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

Friday the 13th

Yesterday was Friday the 13th.  Now, we have five black cats in the family, so as you can imagine, superstitions are not so much my thing.  

These are not my cats. My cats would kill me if i tried to put red bows on them.

And yet.... yesterday went sort of like this:  due to bad weather, I didn't go to Tel Aviv, missing what my friend reported was an excellent opera production.  My porcelain tea-pot-in-a-cosy dropped and shattered.  Worst of all, one of my cats [not a black one] died after a short illness.

Wait for me at the Bridge, sweet one

So all in all, not a great day, and that got me thinking about superstition in general, and in the theater in particular.  

One of the best known superstitions is that you never, ever wish a performer 'good luck' before a performance.  This is why, before a show, we tell each other to "Break a leg".  We don't mean it literally - at least, not most of us and not most of the time - and it is also considered inappropriate to ask "whose?".  This is theater, after all, not championship ice skating (that one's for you, Tonya).  

Another superstition involves "the Scottish play" by Shakespeare, which, in theater circles, is never mentioned by name inside a theater. Or in a theater blog, according to an old custom i just invented. (Clue: it's sort of like MacDonalds, but with a girl's name instead of Donald.)    If the name is uttered aloud, the offender must leave the theater and perform a 'cleansing ritual' before being allowed to return.  This may be the real origin of "Singin' in the Rain".

You can't come back in until you turn around three times and recite a line from a different Shakespeare play, dude

A third superstition is the belief that the dress reheasal must go badly in order for the opening night performance to go well.  Fortunately, this is not difficult to arrange.  LOGON dress rehearsals have an honored tradition of starting hours late, being plagued by technical glitches, having more mistakes than your average blooper reel, and - in the final analysis - preceding successful opening nights. Phoo phoo phoo.

Speaking of opening nights, tickets to Man of La Mancha will be going on sale soon!  Contact your favorite dealer, or check out the LOGON site.  

Eenie Meanie Miney Moe: How Does LOGON Pick a Show?

The perfect show for LOGON to do would include:  a large cast, great music (including at least one or two Great Hits), high name recognition, roles for actors and actresses across a wide range of ages, a limited number of sets, dancing but not the sort that requires the Bolshoi Ballet, and a family-friendly story.  

Shows such as Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma!, Oliver!, Pajama Game, The Music Man, Carousel, Singin' In the Rain, My Fair Lady - all those great shows that LOGON has already done.  

Now is the time to start thinking about what we'll be doing after our 2014 production of "Man of La Mancha".  No, not sleeping for days and then making Pesach - well, we'll do that too - what i meant was, which show to present in 2015.  

Why don't they just do CATS and be done with it?

Many, many shows have been proposed.  A random selection:  Grease, Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd, Showboat, West Side Story, Flower Drum Song, Paint Your Wagon, Brigadoon, Camelot, Hair, The Rothchilds, Me & My Gal, Annie, Little Shop of Horrors, The Wizard of Oz, Bye Bye Birdie, Sunday in the Park with George .... the list goes on and on.

I can just see LOGON putting on "Hair"

The more we try to come up with good new ideas, the more creative we get.  How about a local version of "Chicago" - we could call it "Beer Sheva", and Roxie can be in jail for ... stealing camels?  We could combine two shows - what do you get if you cross "Fiddler" with "Cats"? "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", right?  But that's not a musical, too bad.

Some of us loyal members of LOGON are, shall we say, past our first bloom..... which would require modifications of some plays.  GREASE - The 40th CLASS REUNION, anyone?  "West Side Retirement Home Story"?

SO!  Here's where you come in, faithful readers.  Please, please tell us what show(s) you would like to see LOGON perform!  What shows would you come to see? Which shows would you be interested in performing?  Could be something we've done before (Gilbert & Sullivan, anyone?), maybe something from the list above, or some fresh new idea.  All suggestions welcome, we'll worry about whether or not rights are available, and whether or not it's a good 'fit' for LOGON.  

This is your chance!  Make a wish - what would you like to see, or even perform in? - and who knows, it could happen..... The Rocky Horror Show..... Milk & Honey...... the mind boggles.......

Leave your comments below, or send an email to me via negevlightopera@gmail.com

That's it for now, time to go practice my flamenco dancing.

