April 3, 2012
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The Daily News1 That was one tough Monday.
2 I worked so hard over the weekend that I felt pretty useless yesterday morning. Usually I do Mondays pretty well, but for whatever reason, the second I got to work I realized I should have called in sick.
3 Exhaustion from a demanding weekend.
4 I’m glad I didn’t, because I pride myself in being a hard worker, and a guy who seldom is absent. My model is my best students. The ones who get straight A’s are never absent.
5 I don’t think I’ve taken a day off for being sick in ten years. I have taken days off when I would need to see my Dad, or go to a funeral, or occasionally catch up with work when I have been dumped on, but normally, I try to get in there and do it every single day, no matter what.
6 Getting to sleep earlier has really played a huge part in staying alert and ready each day.
7 I worked on school stuff the entire three-day weekend. I wanted to go in completely prepared this week, and I did fine publicly. But yesterday I had shattered nerves and an exhaustion that was almost palpable.
8 It didn’t hit me until midway through my first class. Suddenly the clock stopped, and each minute was an hour. I proved yesterday that Einstein was right about relativity.
9 By lunchtime I was starved and somewhat of a madman.
10 I decided to go to a local pho dive and grab some of that extraordinary Vietnamese soup. A fat, steamy broth of pho hath no fellow, as Shakespeare would say. It puts your eyeballs in the right spot.
11 When I got to the joint, I ran into two of our YB alumni, John Le and Peter Tran. I instantly perked up because I hadn’t seen either of those guys in about a hundred years.
12 I love running into alumni, and those two guys are particularly high on my list, so it completely made my day.
13 We caught up a bit, but the time shot by. The same hour that took six hours in the morning took fifteen minutes at lunch.
14 Go Einstein.
15 After that I felt way more energized. It was just too short of a visit, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. Maybe we all just need to see each other to keep everything a bit real and in perspective. It was a delightful lunch, and when I got up to pay, it had already been taken care of.
16 We need those chance encounters in life.
17 By the school day’s end, I felt normal again. Maybe it was the pho. Maybe it was the company. Maybe it was that all three of us needed to be pulled out of our fretful lives and pulled into putting everything into a dramatic perspective. The bottom line: at the height of one of my most exhausting days, I got to see a couple of successful former students. The past came in to support all three of us, and did so famously.
18 I loved it, always do when I see people I have worked with, or laughed with.
19 Sometimes we just need to step away from the moment that is stressing us and see that laughter and old friends are what is real. I consider both John and Peter old friends.
20 I have lots of old friends. It is always good to get away from the present. I wouldn’t want to live in the past, but memories are strong friends. As my good friend and confidant Rob Rainy once said, “What’s so good about the present?”
21 Thanks for the lunch, gentlemen. Somehow that was a good encounter for all of us.
22 Moving on, Part the First: I was supposed to take over the rehearsal yesterday because David had to go to San Francisco midway through. Unfortunately, the cast was completely out of it yesterday. They dragged, forgot lines, forgot dances, forgot to sing. The energy seemed just as horrid as my morning was.
23 I took about seven hundred notes that I was going to give after he left, but he was a bit distressed by their complete lack of energy, and lack of thinking. He got a bit frustrated. I’ve been there.
24 I remember going through that with my awesome Godspell production, the one I directed. I always brag about that production, but I do remember having to drum staying in character into the group. I was as nutsy as Harbaugh. We practiced how to listen while other characters would speak, because I’m the type of person who goes to a show and watches the background people, and who watches the ensemble to see if anyone is out of character. Showkillers.
25 So I told the Godspell people that they needed to maintain over-expressive faces and almost clownlike responses every single moment of the production. I told them to practice in class, at home, and everywhere they would go.
26 It worked. I still have a VHS of our closing night, and that cast was SO into character that it is a dynamic study. That’s a tough thing to teach people in a musical, because the Grease kids simply haven’t perfected staying in character and filling themselves with absolute energy every second of rehearsal. David taught that yesterday, but I’m not sure they quite get it yet.
27 They got it after a very serious talk, but that sort of theatre discipline takes a lot of practice. Learning how not to drop character or energy is a key to the success of any production. I didn’t want to say anything because I don’t want to undermine David; I have incredible trust and faith in both him and in Rachel, our vocal director.
28 David never left to get to San Francisco, which is good, because I didn’t have to give my notes, many of which he and Rachel had already given.
29 I wrote a lot of it off to a Monday following a three-day weekend, but still. I have seen this cast blow me out of the water, and that just didn’t happen yesterday.
30 And it isn’t like we can cut the tune. They originally nailed We Go Together on the first day. They just have a lot of dance steps to think about, and they forget to sing, and forget the steps, and most important, they forget the audience.
31 You can’t do Grease sucecessfully without getting huge on that number. It is THE large production number that closes act one.
32 So we’ll see. I really held back yesterday, because I’m not the director. But I am officially a large part of the production. And I have been there with casts, and I do understand the frustration.
33 A lot of alumni remembers our production of Guys and Dolls in ’98 (yes, we do travel back that far!). What they don’t remember is the day before our opening my being up at 3 a.m. writing down hundreds of notes. I wound up taking a roll of poster paper and writing those 3 a.m. notes on it, and then posting the thing all around the piano lab. I told the cast to take a stroll around the room and to read the notes.
34 Doing a show is really beginning with a thousand errors, getting them down to a hundred, and then slowly eliminating as many as is humanly possible.
35 That deal with the poster paper saved the cast from hearing a one hour meeting with notes. They each just strolled around the room until they would see notes relevant to themselves, and then they improved dramatically.
36 The strategy paid off in droves. Each student got ten times better, so by the time they hit the stage, they were ready.
37 The show was a blast; we had a lot of fun, and it all came together.
38 For the life of me I don’t know why casts can’t get it together a little faster, but that’s show biz. I’m hoping to see a lot of improvement this week. On Thursday they practice with the band, which I’ve heard tell is thunderingly amazing.
39 One thing that did work yesterday was the introduction of microphones into the rehearsal. The first time an actor picks up a mic is often a really disorienting moment. But our cast handled the mics like they were old pros. They took so naturally to them that I almost didn’t notice, and they sang gracefully, although a couple of people didn’t realize that missing a note on a mic is pretty much a mortal sin.
40 Still, they were really confident with the mics, and almost cocky, which is good.
41 I used to tell my casts that there is no such thing as a wasted rehearsal. There might be rehearsals where we didn’t succeed in what we set out to do, but at each rehearsal it is always a good idea to ask this: What did we come away with?
42 Yesterday it was two things: one, rehearse completely in character and focused, and two, you don’t need to worry about how your voice sounds on a mic. That confidence really came through, and it is usually the other way around with musicals.
43 I feel much more rested this morning, even though I am into the 5 a.m. already.
44 I hope our cast is also more rested. I’m guessing they will be.
45 Shows.
46 I had forgotten.
47 Welp, it’s Tuesday, and for once, I’m glad we have Tuesdays, because I truly think we need an extra day this week.
48 I’m hoping to have the Tuesday of my life.
49 You have one too, willya?
50 Peace.
~H~
