Opening Night....It's Right Around the Corner!

Since the beginning of October I've been meeting with my cast for Red Herring to rehearsal for our opening night on December 5th. Looking at the calendar I quickly realized it is practically right around the corner and I couldn't be more pleased.

We've had some obstacles to overcome as a group. Scheduling was interesting...To have a complete cast, and the cast I wanted I had to get a little creative. But, it's been worth it. I am working with a very talented group of people, and I wouldn't trade any of them. I've watched their characters grow over the past few weeks and truly enjoyed every moment spent watching them work.

The show is hilarious on the page, and so much funnier on stage. I am still laughing at jokes I've heard a hundred times. So, this weekend as we dive into set building and have our last couple rehearsals before Thanksgiving Week, I am so excited about this show!

Love Never Dies....Or Does It?

So in scanning Broadway.com today I came across an article stating that some big news will be released on October 8th concerning Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to The Phantom of the Opera entitled Love Never Dies (http://www.loveneverdies.com/). When the website loads a letter from "The Phantom" appears and you can click it to watch a teaser trailer with scenes from the Las Vegas show which features actress Sierra Boggess as Christine who will be reprising the role for the sequel.

The new musical was supposed to be based on the novel The Phantom of Manhattan which was written as a sequel to the musical not the original novel. It appears most of the plot has been used as Love Never Dies is set in New York and involves an amusement park. Having read the novel, I thought the plot was a bit weak and the ending left a great deal to be desired. It's a short novel and a fairly quick read. My main complaint was that all of the narratives are told from secondary characters' points of view instead of focusing on Christine, Raoul, and, of course, the phantom himself.

My opinion is that Andrew Lloyd Webber should have left well enough alone. The movie was bad enough. The Phantom of the Opera is perfect as is, and the story is haunting as it leaves the theater goer able to come up with their own conclusions of what might have happened after the Phantom disappears from his lair. To me this is the quickest way to put to death one of my favorite musicals.

Making Smart Casting Decisions

I have been pondering this topic for the past few days, and it actually seems a pretty popular subject at the moment, so I figured, why not? It also very much pertains to me and some decisions I might have to make shortly in my own show once the auditions role around. So, I have been thinking on it a lot lately.

One of the toughest things about auditions is making a smart choice based on who comes out and shows an interesting in the show. There will always be hurt feelings, and I am sure someone will always question what the director was thinking. Personally, I believe it's the director's vision and no one should question that....most of the time. There are examples of casting situations that make me wonder if propriety was even considered for a millisecond. Only in community theater it seems does someone think it's ok to have teenagers lusting after someone old enough to be their father, and vice-versa.

I think I've seen it all. I've seen attempts to age people with facial hair to make it seem like the age gap between a twenty something year old and someone who was at least in her fifties wasn't so great. I had a character aged a few years to make it more believable for me to play her, and make her story a little less creepy since the man lusting after her no longer seemed like a complete pedophile. And of course I've witnessed various transformations brought about with the wonders of stage make-up.

Yet, as I think about the character of Lynn in Red Herring, a young woman her twenties, I'm there there are a few teenagers within the community who could carry the part. Yet, I still couldn't see putting a sixteen or seventeen year old, no matter how mature she may act and look, in the part, especially if the actor playing James is actually in his twenties. It seems to me like it would be completely inappropriate to ask that such a pair be romantic even on stage. It also seems like a huge risk for the actor playing James as these days people get accused of so much, or for the theater company as you never truly know who you can trust. Hopefully, I will not find myself facing such a decision.

Life is the farce which everyone has to perform. - Arthur Rimbaud

Last night I finally started to give a bit more thought to Red Herring. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. It's my first shot at being a director and I think I picked a good show to start with. Of course I'm currently stressing out over casting and finding the right people for roles and probably will be until the actual auditions on the 28th and 29th of this month.

I know there are several people in the community who can fill each other roles, but waiting for the end of the month to see if they show up for auditions is causing a bit of anxiety. There's quite a bit going on in the theater community in the next few months. I have to wait to see who will be doing a musical that will be running directly opposite my show before even truly thinking about who might come to auditions and who I might want to try to nag into coming to auditions.

However, last night a couple friends helped me sit and read through the script out loud as a favor, and it gave me fresh inspiration for the direction of the show. To actually hear the lines out loud was a much different, and much needed experience. I have a vision for each scene, and for each character in those scenes. As much as I love the freedom as an actor many of the directors in our community provide when doing blocking, I believe in giving more actual direction.

I don't want my cast to guess if they're doing it right or to my liking. A director's job is to give direction on characters and staging - how they speak, how they move.... not just entrances and exits. Having been in shows where my director has given so many blocking notes one can't focus on their performance and shows where I've received absolutely no blocking, I find to find the happy medium for my cast. So I'll make my notes with the thought in mind that things will probably have to be simplified and changed based on what can be done in reality. Sometimes something looks wonderful on paper, but not so much in life.

