Weekend Work

Saturday rehearsal ran a little longer than I'd hoped. A bit of miscommunication pushed us out until about 2:10 PM. Sorry for that. Joyce had to leave early, but it was prearranged, and she's already in pretty good shape, line-wise. However, the on-again-off-again issue with master Higashi reared it's head again, so I reblocked and reworked the kids scenes for both a 4-kid and 3-kid version.

Sunday was the set-building marathon. The platforms I'd hoped to alter wound up making the already too-tall flats that much taller, so I had to go with my back-up plan and build them from scratch. I got through two of them, so hopefully I'll be able to finish the other two today and drag them down to Oxnard tomorrow early... wait, that won't work... I have an appointment at CLU on Tuesday. Crap, I'm too busy!

I also trimmed off 1.25" from each end of the already short flats. They are double-sided hard flats, so they're that much harder to handle. I've gotta figure out a way to keep the hinges from showing. I dunno, we'll see.

Monday night is Halloween, so we swapped for this Wednesday instead. Each night this week will be a double run-through, so we'll get (hopefully) six more chances to get it down pat this week. We should have most props here on Tuesday. Wednesday should be the final production rehearsal, but I need to have Jerry remind everyone. Costumes will be the focus. We tech this weekend, so Saturday after rehearsal I'll pull all the lights, check circuits, and repatch the lights. I'll paint when I can. I don't have a solid painting plot, so I'll have to iron that out this week as well. Leopard vests need to be finished, and Kelly agreed to take the Mouse vests from me. Sister Mary Annette needs to be finished, and I still have a bench, a trick Pope picture, applause sign, and a kitchen counter to make (oh, yeah, and a fake fruit cake).


- Sean

Digging Deep: Hubert, Robert Anne, George

To compliment the three in-depth rehearsals I had last Thursday with Rev. Mother, Virgil, and Amnesia, I worked last evening on specific scenes with the three remaining "primary" cast members.

First up was Donna Gross as Sr. Hubert. We worked primarily on her interactions during "It's Better To Give" where she is fronting the rest of the cast near the end of the show. Donna is a natural performer, so I am not at all concerned about her ability to lead an audience to claps and hallea, but I wanted to make sure we cleaned up her focus during those so she would have something to fall back on. The first instinct (both hers and mine) was to have Hubert continually work back and forth from side to side, involving as much of the audience as possible during the first two verses and refrains of the song. However, in reviewing, it looked too staged. We limited her shuttling to individual verses and refrains, and it now seems much more believable. It also allows her to focus on the message of each verse, rather than having to worry about "getting stage left now", etc. We also cleaned up some of her interactions with Rev. Mother, and her focus during both Nutcracker sequences. We finished her allotment early, and she graciously gave Kelly some more quality time with me.

And next up was Kelly Aughenbaugh and Sr. Robert Anne. This character has a TON of stage time, and had we not divested "12 Days Prior..." to Sr. Mary Annette, she'd have (hands down) the greatest number of "solos" in the show. As it wound up, we were able to focus on the two "best" numbers in the character's arsenal: "Jesus Was Born In Brooklyn" and "All I Want For Christmas". "...Brooklyn..." is arguably the "soul" of the show, as it has the potential for the greatest emotional response from the audience. As much as I joke about Goggin's incessant need to change keys, this one he has crafted expertly. Vocally, Kelly already had it nailed. I chided her a bit for holding back during rehearsals, and reminded her of a few of the potholes in the song, but our primary focus was the dialog leading up to the song. Robert Anne tells us the story of when she stole a Christmas tree for the holidays, and transitions to when her father left the family for a while. We tried several different approaches, but the one Kelly had most success with was in treating it like a dialog with me, as though she was conversing with a good friend. I then asked her to focus that on individual audience members to try to recreate that feel each night. It worked so well, that Donna, still sitting in the audience, actually continued the dialog in subsequent recitals of the section. After that, we moved onto "All I Want..." which, again, Kelly has down pat vocally. As with the others, we clarified her movements on stage, and the bits she'd already come up with worked well. Once of the nice things about Kelly as an actress is her ability to "lock in" her character for specific scenes. She's as consistent opening night as she is on closing, and once she gets there, it great to interact with.

Sarah came in after Kelly, and we worked on "12 Days Prior To Christmas" with the mostly-finished Sr. Mary Annette puppet. She's not had much work prior to this point with the puppet, so she did comment that the lower jaw needs a bit more sutffing in it to give her a broader range of mouth movement. We explored a few bits for the puppet, and she expanded nicely on them. I decided that we'll have a muppet "glove" for her to wear with her left hand, to facilitate the opening and closing of the "pope window".

