February 14, 2012
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The Daily News
1 Tell me more; tell me more.
2 We had our first rehearsal for Grease yesterday.
3 Incredible.
4 The students came to play. They did the Alma Mater that opens the show. I expected soft voices and lots of work.
5 This cast sang out from the opening notes. Incredible ensemble. The girls in particular got it fast, but the boys, while a bit more shy, sounded pretty good toward the end.
6 A couple of things sent the rehearsal soaring in a different direction. First, we had to postpone Hand Jive because our Johnny Casino character was absent. Rachel, our vocal director, had to switch gears rather quickly.
7 She decided to tackle Summer Nights, a much more complex tune with a lot of "shoo bop bops" and background interchange. One of our student accompanyests, a rather shy girl named Perlynn (hope I spelled her name correctly) got on the piano and assisted with utterly no practice. She was a champ. She is one of my former English students. Awesome student.
8 The ensemble had to practice a song that wasn't scheduled until later, but Rachel and Perlynn stepped up and rescued what could have been a wasted first rehearsal. It knocked me out. The company didn't completely nail the tune, but from my perspective, they took care of a massive amount of work in one day.
9 I didn't have a copy of the music, so it was a bit tough for me to contribute much, but when boy parts needed to be more clear, I was able silently to assist.
10 One dreadful event happened. One of our cast members, a guy named Kyle, had his backpack robbed. Someone had somehow gotten to the rehearsal and stolen his laptop. Most of us assume it was someone who knew he had it in his backpack, and we are hoping it was nobody in the show.
11 I don't think that it was. Everyone came in and left backpacks in the audience. We all proceeded straight to the stage right wing. Someone must have known that he had his laptop at school and also knew that he had it at the rehearsal.
12 Plus it was only his backpack that was targeted. He and two student assistants were in the audience looking for his laptop, which very well might have been ditched in a bush, or somewhere around the theater.
13 I told them that we couldn't look in backpacks, but that they had every right to feel backpacks for laptops. Nothing surfaced, so I still like to think it wasn't a cast member.
14 The laptop was never found. Kyle was pretty upset, but not in an accusing manner. He's in my third period class and is an awesome student. He is also the lighting design guy for the show.
15 Sidebar: Ouch. Sustained leg cramp on old injury.
16 Owwowwowwow!
17 M' bad. But it hoits. Right now. Right this instant.
18 It's the middle of 4 a.m. and my leg is cramping up a storm. So sorry to have to report this. But yoiks!
19 An oak table fell off my truck years ago and struck me in the exact spot this is happening. It hoits!
20 Two swift glasses of water. Yes, we have no bananas.
21 Water. Miracle. Not fatal. Immina live.
22 That's the way you think in 2012.
23 End of Sidebar: Back to the story: the bottom line is that Kyle's laptop was stolen at our first rehearsal.
24 On the good end, I made it past 4:20. Whew.
25 The other bottom line is that we came away with an awesome first rehearsal.
26 And since the DN now goes out not only to YB alumni, but also to current teachers, family, friends, and even current EV students and staff, any word from anyone about who might have stolen Kyle's laptop will be greatly appreciated.
27 We sometimes think of the DN as a quaint "back-in-the day" memory thing, but the reality is that it is still current and active. It still works with some students, although I don't advertise it too much. A few of my students know of it, and probably ignore it since it doesn't directly affect them.
28 I'm quite fine with that; keeps me outta trouble.
29 So that's the first rehearsal of the first musical at EV. It might also be the first rehearsal of what very well might become a community theater in the Evergreen area.
30 That was my first mission when I arrived at EV in 2007. So it was exciting to hear all those good voices already harmonizing and coming together.
31 Moving on, Part the Second: I should also report that the parallels with YB are sometimes striking. For years, the YB Theatre was ice cold during winter shows. I complained for years, and eventually wrote the Merc News. Within one day of the article, our heater was fixed, but many old skool YB peeps remember parents bringing electric heaters, toasters, blankets, etc. to shows. As always, the news article painted me as a madman, which I naturally loved. It got the job done.
32 EV's theater is just as bad. It is run from a computer that evidently nobody knows how to control, so our stage right rehearsal was literally pretty "chill" yesterday. I recall working a Nutcracker event a few years back and running into the same challenge.
33 I recall that our heating will go up only so high when a natural fire-prevention sensor shuts the heat off, but leaves the blower on. At the end of the first act of Nutcracker, it felt like real snow was falling on the cast.
34 We had to control the heat and then deliberately shut it off right before intermission so that it could cool back down and be re-started for the second act. I had to call a district guy to come in on a Sunday. We had to walk across to some computer room above the gym in order to keep the audience and dancers comfortable.
35 That guy retired, so the situation remains. Yesterday cast members of Grease wore coats, scarves, and anything else to keep from freezing. And like good ol' YB alumni, they said things like, "Ah, it's always cold in here."
36 Pretty unacceptable, but that's the district. Our theater isn't a top priority.Some things never change.
37 So there you have it; the first rehearsal to the first musical in the school's history. There was much more good going on than there was bad, that's for sure.
38 It is now the second part of 4:30 so I think I'll drift back to sleep for a few.
39 I'll tell you more as things progress.
40 Meanwhile...who is Sal Mineo again?
41 Peace.
~H~
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