July 21, 2008

  • More catchup

    Och... another round of the "been meaning to update for days". Let's see... in order of remembrance, there's The Pajama Game, the Shakespeare movie, and The Music Man.

    Although it spans multiple days, I'll address The Pajama Game first. We had our usual Friday, Saturday, and Sunday performances. Friday was very rough, as people hadn't done the show for a good four days or so. Saturday was better, although there were definitely some bobbles. Sunday was awesome... we had a bunch of senior citizens come for the show (in a non-air-conditioned bus in this heat wave!), some of whom, it turned out, saw the original show in its first runs on Broadway. And they loved us. ^_^ Musically, the show got off to a rough start with one song involving an unintentional round due to an error in when to come in (it's one of those things where there's line of arbitrary length and people have to come in on the next downbeat. Some people took the next one and some took the one after and it just got a bit ugly) and another song coming in about two notes too high. But we rallied and made our way through. Oh, and I was UnPlugged. *wry grin* Two microphones were dead, mine and another's. I just added a little more oomph to my voice and apparently I was just as audible as before (as noted before, I'm not used to having amplification, so they usually practically have my microphone turned off anyhow). Speaking of microphones, sound has been screwy. You know how I mentioned before that there were grumblings that crew would be switched around? It happened. There was a night when all of the sound levels were wrong and one person accused the other of malfeasance and the latter was taken off of the sound board and put on spotlight. Well, the problems with the microphones haven't ended and I daresay the feedback issues have gotten worse. While I understand the pressures involved when things go wrong a few performances in, I hope the accused party at least got an apology. *sigh* But, of course, I'm sure there's details I'm missing. Theater drama...

    I know I mentioned a while ago that I was doing a Shakespeare movie. We filmed more scenes Saturday. I had fun at it, although I sometimes feel a bit inadequate when it comes to the frequent improvisation. And he had me playing a mildly sociall unadjusted geek for a few of the scenes (typecasting, I cry!) which was easy enough to do, but was mildly depressing. Meh. Oh, and I got to see my cousin, Sarah, on her way through Jersey with her husband. We had dinner in Haddonfield. In retrospect, as the person with a job (they're both researching their PhD dissertations), I should have just picked up the check instead of just paying my share, but you know how hindsight is 20/20.

    Lastly, I auditioned for The Music Man with the Broadway Theater of Pitman. For my song, I did "A New Town is a Blue Town" from The Pajama Game. I did... OK, I think. As usual for me at auditions, I got really nervous, but I managed to unclench my throat enough to hit the high notes and I only bobbled a few words. It was good enough to get me called back for callbacks tomorrow. One minor quibble... we got the "these people need to come back in while the rest of you can leave; this has now bearing on casting" speech beforehand. This is the third audition in a row where they've done this. Don't they figure people will catch on? Although, given the feedback policy around here for not being cast consists of never being contacted and them ignoring any messages you leave (admittedly, maybe I've just had bad luck in that area. But wouldn't it be nice if they just sent out a short little email saying, "Sorry, but you weren't cast for the show. Better luck next time."?), I guess that until you do become one of those people called back, you'd never know. We'll see how the callback goes tonight, and what they offer me. I goofed on dates and it looks like this one intersects with the reunion too, so I may have to pass on anything but a very principle part.