Toto, I don't think we're in a workshop setting anymore...
By Julia Meinwald (Composer)
Ok, four days into rehearsal, I think it’s safe to start a list (I love lists!) of ways that a full production feels different from a workshop. Granted, every item on this list basically boils down to, “OMG, we are here for a long time!” but I am going to gleefully enumerate each item anyway.
1.) The pre-packaged uber processed food that it seems really exciting to nosh on for four days away from home is less appealing when you are looking at a month of it. I might need to return to the grocery store to purchase perishables and cook some bad ass recipe like an awesome Mark Bittman junior.
2.) It could be that a lot more changes will roll in once staging starts, but so far most of my work has been organizational (making vocal condensations, creating midi tracks for singers, etc) as opposed to large scale creative changes. This is one of the first times I’ve worked with Pregnancy Pact in a setting like this where the main focus wasn’t finding a way to make the script and score stronger.
3.) Making theatre is hard work y’all. In previous workshops I’ve done, we are so thrilled to be taking a little vacation to do theatre, the rehearsal room often feels pretty jubilant (to use the adjective I always preceded my name with when playing that stupid get-to-know you game where you have to introduce yourself with your first name and an alliterative adjective.) Here there is still a large focus on process and exploration, but I also feel a certain seriousness that I assume comes from working towards a run. We’re moving at lightning speed, teaching some very difficult music, and at the end of eight hours of holding your high note one half step away from your scene partner or trying to internalize bars of 7/8 so you don’t need to count your entrance, people seem pretty wiped. But yet, last night when a small subset of us were going out to a karaoke bar in Ludlow, almost all of the cast opted to stay home, where I hear rumor they were talking about their characters and reviewing the music. That kind of dedication is so touching and so impressive (our cast is Amazing).
4.) Technical theatre is awesome. Gordon and I got to sit in on a production meeting earlier this week, and while I guess I always knew that in some way all the people assembled in the room were there to bring something Gordon and I wrote to life, it really hit me while we listened to such smart people go back and forth on the logistics of how to get actual running water onstage for the first scene and the placement of head mics and pregnancy bellies. I was getting psyched about the fact that a real production involves being off book and moving around onstage, but it also comes with all of these cool technical theatrical accomplishments!
5.) The modern age: we live in it. At my count we have 3 blogs going on about the show, in addition to any marketing the theatre is doing. When I go home at night, I read the two that aren’t mine, even though I just spent nine hours in a room with these people, and presumably know something about how they feel about the process. On top of that, there are the cute instagram pictures of the cast hanging out in Vermont (Being far sportier than your humble narrator, they have been engaging in this Insanity workout I’ve heard so much about.) To add one more layer of awesome, members of the cast have started Pinterests for their characters as research, so after rehearsal I can come home and check out some of the fictional Maddie or Kaylee’s favorite photos. So awesome.
