed, over two
of next week's rehearsals.
In the meantime I'll harvest the needed
SFX
I'm already aware of. And there is the issue of
production music,
which I'll elaborate on later. As well, there's
preshow,
and intermission
music to curate. I should probably get to the
Show Cue Systems
programming as soon as possible, too.
Tech Sunday
is only ten days from now.
THE MYSTERY OF MY NEXT SOUNDWORK:
I'm not precisely sure what my role in the
soundwork
for The Woman in Black
will be, but I do know that I will be recording several
voice-overs
next week. As per usual, I'll record them on my
portable 8-track recorder.
Based on my scheduling needs for
Almost Maine,
at DPH, I'll
probably record the VOs next Thursday.
So, the
Jim Gaffigan
show I was going to go see tomorrow at
Taft Theatre
in Cincinnati was postponed until May. He had several shows this
weekend at the Taft, all moved to that weekend in May. This being
a fact I discovered yesterday when I checked my
Ticketmaster
wallet on my phone ‐‐
NO ONE NOTIFIED ME,
but that's a conversation for me and ticketmaster and me and the Taft.
I'm betting the shows were moved because Gaffigan will be on
SNL
tonight playing
Tim Walz.
If this country is lucky, he'll be making regular appearance as
Walz for the next 4-8 years......
....BUT MY SATURDAY NIGHT DID NOT:
With Gaffigan's show
cancelled tomorrow, I will be able to make the
The Sugar Witchstrike
tomorrow afternoon, which I was going to need to miss so I could
make the 7:00 show in Cincinnati.
Had I known about the Gaffigan postponement I would have got a ticket
for tomorrow's show, that way I would have already been there for
strike. But, even though I got the ticket yesterday, it was before
the Gaffigan realization, so I got a ticket for tonight's
performance. It's not like it's going to kill me, but there are
some things I could do this evening that will have to wait. Yeah,
yeah, I know: "Wah!"
Turns out I did not sit in the audience for last night's
performance of
The Sugar Witch
because my
&%$#@!!!!! car wouldn't start! I needed a jump, which
was irritating because I just recently put in a
brand-&%$#@!!!!!-new
battery! So I did the AAA thing,
then drove around a while, plus, let the car sit and run for a while,
to charge the battery. I tried it this morning and it started, so
I guess I'll be at the closing performance today, and then
strike.
I can already tell you, having been there all of
Tech Week,
that the performance will be good.
I had originally taken today as a
vacation
day from the rent-payer
because I was going to see
Jim Gaffigan
in Cincinnati last night. When the show was posponed to May, I
decided to cancel the time off. But, I changed my mind. The icon
on the right says "just because" but really I'll
spend some of the day working on the
sound design
for Almost Maine.
Plus, why not go ahead and take the day off?
PART OF MY
VACATION
DAY:
I've ended up eating a lot of time today doing other things but I
am going to at least give a little time to starting the process of
harvesting
sound effectsproduction music,
and preshow
& intermission
music.
I also have to attend part of some
rehearsals
this week to pick up the segments that I missed last week, so I've
seen all of them, taken my notes and gotten a feel for the moods.
It didn't exactly take Nostradamus to predict this, yet I was
indeed correct when I guessed that
Jim Gaffigan's
stand-up gigs at
The Taft Theatre
in Cincinnati this past weekend were all postponed until May because
he was going to portray
Tim Walz
on Saturday Night Live
this weekend.
Yep, sure enough he did, in the
cold open.
Also featured were a few SNL alumni, as well as a special
appearance by Vice President Harris,
herself.
"I never have understood
How we recreate mistakes"
I won't get into the whole self-conscious,
self-doubt about many people out there, including
most of my friends, giving even one shit about my
music, but this song, which I mostly wrote almost
forty-five years ago, has been my theme song the
last several days.
THE JOB GOT EASIER:
It's no longer necessary for me to curate
production music
for the show because there is licensed production music by
Julian Fleisher that
can be downloaded and I have done so, eliminating the need for me
to spend time on such, and taking that off my plate absolutely works
for me!
I did need to currate the
preshow
and intermission
music, but I already had an idea for those, so that was a smaller
portion of the plate than it could have been. The biggest task has
been the sound effects,
and that's not been a big task, either; and it's virtually finished.
By bedtime tonight the design will be programmed into
Show Cue Systems and
ready for all the volume tweaks I'll have to do tomorrow at
DPH during the
Tech Sundaydry tech
and wet tech
runs.
MY PRODUCTION WORK FOR THIS:
I finally have a handle on exactly what my role in the
soundwork
for The Woman in Black
is. For one, as I've written before, I've been on recording-engineer
duty; Thursday I recorded the show's
voice-overs
on my 8-track recorder.
I was hoping I might be able to use some of this recorded material
in the promo trailer
but that won't be possible (see below).
On Thursday, I got all the VOs with one glaring exception. I'd like
to blame that glaring exception on that damned
gremlin but I
cannot shift that blame away from my own dumb-assed self. When I got
home that evening to import the
WAV files from my
recorder onto my computer, I discovered that the first thing I
"recorded", I didn't record; that channel
was blank. During the recording session I'd had signal on the machine
during the relevant take, so it's clear that the sound engineer
(me) didn't push
the record button that time. I had to bring the actor back to the
theatre late yesterday afternoon to pick up that voice-over. Fortunately
that particular VO was only around twenty seconds, and the theatre
was on the actor's way home from their day job, anyway, so the
inconvenience of added time and effort was minimalized.
As for otherwise, all that's been needed from me is a slight bit of
consultation about the theatre's new
Soundblaster X4
external sound card. As this show's
sound designer,
Director
David Shough is bypassing our
tech booth
sound laptop, as well as the
Show Cue Systems
software, for a system he's bringing in for the production. It's a
good thing he only needed a little bit of consultation because,
despite what a lot of people believe, I am not the sound
engineering guru they apparently think I am, especially when it
comes to hardware.
