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Jan. 10th, 2008 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeWe had our first preview last night, after a difficult load-in and tech period. The actors were ready and in pretty good shape, although I think there were problems with nerves (there were a couple of agonizingly (to me) long pauses in the first half of the first act. But as the performance went on, they got into a groove and the second act was electric.
I spent Monday at the courthouse, compiling a music list for the pre-show, between scenes, and post-show music. Sean and I decided awhile ago the play is skewed a little bit toward Penny (that is, it's from her POV)--there are several clues in the text that read that way to me, like the coffee shop scene. (Although this is an imperfect concept--there are scenes that don't involve Penny, but I figure she was told about them later.) With this in mind, we were going for what I called "pushed reality"--a basically realistic set but with bright colors and patterns. With this in mind, I chose Penny-specific music--mostly Russian Romantic composers (Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky) but with some other Romantics as well (Chopin, Humperdinck) and some Mozart and Mahler and a Purcell piece. (I thought about including Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire but then I decided I didn't want to terrify the audience. Creepy Clown times ten! I also decided Penny didn't like pushed tonalities.) This took me HOURS--literally I was working on this from 9:30 to 1:30. I even skipped the jury pool lunch break--I just wanted to GET IT DONE. But it all paid off last night when David (Elana's husband) said to me he enjoyed the music but just thought it was supposed to be pretty music--until one of the Stravinsky pieces "bled" into the scene and he realized all the music was Penny-music. Yay! He got it!
When Amanda and I were testing sound levels, when she got to the Purcell piece ("When I am laid in earth" from Dido and Aeneas) she commented on how depressing it was. I said "wait 'til you hear the Mahler piece--it's from a song cycle called Kindertotenlieder, meaning 'Songs of the Death of Children.' It's really goddamn depressing! You pretty much reach for the arsenic afterwards." I happen to love this piece--it's amazingly effective and sooooo Romantic with the glockenspiel. What a great touch, that instrument--it sounds like a child's toy. Then yesterday she was playing the CD as we were cleaning up and commented on Night on Bald Mountain--she said her only frame of reference for that was "that really cool piece in Fantasia." I said "I know!--that was always my favorite piece as a child too." It's thpooooky.
Elana and I went to the place next door for a drink and something to eat (we went there during Admit Impediments) and later Susan (ASM), Amanda (SM) and Solomon (Lighting Designer) joined us. I made a Carrie reference and Solomon had never seen it, so I acted out the slo-mo scene where Susan spies the rope leading up to the bucket...and down to Chris and Billy underneath. Great scene.
I am really looking forward to having some time back--I have been working my ass off basically since late September, what with moving, A Christmas Carol and now Because of Beth--and I am SOOOOOO looking forward to spending time just flopping on my bed with my cats. I made an appointment today the Serenity Spa for a hot stone massage, for Saturday. Spa Week has January promotions and this massage is only $59 (normally $95). Can't beat that with a stick.
I spent Monday at the courthouse, compiling a music list for the pre-show, between scenes, and post-show music. Sean and I decided awhile ago the play is skewed a little bit toward Penny (that is, it's from her POV)--there are several clues in the text that read that way to me, like the coffee shop scene. (Although this is an imperfect concept--there are scenes that don't involve Penny, but I figure she was told about them later.) With this in mind, we were going for what I called "pushed reality"--a basically realistic set but with bright colors and patterns. With this in mind, I chose Penny-specific music--mostly Russian Romantic composers (Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky) but with some other Romantics as well (Chopin, Humperdinck) and some Mozart and Mahler and a Purcell piece. (I thought about including Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire but then I decided I didn't want to terrify the audience. Creepy Clown times ten! I also decided Penny didn't like pushed tonalities.) This took me HOURS--literally I was working on this from 9:30 to 1:30. I even skipped the jury pool lunch break--I just wanted to GET IT DONE. But it all paid off last night when David (Elana's husband) said to me he enjoyed the music but just thought it was supposed to be pretty music--until one of the Stravinsky pieces "bled" into the scene and he realized all the music was Penny-music. Yay! He got it!
When Amanda and I were testing sound levels, when she got to the Purcell piece ("When I am laid in earth" from Dido and Aeneas) she commented on how depressing it was. I said "wait 'til you hear the Mahler piece--it's from a song cycle called Kindertotenlieder, meaning 'Songs of the Death of Children.' It's really goddamn depressing! You pretty much reach for the arsenic afterwards." I happen to love this piece--it's amazingly effective and sooooo Romantic with the glockenspiel. What a great touch, that instrument--it sounds like a child's toy. Then yesterday she was playing the CD as we were cleaning up and commented on Night on Bald Mountain--she said her only frame of reference for that was "that really cool piece in Fantasia." I said "I know!--that was always my favorite piece as a child too." It's thpooooky.
Elana and I went to the place next door for a drink and something to eat (we went there during Admit Impediments) and later Susan (ASM), Amanda (SM) and Solomon (Lighting Designer) joined us. I made a Carrie reference and Solomon had never seen it, so I acted out the slo-mo scene where Susan spies the rope leading up to the bucket...and down to Chris and Billy underneath. Great scene.
I am really looking forward to having some time back--I have been working my ass off basically since late September, what with moving, A Christmas Carol and now Because of Beth--and I am SOOOOOO looking forward to spending time just flopping on my bed with my cats. I made an appointment today the Serenity Spa for a hot stone massage, for Saturday. Spa Week has January promotions and this massage is only $59 (normally $95). Can't beat that with a stick.
