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ceebeegeeOMG. The. Show. Is. Going. So. Well.
We finished blocking it last night--when the cast saw some of the choices I made toward the end, a couple of people actually gasped. LOVE IT. When you can surprise even your own jaded cast, that is very gratifying! And aside from that, it just looks so clean and pretty. Nice framed actions, the important stuff is highlighted properly, no messy groups or straight lines. (Sean quoted me in his rehearsal report last night (he has a Line of The Night) when I told Frank N. Furter "straight lines make the baby Jesus cry." At the end of the night the cast cheered when I said, after praising them for their work, "and the baby Jesus has stopped crying.")
This is all especially great because we had drammer this week! Sunday night, as I told, our Brad left the show and Dave sent out an emergency email Monday asking for suggestions of people who might be able to audition. One of our actors, a talented singer but who is driving me a little crazy for reasons I'll explain, sent us a reply saying "I'll be the first and hopefully not the last to say this but why not Steven? He knows the role, he's funny..." etc. Okay, this would've been bad enough--I do NOT want to discuss casting with you, we just need names of OUTSIDE people, kthxby--but she hit reply all. So the entire cast and crew, including Steven, read this fucking email. I emailed Dave "OMG. I'm going to kill her"--I was so angry on the way to rehearsal, I was shaking. Luckily for her, halfway through rehearsal the door opened and a handsome man with a sweet smile said "uh, Dave sent me here to audition?" The grin on my face could've lit up Moscow! So that is our new Brad, and as I told Sean, "we've upgraded!" After rehearsal I pulled Tactless Emailer aside and had a stern word with her. I said I don't care what you say in private--I realize that casts talk about this stuff all the time--but it's not appropriate for a public discussion. She was horrified--she didn't realize she'd hit reply all--but kept blaming it on her phone. Then learn how your goddamn phone works! When I got home that night I saw that another cast member had replied before rehearsal, saying "I agree, Steven would be great..." *HEADDESK* So Tuesday I sent out an exquisitely tactful response along the lines of "Guys? Not appropriate" and got a few responses saying THANKS. Carl emailed me "It's not a democracy!" and I replied "Indeed not--It's a Clar-ocracy (aka a benevolent dictatorship)." He replied "Right on. It's the only reasonable form of governance" which made me giggle. Seriously people, do you really want to open up that discussion? Let's start with why YOU didn't get Magenta before you want me to talk about why we're not using Steven as Brad.
Anyway Tactless Emailer has been driving me up the wall with constant suggestions, comments, etc. because she knows the movie so well. I caught her writing down callbacks on another cast member's script after I'd specifically said the Voyeur Phantoms can ONLY say what I want them to say. Because if the Voyeur Phantoms keep up an endless stream of comments, 1) it'll seem as though they're competing with the audience, and 2) it'll sound sloppy. So after this, she's still writing down stuff in someone else's script--I caught her hand and said "No. I said only the callbacks I've approved." I also made an announcement (because of her) that we are NOT doing the movie, we are not recreating the movie bit for bit and no one is to say anything to anyone else like "that's not how they do it in the movie." I said we are aligning ourselves with the movie at certain key points but we are doing our own thing. And when I was blocking Charles Atlas (I have the Phantoms touching Rocky) she said "doesn't that make Frank jealous?" WORRY ABOUT YOUR OWN GODDAMN CHARACTER. Stop thinking about the show as a whole and trying to compete--take care of your own shit (like the dance--she's not a great dancer). She literally exhausts me in rehearsal because I constantly have to bat off her suggestions and comments, although I will say I think she's getting better. She is a sweet girl when she's not annoying me.
On a better note, one of our cast members is the daughter of a Tony nominee! Our Magenta, the lovely Charlotte, is the daughter of this guy.
We finished blocking it last night--when the cast saw some of the choices I made toward the end, a couple of people actually gasped. LOVE IT. When you can surprise even your own jaded cast, that is very gratifying! And aside from that, it just looks so clean and pretty. Nice framed actions, the important stuff is highlighted properly, no messy groups or straight lines. (Sean quoted me in his rehearsal report last night (he has a Line of The Night) when I told Frank N. Furter "straight lines make the baby Jesus cry." At the end of the night the cast cheered when I said, after praising them for their work, "and the baby Jesus has stopped crying.")
This is all especially great because we had drammer this week! Sunday night, as I told, our Brad left the show and Dave sent out an emergency email Monday asking for suggestions of people who might be able to audition. One of our actors, a talented singer but who is driving me a little crazy for reasons I'll explain, sent us a reply saying "I'll be the first and hopefully not the last to say this but why not Steven? He knows the role, he's funny..." etc. Okay, this would've been bad enough--I do NOT want to discuss casting with you, we just need names of OUTSIDE people, kthxby--but she hit reply all. So the entire cast and crew, including Steven, read this fucking email. I emailed Dave "OMG. I'm going to kill her"--I was so angry on the way to rehearsal, I was shaking. Luckily for her, halfway through rehearsal the door opened and a handsome man with a sweet smile said "uh, Dave sent me here to audition?" The grin on my face could've lit up Moscow! So that is our new Brad, and as I told Sean, "we've upgraded!" After rehearsal I pulled Tactless Emailer aside and had a stern word with her. I said I don't care what you say in private--I realize that casts talk about this stuff all the time--but it's not appropriate for a public discussion. She was horrified--she didn't realize she'd hit reply all--but kept blaming it on her phone. Then learn how your goddamn phone works! When I got home that night I saw that another cast member had replied before rehearsal, saying "I agree, Steven would be great..." *HEADDESK* So Tuesday I sent out an exquisitely tactful response along the lines of "Guys? Not appropriate" and got a few responses saying THANKS. Carl emailed me "It's not a democracy!" and I replied "Indeed not--It's a Clar-ocracy (aka a benevolent dictatorship)." He replied "Right on. It's the only reasonable form of governance" which made me giggle. Seriously people, do you really want to open up that discussion? Let's start with why YOU didn't get Magenta before you want me to talk about why we're not using Steven as Brad.
Anyway Tactless Emailer has been driving me up the wall with constant suggestions, comments, etc. because she knows the movie so well. I caught her writing down callbacks on another cast member's script after I'd specifically said the Voyeur Phantoms can ONLY say what I want them to say. Because if the Voyeur Phantoms keep up an endless stream of comments, 1) it'll seem as though they're competing with the audience, and 2) it'll sound sloppy. So after this, she's still writing down stuff in someone else's script--I caught her hand and said "No. I said only the callbacks I've approved." I also made an announcement (because of her) that we are NOT doing the movie, we are not recreating the movie bit for bit and no one is to say anything to anyone else like "that's not how they do it in the movie." I said we are aligning ourselves with the movie at certain key points but we are doing our own thing. And when I was blocking Charles Atlas (I have the Phantoms touching Rocky) she said "doesn't that make Frank jealous?" WORRY ABOUT YOUR OWN GODDAMN CHARACTER. Stop thinking about the show as a whole and trying to compete--take care of your own shit (like the dance--she's not a great dancer). She literally exhausts me in rehearsal because I constantly have to bat off her suggestions and comments, although I will say I think she's getting better. She is a sweet girl when she's not annoying me.
On a better note, one of our cast members is the daughter of a Tony nominee! Our Magenta, the lovely Charlotte, is the daughter of this guy.