It was another great in-depth rehearsal with three very talented actresses.

- Sean

Flats Up

With the assistance of Ray Bowman and Jason Aughenbaugh, the core set of flats went up last night. Jason engineered support braces for the tops of the SL flats while I worked on assembling the "window" flat section. Ray helped by cutting braces and wrangling flats while Jason and I hinged or floor mounted them.

One inconvenience will be two sprinkler pipes. One hangs down off SR and is shorter than a typical 8' flat. I had Ray hang up two strips of black broadcloth to mask off R. The second pipe is more of a pain, as it is essentially center stage. It hangs just above 8', but the UC end of it has a sprinkler joint that drops down to about 7'11", which sucks. I had already cut the three "custom" flats that go on the platform to be 7' 6". The platform will be 5.5" (1x6 stock) + 3/4" (plywood top) + 3/4" (gap for caster clearance) for a height of 7.5", so that puts the tops of those flats at 8' 1.5". So I need to shave about 2.5" off of those flats to be sure. I think I only have about an inch on each end I can trim off, if that. Yikes.

Another bugaboo, but to less of an extent, is the annoying heater pipe off SL. It is a 6" sheet metal duct, and it prevents almost anything from sitting flush against the back of the SL "proscenium". If I need more masking, I might need to cut a custom flat for that.

Other than those, all is going well. We open in about two weeks, so I have some work to do this weekend. The colors from Delicate Balance will almost surely bleed through, so I will be slapping some Kilz on it first.

- Sean

Da Cast...

Here's the "nice" cast shot (touched up and balanced) that I took last night (click image for the large version)...

(Front row L-R: Sarah Vawter (Sr. Mary George), Joyce Rieske (Rev. Mother), Liz Martinez (Sr. Mary Leo), Kelly Aughenbaugh (Sr. Robert Anne); Back row L-R: Louis Rivera (John), Todd Weldon (Father Virgil), Amanda Hulme (Sr. Amnesia), Emily Bowman (Maria), Megan Trout (Louise), Donna Gross (Sr. Hubert), Melanie Bowman (Louise), Jeffrey Higashi.)

And here's the "silly" cast shot (click image for the large version)...

Aren't they adorable?

- Sean

Roll Tape

So I managed to get the floor taped out Monday night so everyone has a sense of where the walls and platform are. On Wednesday night at 8:00 PM, Todd (Virgil), Ray (Leana's husband), Jason (Kelly's husband) and I will wall in the flats and tape the seams. I'll finish the platform this weekend along with the custom flats, bring it in and get it mounted.

Hopefully I'll also be able to get a base coat of paint on the flats. I'm a little concerned with the burgundy semi-gloss paint that Delicate Balance used. When the flats were in my truck and they got rained on, the red paint bled. That's usually a bad sign. Combine that with gloss or semi-gloss, and that usually means I'll need to buy a couple of gallons of KILZ to prime with first. That'll be another night of painting burned...

Cast photographs and another run-through tonight.

Another set of one-on-ones with three cast members on Thursday (Kelly, Donna, and Sarah). Then one-on-ones with the kids, and hopefully a double run-through on Saturday, and then we're into the two-week stretch.

Still a lot to do...


- Sean

Over the Hump...

We're in the final three weeks of rehearsal starting this week, and this will be when fun and happy director Sean starts to become slave driver Sean. In the next four days, I have to get the stage taped and the basic flats up and ready. I also need to finish Sister Mary Annette, and the costumes I've been given to finish. And I have to forward a large chunk of stuff to various people for props... what a mess.

So here is my list of set items:

• Finish skinning the three specialty flats for the platform
• Finish modifying the platform, mount the pivot point and get it in place
• Frame and skin the Sister Julia counter
• Make the small bench and the manger top
• Finish Sister Mary Annette's "window"

For props:

• Get Tom the text for all the "paper" props
• Finish Sister Mary Annette
• See if there's anything I forgot

For costumes:

• Finish the leopard vests
• Finish the mouse king vests

For general show stuff:

• Rework the show to exclude the Billy character
• Take the actor shots for the program/cast board
• Make the rough draft of the program

Whew! I'm getting tired just thinking of it all...

- Sean

Digging Deep: Reverend Mother, Virgil, Amnesia

So on Thursday night, we spent three tightly focused sessions with individual castmembers. I'm glad we rocked through blocking so quickly, as it now gives us more time to polish individual parts.

