June 14 - Apple a Week
June 13 - Moving Pictures
We were able to rehearse Act II Waiting for Godot, in addition to the dress rehearsal of Act I. The second part has come a long way and will go farther still. Part one experienced that "second rehearsal syndrome," where we had higher expectations, but pretty much the same challenges. There were many wonderful things happening in both acts, and we should peak in performance.
First videos of Goat Hall rehearsals by yours truly -- fun to take up that side of endeavors, and a new respect for the excellences and challenges of videography.
June 12 - Photo Dim
Spent the last unscheduled day of semester break manually organizing pictures, to prepare for summer semester, in iPhoto -- because the PhotoSmart program still crashes in the picture library -- and then found a better way to organize via photo rolls with redating. As iPhoto insists on grouping by importation date, I simply reassigned import numbers to reflect the birth years of composers.
Somewhere in the fullness of time, am aiming for the orchestration of Waiting for Godot 54...
June 11 - Yes, Let's Go
Wow! Godot is a go. Ran lights tonight for tech rehearsal -- we're costumed and propped (both Eliza and I bought carrot and parsnips -- no turnips avail, and they look better anyway, surprisingly like white carrots -- at The Good Life, unbeknownst to one another).
Also bought a cooked chicken, but Janet likes the idea of plastic cheeseburgers, so we'll go with that....
Oh, yes, and the music and the acting. Sounds good, looks good. Balence just about right, with computer and no Keisuke tonight, but am sure he will fit right in on live piano. Lighting is dark and spare, everyone is finding appropriate business and moments -- not many slip-ups. Harriet took some pictures with the new camera -- despite having to take action shots and shooting against unfinished backdrop (we only had half a black box -- will finish on Wednesday) and not realizing that zoom was a possibility, the first (7 again!) shots turned out pretty well -- one of Meghan good enough to use as a promo...
Had a ball running the lights for Godot -- kept fairly narrow pools-of-light focus on whatever was happening -- pretty much improvised and just made it up as we went along. Tree is a giant fan, Pozzo's rope a bright orange extension cord matching P's vest;
Lucky in brown shirt and barefoot;
Vladimir in brown jacket; Estragon in blue shirt and pretty much matching socks;
Boy in forest green pants, shirt, jacket -- now more leprechan than angel... All other costuming black, with the shiny, cheap bowler hats...
Lisa Prosek's Jakob borrowed the black boxes from Goat Hall, which we were using as the mound, and has not returned them -- so we switched to a small raked platform (sloping up toward center stage) covered with a black drape, which is actually much better visually and dramatically (superior to have Lucky deliver his speech and Estragon sleep on the bias). Nothing else on set, as per Beckett's direction -- although the situation we inherited from the Little Night Music production of quite some time back has elevations at extreme stage right and left, which we use for Estragon's scoping of the situation, and for the Boy's two appearances (stage right only).
Bianca and Harriet checked out the show, and liked it very much. Cast in great voice and both funny and disturbing, as should be.... Lea particulalry likes the Act I twisted arpeggiated octave substitution blues ("Thank You Gentlemen," as Pozzo and Lucky depart) and the Act II "You Again," with it's funky looping progressive revelation.... Janet feels the opera feels inevitabably springs from the play.... Bianca wanted more... Harriet said it bespoke of artistic genius. Gee.... Of course we have to pull it off now for audiences...
Even the cheesy disco ball effect works for the rising of the moon in each act. Cue for its removal iboth times is the "Well, shall we go?" / "Yes, let's go" routine.
Amazed that most of my note for the cast were dramatic ones, rather than purely musical ones -- understand now why stage directors usually had more to say than I did after dress rehearsals -- I used to figure it was because I was busy conducting, but perhaps the real reason is that by "hell" week, the music will come off best when the stagecraft is well in place.
There was some other good singing previous to this, in John Partridge's music, featuring Harriet, Kat, Lea, Bianca, and whoops! suddenly her name escapes me -- she reined in the rain of Brian Holmes's The Fashion God (on Hurricane Katrina and FEMA fashionista head Michael Brown) last year...
Yet before, Harriet and I had one of our sunny, windblown fetes at Connecticut Yankee (another gorgeously clear N. Cal. day, even in SF) -- split a cheesesteak + house red and a coffee specialty drink known as an Improper Bostonian.....
June 10 - Shall We Go?
Everyone needs a goal, and mine was to walk from the abandoned Outrigger Restaurant south of Pacifica to the convience store at what amouns to downtown Montara -- not much of a walk in distance, but very beautiful on crisp, but pretty much fog-free beach day (only some shreds in the highlands). Took a roll on the new camera -- all seven shots, before the memory is maxxed -- of views north and south along the coast, looking surprisingly like Big Sur if your immagination will allow.
Previous to this was the last Sunday rehearsal of Act I Waiting for Godot excerpts, and the cast is ready, finding good vocal and comic delivery along with droll schtik.... Act II remains a challenge, but we are on the right trajectory to be ready when those selections are prevented the next week.
Harriet, who was just instructed by Douglas, taught me enough of the light board such that I will run lights for John Partridge's show, and perhaps even for Godot. Computer and live piano from Keisuke seem to be at the right balance vis a vis the singers, and by now we know that the piece can go, even without conductor (partially due to the fact that I subbed on stage so much for those with necessary conflicts, such that we are not accustomed to a conductorly role in this capacity -- also it has been a nice luxury to stand back and watch the show, and be more the dramatic director, in the spirit [if not the tradition] of Gian Carlo Menotti).
Coffee w/ Harriet at foot-of-Potrero-Hill Starbucks, then the hike, then a drive north along the SF coast, over the GGB, to Marin, since such a beautiful day...
...yes, let's go....
(We move)
June 9 - Service at Old First
The SFCCO Hi I'll Be Your Composer Tonight proved a smooth service, delivering fresh new music to an appreciative clientele. From the hilarities of Brian Holmes's Two Grotesque Songs to the impassioned stentorian cries of Allan Crossman's Earth March, there were engaging sounds for all tastes. Between that appetizer and dessert, the palette was ever refreshed by John Beeman's rhapsodic Phoenix Rising, Loren Jones's creatively Coplandesque Golden Gate, Michael Cooke's brilliant One Who Draws Circles, two delightfully surprising works of Harry Bernstein, and the witty machinationsof Gary Friedman's Trumpet Concerto. Fine playing and a fine time was had by all.
Nice to have Victor back with us on percussion, after his hospital emergency....
Just before the sound-check, was showing Alexis the Photosmart program on the MacBook, when it crashed, and it has still not recovered. Transferring photos now to iPhoto, hoping to be ready by the beginning of the Summer semester...
June 8 - Hearing and Seeing
At Old First Church for dress rehearsal for tomorrow's concert. Am playing oboe in Allan Crossman's impressively stentorian Earth March, and, for the first time in a concert situation, I must remove glasses to perform... As bespeckled conductor, all is going quite well, even with a few scheduling jugglings. Looking forward to the show, now later today, and reaching for the orchestration of Godot 53...
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