Thursday, January 29, 2004
Meet Two of Our Ensemble Members: Sally Collins and Chris Ferejohn
Here was the question posed to the Candide cast:What is your favorite part of the process of putting on a show?
You go through a lot of steps ...from the early rehearsals, when everyone is still holding a script and learning their lines and feeling out how they want to work each moment, to that transition when people are off book (lines memorized) and you start to get that sense of continuity and flow, to tech and dress rehearsals, when the actors may be ready to take off, but all of the other pieces have to get on their feet. Then, of course there are the performances...you finally have a real audience, not just the same production people and cast members who have seen each scene about a hundred times.
And all actors may love the theatre equally, but they may love it for different reasons.
So, here are answers from two of our ensemble members:
Chris Ferejohn:
"It's the performances I love the most. I live to make an ass out of myself in front of people. Rehearsals are just a way to get to a point where I can do it proudly. On a related note, I am The Greatest Karaoke Singer Who Has Ever Lived (tm)."
My bet is that some evening after a performance, the cast is going to make Chris live up to that last gratuitous, shameless plug!
Sally Collins:
"I enjoy the range of experiences in theatre – auditions [BlogMaster's note: okay, really, I'm not sure I know too many people who ENJOY auditions!!!] music rehearsals, staging, putting on the makeup and costumes, and performing. But I think what I love best are the unique gifts that each live audience gives. Sometimes you don’t realize how funny a line is until you hear the audience laugh! And sometimes the laughs come at different times depending on the audience. Some audiences may not audibly react, but you can still feel their engagement and interest. And best of all, I find that it really is true that the audience *wants* to like you – just as the star with the broken ankle tells Peggy Sawyer in “42nd Street.”
So these two really thrive on an audience. But just to prove my point that we're all a little different, my answer to the above question is: get me out of the early rehearsals, and get me to the point where we can run the show, off-book, and I don't care if we ever get the costumes, or a full orchestra, or to be really honest, even the audience. I love to run the show and challenge myself to experience each moment fresh, no matter how many times I've been through it before. If there's an audience I certainly hope they're enjoying it, but even if they don't make a peep, I figure they're paying US to perform, we're not paying THEM to be a good audience :)
If you're a performer, whether in theatre, music, comedy, whatever, and you have your own interesting perspective on what you love about the process, click on the 'Email the Blogmaster' link in the side-bar and send me your story.
Maybe I'll publish some of the stories and let the Candide'rs get to know their audience!
Meet Our Choreographer: Brad Handshy
Actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, director, and excellent last-minute stand-in for a lusty serving wench!
Every production team dreads that word: "conflicts". Oh, not conflicts between the leading man and leading lady, or conflicts between the director and choreographer over artistic vision...but calendar conflicts.Actors have unavoidable business travel, or maybe they're performing in one show while rehearsing this one, so every Thursday night is off-limits for a few weeks. There are a lot of reasons, and sometimes a role is won or lost based on whether an actor has too many conflicts.
For those soldiering on at rehearsal, conflicts can result in dead spots, where a spoken line isn't said or a solo line isn't sung or pas de deux becomes a pas d'un.
Luckily for the Candide cast the other night, our intrepid, debonair choreographer Brad Handshy was there to step in. During the number "Auto Da Fe", a lovely little ditty about burning people at the stake, there is a sexy little dance solo performed by the lusty serving wench character, Paquette. In the absence of the actual Paquette, Brad covered the solo through each repetition of the number that night.
And a perky, piquante Paquette he made, indeed.
Brad first trod the boards at Foothill in "Kiss Me Kate" back in 1996. Since then he's focused on directing and choreographing, including a much-acclaimed version of his all-time fave, "Forever Plaid" (which starred this production's Candide himself, Mike Amaral, as it happens.)
Brad is also a cabaret impressario. What started out as intimate evenings with his friends (in his kitchen!) has evolved into shows that he has put together and presented on the stage at the BusBarn Theatre and at the Espresso Garden Cafe in San Jose. Brad often chooses all the material, arranges the music, plays the piano, and hosts these fun evenings.
When you see Candide it will be the fabulous Nicole Tung embodying the playful Paquette. But for one evening at least, the cast was entertained (and more than a little amused) by the multi-talented Brad Handshy's rendition of the role.
A News Series: Meet the "Candide'rs"
Every person has a story, and while we might not have time to introduce you to each person working on the show, every now and then, we'll bring you someone's story.When you're doing a production like this one, there are all kinds of people involved...from our Equity Guest Artist, Stewart Lyle, to students at the Foothill Conservatory, to folks with day jobs, who cap off a full working day with a full rehearsing evening.
And, somewhat surprisingly, despite a love of doing theatre in common, there are other striking differences between all of these folks.
So, were going to introduce you to some of the folks on stage and backstage. we hope you enjoy the show that much more, knowing a little bit about the folks up there entertaining you.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
It's getting closer...here's some details about the run
Of course you can get full performance information at the Online Box Office site (remember to link through this blog to get your discount.) But here's the breakdown:Candide is running for four weekends from the Opening on Friday February 20th at 8pm to the Closing on Sunday March 14th at 2pm.
