Thursday October 6, 2011 – Opening Night
Up at 6:30am, which at this point is still night time out, for the morning sitting with the Sgt Bones team. Afterward, Mary Beth and Carl and I installed the Tonight! posters in the a-frames, drove over to Fremont Abbey Arts Center to set them out, as well as to hang the banner on the north wall. Home to largely personal work for the morning and early afternoon. One lesson late in the afternoon, just before I headed out to the gig. Throughout the day I went through all of the repertoire, focusing on the most difficult bits as necessary. Which meant I played the B Minor prelude a dozen times or more – for the most part, I simply played through it cold, noted where I had made mistakes and looked into them to make sure I knew what was supposed to happen, and then moved on to other material, waiting at least 10 minutes to come back and again run the prelude cold. No train wrecks. A couple of mysterious blanks. It remains a terrifying endeavor. Only when I hear the group cooking on it do I remember why I’m putting myself through this.
The Music Director’s schedule for the day:
4:00 Gig day begins. Where ever we are we pause to acknowledge this.At 4:45 I was out the door and on my way to Fremont Abbey. My guitar, the spare guitar, a gig bag with stands, DI’s and cables for both guitars.
5:00 Set Up Arrival
6:30 Sound Check!
7:45 Doors Open
8:00 Were on!
Notice the early set up for opening night.
Set up was uneventful. A little tweaking to do on the sound system, but only minor glitches that were easily rectified. Since we began a little early this week, as a precaution, there was even time for us to find a quiet corner to warm up, and for small groups of us to run pieces.
At 6:30, a full soundcheck; very quick. And then we went through the set, touching on every piece, and running a number of the ones that are newest and most in need of continued regular attention. A bit of work with blocking and lighting, and before we knew it, it was time for the doors to open.
We were quite shorthanded, so I worked the front of house with Jim and only joined the team when it was time to go on; a necessary choice that I’d prefer not to have to repeat, as it wasn’t until about 1/3 of the way through the show that I actually arrived in the performance team.
On the technical/practical side, a generally good performance, with only one actual train wreck. The B Minor Prelude crashed and burned. So badly that at the end I heard my voice call out, “let’s try that again.” Which we did, and this time it worked. Everything else was good. Plenty of clams, and all kinds of information about what we need to look at in this week’s rehearsals. But the show itself was quite good. We dropped programmed “speaking moments” in the set in favor of more spontaneous speaking as the spirit moved. This works very well for us. The feel and content of the speaking much less formal and formulaic, and more like a conversation with friends than a speech. This, I think, helps to include the audience in the process, and as a consequence there was a lot of support and help coming our way.
Still a long way to go, but a very good first show. Nine more, and then…?
Tuning the Air #216
October 6, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA
Tuning the Space – Joel Palmer
The set:
A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King ArthurEncore:
Little Red Truck
Circulation in A Minor
Space Circus Part I
B Minor Prelude
Tico Tico
I Will
Vashon Ferry
Odd Socks
Gnossienne
Slow Burn
Mad World
Fallout
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part II
I Am the Walrus
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