Unfortunately, I could not get clearance to use dialogue from the
script in the promotional trailer. The response from the publisher
actually said to not even use rehearsal footage at all, even without
any dialogue. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I believe that last request goes
beyond the legally copyrighted property, and they cannot legally
prohibit it. Even if it's in the license I doubt it's legally
binding, but it's not worth it to call the bluff. So, the trailer
for this one is going to be far simpler than it ought to be. It's
also my opinion that those who restrict material completely from
promo trailers are not doing the success of the runs of their work
any favors, that it's a foolish, short-sighted stance to take.
HELEN HUNT IN CHICAGO:
I haven't been to Chicago to see a show since early summer, 2018,
and these trips are something I like doing. Months ago I wrote in
the blog that I saw that
Helen Hunt
is going to appear as Emma in
Harold Pinter's
brilliant play,
Betrayal,
this coming February through March at
The Goodman Theatre.
I've been keeping on top of when tickets go on sale; I have a couple
more weeks to go before I can get one, but picking one up is absolutely
on my agenda. If I'll be able to afford it, I can definitely fit a
weekend roadtrip up there in, especially after
The Minutes
closes ‐‐ and it is very much my hope that I HAVE
to wait until after that particular show closing, if you know what
I mean.
I really would love to see Ms. Hunt take on this role. An extra bonus
for me is that
Ian Barford
plays the "friend," Robert. I saw Ian as
Clov
in the 2010 Steppenwolf
production of
Endgame
and I very much enjoyed his work; Clov is a role I had done five
years earlier (2005) in the Springfield StageWorks production. Also
in this upcoming Betrayal cast will be
Robert Sean Leonard
(Dr. Wilson on
House,
as well as many other TV and movie credits).
The programming of the
sound design
into Show Cue Systems
was finished about 10:30-ish last night, and I copied all the
relevant files onto a thumb drive for migration onto the Playhouse's
sound laptop today. I can't get into the
booth
as early as I'd like, but I'll survive. I'm spoiled, doing sound
at DTG, where I have
twenty-four-hour access.
MY WARRIOR QUEEN MUSE IS NOT LETTING UP:
The Muse is relentlessly whispering in my ear and brushing past my
soul. That urge to get into some new music is persistent. Every
time I listen to any artist I like, any music at all that I like,
some sort of idea for a song, even if just the grain of one, pops
into my head. It's happening when I'm not listening to anyone or
anything, too.
It's not just concepts for the songwriter, either.
I'm getting ideas for the arranger and producer as well. Plus, as
the result of all this titillating inspiration, the last several
days I've been on-line looking at specific guitar foot pedals; I've
even added a particular one to my wishlist on my
Sweetwater account.
I won't even get into the two shelved album projects just waiting
for me to master
them ‐‐ well, one only needs just mastering: the album of
ambient music;
the other album, from sessions in the 1980s, needs bass guitar
work added to a few songs, and it needs to be
mixed as
well as mastered.
My late December is looking more and more like an artist's retreat,
at least to a great extent, whether that retreat is a
staycation
at home or a
vacation
in a cottage or cabin somewhere. If I can swing the expense, I
guarantee it will be the latter ‐‐ perhaps the one I
stayed at over
Christmas
in 2020: The Cozy Little Red Cottage
in Dover, Ohio. Several
songs on
Virtually Approximate Subterfuge
were at least started during that stay. It's likely, however, that
it's gonna be the
staycation
Tonight is approximately the half-way mark of
Tech Week
for the production. It seems to be going well.
Tech Sunday
was pretty painless. There were some kinks to work out on
sound,
still are a few tweaks to make, but that, of course, is true about
all the tech aspects, as is always the case during Tech. Thus far,
I've been in the booth with the
sound tech,
but as of tonight, I'll be in
the house,
scrutinizing sound volume levels. I'm also going to do a couple
needed tweaks that I noted last night, on my own
laptop, during
the day, today, and copy them onto the
DPH laptop, tonight.
It's a really sweet show with a lot of touching performances, and
a few vignettes that are downright heartbreaking.
PUTTING ON THE
PRODUCER'S
SUIT JACKET "suit jacket," yeah, right:
The Minutes,
by Tracy Letts,
is on the docket as the first Guild
show of the coming calendar year. As you five regulars may know,
it's standard for me to be the producer for at least one DTG
production each season; this season it's The Minutes.
We've been in softpreproduction
for a little while, but now it's time to go full-on. I'm in the
midst of scheduling the first
production meeting,
as soon as I can get a night when all the critical
production team
members are available, i.e.: the
designers,
the stage manager,
and, of course, the director,
Melissa Kerr Ertsgaard, who requested the meeting but should be included
in any production meeting in any case. We also need to shore up and
confirm the rest of the production team, namely the
booth techs,
and any
stage hands
it's determined we need.
As I've mentioned before in the blog, and on my projects page,
I will be the
sound designer
for the show. I always design the sound when I produce a Guild show.
This won't be an epically challenging design, however. It'll be pretty
straight forward, with one rather interesting exception to that.
Blame Letts. No spoilers though, but it will be a fun moment in
the show to help enhance with
sound design.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch,
open auditions
are only three weeks from yesterday. There are many good roles available.
Here are the
audition specs:
Audition Dates: Mon & Tue, Dec 2 & 3, 2024, starting at 7:00 pm
both nights.
The Dayton Theatre Guild at the Caryl D. Philips TheatreScape
430 Wayne Ave, Dayton OH, 45410
937-278-5993 www.daytontheatreguild.org
Directed by Melissa Kerr Ertsgaard
Produced by K.L.Storer
Production Dates: Jan 31-Feb 16, 2025
(8 males; 3 females)
Casting Requirements:
Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script.
A résumé and headshot are not required but are encouraged.
Please provide a list of all known conflicts between Dec 4, 2024 & Feb 16, 2025.
