March 2, 2011 am: School Show

What can I say about our school show? Well, I suppose I'll just quote the audience on this one...







...Exactly. We heard very little from this audience; not to say they didn't enjoy the show, they just didn't give us much response during the performance, and that can be slightly discouraging.... but we did the show, despite the crowd's non-reaction.
Let's see... did anything funny, odd, or just plain wrong happen during the show? Ah, yes! So, at the beginning of Act 2 Alice (Kati Judd) meets up with Mouse (Stuart Bell), and Mouse begins telling her "tail", (clever pun, no?) but just as she gets started Mouse is interrupted by a Card Soldier (Mitch Warren) doing battle with The White Knight (me). So I am doing some stage combat with a wooden sword and a plunger, (The White Knight is a handy man, of course.. I also find plungers humorous) battling the Soldier who has only a wooden sword to defend himself (ha ha!) As we are battling his sword spontaneously combusted.. well, not really, it just broke. BUT shards and wood dust did fly out. So, being quick about it, I up looked at him and said: "Now I've got you! You sir, are my prisoner!" A line I was supposed to say anyway, but this made it even more effective. And the audience had no idea this wasn't supposed to happen, ah, the joy of live theatre...
            We hang up our costumes, and head out, knowing that we'll be back in a few hours to do it all over again!

Welcome to Wonderland...

I can't believe it's been a year since Seussical... seems like only yesterday... actually no, it doesn't, I remember yesterday, we had our final dress rehearsal for Alice in Wonderland, riiiiight.
Yes, it is true, we open tonight. But this morning (EARLY this morning) we are giving a special "school show", which is basically our first, and only, preview performance. I'm not sure of how many we're expecting for this show, but most of our other performances are sold out, which is quite exciting.
It's also going to be a bitter-sweet week/weekend, for this is my last production with AACT's children's theatre. I'm not going to cry..... I'm not going to cry.....
Either way, I'll keep the blog updated with news, stories, pics, and anything else I want ('cuz hey, it's my blog!), so stay tuned for more to come!

The next Broadway show on the agenda was Stephen Schwartz's Wicked; the prequel to L. Frank Baum's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". The show opened in 2003 with Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth as Elphaba and Glinda respectably, and was nominated for 10 Tony Awards. I saw the national tour two years ago in Birmingham from balcony row xxx, so center stage orchestra level seats were a whole different ballgame.

From the moment the orchestra began the overture a chill ran through me, I could really feel the power this show has. Soon Katie Rose Clark made her first appearance as Glinda, descending from the sky in a mechanical bubble, and hitting some of the highest notes outside of Phantom of the Opera.
As the show continued you could feel the crowd's delight and excitement, I wasn't even in the show and I felt a pride for the cast. Once Elphaba (Mandy Gonzales) made her first appearance, the show really started rolling,

At this point the show is flying by and I'm just trying to soak it all in, you could feel the tension building as Ephaba and Glinda debate their fates in "Defying Gravity"; and when Elphaba took flight the audience's cheers rattled the building. The show was incredibly incredible, and it was only intermission!

The second act was even more moving than the first, and my only complaint was that it ended, I could have lived in that world for a few more hours at least.

The cast knew exactly what to do, and every little thing they did impacted the story in the best way. The costumes, props and special effects are arguably the greatest in Broadway's history, everything added an extra few layers to this occasionally dark, insanely clever show.

I cannot recommend this show enough, you will be moved, and incredibly impressed with this (for lack of a better word) wickedly awesome production!!!!

Lions, Times Square, and Broadway, oh my!

NYC. what can I say about NYC? Not enough. My trip to NYC was the most exciting experience of my life! Broadway! Times Square! FAO Schwarz! Central Park! Oh, I could go on all day. But as I promised, I will share my comments about the Broadway shows I saw, starting with Disney's The Lion King:

The Lion King film was released in 1994, and the unique Broadway production opened three years later. A combination of masks, puppetry, interpretive dance, and live actors the show has been a hit with critics and audiences alike, and still remains one of Broadway's top shows. Since Lion King was a last minute addition to my NY plans, I didn't have time to research as I had for the other shows, so I wasn't as prepared as I should have been for what I was about to see. But when the first notes of Circle of Life came crying through the theatre I got a little misty...yes, I admit it, I cried at my first Broadway show. Deal with it.

And it just got better, full-sized elephants and rhinos came down the isle of the theatre joining the rest of the jungle of creatures onstage to witness Young Simba's presentation. The puppets were beautifully built and operated, making me wonder to myself "...could I build that?" But I didn't let that distract me, I still got caught up in the story, even with the occasional glimpse of the stage hand off stage left. The cast had some very impressive vocals, with Tshidi Manye as Rafiki as a personal favorite.

Even with all the specifics required for that show, whether stilt walking to become a giraffe, very precise dance steps and lyrics, or walking with a giant Warthog strapped to their bodies, the cast made it look effortless. I applaud you all again.
It was a great first show, and I highly recommend it. Stay tuned for the continuation of my NY journey.