Hasta Luego!

flamenco image from blog.awsumgal.com

Rehearsing the Scene

There are different types of rehearsals.  Sometimes just the main characters (principals) rehearse their lines and interactions. Sometimes the entire chorus works on learning where they are supposed to be,  how they are supposed to react to the principals,  when to move, etc. The real fun starts when these two elements are combined, and the principals and chorus TOGETHER try to run the scene.  The first few times can be ..... interesting. 

Stage left, people, stage left!

Here's a sample, which might have been based on the rehearsal last week but of course is COMPLETELY FICTIONAL, and any resemblance to any actual person or event is simply a coincidence.   

Let's say that the following is written in the script:

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello.
Mother: I see Dick and Jane. They have many friends. Hello Dick, hello Jane, hello friends. [chorus waves hello]
All:  Hello Mrs. Smith, hello, hello.
Mother:  Here are some cookies. Please have some cookies.  [passes around plate of cookies]
Jane:  Thank you mother.
All:  Thank you Mrs. Smith.  Yum yum, what good cookies.

Director:  OK, ok.  Dick and Jane are here, Mother is here, chorus - you come in from that way.  Let's try it, ok.

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
[chorus waves hello]

No, no, not yet.  Wait.  We try again.

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello
[chorus waves hello]

No,  not yet.  Wait for the Mother to say hello.  Go back out and come in again.

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello

Where is the chorus?  Chorus, you supposed to come in right away. We try again.

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello.
Mother: I see Dick and Jane.
[chorus waves hello]
Mother:  Yes, I see you too, but could you wait til I say hello first?

Chorus goes out. Chorus comes back.  

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello.
Mother: I see Dick and Jane. They have many friends. Hello Dick, hello Jane, hello friends. 
[chorus waves hello]

Good!  And when you wave, remember, you all say 'hello Mrs Smith, hello hello".

Chorus member:  How many times do we say hello?
Three, you say hello three times.  OK, we try again.

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello.
Mother: I see Dick and Jane. They have many friends. Hello Dick, hello Jane, hello ---- 
[chorus shouts "HELLO HELLO HELLO, waves hello]

That's good, that's ok, but you wait for mother to say hello to you.

Prompter:  Hello Mrs Smith hello hello
Mother:  Hello Prompter  (company laughs)

Ok, we try again. Go.

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello.
Mother: I see Dick and Jane. They have many friends. Hello Dick, hello Jane, hello friends. [chorus waves hello]
All:  Hello Mrs. Smith, hello, hello.  Yum yum, what good cookies.

Nobody gives you cookies yet!  Props, do we have cookies now?
(The intrepid Props Lady brings on a big plate of "cookies".  Everyone is impressed)
Chorus member:  Do we actually, like, eat a cookie?
Props Lady:  You do not!

Ok, from the beginning. Go.

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello.
Mother: I see Dick and Jane. They have many friends. Hello Dick, hello Jane, hello friends. [chorus waves hello]
All:  Hello hello hello Mrs. Smith, hello, hello.

Prompter:  Hello Mrs Smith hello hello

Mother:  Here are some cookies. Where are the cookies?  How do I get the cookies? Who gives them to me?

You bring them on with you.  Let's try again.

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello.
Mother: I see Dick and Jane. They have many friends. [chorus waves hello] 

Not yet, you wave when Mrs Smith says hello to you and you say hello back.

Hello Dick, hello Jane, hello friends. 
All:  Hello hello hello  Mrs. Smith, hello, hello hello. [chorus waves hello] 

Prompter:  Hello Mrs Smith hello hello

All:  Hello hello hello  Mrs. Smith, hello, hello hello hello hello.

And wave!  

[chorus waves hello]

Mother:  Here are some cookies. Please have some cookies.  [passes around plate of cookies]
Jane:  Thank you mother.
All:  Thank you Mrs. Smith.  [chorus waves hello]

Prompter: Yum yum what good cookies.

Chorus member:  But we haven't tasted the cookies yet!

After you taste the cookies, then you say 'yum yum'.  Ok, good, we take it from the beginning. Go.

Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello.
Mother: I see Dick and Jane. Dick:  Hello Jane, hello, hello.
Jane:  Hello Dick, hello.  [chorus waves hello]
Mother: I see Dick and Jane. They have many friends. Hello Dick, hello Jane, hello friends. 
All:  Hello Mrs. Smith, hello, hello. Yum yum, what good cookies. 
Mother:  Here are some cookies. Please have some cookies.  [passes around plate of cookies]
Jane:  Thank you mother.
All:  Thank you Mrs. Smith. Hello hello hello.  [chorus waves hello again] Yum yum, what good cookies.They have many friends. Hello Dick, hello Jane, hello friends. [chorus waves hello]
All:  Hello Mrs. Smith, hello, hello.
Mother:  Here are - where are the cookies?  Give me the plate.  Here are some cookies. Please have some cookies.  [passes around plate of cookies] [Chorus drops plate of cookies. Props lady turns pale, sits down]
Jane:  Thank you mother.
All:  Thank you Mrs. Smith.  Yum yum, what good cookies. [chorus waves hello]
Dick:  Do I have a cookie, too?  Do I say thank you?   What is my motivation for taking a cookie?
[chorus waves hello]

I think we take a break now.  We do it again after the break.  Ok, break now!

By now we all need a cup of coffee. Break, yay! 

After the break, we will start all over again, because somehow drinking coffee seems to erase all short-term memories.

It's Complicated - Part III

Continuing the story of Sir Ulrich and his courtly love:

In his next adventure, Sir Ulrich manages to out-Quixote Don Quixote - by embarking on a jousting quest from Venice to Bohemia, while dressed as Venus, in one of a dozen custom-made white gowns.          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

From which we learn that cross-dressing was a 'thing' back in 1227. And have we mentioned yet that good Sir Ulrich was married?                

Anyway, let us continue:

"Having completed his epochal feat [see above] of love service, Ulrich waited for his reward, and at long last it came:  the [Lady] sent word that he might visit her.  Yet he was to expect no warm welcome; she specified that he must come in the disguise of a leper and and take his place among the lepers who would be visiting her to beg for alms. But of course this monstrous indignity fazed the faithful Ulrich not in the least. Nor did he falter when she knowingly let him, disguised in his rags, spend that night in a ditch in the rain. Nor was he outraged when, the next night, he was finally allowed to climb a rope up the castle wall to her chamber, only to find it lit by a hundred tapers [candles] and staffed by eight maids-in-waiting who hovered about her where she lay in bed."

But fear not!  This blog stays PG, since, after all,

"... [S]exual outlet was not really the point of all this. Ulrich had not been laboring nearly 15 years for so ordinary a commodity; his real reward had always been in his suffering, striving, and yearning."


And that, dear reader, brings us to the conclusion of Sir Ulrich's adventures, or at least as much as you're going to find here.  Remember that this story only predates Cervantes' "Man of La Mancha" by about 300 years!  The chivalry that Cervantes was making fun of had almost - but not quite - died out by then.  In the novel, Aldonza is not a kitchen slut, but simply a local farm girl with whom Don Quixote has never actually spoken.  Transforming her into a prostitute only sharpens the satire, while staying loyal to the spirit of the novel.  Think of it as "The Onion Does 'Don Quixote'".   So now do you understand the relationship between Don Quixote and Dulcinea/Aldonza?  Oh well, it's complicated.  See? There's a Facebook status for everything.


Source:   abridged from The Natural History of Love by Morton M. Hunt (New York: Knopf, 1959), pp 133-138, as presented in Sociology: a text with adapted readings by L. Broom & P. Selznick (New York: Harper & Row, 5th ed 1973) pp 331-333.

photos courtesy of http://www.alfredangelo.com

It's Complicated, Part II

Continuing the story of Sir Ulrich and his courtly love:

(The gallant knight has just had cosmetic surgery under conditions that make Soroka look good, all for the sake of "his" lady, who so far has refused to accept his devotion)

"News of this ... softened the lady's heart, and she sent word that he might attend a riding party and enjoy the rare privilege of speaking with her for a moment, if the opportunity should arise.  And it did, once, when he had the chance to help her down from her horse. He could have uttered a sentence of two of devotion, but unfortunately he was tongue-tied by her nearness and could say nothing.  The lovely lady, considerably put out, whispered to him that he was a fraud, and gracefully indicated her displeasure by ripping out a forelock of his hair as she dismounted."