Dayton Theatre Guild is a community theatre that values community
representation, and we are committed to diversity, equity, and
inclusion on and off stage. People of all ethnicities, gender
identities, and abilities are welcome and encouraged to participate
and will be given full consideration in casting and all volunteer
opportunities. Unless explicitly specified by the playwright in
the text of the play, all roles will be open to all performers.
Director's note: The Minutes is a dark comedy by
Tracy Letts, about town politics. The action is non-linear
and driven by each council member's belief that they want
the best for the town of Big Cherry.
CHARACTER BREAKDOWNS:
CHARACTER
NOTES
Mr. Peel
(M) Mid 30s; naive newcomer who pushes for the truth.
Mayor Superba
(M) Early 50s or above; slick but not smarmy.
Ms. Johnson
(F) Early to mid 30s, tight-lipped, careful clerk.
Mr. Blake
(M) Mid 30s or above, African-American; non-ideological,
could be functional alcoholic; has definite ideas for town
growth.
Mr. Breeding
(M) Early 40s or above; loud, brash, politically incorrect.
Mr. Hanratty
(M) Early 40s or above; good-natured but entirely misguided.
Mr. Assalone
(M) Mid 40s or above "It's Ass-A-LONE-AY";
opportunistic AND slightly unscrupulous.
Ms. Innes
(F) 60s or above; single-minded, long-time council member.
Ms. Matz
(F) 40s; disheveled, distracted, and (maybe) child-like.
Mr. Oldfield
(M) 60s or above; longest standing council member, befuddledÂ
contemporary of Ms. Innes.
Mr. Carp
(M) Late 30s or above - the idealistic, former council
member who holds the key to the mystery.
This isn't a full-blown correction, but it's a correction to a certain
extent, perhaps more of an elaboration or a clarification. It concerns
my recent mentions of my album project of
ambient music.
This is work that was recorded ten years ago, specifically as
the preshow
for The Dayton Playhouse
2014 production of
George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead™ Live,
that I designed sound
for, and which was directed by Geoff Burkman. Burkman had suggested
some sound files from the NASA sound library
as potential SFX
for the production. There are some great sounds from space there,
gathered by radio telescopes.
I ended up not choosing any of the sounds for the show, but I did
marry them with some synthesized chord progressions and tonal
progressions from virtual keyboards in
GarageBand
to get the preshow music ‐‐ the type of stuff one will
here on the likes of Soma FM'sDrone Zone.
I then remastered the work, or more correctly, just simply
finally mastered
it, and used it as
production music
for last season's Guild
mounting of
Wednesday's Child,
for which I was both director
and sound designer.
Though I remastered
the recordings for Wednesday's Child, I may re-examine those
masters to consider another remastering. Honestly, this ambient music
album has been sitting only feet away from the finishline, waiting
quite a while for the final steps to be taken before it can be marketed.
There are five separate tracks, each running between 8:32 and 8:35,
for a total of just shy of 43 minutes of ambient music, which is a
decent timespan for an album length.
Again, the soundwork
for this one was a pretty easy gig, and, considering that tonight
is Opening Night,
it's finished. There have been minor tweaks all week, mostly volume
levels ‐‐ you know: "same old song and dance."
Mid-week, the
curtain call music
was changed; actually it was changed twice; I changed it first, then
Dawn changed it. So, without divulging what it is, I want all those
out there who know a lot about me, and who come to see the show, to
know that the curtain music was really not chosen by me. But,
it should not be a surprise to anyone who knows me that I already
had it in my personal music library.
As you five regulars may know, I always produce at least one show
per season at The Guild,
but some seasons I've produced two ‐‐ and I think there
may have been one season where I produced three....maybe. I just
picked up my second
producer
gig for this season due to the original producer's need to bow out
because of personal business. I don't think this will be a tasking
position to put myself in, the two shows both seem easy enough for
the producer to handle; they are productions right next to
each other, but I've done that at least once before, and I
lived to tell the story.
And here's a reminder to Dayton-local actors that
open auditions
will be Monday & Tuesday, December 2 & 3, at
the theatre, starting
at 7:00 both nights; 8 men, 3 women.
Next up, and new to my plate, is
Chancers, by Robert Massey,
directed by Marjorie Strader, which is showing Mar 28-Apr 13. This
is one of the 24/25 shows I submitted to direct and I was already
on board as the sound designer,
just as I was with The Minutes.
Open auditions
for this one will be Monday & Tuesday, February 3 & 4, at
the theatre, starting
at 7:00 both nights; 2 men, 2 women. The audition specs will be
announced sometime in December or early January.
I don't know the prices, yet, but I'm guessing a good seat will run
me at least $150. My ticket to see
Brigadoon
there cost me $83 in 2014; inflation alone brings that decade-old
price to $110. Helen Hunt's star-power may make the ticket more
than $200. We shall see.
THE GESTATION OF THE BIG CHERRY TOWN COUNCIL MEETING HAS BEGUN:
Last night we held a
production meeting
for The Minutes,
for virtually all of the
production staff
(the AD
wasn't confirmed yet), first to meet each other, then to talk basic
concepts in order to realize
Director
Melissa Kerr Ertsgaard's vision.
And, remember, Dayton-local actors:
open auditions
will be Monday & Tuesday, December 2 & 3, at
the theatre, starting
at 7:00 both nights; 8 men, 3 women.
THE GESTATION OF A PROJECT IS NIGH:
As you five regulars have read here in recent posts, the muse is
pulling on me, calling me into action on some musical ventures. I've
decided to definitely lock in
Artist's Retreat ‐
Staycation
2024, for this upcoming
Christmas
break, to work on a new music project, and perhaps get that
ambient music
album into the final stage to be published unto the unsuspecting
world that it's highly likely will take little to no notice.
Either, or both, of these musical ventures could have some time logged
into them before late-December, too. The upcoming, long
ThanksGiving
weekend is a good candidate for such.
