Monday, August 29, 2005
More of THE APPLE...
....so, Peter and I met the large bus that took us to the Bard on Saturday morning, at the corner of 96th and Broadway, at 8:45 in the morning! And we were joined at that pick-up place by fellow cast members Howard McGillan, Anne Crumb, Virginia Seidel, Ken Jennings,Mark Baker, Kate Baldwin and her lovely fiancee Graham Rowat...among others...and our bus driver Lou, who was adventure in himself, as he did not seem to know exactly how to get where we needed to go...but we had fun, even though we were an hour later than our call time...it was the longest journey to go the shortest way i have ever taken...and a trip that should have taken2 hours at the very most, ended up taking us some 3 hours and more....by the time we got to the astonishing Fisher Hall, we were rushed onto the stage, uncostumed, and set down to work with the orchestra who had been called for 11:00....soon we were into running the show at full tilt with the band in place, and us too, familiarizing ourselves with our new surroundings. and it was actually fun...to relaize what we needed to do to fill the place with our voices without amplification...proper vocal production was really all it took...and we did have a cast that knew how to properly vocally produce...no question about that... there was also a table full of fruit, bagels, creamcheeses, butter, coffee,tea,etc, in the back hall and all in all we were taken care of rather well, throughout the work day...
After that long rehearsal, we convened for a cold lunch in a rehearsal room in another part of the building, and we stayed in that room to redo the blocking that needed fixing, and that took a while. With 13 music stands all set up, that blocking consisted mainly of getting to the stand most directly in front of us when our time came to tell our part of the story...our nice director Sarah Stern did the best she knew how to do to clearly get the story out there...the orchestra was situated directly behind the full chorus, all of whom were seated directly behind the principals...there was nothing between us and the audience but those 13 music stands.
After that long re-blocking work, we all piled into the bus and we were driven back some 30 minutes to the exit off the highway where our Howard Johnson's Motel was, and by that time, we were all pretty tired...also, given Lou's track record, we were none too sure we would ever actually get to that hotel, since Lou made more wrong turns than right ones...he was nice though. A 7:30 pm bus pickup was planned for those who wanted to go into the small town of Saugerties for dinner...Peter and I pretty well knew we ouwld stay "home" and eat in the joint next to the HoJo's called Johnny G's...how bad could it be?
As it turned out, it was actually pretty damned good, and we enjoyed a wine filled and delicious dinner with pals Ann Crumb, Lucas Steel, and others...we ate and drank a few glasses of sparkling white wines, and laughed and laughed and laughed as we recalled our short but intense time together over the past week..the putting together of every theatrical project, no matter how short-lived, creates many of it's own unique tales to tell, so we sat and told a few of them to each other...and the food was surprisingly tasty and home-cooked. Peter and I were back in our room (#116) and asleep by 10:00 pm!!!! Comfortably so.
The following day would start early, and be filled with hard work before our 3:00 performance. More on that to come.
After that long rehearsal, we convened for a cold lunch in a rehearsal room in another part of the building, and we stayed in that room to redo the blocking that needed fixing, and that took a while. With 13 music stands all set up, that blocking consisted mainly of getting to the stand most directly in front of us when our time came to tell our part of the story...our nice director Sarah Stern did the best she knew how to do to clearly get the story out there...the orchestra was situated directly behind the full chorus, all of whom were seated directly behind the principals...there was nothing between us and the audience but those 13 music stands.
After that long re-blocking work, we all piled into the bus and we were driven back some 30 minutes to the exit off the highway where our Howard Johnson's Motel was, and by that time, we were all pretty tired...also, given Lou's track record, we were none too sure we would ever actually get to that hotel, since Lou made more wrong turns than right ones...he was nice though. A 7:30 pm bus pickup was planned for those who wanted to go into the small town of Saugerties for dinner...Peter and I pretty well knew we ouwld stay "home" and eat in the joint next to the HoJo's called Johnny G's...how bad could it be?
As it turned out, it was actually pretty damned good, and we enjoyed a wine filled and delicious dinner with pals Ann Crumb, Lucas Steel, and others...we ate and drank a few glasses of sparkling white wines, and laughed and laughed and laughed as we recalled our short but intense time together over the past week..the putting together of every theatrical project, no matter how short-lived, creates many of it's own unique tales to tell, so we sat and told a few of them to each other...and the food was surprisingly tasty and home-cooked. Peter and I were back in our room (#116) and asleep by 10:00 pm!!!! Comfortably so.
The following day would start early, and be filled with hard work before our 3:00 performance. More on that to come.
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