Thursday, February 12, 2004
One Week to Go; When are You Coming?
Well, we are in the home stretch now. That hellish Tech Weekend I described in an earlier post starts tomorrow! Techs and Dress Rehearsals continue until the Final Dress Rehearsal Thursday night. Friday is Opening Night.There are a lot of elements that will have to come together in the final week, so it's going to be an exciting week for all of us, from the production designers to the cast and crew and orchestra.
So, remember, if you go to the box office via the special link in the right bar of this Blog (the one that says "Online Box Office: Exclusive $3 discount") you will get $3 off per ticket. If you click to the box office through the Foothill web site, for example, the discount will not be credited.
The show opens Friday the 20th, closes March 14th and runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm, with an extra Saturday matinee thrown in on Saturday the 13th.
Just as a heads up, this is an intimate space. The Winter Musical is pretty well-known in this area for being a great showcase for lesser known works. The final two weekends of the Winter Musical almost always sell out completely, with people being turned away.
I would highly recommend getting your tickets now, and perhaps going the first couple of weekends if you can.
If you have any further questions you CAN, of course, call the box office at 1-650-949-7360, but the blogger discount is exclusive to the blogger link.
See you next week :)
Let the Lounge Acts Begin!
Those of you who are in theatre know this phenomenon well. Those of you who just like to go see theatre may not.At some point a cast and crew will start to get more comfortable with the material. So comfortable, in fact, that they start messing with it.
Oh, not ONstage, don't worry, but backstage, off-stage, above stage.
This messing around can take two forms: new filthy lyrics to songs from the show, preferably the sweet love songs, or simply performing the songs in a lounge style, a la Dean Martin, or perhaps more a la Bill Murray on Saturday Night Live.
We've got the latter phenomenon going on in full force now that we're a week away from opening.
If you clicked through to hear the "Candide" finale snippet on Barry Manilow's Playlist last week, you're familiar with the grandeur and gorgeousness of "Make our Garden Grow." (And if you have no idea WHY I would bring up Barry Manilow, scroll back to a post from about a week ago.)
Well, I gotta tell you, you ain't heard "Make Our Garden Grow" 'til you've heard it sung by the "Candide" Lounge Singers.
In case you're appalled by such frivolity, we can analyze such backstage behavior and see that it merely indicates that the cast is getting comfortable with the material, developing their unique cast chemistry and getting "out of their heads" and "into their gut" with the show.
Feel better?
New layers found as rehearsals go on
Sometimes you can go through weeks of rehearsal doing a certain bit a certain way. It's a fine way; it's a good way. Everyone likes it.And then, inspiration hits! You try something new and find a whole new layer.
Something like that happened a couple of nights ago.
Our heroine Cunegonde has a peacock of a brother, Maximillian, played with proper puffed-up'd-ness by Nick Nakashima.
At one point in the story Max ends up sold into slavery and disguised as a buxom female slave, complete with pineapple bosoms.
I'm sure you know hilarity ensues, complete with a "Some Like It Hot" plotline where the Governor falls for Max(ette) in all his tropical finery. The Governor and Max(ette) sing a lovely duet, which until recently Max(ette) was singing in his usual tenor voice.
Inspiration apparently hit the other night, and suddenly a beautiful falsetto voice sprung from Max's mouth...adding a whole new dimension to the love duet. it took the cast quite by surprise, and quite by storm.
And perhaps had more than one person thinking...he can be Cunegonde's brother AND understudy!
So, here we are just about a week before Opening, and grand inspiration can still come out of nowhere.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Meet "Always On" Ensemble Member: Beverly Hansberry
I'm sure you've seen shows before where a group of cast members are always on stage, jumping into the action when called on, but witnessing the action throughout the whole show. Beverly is one such cast member in "Candide".It's a tougher job than one would think. You're not supposed to draw focus. You're there, but the action isn't about you. On the other hand, if someone does happen to look your way, you better look engaged and involved, NOT like you're bored out of your skull 'cause you've seen this scene about a billion times!
I asked Beverly how she stays focused.
Beverly has been in many Foothill ensembles, dating back to "Kiss Me Kate" in 1996. But this is her first experience at being "always on".
Turns out being a newbie to onstage audience-ing means it's not much of a struggle for Beverly...she still is finding every scene pretty entertaining. Of course she said to check back with her in a couple of weeks and find out if it's still so fascinating!
Beverly's backstage secret to passing time has always been crocheting. I suggest those of you who see the show in the last couple of weekends keep an eye out to see if she found a way to incorporate her crocheting into her "Always On" ensemble work!
Monday, February 09, 2004
I'm Going to Get All Geeky Excited on You....New Comment Function Online!
You will now notice a link at the bottom of every blog entry that says: 'Comment'.If you, Joe Public, clicks on that link, you can post a comment on any blog entry you like for all the world to see.
Now that's the kind of interactivity we want to get with our audience!
Let us know which stories you find fun & interesting or which you could do without. Tell us your own anecdotes. Share :)
Now you can!
And Speaking of Death Scenes
Gotta give a shout-out to Luis Nuñez, jack-of-all-characters extraordinaire. This guy must die at least 5 times throughout the course of the 2-hour show. You know someone has nailed a death scene when people stop rehearsal and say, "Are you OK?"So far, it's still just good acting.
I think I Found My Favorite "Candide" Moment the Other Night"
It's just one of those lines that struck me as really amusing. There's a lot of mayhem and destruction throughout the course of Candide. After one particularly dramatic death scene, where someone trips and falls, quite heavily and obviously on his own sword, Mike Amaral, as Candide, leans over and says with straight face (and great concern):"I trust you have not injured yourself?"
Now, perhaps the humor was a little bit enhanced for me because the guy didn't have an actual prop, so he was falling on his invisible, imaginary sword. I don't know. Maybe it was just late in the day.
At any rate, until further notice, that is my favorite Candide moment!