Heading into spring, then summer, I am keeping my plate cleared of
other artistic ventures so I can concentrate on music. I am not
taking on any more
sound designer
work after the wrap
of The Cure,
by Alex Dremann at
The Dayton Playhouse.
The only thing that might compromise this plan would be if a really
juicy role in a play or a movie were to present itself as a
possibility. Any movie would most likely be an
indy-short film,
and probably a student film, and as a short, it wouldn't be any
great drag on my time.
The stronger probability is that between now and
Christmastime,
I do a little of something with music, then give much of the
Christmas
break to music, then do a little bit of music in early 2025, and
in mid-spring my "artsy-time" will be back to concentrated
on music.
DTG has been hit with
a big bill for needed HVAC repairs, to the sum of $18 thousand. That
cost almost completely depletes our cash on hand so we're sending
out the bat signal to our supporters. Below is the letter from our
board president, Carol Finley, that has just gone out. On social
media, we are tying this drive into Giving Tuesday,
(which is December 3, this year), but, of course, that's not an
exclusive association.
Dear Friends of The Guild,
Since The Guild's earliest days we have cultivated a culture
of not spending money needlessly and that we didn't have
from current resources. We weathered the pandemic fairly well
and even did some sprucing up while we could not be open.
However with an almost 300% increase in our electric bill,
coupled with an $18,000 HVAC repair, we are uncomfortably
short of cash. We are happy to announce that installation
of our solar panels has already begun. We anticipate our
finances to return to being comfortably in the black once
the solar panels are fully installed and running. Since
August 23rd, audiences have been in our theatre enjoying our
2024-25 season. Our third presentation,
The Woman in Black, will open on November 29 and run
through December 15.
For going on 80 years, The Dayton Theatre Guild has been a
gathering place to tell stories, share laughs, and build
community. Decade after decade, folks across the Miami Valley
have come together, donating their time and talent to entertain
and enliven the region with good theatre done well. We want
The Guild to continue entertaining audiences and with a sound
financial future. We appreciate your ongoing support and hope
that during this season of giving you are able to help us
keep our building warm.
Wishing you and your family a warm and wonderful holiday season.
Thank you,
Carol Finley
President, Dayton Theatre Guild
The Dayton Theatre Guild at the Caryl D. Philip TheatreScape
430 Wayne Ave, Dayton OH, 45410
937-278-5993 www.daytontheatreguild.org
You'll note that as of when I captured the seating chart, there were
some seats closer that I didn't opt for. I tend to not like the first
row, especially at a theatre like the Goodman, where the stage is
elevated a bit. And my memory of that theatre is that neither the
stage nor the audience floor are
raked,
which means the neck-craning from the first few rows would likely
be intolerable to me. That's my memory from my 2014 attendance at
Brigadoon,
anyway. I was one row back and couple seats closer to center for
that one and I remember that I was satisfied with my view. I actually
tend to like about the fourth or fifth row at theatres.
The ticket price was in the range I expected, running me $147 after
the fees were tagged on. I anticipated a good seat possibly being
more than $200, maybe way more, so, I'm glad to have been off on
that.
I picked the first weekend after
The Minutes
closes at DTG
because, as you five regulars may remember, it is my hope that the
overlap in the run of these two shows will be a scheduling conflict
for me....
I believe that as of yesterday I have actually started that next
music project of mine, that which I have been on the verge of for
weeks, if not months. It's probable start is under the guise of
composing and recording the music for the
promotional trailer
for The Woman in Black.
I recorded the music on my
Tascam 8-track recorder,
playing on my
Oxygen 61 Keyboard,
using MIDI instrument
voices from both
GarageBand and
Logic Pro X. I was
going to play a piano part on my
Legato III piano,
but I found a MIDI piano voice that sounds quite authentic, so I used
that on my Oxygen 61, instead. I essentially composed the piece during
the recording session, which I have done plenty of times before, if
not wholly then significantly for many pieces, usually instrumentals.
I also recorded several short
voice-over
phrases for the trailer. I had thought about bringing in the cast
members for these, but, it was more a question of expediency and
convenience. Had I planned better, had I had a more fully-formed
concept for the trailer, earlier, I'd have utilized the cast for
this. But it'll work the way I've done it.
Not only did I finished the composition and recording of the music,
and the recording of the voice-overs, yesterday, but I also got it
all mixed
and mastered,
as well. Okay, truthfully, I finished mastering the voice-overs a
little before 1:00 this morning, but it was part of the Saturday
production session.
I now have virtually the entire concept for the DV movie, and I'll
flesh out the rest as I am editing. I have all the graphics I plan
to use, so all I have to do is load all the images and audio into
a Final Cut Pro X
project and start the editing process. I may take a big chunk of it
out later today.
Yesterday, in the old abode, working on the music
and the voice-over for the Women In Black
promo trailer.
Going back to a few weeks ago, in the
tech booth
at The Guild:
the set-up to record the actors' voice-overs for
use during performances.
I plan to catch the final performance of this today, since I need
to be there for strike,
anyway.
The
Woman in Blacktrailer
is out a day and a half earlier than Guild
trailers usually hit the web because I was restricted from using
dialogue and even any none-audio footage from the rehearsals, so I
didn't need to wait to edit it together until after I had shot any
such. I typically shoot that footage at the Monday evening
tech rehearsal
during Tech Week
because the cast will be in costume and the set will be almost done,
if not completely. But there was no need this time.
Like I stated a few blog posts ago, I'm skeptical of the legal
standing of the latter restriction, as it doesn't seem to me to
cover copyrighted material, but I didn't want the potential hassle
of ignoring it. A few years back, I had a conversation with a copyright
lawyer, who works in the play publishing business, who said that
publishers, either on their own or at the entreaty of the
playwright,
will sometimes place things in the license contract that would be
almost assuredly shot down in court, banking on some level of chilling
effect due to the hassle of fighting them in court; not being a lawyer,
I could be wrong but I highly suspect this is likely one of those
cases. So-oh-well.....