Joyce was up first. Since she'd joined us a bit late, I wanted to give her a bit more to chew on. I'd had time to spend up front with Eleanor to discuss the Reverend Mother, but due to the pace of the past three weeks, I hadn't had time to focus on anyone in particular. I started off by giving her some suggestions on character hallmarks (posture, gestures, fidgets, etc.) that she can fall back on when all else fails. She took that notion and ran with it nicely. Then, we set up some specifics on what to do with Carnival Christmas. Being from a circus background, Regina has a lot of bottled frustration with not being able to perform, so I wanted Joyce to have fun with it. I gave her some solid anchorpoints, both in blocking and choreography, and with practice, she'll have it nailed. We pulled back the "sobbing" part near the end of the song, and made it more melancholy, and therefore more true. Finally we worked the "Confession/Absolution" part and gave her some specifics about when the cue cards will be flipped.

Next up was Todd, and it was a bit of a gear shift, as Todd has spent a bit more time focusing on this component. That's not to say that Joyce hasn't, but one of the reasons I cast Todd was his focus and experience (he's blushing reading this, I know), but I'm serious. The Sister Julia section has the potential either to be the funniest part of the show or the most dreadful, and Todd was asking all the right questions. The funniest parts for me during this rehearsal were watching him make the choices for Julia, and not knowing whether or not he was waiting for a line, or if he was just thinking through it. I think he had imagined it and rehearsed it a bit narrower than what came out last night, but hopefully I gave him permission to go as big as he wanted with it. He cherry picked the suggestions I gave, discarding a few, and then morphing others into something bigger and more wonderful than I'd imagined. Those 75 minutes last night, being able to work one-on-one with someone who focuses so intently, and completely erases himself in lieu of a character, especially in a comic role, is why I enjoy doing this. Thanks, Todd. The "Christmas Box" section was a slam dunk. Hopefully I offered clarity on it, but it's coming along nicely.

Amanda's Secret Santa section and Santa Ain't Coming To Our House were up next. My main direction to Amanda for Secret Santa was to be prepared for audience response. Improvisation, particularly when dealing with audiences, can be tricky, and I want to give her the tools she'll need to cope. It's the performances when the audience is DEAD that are the hardest, and you have to be careful not to push TOO hard. I just gave her some possible responses that MIGHT be given by audiences, and let her think about how she might respond. Santa Ain't Coming To Our House was basically a bunch of hoedown clogging. I do send her into the audience near the end, so hopefully that will break things up a bit.

It was a good rehearsal. Now if I can just fix this Billy thing. As an alternate, I'm trying to figure out if John (Louis) can handle the additional lines. We'll see. There are a couple of leads that are outstanding, so we'll see what we get.


- Sean

Oye Vey...

I spent the weekend in KC, and sadly I didn't have time to hook up with BadAndy, a frequent commenter on this blog. I'd have loved to talk shop with him, but perhaps some other time. I did however get to spend some quality time with my fellow alums from Sumner Academy Class of 1985 at our 20th Reunion. I really have a deep kinship with those people, and it was heartening to see how well they look, and how happy they are with life. I was so proud to tell them I am involved with this group and this exceptional cast and crew. My only regret is that they won't likely get to see the fruit of our labor...

We blasted through the last half of act two last night, and then re-ran it. It was a little messy, but the key elements were there. Donna had us CRYING with laughter near the end of the show, and it took nearly five minutes for everyone to recover. Whew, my cheeks still hurt laughing at that one.

We'll run the show for continuity tonight, and musically on Wednesday. Thursday night, we'll have a focused set of rehearsals for only Reverend Mother, Virgil, and (I think) Amnesia. We'll have a similarly focused rehearsal the NEXT Thursday with Hubert, Robert Anne, and George.

Thanks again to everyone for their hard work, and to Donna for keeping us in stitches.


- Sean

Nutcracker Ballet

In Nuncrackers, the Nutcracker ballet sequence at the end of the first act is 243 measures (about 7 minutes) of difficult to block/choreograph fluff and visual jokes... exactly my cup of tea, believe it or not.

On Tuesday night, we approached it head on.

The sequence starts with Sister Hubert restarting the story (after the earlier fiasco with Sister Leo and a baton), and we are introduced to Clara (Maria) and Fritz (John). Herr Drosselmeyer (Robert Anne) enters with the Nutcracker gift for Clara and Fritz deliberately breaks it. Drosselmeyer blesses it and says it will be good as new in the morning. He leaves, and the kids go off to bed.

Next, Clara sneaks downstairs and finds that the Nutcracker (Billy) has come to life. Immediately, he engages in a battle with the Mouse King (Louise) and runs off stage, returning as a handsome prince to the delight of Clara. They exit to the land of sweets.

