Thursday, February 20, 2014

It's The Final Countdown

Good grief, has it really been two months since the last post?!?  How time flies when you're having fun....

Rehearsals are now taking place four nights per week, and they are most often running late - we're finishing closer to midnight than to 11 pm.  Even more than that, the play is now in our heads basically all of the time.  Last night, a friend noticed me in the supermarket parking lot because she suddenly heard someone humming "What does he want of me" [that's a song from the show, of course].  Giving birth to a show is not unlike giving birth, period: the long gestation period, that huge final effort at the end, the lack of sleep .......

 

At this point, the show is STILL a work in progress.  At Monday's rehearsal, we deconstructed and reconstructed elements and scenes that still were not quite "working". 


Ya'akov? Keshet?  I could use some help here.....

The very last nips and tucks are being taken on the costumes (not, presumably, on the actors). The last nuances of emphasis and phrasing are being polished in the singing. The orchestra has joined us and we are starting to hear how the show is really going to sound - playback, live instruments, choral and solo singing all have to come together just so.  

I'd probably be more nervous if i wasn't so exhausted.  I'm getting my dialogue right - but never ALL of it right in the same rehearsal.  I'm very creative; each time, I forget something else.  Or say the right thing, but at the wrong time.  And every so often we'll still have one of those terrifying moments when nobody seems to know who is supposed to say the next line. 

Tonight we will have another full run (beginning to end performance) complete with costumes and orchestra.  After that, we'll have another few chances to get it right before - GASP! - we open the show ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!!!! 

Even when everything is down pat and polished to a high shine, things can, and do, go wrong. There was the time all of the orchestra's music was forgotten on the bus.  There was the time a piece of scenery started rolling slowly down the sloped stage, gathering speed as it hurtled towards the orchestra pit. There was the time our Conductor bumped into the CD player in the middle of a dance, and suddenly the music was completely out of synch with the dancers. There was the time a microphone wasn't switched off as the actor left the stage, and the audience was treated to loud whispered curses floating out into the ether. In rehearsals, if not in shows, people have had pieces of their costume fall off (.... and First Place goes to Debby, who lost a skirt once and pair of pants another time). Best of all, maybe, was the time the curtain opened and because of the smoke machine we were using on stage, the fire alarms went off in the theater.  ["What do we do now?"  "Shut up and keep singing!"].  

You never know what's going to happen, but one thing we do know is that if you want to be a part of the action, NOW is the time to buy your tickets!!!!!!

LOGON's performance of "Man of La Mancha", coming soon to a theater near you!



"To Dream the Impossible Dream........."


For information on ordering tickets, see our website:  www.negevlightopera.com








No comments:

Post a Comment