Yesterday I wrote that I figured I'd get a big chunk of the movie
editing done by the end of the day. I was wrong; I got it all done.
I actually uploaded the DV movie to our
DTG YouTube channel
last night but scheduled it to go live at 10:00 a.m. (EST) today.
Despite not using any action of the cast, with or without audio of
dialogue, I am not unsatisfied with what I came up with. I would have
preferred to have footage of action from rehearsal rather than still
photography but what I have does work. And the silver lining is that
there is a bit of a change-up in the approach to a DTG trailer, and
that's not a bad thing.
Just a reminder to Dayton-local actors that
open auditions
will be one week from tonight and tomorrow, December 2 & 3, at
the theatre, starting
at 7:00 both nights; 8 men, 3 women.
SUNDAY IN THE NORTH EAST:
Well, it's too late for a recommendation, since the show closed
yesterday, but as planned, I was an audience member for this last
performance. Of course, I saw the run every day during
Tech Week,
being the sound designer,
but one should still support the show during the actual run unless
one's schedule absolutely forbids it.
I admit that I don't get exceptionally excited about this script;
I don't think the show sucks or anything, it's just not a play that
does a lot for me. I like
PlaywrightCariani'sLast Gas
much better than this one.
That said, I think this was a really good production all the way
around. And it is a sweet show with that sweetness brought out by
Dawn Roth Smith's direction, a good production team, and a most
capable cast of actors. It may not be a show that I'd take a roadtrip
to Chicago to see, but it was a pleasant way to spend my Sunday
afternoon.
I dropped in on last night's
tech rehearsal.
I must say, this is another one you don't want to miss. Really fine
performances all the way around, as well as really fine production
values. DTG is
doing it again! No wonder it's my home theatre.
Some people may need to be advised that the production has fog
effects and a flashing light sequence. That caveat aside, if you're
close by, or will be during the run (weekends, this Friday through
Dec 15), you should come see this.
As I've stated before, my observance of this day is
no longer about homage to that traditional American
mythological, "historical" account of this
day, but an embracement of the righteous concept
extracted from that myth: the use of this day to
consider for what we have to be grateful, and to come
together to share a meal with family and/or friends.
My wish is that everyone has a lovely gathering today,
free from the stresses this particular ThanksGiving
Day could bring.
On a related aside, last night I spent
ThanksGiving Eve
watching all the
F*R*I*E*N*D*S ThanksGiving episodes.
This evening, after I get home from the family gathering, I plan on
starting on the
Gilmore Girls
and The West Wing
ThanksGiving
episodes. And, of course, sometime over this weekend I will sit down
to the infamous WKRP in Cincinnati
episode,
"Turkeys Away."
Now that I think about it, I'll watch that first.....tonight.
With yesterday's ThanksGiving,
we now have entered that end-of-the-year season of
various holidays for various people:
ThanksGiving,
Yule/Winter Solstice,
Christmas,
Chanukah,
Kwanzaa,
and New Years;
those are at least the major ones that I'm readily
aware of. And this year, especially, for the survival
of my mental & emotional state, my heart, my soul,
my spiritual condition, I am trying to stay in a
mindset of this spirit of celebration. I anticipate
this being the case for the next several years, but
I hope not longer than that. So, whichever of these
holidays, or others I've missed, that are a part of
your life, I wish you the very best in your observance
and/or celebration.
As per usual, I was there
Opening Night,
but, like usual, I was
House Manager,
setting up, first, Intermission, then, the
Opening Night Gala, so I
again could not attend to the performance. In stride with the norm,
the feedback from the Opening Night audience was quite positive,
both at intermission, then after the show.
And the report I have from
the booth
is that the rest of the weekend went quite well, too.
A MINUTES-WORTH OF TRY OUTS:
Open auditions
are tonight and tomorrow night at
the theatre, starting
at 7:00 both nights; 8 men, 3 women.
REMEMBER TO CONSIDER THE GUILD ON GIVING TUESDAY:
Just another reminder that
The Guild was hit with
a big bill for needed HVAC repairs, to the sum of $18 thousand. That
cost almost completely depletes our cash on hand so we've sent out
the bat signal to our supporters. Below is the letter from our
board president, Carol Finley, that we've put out. On social
media, we've been tying this drive into Giving Tuesday,
(which is tomorrow, this year), but, again, that's not an exclusive
association.
Dear Friends of The Guild,
Since The Guild's earliest days we have cultivated a culture
of not spending money needlessly and that we didn't have
from current resources. We weathered the pandemic fairly well
and even did some sprucing up while we could not be open.
However with an almost 300% increase in our electric bill,
coupled with an $18,000 HVAC repair, we are uncomfortably
short of cash. We are happy to announce that installation
of our solar panels has already begun. We anticipate our
finances to return to being comfortably in the black once
the solar panels are fully installed and running. Since
August 23rd, audiences have been in our theatre enjoying our
2024-25 season. Our third presentation,
The Woman in Black, will open on November 29 and run
through December 15.
For going on 80 years, The Dayton Theatre Guild has been a
gathering place to tell stories, share laughs, and build
community. Decade after decade, folks across the Miami Valley
have come together, donating their time and talent to entertain
and enliven the region with good theatre done well. We want
The Guild to continue entertaining audiences and with a sound
financial future. We appreciate your ongoing support and hope
that during this season of giving you are able to help us
keep our building warm.
Wishing you and your family a warm and wonderful holiday season.
Thank you,
Carol Finley
President, Dayton Theatre Guild
The Dayton Theatre Guild at the Caryl D. Philip TheatreScape
430 Wayne Ave, Dayton OH, 45410
937-278-5993 www.daytontheatreguild.org
Last night was Night One of
open auditions
and the turnout was gobsmacking. There were more than forty actors
in the house auditioning ‐‐ the count was 43 from
SM
Shannon Fent, but she thinks she may have counted at least one
person twice. But, it's safe to say that we've had smaller audiences
for performances. There were a lot of really good
reads,
too. Director
Melissa Kerr Ertsgaard certainly has choices, and some difficult ones.