Next, Hubert is set to explain that the Sugar Plum Fairy won't be appearing when Mother Superior enters, dressed as the Fairy. Moments later, Father Virgil, still tipsy from the Sister Julia fiasco, enters, also dressed as a Sugar Plum Fairy. They wrestle, with Virgil winding up being thrown head-long off stage by the Mother Superior. She takes her bow and exits.

Next, the swans enter (Mary George, Amnesia, and Robert Anne) in the usual trepak, dance around a bit, and exit.

Then, the Russian/Chinese dancers (John and Louise) come in to perform their dance, but they are interrupted again by Virgil, still in his Sugar Plum Fairy garb. He devolves from ballet to Fosse, winding up in a Graham-esque floor pose. The Reverend Mother takes advantage of the situation and comes in and sits on him, pinning him to the floor for several measures. Virgil escapes, sending the Reverend Mother flat on the floor on her rear end. He prances about a bit, making two offers to help her up, and denying assistance each time, then finally leaves the stage triumphantly. Maria and John come back in to help the Reverend Mother up. She yells "Stop Tape" and the first act ends.

So, the "mushy" parts right now are the following areas:

• When Clara comes in after the stroke of midnight, we need to have her discover the life-sized Nutcracker earlier so the Mouse King battle can happen and end before the music finishes. That will be a combination of cuing Sister Hubert a bit earlier, having Clara come in sooner, and cleaning up the battle movements.
• When Virgil and RM are on stage together the first time, I need to provide some more specific ballet-like movements to give them.
• When Virgil and RM wrestle, I have them start off with Sumo-like foot stomps, but that happens too early, and needs to have a short circle before hand. And the wrestling seems a bit unfocused. We'll clean that up as well.
• When Virgil comes back in in front of the Russian/Chinese dancers, I need to give him more specific and ballet-like moves to begin with. Then, after he tells the kids to get out, I need to give him a specific regiment of movements that will devolve to the floor pose.
• Finally, the point where RM sits on Virgil, and the struggle there needs to be worked out.

The GREAT parts (so far) are as follows:

• Fritz' taking and breaking the Nutcracker is funny, as is Clara's reaction.
• Herr Drosselmeyer's bit is funny.
• Sister Hubert's verbal reaction to both RM and Virgil is beyond hilarious.
• The trepak of swans is very funny, especially when they bob their heads in time with the music or indicate their intended direction.
• The Russian/Chinese dancers part is good

That's it. Great work so far everyone!

- Sean

Issues Follow Up

Oh, and for those of you who ARE following this, let me tie up a few plot threads that I may have inadvertantly left dangling:

• Our accompanist Zach Spencer is a joy to work with and worth every penny (and more) we're giving him. A talented singer in his own right, Zach tempers my script-centric view with a sensible dose of musical reality. For instance, I might get carried away and start humming or "McFerrinizing" part of the score, and he'll stop and say something like, "Cool, so we're going to have bass, guitar, and drums too?" Then I'll stop and sheepishly say, "No.", and then we'll move on. At other times, he's VERY open to suggestion. During "The Three Kings" one of the measures called for an odd (boring) timing, and I asked if we could switch it to a triplet, and he accomodated nicely. I look forward to working with him for the run of the show and in future productions.
• The role of Mother Superior will now be played by Joyce Rieske. Joyce gave a great audition, and her energy and enthusiasm will mesh nicely with the rest of the cast.
• Emily Bowman will be playing Maria Montini for the whole run of the show. Melanie Bowman will be playing Louise opening and every other weekend, and Megan Trout will be playing the role on even weeks and for closing.

I think that's it. Sorry if I left you hanging.

- Sean

Great First Blocking Night

I have to give this cast credit. They pushed hard last night, and we blocked everything in the first act, up to the Nutcracker ballet sequence. Awesome. Liz is doing a superb job at transcribing my ramblings, and for those who weren't able to join us last night, Liz will be their best friend if they want to get their blocking.

We found some surprisingly funny moments last night that I hadn't noticed in previous readings:

• After Virgil sings "Christmas Box" he and Amnesia have a moment where he tells her about how hard he had it growing up. We have her space out, followed by a pregnant pause and then she comments, almost apologetically "Oh, that's sad." Virgil's next line "Yeah..." is a perfect response.
• Missing three of the younger kids (and that's probably my fault), the two older kids REALLY jumped into their roles and tackled "Santa's Little Teapot" head-on. They took the silly blocking I gave them and took it to a new level.
• The whole cast jumped in nicely to the opening number. Sarah, who is in final dress rehearsal for ETC's Ghost Tours at the Square, was able to jump in easily after 9:00 PM and pick up everything we'd done.

The only sections we didn't get to do detailed blocking with were the Secret Santa section, Sister Julia (Child of God), and Carnival Christmas. I'll call individual rehearsals with each of the primaries to go through their solo routines.

