I wrote this on my MySpace blog, but am feeling like I need to put it here too as a preface to my thoughts today:
7/14/2008 For those of you wondering, opening weekend of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat went really well! We had pretty decent sized audiences every time, even the matinées. The people seemed to really enjoy it and there weren't any major mess-ups, though we all noticed that our Saturday matinée was a little bit lower energy than usual. So hopefully we all learned our lesson about staying up late on Friday celebrating! But let me tell you it was such a relief to have a successful opening on Friday night, and we had worked so hard up till then, the dinner out was needed and deserved. It probably wouldn't have been so late except the restaurant was understaffed for a group our size, so the food took forever to come out. And I don't know if people stayed afterwards and moved on to the bar or what, cuz I went home fairly soon after I finally got my food, which was pretty tasty after all.
This whole process of the show has been quite the learning experience for me. I think I've said it before, but I've never been in a play with such a compact rehearsal schedule, nor have I been in a play with such a heavy performance schedule! We had 4 shows this weekend - Friday night, Saturday afternoon AND night, and Sunday afternoon. The next two weeks we'll have 5 shows because we'll add a Thursday night to each weekend. It's a lot of fun to perform - the show is short but high energy so it packs a punch to both the performers and the audience. I'm not even in half the dance numbers, but I think, once again, that I ended up with just about as much as I could handle. I did get bumped from two less intense dance numbers simply because I don't have enough time to change costumes from one scene to the next, which is kind of a bummer because I still had to learn them before we figured out I wouldn't have time, and they were parts I felt pretty confident about. I think by the end of the weekend I got through the big dance number with minimal mess ups, so hopefully next weekend I'll be great! And now I know that it's really just better for me to do shows where I have a month or two to learn things, rather than 2 weeks.
I think I also realize that part of the fun of doing shows in High School and College was that the plays WERE my life, social and otherwise. Now that I've got other things I need to do, and other friends, and when I don't really know that many people in the cast (though I AM making some new friends), some of the thrill is gone. It's sort of a relief to know I didn't miss something big for myself by not following theater as a full-time career. Which is not to say I won't do any more shows, there is still something pretty magical about creating something bigger than you could do on your own, and it's a miracle how all the pieces fit together somehow at the last minute every time. And then there is that gift of the energy exchange between the audience and the performers - knowing you made someone laugh or gasp with delight, or even think a little differently for a minute. Props and respect to the people following the path full time!
I made a Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat album in the photos section and put up a few pictures of rehearsals and backstage and such. I'll try to get someone to snap a few of me in costume next weekend! The tricky thing is I'm in and out of several costumes so quickly, there isn't much time to take pictures, but I'll figure something out.
Now that the show has opened we don't have daily rehearsals, so it's probably going to take me a bit to get back to a semi-normal routine at home. I actually still need to unpack my suitcase from my Seattle trip in June! Rehearsals started the very day I got back and whenever I did have some time off I didn't really have the energy to do much housework type stuff.
And coming up probably before I know it is Song School in Lyons, CO! 4 days of camping and workshops with amazing people like Josh Ritter, Melissa Ferrick, Pat Pattison, Susan Werner, Steve Seskin, Vance Gilbert, Paul Reisler and a bunch more, then a weekend Folks Festival with Greg Brown, KT Tunstall, Nanci Griffith, Amos Lee, Patty Griffin, Jakob Dylan, Dar Williams, Josh Ritter, Todd Snider, and many many more. The adventure starts August 10th, or maybe the day before, I haven't figured out how I'm getting there yet...
I'm trying to find that mental and emotional balance between not setting up my expectations too high but being really open, brave, bold and ready to jump on any opportunities that might come my way, because there is a part of me that thinks this could be a life-changing event, but that seems like a lot of pressure to put on a few days. hehehe. I don't want to freak out and hang back and miss things. Songwriting can be a vulnerable experience and it's scary to put yourself out there for critiques, but I think that's part of what I need to learn, is to not take things too personally. And from the looks of the website, it's a supportive and nurturing environment.
http://bluegrass.com/songschool/
So yeah, the process of the play has gotten a lot more fun as the performances went on and I've had more time to integrate and get better at the dance routines. I know I still don't articulate as well as the trained dancers, and I'm still pretty dependent on the people in front of me to get through (which is bad when THEY mess up!) but I don't feel like a complete and total loser anymore, so that's good. I'm a little worried about the post-show depression I've experienced in the past happening again now that I've gotten more attached to my cast-mates. (I still feel like an outsider though, and they have another show to do together, so they won't be experiencing the same sort of thing.) Definitely looking forward to doing another show sometime, just not sure when...
I hope I'll be able to get the house together a little now though, and get on a better routine with food. (been eating out a lot which means more crap and more money, bad combo.) and sleep. I'm a night owl anyway, but the after show buzz is pretty bad for my bedtime! And really, I won't have much time before I go off to Song School and then after that it will be time to give a more serious look at my future. The idea of furthering my musical education is really appealing to me more and more. Dancing around a series of ideas like courses at Indian Hills in Ottumwa, finding out if there's a program I could do in Iowa City, cobbling together my own lessons through various people here in town and trying out the Berklee online certificate programs. I can see how much easier it is for these theatre people to express themselves when they've had regular training and a good theatre/dance vocabulary. I know people say that artists can create without needing to be trained, and that sometimes training stifles creativity, but I think that for me I've gotten to a point that training is just going to create a more effortless and smooth path from my inside to my outside expressions. But it's scary to make that leap into full time going for it, instead of a side hobby thing. Just not sure how much longer I can keep it on the back burner though without being too depressed and disgusted and futile feeling. I know it will be hard work and a challenge and less secure than a "regular job". but I'm a creative person in more ways than one, so I'm sure I'll be able to find a balance of doing enough to earn money and still get to create and nourish my soul. Just gotta be patient for now...
2 comments:
The people who say that training stifles creativity are WRONG. Good training significantly improves your ability to translate what you hear in your head to what everyone else hears when you play it. Most great artists are always looking for opportunities to learn new techniques and improve their existing skills.
For that matter, anyone who's truly good at anything, artistic or otherwise, are doing that.
So, go for it! But try to pick up the business skills to make it pay, too, so that you can keep doing it. Because the ability to market and manage the business side of things is what really makes the difference between the talented and the successful. And, sad to say, marketing trumps talent above a certain level.
Thanks for your vote of confidence and wise words!
The thing that appeals to me about the Berklee program is that it's about contemporary music (whereas the Ottumwa & Iowa City stuff is more classically leaning, not that there's anything wrong with that, many of my idols were classically trained.) AND the Berklee programs have options to learn about the business side of things.
I think I've also I've learned a good deal from my marketing days with ArtSelect, and continuing to read a bunch of blogs and articles on the subject. Plus I watch closely all the acts I see for how they do concerts, from posters to publicity to merch. That's actually part of my frustration at the moment, I have lots of marketing ideas bouncing around, but no product! (or at least not a strong, quality one.)
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