The choices and their difficulty are likely to only increase as the
auditions continue tonight at
the theatre,
starting at 7:00; 8 men, 3 women.
REMEMBER TO CONSIDER THE GUILD ON THIS GIVING TUESDAY:
Again, a reminder that
The Guild was hit with
a big bill for needed HVAC repairs, to the sum of $18 thousand. That
cost almost completely depletes our cash on hand so we've sent out
the bat signal to our supporters. Below is the letter from our
board president, Carol Finley, that we've put out. On social
media, we've been tying this drive into Giving Tuesday,
(today), but, again, that association is not exclusive.
Dear Friends of The Guild,
Since The Guild's earliest days we have cultivated a culture
of not spending money needlessly and that we didn't have
from current resources. We weathered the pandemic fairly well
and even did some sprucing up while we could not be open.
However with an almost 300% increase in our electric bill,
coupled with an $18,000 HVAC repair, we are uncomfortably
short of cash. We are happy to announce that installation
of our solar panels has already begun. We anticipate our
finances to return to being comfortably in the black once
the solar panels are fully installed and running. Since
August 23rd, audiences have been in our theatre enjoying our
2024-25 season. Our third presentation,
The Woman in Black, will open on November 29 and run
through December 15.
For going on 80 years, The Dayton Theatre Guild has been a
gathering place to tell stories, share laughs, and build
community. Decade after decade, folks across the Miami Valley
have come together, donating their time and talent to entertain
and enliven the region with good theatre done well. We want
The Guild to continue entertaining audiences and with a sound
financial future. We appreciate your ongoing support and hope
that during this season of giving you are able to help us
keep our building warm.
Wishing you and your family a warm and wonderful holiday season.
Thank you,
Carol Finley
President, Dayton Theatre Guild
The Dayton Theatre Guild at the Caryl D. Philip TheatreScape
430 Wayne Ave, Dayton OH, 45410
937-278-5993 www.daytontheatreguild.org
This past weekend, I officially began work on the new music project.
You five regulars may remember I had tentative plans to start it
over the recent ThanksGiving
weekend, but didn't do so. You may also remember that I have some
instrumentals that I've already written and recorded for a few
Dayton Theatre Guild
productions, that will somehow be included in this new project,
whether they make it on the album or are tagged on as extra tracks
for single releases. They're not going to be re-recorded, and
probably won't get
remixed,
though there's a reasonable chance they'll get
remastered.
This weekend I started the work on one of those pieces of
scene transition music
from one of those Guild productions,
Mark St. Germain'sWednesday's Child.
The first session was Saturday evening; the second session was last
night.This one is an expansion on that musical idea. For the show
it was an instrumental piece, as was all the other transition music,
but I will be writing lyrics for this expanded composition. There
is at least one other piece from that show that will be further developed
for this new project, and a few more that might be. Again,
all were instrumentals that will probably get lyrics. The other one
I know I'm doing definitely will get lyrics. Like I did for
Virtually Approximate Subterfuge,
I'm going to reach back into my youth for a song or two, or more,
that I wrote back in the 1970s or 1980s. I'm not sure just yet
which ones, but there are certainly a few strong contenders.
As for chronicling the progress here in the blog, I won't be getting
as detailed for this project as I did for Virtually Approximate
Subterfuge. I am going to write in detail about the process,
as I move through it, but that text will be saved for later posting,
with a high chance of being entries on the
On-liner Notes page,
somewhere in the vicinity of the release of the album. I'll report
here, as well, it's just that such won't have significant detail.
I probably won't even give titles.
I'm calling this the "2025 Music Project" with the hope
that it's finished before this coming year is over. Not sure that
will be the case, but it's a target.
This morning it occurred to me that I failed to acknowledge the
anniversaries of the passing of both
Beatles who have left us.
I missed George's a
week-and-a-half ago on Nov. 29; and I missed
John's this past Sunday.
Guess I'm preoccupied, because I got calendar reminders for both
but still missed them. I retroactively added recognition for both
on those anniversaries:
George on Nov. 29
and John on Dec. 8.
Two things here about the new music project. First off, I'm nixing
the terminology, "2025 Music Project," quite specifically
because there is another "project" associated with
this coming year that I don't want to even come close to suggesting
I have anything to do with. You know, it's a fascists-leaning,
anti-democracy, authoritarian-theocratic, misogynistic, homophobic,
racist, anti-trans, anti-immigrant, classist, oligarchical agenda
that is bent on completely destroying America and remaking it as a
totalitarian, rich, straight, white male country, with everyone else
being second-class citizens, at best. My project now becomes
"the 2025 Music Adventure."
Second, I have almost completely restarted the new song I worked on
this past Saturday and Monday evenings. I didn't redo the percussion
sequences I'd created, but I did import the sound files to a new
song project on my
Tascam 24-Track recorder
rather than record playbacks from my
MacBook Pro,
in real time, as I'd done the first time in the original song project,
and as I usually do. In this case, it was a question of exact
synchronization of the two separate percussive parts. I will
re-record all the rest of the tracks live, in realtime. And I think,
going forward, all percussive sequences are going to be rendered
into sound files then imported onto the 24-track rather than be
recorded onto it in real time.
I started a new song project on the 24-track, rather than kill any
tracks in the old one, or kill the first song project completely,
just in case things didn't work out with the revamp. I'm not horribly
dissatisfied with what I did previously, though I'm not absolutely
in love with the work, either. Still, I don't want to delete it until
I feel safe about doing so.
The last two evenings I've re-recorded all but one element that was
left to re-record for the first new song for this project
‐‐ (um, I mean: "adventure").
One thing was recorded a little hot (i.e.: too loudly), so after
listening to a playback from Wednesday night I re-did that again last
night along with several other parts newly re-done. I have one part
still left over from the first sessions, then I'll move on to
introducing new instrumentation.