Looking Ahead to September

Now that Sweeney Todd has officially come to a close after three extremely successful performances, it's time to start looking ahead to September. At the end of the month I personally will be holding auditions for the play Red Herring which will be produced by Stagedoor at Limona Village Chapel. For those who know nothing about it, here's a bit of information:

"Red Herring"
by Michael Hollinger

Audition dates: Monday, September 28th @ 7pm
Callbacks: Tuesday, September 29th @ 7pm
Show dates: December 4th, 5th, 11th and 12th @ 8pm and December 12th at 3pm

All auditions and shows will be held at Limona Village Chapel

"Red Herring" is Michael Hollinger's spoof of the film noir spy movies of the thirties and forties. Set in 1952, America is developing the H-bomb and the Russians are after information. Unfortunately the spy they are using, Andre Borchevsky, is not very bright. Agents Maggie Pelletier and Frank Keller are trying to find him. They also are in love. Andre has been having an affair with his American contact's wife, and she has killed her husband to be with him. When the agents begin to suspect something, she persuades Andre to pretend to be her husband. Their plot works for awhile, but things go awry when the fiance of a naval officer who has the plans for the bomb tries to make contact with the dead contact. Hollinger creates a clever farce of mistaken identity. "

Performed at:
Limona Village Chapel
408 Limona Road
Brandon, FL 33510

This will be my debut as a director and I'm extremely excited about it. I need a minimum of three men and three women, and a maximum of four of each. The play is traditionally done with six cast members, but I'd like to do away with the need for so many quick changes for the more minor characters.

There's a lot of other exciting auditions happening in September as well. The Frenzie - Life Theatre will be holding auditions beginning tonight for Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead (www.thefrenzie.com) and on September 4th and 5th Village Players will hold auditions for Beauty and the Beast (www.villageplayers.scriptmania.com).

Stagedoor will also be presenting Steel Magnolias on September 18th, 19th, 25th, and 26th at 8pm and a matinee performance on the 20th at 3pm. Ticket information can be found at www.stagedoorbrandon.org.

Opening Night Excitement

It was a successful opening night for Sweeney Todd. There were the usual bobbles, as no performance will ever truly be perfect, but it was still an event that could be considered almost magical. The audience was transfixed, almost as if watching a movie instead of a live theater event. There were even very few noticeable comments from Maurice, who can usually be heard from the darkness whenever he is in attendance.

As I stood backstage waiting to make my entrance and sing "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" I felt a nervousness I had never really experienced before. I am not the type of person to suffer from acute nervousness, yet for some reason this show and this part frightens me in a way no other has before. The music, especially in the song "Kiss Me" is so incredibly difficult. One forgetful moment could spell disaster for the entire song. It is so incredibly quick with so many words...It's easy to get completely wrapped up in over thinking it.

About halfway through "Green Finch" I realized I was letting my mind take over, and not allowing myself to simply enjoy the performance. The moment I gave over to instinct I was able to let Johanna take flight. The notes were easier to sing, the words simply came out of my mouth instead of me having to force them...I allowed myself to put a bit of trust in my own abilities. That is not always an easy task for me.

I felt connected to Johanna and to my portrayal of her. Making her both vulnerable and incredibly strong is not an easy task. It's a fine balance I wasn't always able to find during the rehearsal process. So tonight, I hope to go into this a little wiser, and a little more comfortable with the character I've given life to. Tomorrow night, when this is all over, I'll be sad to let her go and say goodbye to the fun we created as a cast.

"If I Cannot Fly, Let Me Sing"

My first semester at American University I was assigned a song I had never heard from a show I knew virtually nothing about. That song was "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" from Sweeney Todd. It was an attempt on the part of my new voice teacher to appease my desire to sing musical theater pieces while still learning the fine art of classical voice performance. The first time I heard the song all the way through I hated it and refused to even finish watching the video of Sweeney Todd I had purchased.

It's always been a fact, and a fairly well known one, that Sondheim musicals are not among my favorites. They're extremely difficult, long, and often hard to follow. At nineteen years old I couldn't appreciate the music, nor the technique required to perform it wall. It wasn't a pop oriented Frank Wildhorn piece, and my idol of the time, Linda Eder, would never have been able to sing it. I wanted to be a belter like her, not what I saw as the weak character written for the token soprano.

When I was offered a chance to play Johanna, who sings "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" in an upcoming local production of Sweeney Todd along with serving as the musical director of the show I was torn over what to do. Having studied just that one song there was no doubt in my mind as to the difficulty of the show, but at the same time I knew it would be the challenge I was search for recently.

So, a year later I am just over forty-eight hours from our opening. My cast and crew have worked so hard to bring this show to life. Our Sweeney is one of the best I've seen, bringing depth to a character who can often be very flat. My best friend who is playing Mrs. Lovett has turned her into more then just an over the top loony, and our Judge, who is one of my voice students, is shining in his first endeavor into musical theater. I have never been more proud or more confident in a cast.

Johanna has come alive for me, and I've discovered that I was very wrong to judge her based on the early scenes of the show. She is not just some Disney princess knockoff who sings to birds and falls madly in love with someone she doesn't even know. She is a young woman with a very complex past, and who is being pushed to the brink of what any human can take. Having been locked away since she was a year old she is desperate to escape, first from the Judge who now lusts after her now that she is no longer a child, and then from the mental institution where he locks her away. Once can quickly see how that might push her to agree to run away with Anthony Hope, the young sailor who is determined to rescue her, and later take matters into her own hands and shoot the head of the mental institution.

As I've learned the music and really looked at the content of the lyrics, I have learned so much about Johanna. I've also grown to truly love this show for all of it's complexity. When the lights go up on Thursday night I will take the stage as a true fan on Sondheim and Sweeney Todd, something I wasn't entirely sure I'd say when I started this process.