Lucky Charms

Here we are again. Saturday morning. I must admit I had a hard time of it this morning. Being in a college town means many stores and shops are closed during the summer - so I debated for a long time, walking the hills of Syracuse, on where to risk trying to get a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning, finally settling on Starbucks. So here I sit with another blog to write - so exciting!

Yesterday was quite a whirlwind. We started rehearsal later to accommodate Felix. Unfortunately, Felix was caught in the torrential downpour traffic coming from NYC and couldn't make it to us in time. We proceeded to work through Act IV as a brush-up, really defining and polishing. The Goddess is looking better and better with each run, although we are, admittedly, struggling with singing and dancing at the same time. Our ensemble is comprised of only two musical theater majors, so you will understand... We went on a break and Tim Davis-Reed, our Fringe Faculty Advisor and the cinematographer of our promo video, came in to set up a camera to begin filming our "how to take a show to the Fringe" video. This video is our gift to the college and to future students interested in creating their own theater and taking it somewhere beyond Syracuse. Tim shot the rehearsal as it proceeded with another run of Act IV into Act V - the act of all acts. We spent the next hour and a half debating the final transition from Sorcerer Prospero into Man Prospero. Yes, an hour and a half. You must give us credit, though, because it is a very key transition. Quite possibly the most important transition of the show. We found it had to be a transition on the emotional level and not a quick physical trick. What we came up with is, in my opinion, very powerful. I'm Ariel during this switch and have the privilege of watching it, which gives me goosebumps.

We walked through more of Act V after another break and saying thank you to Tim. We got through...hmm...I want to say about half of the Act. We have a really cool magical element that we're using with drums... We're working to find how we can bring ALL thirteen of the characters onto the stage with only six bodies. We will pick up with Act V and finish blocking it out today.

Felix comes in at 2pm today to do music, of which we are in desperate need. We know the Goddesses need some more music, which will be a nice challenge as we're all moving and singing and dancing through the piece - so now we'll just do all of that with instruments in our hands. We also need to figure out a nice underlying theme for each of the characters. In our original production, we had a phenomenal musician, Dave Snyder, hide behind a piano and do the music for the show. Felix had helped Dave to create themes for each of the characters that were used with each entrance of that character throughout the show. We decided in bringing the project forward to the Fringe that we wanted to do the music ourselves, carrying instruments with us and having everything come from us as the actors. So, having made that decision, we're now juggling the challenge of it. We want to create and expand on the character's themes and we want to figure out when music supports and doesn't take away...

We were hoping to get to the storm today, but seeing as we're still in the midst of Act V, I think we'll probably finish that out and work with Felix on music. Hopefully, we'll reach the storm tomorrow and then do a nice, light stumble through of the ENTIRE show! Wow! This is all so exciting.

Including today we're looking at nine more rehearsals! Edinburgh in thirteen days! CAN'T WAIT!

This is Jana for the Tempest Ladies x