I also made a rough mix
of this basic rhythm track that I currently have, minus a few
elements including the bass guitar. This rough mix is for me to
study to get further ideas for the song, such as the bass line,
which I have only the vaguest of ideas for at the moment. I also
will be listening to help me get the lyrics. Again, I have very
little idea about the lyrics, only the smallest germ of one that
may evolve into something that germ does not suggest, whatsoever.
What the words will be is virtually a wide-open field of thought. I'm
not sure I'll work on the song tonight, but certainly over the course
of this weekend, in between other obligations and activities, more
will be recorded, or, at least, worked out and maybe rehearsed, if
not added to the recorded tracks.
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.
ANOTHER SEVERAL INCHES GAINED IN THE PROGRESS ON THE FIRST NEW
SONG:
Saturday I added some more MIDI
percussion on the Oxygen 61 Keyboard.
Sunday I set aside the MIDI and the Oxygen, and pulled out my
Legato III
to create a piano part. I worked out some chords on Sunday, but
changed that all up significantly yesterday evening.
Quite purposefully, I listen to a bit of Peter Gabriel
toward the end of my workday yesterday, he being one of several
artists in that neighborhood of more artsy, experimental rock &
pop, whom I've listen to for artistic inspiration for this song.
"Who are some of the others?" you aks? The likes of
Talking Heads,
David Byrnes (solo),
David Bowie,
Sparks,
The Fireman(aka: Paul McCartney* &
Youth)
This piano part hasn't been recorded yet. That might happen tonight.
I certainly will rehearse it, at the very least. As for a bass line,
I still only have a vague idea of what I want to do; it's a little
more than what I did have, or didn't have, but not much more. I'm
probably going to consider at least one more piano part before I
turn attention to a bass part. I might add more than one more piano.
At this point I'm heavily leaning toward some of the separate pianos
doubling on the same notes and/or chords.
*) Those who may think that McCartney doesn't belong in this
group, with or without The Fireman,
Wings,
or, you know,
that other band,
such people don't really know his catalogue, especially the
enormous cornucopia of deep cuts from his fifty-year
post-Beatle career.
The Guild
and the Dayton arts community in general has lost
an avid patron of the arts. Don Bigler passed away
Sunday, December 8. As the official public
condolences from DTG says below, Don was a big,
big supporter of The Guild, along with his wife,
Lois. As well as much financial support, and
promotion of our theatre in the community at large,
Don gave us a lot of sweat equity. Over the years
he crafted many specialty
set pieces
and props
for us. When we were moving from our old Salem
Avenue venue to the new, Wayne Avenue building,
Don and Lois put in many tireless hours helping us
get the theatre ready to open, and then many more
after we opened, working on improvements and remodeling.
Here is what I can assure is not an exhaustive list
of the things Don did for us:
did a significant amount of the interier
painting before we opened
helped put in our stage lighting grid
built the back wall of our cast dressing
room area.
ran power and A/V cables
did some electrical work
As I said, I know I've missed things, probably a
lot of things.
Don was a nice man. I liked him quite a bit. And
the man was a proverbial walking encyclopedia. There
was not a subject I ever conversed with him about
that he didn't have a lot of knowledge; I swear the man
must have had an eidetic memory, and I don't mean
that in jest; I seriously think he must have had one.
Until his health failed, you could pretty much see
him and Lois at every artsy thing happening in the
area, be it theatre, dance, opera, classical
concert, and I'm sure other sorts of concerts, visual
arts, you name it. Don was well-known in the Dayton
arts community and he will be much missed.
Rest in peace, Don.
The image above was created for the DTG social
media posting about his passing. Below is the text
that accompanies that image:
The Dayton Theatre Guild joins the Dayton arts community
in mourning the loss of Don Bigler, one of our city's
great patrons of the arts. Don was a strong supporter
of The Guild, who put in countless volunteer hours
and was instrumental in building the infrastructure
of our home, the Caryl D. Philips TheatreScape. We
at the Guild send our love, sympathy and condolences
to his wife Lois, also a great supporter of the Dayton
arts, his family, and his friends.
When I leave the office from
the rent-payer
this afternoon, I'm off until the second week of January;
Artist's Retreat ‐
Staycation
2024 will officially
be underway as of later today. Guess we can say I spent the last ten
days in the foreplay for the next almost two-and-a-half weeks, since
I started the first new song for the
2025 Music Adventure
on December 10, and have been at it for at least a few hours most
days since. You five regulars will know that this project is a big
chunk of the agenda for the time off. Some other things will occupy
some of the time: some movie editing, some time on the current draft
of my full-length play, and maybe some work on other music projects
that have been on the back-burner. I hope to get some special blog
entries finally done and posted, as well. There will be some theatre
soundwork
done. Oh, and I definitely will watch all of my traditionally
annual Christmas
movies. Plus, I have absolute plans to take a few winter-break hikes.
DON'T SHOOT ME, I'M ONLY SORTA THE PIANO PLAYER:
But, before
Artist's Retreat ‐
Staycation
2024 begins:
Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I rehearsed the first piano part I've
worked out for the first new song, and did a little more tweaking to
that part. I actually did some tweaking in my head on it Wednesday at
the rent-payer.
That tweaking all dealt with melodic notes, filler, if you will,
during the second verse section. Though it's clear I was still
in composer or arranger mode, the rehearsal before recording was
also because although the piano part is pretty simple, I am not
really a piano player. As I've just written, specifically about these
rehearsals for this song, for some writing that will probably endup
on the On-liner Notes
page:
...using the term "pianist" or "keyboardist"
in conjunction with my name only works if you include
words like "isn't." A competent, twelve-year-old
piano student could clean my clock in a competition. But, I
do play well enough to successfully get my musical idea across....