Other than that, I can't wait to see this go up!

- Sean

On Toward Blocking

So now that we've finished the vocal rehearsal section of the show, we move onto the most technical (and usually least interesting) part of the process: blocking.

As an actor, blocking is a tedious process, regardless of the skill of the director. I've had directors who've given me no blocking, and in those cases, I find myself writing more blocking down than I would have if they HAD given me something. For directors who are METICULOUS about giving blocking, it's the same thing in reverse, in that I find myself writing more details down than what I needed to set the scene. And that blocking usually changes frequently with those sorts of directors.

My goal is somewhere right in the middle, sort of a layered approach: I first give the performers the ROUGH enter, exit, and cross information; then, as needed, I layer on additional blocking to supplement anything the performers don't bring to the table. Sometimes it's a LOT of additional blocking. And sometimes I have to simplify the blocking a performer is using.

So, my initial blocking will be a lot of "John IN DR, X DC. John X DR, OUT DR". Then I'll suggest some BROAD business and see if it sticks. After that, I will dictate SPECIFIC business if it doesn't seem to stick. And I will, at times, rub some off.

Choreography is a bit different, and I don't usually enjoy it much. For Nuncrackers, it's a requirement though, especially with the seven minutes of Nutcracker that are performed at the end of the first act. It's often difficult to get performers to hear measures of music (or count them for that matter) and then get them to move to them. Thank heavens there are not a great deal of "dance steps" required for this show, and if there are, if they are botched a bit, it adds to the realism of the characters.

On a different note, I got some feedback from a friend suggesting that my comments here might embarrass, annoy, or alienate performers or volunteers on the show. I take it as feedback, but have to state plainly that I don't care. While I do temper my comments here and seek to make them as constructive as possible, I don't (and won't) censor myself. Given that, understand that this blog is MY tool for communicating and archiving the process of bringing Nuncrackers to stage, stated from MY point of view. If you're offended or not interested, simply tune me out.

Other than that, enjoy.


- Sean

The Yin and Yang of Community Theatre

So, as ecstatic as I was after last night's rehearsals, today brought a bit of disappointing news. Eleanor Brand, our Sister Mary Regina (Mother Superior) is not feeling well, and will not be able to continue with the show. To her credit, she let me know first thing when it became clear she was not doing well. My only regret is that I won't be able to work with her on this show. She is a lovely and talented lady, and will be greatly missed in this production.

Given that, I'm on a quest to find a replacement. Previous auditionees will be solicited, along with some other acquaintances. The concept of using a male for the part is still on the table, but since I was so happy with the chemistry Eleanor brought to the table, it will be hard to think of anyone else for a few days.

So, we move on...


- Sean

Vocal Rehearsals: The Second Week

Everything has been going very well at vocal rehearsals. Zach Spencer, our accompanist, is a tremendous asset, and I only wish we had enough money to have him there the whole time. He's a busy guy, but it's to Jerry's credit that he made the decision to go with him.

The cast is coming along very well. They all take vocal direction exceptionally openly, and Zach is patient and accommodating their requests. The whole cast is great, but I was especially delighted this evening with Sarah Vawter's rendition of Twelve Days Prior To Christmas and Amanda Hulme's Santa Ain't Comin' To Our House. Both were tentative about their singing voices during auditions, but I made great decisions on both counts. Amanda mentioned that she's been taking voice lessons, and it's paying off well. She's experimenting with both ends of the vocal spectrum (breathy head voice versus a talky nose/face voice). She'll wind up somewhere in the middle, which will be perfect. Sarah's still breathy, but she took direction tonight well when I told her to bridge it somewhere closer to her spoken voice, particularly on the part where she says, "Well, the bottom line was, the broad had disappeared!"

The kids are the tough part right now. Megan is the strongest singer. Her pitch and volume are good, and with practice will be great. Emily is hard to hear, but I believe I'll need to work with her to boost her volume and correct her pitch. Melanie seems pretty good, but she's reluctant to sing loudly. Jeffrey is good and loud, but an incorrect pitch sung in his ear by the person next to him distracts him from the proper notes. Louis has great pitch when he can hear himself, but when he can't get his first note, he's all over the place. We'll work closely with them on Saturday.

I started sewing the leopard vests on Sunday night, and stayed up until 2:00 AM doing so. I'm still paying for the lack of sleep today. Connie was short on lining for those, so I'll have to buy a yard and a half of more lining for them. They're cute, but it's a lot of work for a 30 second bit. Hey, it was my call, and I'd do a lot for a laugh. We'll see if it pays off...


- Sean