May 2006

Weekend Fun

The final two performances of the show went well last weekend. That was a relief particularly since my former, former supervisor at the newspaper (they go through 'em like TP around here) came Saturday night.

After our Sunday matinee I drove into San Francisco where I hung out with a friend, chatted and watched a movie. The next day I went to the beach for awhile to get my ocean fix (because it's been far too long). It was awesome, although I got myself a hefty sunburn here so aloe and I are currently the best of friends.

Tomorrow I start up another weekend of performances. After that, just one more weekend until I'm a free man!

Light This

After a glorious opening weekend... apparently this show has used up it's talent. The last two nights have just been off and while the show hasn't been horrible, I've been embarrassed with how things went.

During performances there is a quite bright beacon of light on me so the orchestra and the singers can see cues, tempos, etc. Well, last night it didn't come on so I was conducting in near blackness. I sent the bass player to get the light turned on. He came back to the pit and told me they couldn't turn on the light until intermission then he held up a flashlight and said the stage crew had said to use that.

...

Now mind you, I'm a resourceful person, but I couldn't for the life of me think of what I could do with that flashlight other than bludgeon the idiot that sent it into the pit.

Productivity at Work

I'm not entirely certain, but I think we just had an hour long meeting which can be summarized into "there are problems, but we're not going to do anything about it." Cool. Thanks for wasting my time and paving the road to a brighter future. We're having another meeting next Thursday. Maybe I'm psychic because I feel nearly certain that I know what the outcome of that meeting will be.

We Got the Tools for the Job

When people grab pages from the printer at work they call out the customer name or the heading of an ad to give the print to the designer who's working on that ad. The other day, a coworker started listing through the prints in her hand. After she got to "Bobby Back Hoe" we all burst into fits of laughter. I'm sorry, but that's a porn name if I've ever heard one.

Not Getting Enough Attention

Yesterday in the second act of Kiss Me Kate, my conducting baton caught the edge of my stand and went flying on stage in this huge arc which is basically to say "Look at me! Look at me!" I continued to conduct and the orchestra continued to play while we all tried to stiffle an avalanche of sniggering. On next black out the stage crew cleared my baton off stage and I conducted the rest of the show with a pencil. The only saving grace of this moment of acrobatic baton twirling is that it didn't fly into the audience and skewer some blue haired granny.

Another Opening

Opening night went pretty well and Saturday night's performance was even better. It's amazing what a little sleep will do to help a conductor be on the mark with things. Today I have a matinee and then a couple days off before we hit it again. Three more weekends to go and I'll be looking at this gig through my rear view mirror. I am really looking forward to that vantage point even though I really am having a good time with performances.

Here Without You

I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby
And I dream about you all the time
- 3 Doors Down

Kiss Him Already

Kiss Me Kate had it's first audience last night for our preview. It was sold out and the audience was very enthusiastic. The show had some glitches, but went pretty well for our first performance. We officially "open" the show on Friday. Meanwhile tonight I have my first night off in two weeks. You can't even being to understand what this means to me. <melodramatic tears>

Practically Freezing

It's 96°F today, but that's okay because it only feels like 94°F.

Didn't Make the Cut

Having to "let go" a pianist in between songs in rehearsal: not on my fun things to do list. Turning the pianist role over to an amazing player who's played musical theatre all of his life: leaps of joy abound.

I'm Not the Brightest Crayon in the Box

My facial hair has tons of different colored hairs in it: black, brown, blonde, very light blonde... Well, I've been noticing for the last couple weeks that there was some particularly light hairs in it, as if the light was hitting some blonde hairs just so. It took me those couple of weeks to actually register that they're gray hairs. I'm kind of excited to find my first gray hairs (odd, I know) and feel like I should commemorate this day or something. Of course, with how slow I was on the uptake, I may have had these things for years...

Counting Down the Days

I love myself some micromanagement. Give me a big heaping dose of it please! Cuz, there's nothing funner than having someone stand over my shoulder and telling me how to do every detail of my job. Gee, that's a swell feeling.

Put Your Stuff Away

This is just so wrong.

<Insert Rant Here>

So this is the part of the Kiss Me Kate gig where I should be bitching about 4+ hour rehearsals, wanton disorganization and actors not knowing their lines. We have a week and a half until opening night so things are crazy. There should be tons of stuff for me to post about all that crap, but I just can't say that I care enough to bitch. With my most recent life changes I'm in no emotional state to come up with a good rant. Shocking, I know. I'll see what I can do to get really, really pissed off about something so I can tell you about it, but no guarantees.

Pull My Strings

Things I love more than life itself:

someone reading over my shoulder to make sure I've played the music correctly
someone making random comments like "are you really going to do the song that way?"
someone taking it upon themselves to sit at the piano and teaching my soloist to sing her song differently
this someone being the person who writes my checks and has ultimate authority over the show

Well Deserved

Curt just landed his first professional acting gig!! It's a leading role in a musical in Los Angeles with a very reputable director. My boy's all growed up and out conquering the free world. <sniff> I'm so proud.

I'm With Stupid

The Pet Shop Boys and Little Britain make me snigger.

// my personal research assistant: Jay //

Too Darn Cool

Sunday night I had my first rehearsal with the orchestra for Kiss Me Kate. While some pieces screamed "we're all playing this for the first time" the majority of it went really well. The main romance song in the show was breathtaking and the sexy jazz number was out of this world. Very hot. I've got some great musicians to work with and am really stoked after hearing them play together. It's given me new energy to press on these last few weeks of rehearsal.

Snippet #437

"It's just more romantic or something to be a 'starving artist.' 'Marginally middle class artist' just doesn't have the same ring to it."

Deep Moisturizing Treatment

For some reason the advertiser felt it necessary to correct a typo on the word "lips." Hm.

"One Hour Body Massage with moisturizing tips treatment"