Up-Date(s)

            After an exhausting Christmas holiday I am back. I have made a resolution to try and stay up-to-date on the blog, here... but like my resolution to finally lose that extra 20 pounds I've been carrying around since the baby, it might not last too long...
Let's see what's happened since my last post....
                1. Anc Ministries held the first EVER AnC CHRISTmas show, we found/learned/wrote a record 12 songs in 2 weeks!
               2. AnC performed in Columbus at "The Big Event: Comedy Night" a great charity event, with Illusionist Frankie Elliston (he was on AGT last season), and stand-up comic Sam Beman. Thanks to Sam for recommending us and getting us the gig!
              3. I was one of the leads in the Christmas production at Lafayette Heights... "The Joy Story" was a musical about a special toy store, "...where the toys are for sale, but the joy is free". I was the villain who now owns the lease to the store and wanted to take over and make the store my own. My character, FAO Schmaltz, and his son Jennings (played by my buddy Chase Golden, who was on his knees the whole show with fake legs and feet (very hilarious)) had big plans to take over the store and sell our own merchandise there, but we were told "The Joy Story" AKA The Gospel and we were changed for the better.
             4. Auditions for Alice in Wonderland, with AACT (where I did Seussical), were the first week of December, and I was very fortunate to receive the roles of The White Rabbit, and The White Knight, as well as getting to build a number of puppets/costume pieces/props for the show!
             5. If you search YouTube for "The Puppet Improv" you'll find the channel for a new web series... The Puppet Improv features a cast of all-original characters (Hermie, Penny, Zeke, Trixie, and a slew of others) is a sketch-show format. Music videos, parodies, mock-infomercials, and a whole bunch of other great stuff in that show (even if I do say so myself)! Check it out!
             6. Ah, and last, but certainly not least.. I shall soon be traveling to a "wonderland" of my own! For I am making my first trip to The Big Apple, that's right! New York City! 4 days! Two Broadway shows! (I'll post about both of them here afterward!) It's going to be quite an adventure in a city that doesn't sleep! I'll be sure to post about it upon my return (after my nap, that is)
           Well, that's pretty much all.... yeah, right ALL.... for today. Stay tuned for more fun to come!

Puppet of the Week

Been a while since I’ve written on here, so I thought I would continue my attempted tradition of “Puppet of the Week” that I did one post on then forgot about entirely…sorry.
My puppet (or rather puppets) this time is one I’m very proud of. Back in late January, when I was working with Auburn Area Community Theatre on their production of Seussical Jr., I was asked to create a set of fish puppets for the “Anything’s Possible” number in the show, a song where Jojo’s imagination stretches his bathtub into the ocean. I was excited that I got the job and set of to work, but first I had to decide what kind of puppets I wanted to use, I had been given free reign to make whatever kind of fish puppets I wanted. I debated several different styles, and finally settled on something I thought would work best. I went to the library and looked at all the Dr. Seuss books I could find with fish in them, then sketched/designed 7 different styles of fish (several of which never saw the light of day as puppets, this included what I called “The Cat Fish” a black fish with red white stripes to look like the Cat in the Hat). I then set to work drawing large fish on matte board, cutting them out, painting thm, rigging them to talk (they were singing fish after all), detailing with a sharpie, and finally trimming them with black electrical tape to give them a straight off the page feel. The final product was five rod puppet fish that looked a lot like Dr. Seuss fish if I do say so myself…
The puppeteers for the fish (who were also in the ensemble playing Whoville citizens, Jungle of Nool creatures, and Circus McGurcus animals) were Marleigh Jones (my sister), Ian Downes, Walker Shumock-Bailey, Madison Jennings, and Brittany Price; who all danced the choreographed dance and did the puppet at the same time, a tough job (trust me).
Of my few stage puppet designing jobs this is one I’ll always be very proud of, bringing Dr. Seuss’ famous fish to life. It was a pleasure, and a privilege.

Beauty IS a Beast

Beauty is a Beast. Look at that again. Beauty IS a Beast. It’s not the show you think it is at first glance; there is no enchanted castle, no dancing flatware, no singing candelabras. Just a sort of twisted story about a Princess in need of one heck of an attitude adjustment. Having myself been in Beauty AND the Beast about a year ago I thought I knew what I was getting into… I wasn’t even close.
Auditions were held May 20, we had 9 try out for this 15-person show. Yet another round of auditions were held the following week where we found another 5 members to the cast. Alright, close enough. We held the read-thru a day later where we found out that one of our cast members from the first round of auditions had dropped out, but we also had another 2 kids joining the cast for the read-thru. Yes, yes, yes! The read-thru went very well, and I was satisfied with my picks. A week later when the first rehearsal was under way we received word that another one of the kids had dropped out of the show. So, we continued the search, and found one more kid. Bringing us to, if my math is right, a total of 13 kids. We combined a few roles, and made a few edits here and there and then we started rehearsing.
With thirteen 5th-8th graders there’s gonna be some conflicts, and I was in the middle of a war zone. This one couldn’t sit next to that one, and he couldn’t do this because he was looking at him, etc. The principles were the least of my worries, it was the secondary and supporting cast that caused the most raucous. But things went on (surprisingly) ahead of schedule. Everyone, well almost everyone, memorized lines and blocking quickly, which gave me more time to find stuff for them to do in character. Costumes (most hand-made by my awesome sewin’ sister) were great, choreography was good, the acting was…okay… and it was almost the week of the show!
Show week can be a stressful time, and boy did I feel the stress! Cast members missing from first dress rehearsal without letting anyone know they would be gone, trying to coorinate a new sound and lights operator (and a new stage crew member who couldn't take the pressure leaving us to find yet another one), and trying to make sure the story got across. AAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! As the first show started I could feel a change in everyone’s energy, they were projecting, cheating out, it was an entirely different show that it was a week ago. First show was great, except for a section in scene 4 where half the cast started laughing on stage, but let’s not talk about that…
The next show was… eh… everyone was tired, and ready for this thing to be over. And I was with them, it was an exhausting 24 rehearsals. But thankfully, a few of the principle cast members still had enough energy to give the audience a good show.
We played almost to capacity both shows and the kids really did a good job, it was a tough, but fun, road; and I hope everyone remembers their time during Beauty IS a Beast.