Pictured: probably not his beloved Lady.  Photo courtesy of "PartyCity.com"

Our hero, undaunted, presents himself to her the next day and asks again 

"to permit him to be her secret knight and to allow him to fight for her and love her. She accepted his service but under the very minimum conditions, granting him no 'favor' whatever, neither embrace, kiss, nor word of promise, and not so much as a ribbon to carry in his bosom.  Ulrich, nevertheless, was filled with joy and thankfulness for her kindness, and sallied forth, tilting about the countryside with anyone who would break a lance with him and composing many a song to his ladylove, which his secretary set down for him since writing was not a knightly accomplishment.  The messages that passed between [them] at this time conveyed ... her condescension, coldness, and criticism. But this was exactly what was expected of her ..., and he found each new blow a delicious pain; a large part of his pleasure lay in observing his own noble constancy under duress".

Ulrich is wounded in the finger, and somehow the Lady hears, incorrectly, that he has lost a finger "fighting for love of her".  When she discovers that this is not true, she rebukes him sharply.  When he receives this message from her,

"Ulrich paled for a moment, then resolutely drew out a sharp knife and ordered his friend* to hack off the finger with one blow. This done, the knight had an artisan make a green velvet case in which the finger was held by gold clasps. He sent her the mounted digit as a keepsake, together with a special poem about the matter.... [S]he returned word that she would look at the finger every day from thenceforth, a message which, incidentally, he received as he did all other communiques from her - on his knees, with bowed head and folded hands."

TO BE CONTINUED!

* it is not known if the friend's name happened to be Sancho Panza

Abridged, summarized and copied from:  The Natural History of Love by Morton M. Hunt (New York: Knopf, 1959), pp 133-138, as presented in Sociology: a text with adapted readings by L. Broom & P. Selznick (New York: Harper & Row, 5th ed 1973) pp 331-333.


...

It's Complicated

So what, exactly, is - or is not - going on between Don Quixote and his "I'm not your lady" Aldonza (aka Dulcinea)?  

To understand this, we need to go back a bit - to the early 1200s, actually - and consult an autobiographical memoir written by an Austrian knight-errant named Ulrich von Lichtenstein. The original isn't in my local library, so what follows is copied and summarized from a more recent source (1).

"When he was a mere lad of five... he first heard older boys saying that true honor and happiness could come only through serving a noble and lovely woman. He was deeply impressed, and began to shape his childish thoughts in that direction. Even at that tender age, he clearly understood that such service, the keystone of courtly love, could be undertaken only for a woman one could never marry.  True love had to be clandestine, bittersweet, and beset by endless difficulties and frustrations:  by virtue of all this, it was spiritually uplifting and made a knight a better man and a greater warrior."

At the age of 12, Ulrich found a married noblewoman who met his requirements, and became a page in her court. He labored there, admiring her from a distance, for five years. At 17 he left to become a knight in another court, which he accomplished after five more years.  He fought in tournaments until he felt worthy of "his" lady, at which point he sent a messenger to tell her that he desired to be a distant, respectful admirer of hers.  

Pictured above, at lower left:  not Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein

"The heartless lady, unmoved by his ten years of silent devotion and his recent feats of valor, sent back a cruel and pointed reply:  She considered him presumptuous, and ... for good measure took the trouble to let him know that he was too ugly to be considered even in the role of a very distant admirer. For it seems (and the young lady was specific) that the unhappy young knight had a harelip.  Undaunted - perhaps even inspired by this obvious proof that she had actually noticed him - Ulrich promptly undertook a journey to a famous surgeon and had his lip repaired.  Considering the techniques of medieval surgery, this must have been both excruciatingly painful and quite dangerous; indeed, he lay feverish in a sickbed for six weeks."

TO BE CONTINUED

(1) abridged from The Natural History of Love by Morton M. Hunt (New York: Knopf, 1959), pp 133-138, as presented in Sociology: a text with adapted readings by L. Broom & P. Selznick (New York: Harper & Row, 5th ed 1973) pp 331-333.