Okay, I'll have to remember to go back and read this blog in 3 or 4 weeks when I am pacing the floor at 3 AM wondering how are we going to pull this off....? But until then, I have to say how much I love, love, love rehearsal...week one! There is a buzz.....an excitement that is part enthusiasm part naivety....I love seeing the kids....some old faces and some new...all ready to go...and them seeing me not as a semi scary person in the back of the auditorium during auditions...but as their leader...their director, the one who is going to make sure the show will be awesome, the. best. show. ever ....oh, that must be the naive part....
But honestly, there is something so special about everyone meeting each other and learning their parts and who is who. I so enjoy handing out little solos and lines ( that was always my personal favorite when I was in these shows "Mr Detroit hasn't been in all night" ) For the second time in 4 shows I got to enjoy handing a major part over to the understudy!!! WHAT? The look of pride, excitement, fear and nausea on our new cowardly lion's face was priceless. I have to say the last two expressions (fear and nausea) were on my face also. This is a brand new member of our group He was good, right? ..I think he sang an Elton John song...who is he again?...but as week one went on....I already know he can do it!!!! See, there is something magical about week one!
This year, though, I am not being fooled by the magic of week one, I am trying to be realistic and learn from my mistakes ( or at least try to make different ones). I am learning that even though we have the WHOLE SUMMER AHEAD OF US (5 weeks Monday-Friday from 6 to 9 and some Saturdays) I am not going to "take on" or "okay " any major projects or outside the box ideas that are going to soak up all of our resources (financial, emotional, etc). We will call them Energy Suckers/
ENERGY SUCKER EXAMPLE 1: Two years ago, we did GREASE....I told all the kids NOT to watch the movie because its just an John Travolta;/Olivia Newton John gig...half the songs aren't even in it ...blah blah blah ...we can do better than that. But not listening to my own advice, I thought how cool to have a drive in on the stage "just like in the movie" Doh!
I spent hours ...days looking on you tube for the video clip of the little hot dog jumping through the hoop...and the dancing sodas....LOVE IT. I looked for some horror movie clips to put on there too. I had all my best people on it..I was obsessed... I drove my technical director absolutely crazy...
So we set up a computer, lowered a screen and while Danny Zuko sang "Stranded at the Drive-In" (not Sandy like in the movie, see) he would be singing in front of those adorable little hot dogs jumping through those cute little hoops....Right?
Okay, so it worked 2 out of the 3 shows. I think 2 people came up to me and said that drive in thing was cool (one of them was my dad)...for all that time and energy AND the night it didn't work ...still haunts me....I'm not pointing fingers, even though I know whose fault it actually was...I always take the blame!
So when someone comes up to me with an idea that I know will be an Energy Sucker....I say "great idea" ..."I love it" ( remember I was an actor too) but let's see if we need to spend $300 dollars (that we don't have) on a certain light or a motorized whatever and 300 hours of crew time on a 30 seconds part of the show that maybe my dad will think is cool.
BUT....
I still love the enthusiasm -I still love, love, love week one of rehearsal....I'm just trying to prevent the fires I will be putting out in 3 or 4 weeks when I am pacing the floor at 3 AM.......just saying
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