Wednesday 4, June 20th
Another up and down day. But more on that later.
We had a thunderstorm last night – the east coast kind with bright flashes of light and great rolling thunder. I remembered all the nights in Connecticut, as a kid, watching the flashes and counting the seconds to the thunder to figure out how far away it was. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi. . . . Five seconds to a mile. I’d hear it coming closer then move away. What was the minimum time? How close did it get? Funny how something as simple as a thunderstorm could bring back such a specific childhood memory. Didn’t get too close last night – fifteen seconds was the shortest – 3 miles.
Walking to LCT today, I felt like an actor on stage with a good scene partner. Everyday, something about her performance is slightly different, still the same but something changes just a little and it makes it new – like the first time all over again. Each day I discover the city all over again. Not a copy but a re-creation that has changed very subtly.
Last night we had a brown bag dinner about staging opera. I went to Ollies Noodle House and got fried rice. I’ve missed Chinese food. Next week after this thing is over, I’m going to go to Chinatown and pig out.
I wonder how much weight I’ve gained? Probably a good bit.
We had an early morning session on how American Theater works. It was primarily for the foreign directors but several of us sat in on it. Here are my notes:
Most non musicals have three weeks of rehearsal, one week of tech then 4 to 6 weeks of previews. Major changes are made during the previews based in part on how the audience reacts. Actors often find themselves rehearsing a scene one way during the day but performing it another way at night. This is an exhausting grind – twelve hour days. About ten days before opening, the play is fixed and no more major changes are made. About six days before opening the press is invited so they can write their reviews to come out just after opening night.
Shakespeare in the Park does most of its performances as previews – the tickets are free and they always have full houses – and they don’t want the reviews.
New York theater is run by the unions. Things as simple as turning on the lights in a theater has to be done by a union worker and could cost up to $2,000. An experienced director at LCT will earn about $2,000 a week. TV pays $35,000 a week.
93% of the union actors are unemployed at any given time.
LCT has 46,000 members. There is a three year waiting list. They have found that their members are growing older. The young members don’t renew on time and the older ones are right there. Members pay $35 a year and get to buy tickets to a preview for $35 – about half price. When I asked if the members get any other privileges like electing the board of directors. They seemed horrified that a member might actually elect the board. There are no other bennies to membership.
We listened to Ira Weitzman who produces musicals for LCT. Here are my notes:
LCT doesn’t do any work on musicals unless they fully intend to produce it. Over the years about 98% of the ones they start working on get produced.
There was a lot of talk about The Light In The Piazza which got it’s start n Seattle. Bart Sher directed it like a play with music rather than a musical. The difference isn’t obvious but makes a big difference. After Seattle Piazza went to Chicago and then on to New York.. There were a lot of changes to the show between Chicago and New York.
For the last twenty years, every composer and writer wanted to be like Sondheim. Not so anymore. He is seeing young artists (Playwrights, composers, lyricists) doing their own thing.
Music lets you feel the feeling.
A Play lets you think the thoughts.
A Musical lets you feel the thoughts.
“If they’re in love they sing. If they’re making love, they dance.”
Next year, LCT is doing South Pacific. Ira was asked why they are doing an old piece like that. His response was they maybe we don’t know South Pacific as well as we thought we did. The messages of that show are relevant all over again today.
He said that many feel that a musical is a lighter, more entertaining form of theater. They are missing what musical theater can do and therefore make it trivial.
As an aside: One thing that I never appreciated before is the true effect of the 9/11 tragedy on New Yorkers. This is really the single biggest thing that has ever happened here. I don’ think those of us on the west coast, or at least me, have any real idea just how much it affected people living here.
Just before our lunch break, we toured Lincoln Center Theaters. The larger theater, the Vivian Beaumont, has over 1,000 seats depending on the stage arrangement. You can not imagine how big the stage is. It is the third largest stage in NYC after the Met Opera and Rockefeller Center. All of Orcas Center could probably fit on that stage plus there is a great thrust which can serve as the orchestra pit for a musical or be decked over for a straight play. The seating arrangement is really intimate – you would never know there were 1,000 seats – none of them at over 50 feet from the stage. The smaller Mitzi Newhouse is a 300 seat theater which has the acting area on the floor and the seats raked up from there. It is three quarters in the round. It is so quiet in the Newhouse that you could hear a pin drop. A whisper sounds like a scream and can be heard anywhere in the room.
Wednesday afternoon they broke us up into groups to work on “emotion”. It is hard to explain in a few words. But we separated ourselves by how much emotion we want in a play. I ended up in the second group from the top although I thought I should be in the top group. People were fighting to be in the top group and I just gave up and settled for the second group.
We spent the evening trying to figure out how to present the Guare play we had worked on two weeks ago. It was a terrible experience. Enough said. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that we drank our dinner? A first for me – at least at Lincoln Center.