Last night I recorded the first piano part, then worked out and
recorded the second piano part, which is essentially complementary
to the first. The first piano racked seven takes in order to get
something "satisfactory"; the second one took six. Both
"good" takes have minor flaws I am at present living with.
It's, however, not beyond reason there will be a later blog entry
reporting that I've re-recorded one or both of them. I may, I may
not.
My single release from a couple Christmases ago.
As well, here's also the link to its companion piece,
the extra track that came with the single release
‐‐ the "B-side," if you're
old enough to know what that means. It was chosen
as the companion because it's the opposing perspective
from my song. Here is my cover of the Christmas standard,
"I'll Be Home for Christmas."
This doesn't fall under the umbrella of either
Artist's Retreat ‐
Staycation
2024 or
2025 Music Adventure
because though this applies to them, it's equipment
for beyond these. The day before
Christmas,
I got my latest guitar foot pedal, a
DigiTech Bass Whammy Pitch Shift Bass Pedal.
I probably spent too much, but then, maybe not.
WHAT'S HAPPENED SO FAR:
Since Artist's Retreat ‐
Staycation
has begun, I've been working on recording another new song besides
that which I started just before the retreat launched.
I'm not completely sure it will be a part of the stable of songs
for the
2025 Music Adventure,
but I haven't ruled it out, either. The goal was to have it
recorded, a
mixed-master
finished, and a music video
on-line by yesterday, Christmas Day,
but that didn't happen.
I wrote the lyrics first. Without giving too much away, the lyrics
are a reinvention of a traditional, secular
Christmas
song. It's really more so a song for the winter season than it is
for Christmas.
I also have the chords and the chord progression, and the structure
of the song in place, with a fairly good idea of what the vocal
melody will be. The melody will be loosely based on that of
the song I'm reinventing. The chords are also loosely based on
those from the original song.
When I've wrapped this one, I'll return to the first new song, and
before the
Staycation
is over I'll have utilized that
Bass Whammy Pedal
discussed in the entry above.
I've previously mentioned plans to do some work, during this retreat,
on my full-length play,
which I started several years ago. That has not directly happen yet.
I have however added to the
story bible
for the universe of that play, mostly with the beginning of another
ten-minute play,
currently only considered a bible addition to flesh out some
dialogue to better illustrate a particular moment. At the moment
the script is nine pages, but it'll get longer. It will be longer
than ten minutes. Whether it becomes more than a supplement to
the story bible, I don't know. And it's more a vignette than a
developed story ‐‐ at least right now. I still have plans
to work on the full-play manuscript before I return to
the rent-payer.
Of course, my
Staycation
is about more than just the direct artistic ventures. There's also
some "feeding the artist's soul" and some plain-ol'
being idle. I have watched most of my traditional, annual
Christmas
movies and TV episodes, and I'll watch the rest over the next couple
days; and, of course, I gathered with family on
Christmas Eve.
There hasn't been any hiking in the local forestry, yet, but that's
going to happen. Not unlikely, there'll be a hike shortly after I
upload this blog post.
NOT TO BE TOO CRYPTIC, BUT ALMOST A DECADE AGO, I NEARLY DIED:
Yesterday was the ninth anniversary of my heart attack. Today is
the ninth anniversary of my
quadruple bypass heart surgery,
which was performed by Dr. Surender Neravetla.
I could spend the next hour or so composing new sentences about this
experience, but, over the course of these nine years, I've written
more than a few. Here are two blog entries, for anyone bored enough
to want to read them:
More work has been done on the winter season song. I worked out and
recorded some percussion parts: a bell shaker, chimes, and tubular bells,
all MIDI
instrument voices from
Logic Pro X,
played, of course, with my
Oxygen 61 Keyboard.
I must admit I had to administer a bit of discipline on myself; I
overplayed each one of the parts when I was working them out, so I
had to step back and force myself to be much more sparse in my use
of each of them. And I may pull some of the use of any of the three
parts in the final mix.
I also tweaked the lyrics a little. The changes are relatively
minor yet significant in that I have pulled my lyrics even further
from the original's narrative. There's more to do but I still hope
I get this out into the wild before this little
staycation
I'm on is done.
The focus the last several days has been the
2025 Music Adventure,
specifically the winter season song. My new goal and hope was to
have it completely finished and the
music video
published on
my YouTube channel
before New Years Day, but that is not going to happen. The newest
goal is to have it out in the wild by the end of my
staycation,
which is plausible, but may not happen either. The good thing is
that the song is based on a song that has become associated with
the Christmas holiday
but actually was not composed for it; and my version further removes
that direct
Christmas
association ‐‐ with a bit of a secular cliché that
does associate it, if the listenier picks up on it. But it
will work just fine as seasonal even after the holidays are over.
I've worked out and recorded one more part, a progression of
dyad chords
from a MIDI,
polyphonic
string instrument voice from
Logic Pro X,
played, of course, on the
Oxygen 61 Keyboard.
I've worked out another polyphonic string arrangement, which will be
performed on another MIDI voice from Logic Pro, a slightly different
sound to the "strings." The two parts will make a four-note
chord, and the two parts will be placed in different spots on the
arch of the
stereo pan
in the final mix.
At this point my thought is that one will be pretty far right, the
other an equal distance left, but that may change when I get to
the mixing point with the song. I'll record this second poly-string
part today.
I have at least one more percussion part to work out and record, as
well as at least one instrumental solo part ‐‐ I'm leaning
toward a cello voice. Then I have the vocals to record. I haven't
decided yet whether it will be a lead vocal with harmony parts coming
in at spots like the chorus, or if I am going to do multi-part harmonies
all the way through; both concepts appeal to me at the moment; it
will all depend on which musical mood and feel I like better.
As for the music video, I have a pretty strong concept for it and
have gathered likely more images than I'll use.
![BETRAYAL, by Harold Pinter, with Helen Hunt at The Goodman](Betrayal_at_Goodman_trip/Betrayal_at_The_Goodman-icon.png"){kind=icon}