Each weekend has a Friday and Saturday at 8pm, plus Sunday at 2pm.
In addition, after the first weekend, there are Thursday at 8pm performances.
Lastly, there's a Saturday at 2pm matinee the last weekend, on March 13th.
Candide is playing in the Foothill Playhouse theatre, which is newly dedicated to theatre performances only. In the past such Foothill productions as "Wonderful Town" and "The Boy From Syracuse" played in the space, but they've re-tooled it to be a permanent home for the more intimate Winter productions of Foothill Music Theatre.
The theatre seats about 120, including about a dozen seats that are essentially right by the side of the stage! Sort of a peanut gallery right in the midst of the action.
From past experience we know that the final two weeks of these Winter Musicals sell out...leaving folks out in the cold.
Now that we're upping our online presence, we're trying to make sure the same thing happens with the first two weeks.
Opening Night is only 3 weeks away. So check your calendar and click on the link to the right to get your guaranteed access to what promises to be a great show!
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Candide's Finale is on Barry Manilow's All-Time Favorites Playlist!
So Apple has their online music store, iTunes. It rocks, but that's kind of besides the point.They have asked many celebrities to create Playlists of their all-time favorite songs...all of which are available for purchase on iTunes, of course.
So today they added Barry Manilow's Playlist. And I checked it out because, and here's a little known fact about me, I was a huge Manilow fan in high school. My 2nd concert ever was Manilow at the Concord Pavillion. (And my first was The Carpenters at the Circle Star Theatre...so yes...I was a geeky piano-playing girl. Please be kind and remember it was the late 70's.)
I'm quite impressed with Manilow's taste. he's got Peter Gabriel, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits, Sinatra, Shirley Horn, Everything but the Girl...a fine mix. But imagine my surprise and delight to see "Make Our Garden Grow", the Finale of our fine show, on his list of only 20 favorite songs.
The link above will only work for those of you who have downloaded iTunes (available for Mac AND PC) so for those of you without iTunes, here's his comment:
"This breathtaking finale to the Broadway musical "Candide" with music by Leonard Bernstein can't be topped."
I couldn't agree more.
Monday, January 26, 2004
How the Pieces Come Together
When you hear most movie actors talk about the difference between shooting a movie and doing a play, they talk about how a movie is shot out of sequence, and theatre is linear.Perhaps they've never done a musical. Because, the first few weeks of a musical can be very similar to shooting a movie.
After the initial cast meeting, where you're likely to read/sing through the entire piece, you might not get that sense of linear continuity again for weeks!
If you've got a big cast, or at least some big musical numbers, then it's highly likely you'll start very early in the rehearsal process to work away on those numbers, no matter what scene they land in. Not only that, but you typically have to learn the music first, then layer in the choreography.
The same thing goes for blocking (staging) non-musical crowd scenes vs. scenes with just a handful of characters.
One reason for tackling the big things first is that they are also the most complicated. And you're relying on lots of people to remember their individual part...you've got to give the time for everyone to get on equal footing.
Another reason is that you get the whole cast working together right off the bat, fostering camaraderie...and hopefully giving the cast chemistry the most amount of time to gel, or ferment, or catalyze.
So, eventually you start running through big chunks of the piece in order, and eventually you're having rehearsals of the entire piece, but before you get there, you're essentially 'shooting out of sequence'.
"Candide", in particular, has some great crowd scenes, with some intense Bernstein choral arrangements...numbers such as "Bon Voyage" and "What a Day for an Auto-da-fe". The cast started on those just about from day two!
The pay off comes in the form of tight vocal harmonies and vivid characterizations from every actor on stage, principal or ensemble member.
And that explains why one of the most common sayings in the theatre is: "Don't worry, everything always comes together...in the end!"
Tech Talk Alert: How to get Blog Updates
We certainly hope that you'll want to come back often to see how the show is progressing. And there are a few different ways to do so.Of course, you can always bookmark the site and come back on your own to check out what's new.
But there are 2 methods to get updates sent to you:
Method #1. You'll notice a link on the side bar to a 'Site Feed.' If you read a lot of blogs, it would be worth your while to download a Newsreader application. You can add the various blog feeds to the reader program and when an update is made, your reader will capture it. You can open your reader program and check out all new stuff at any blog you're following.
If you're a Mac user, and a dot.mac member you can download iBlog, which is a software app to create and maintain your own blog, but also has a reader mode. In addition, here's a link to a great site that lists and reviews the various reader programs.
Method #2. There is also a link on the side bar to 'Subscribe' via email to this blog. This link will create an email to me, your Blogmaster. When you hit send, I will be notified that you want to be notified about blog updates. Then you will get the notification via the email address I receive this request from.
So you can go completely manual and bookmark the blog, you can get email updates, or you can go truly techno-geeky and syndicate the blog to your reader program.
