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Week Three (July 30):
It’s Monday and I’m still churning out slutty choreography for Legally
Blonde with a detour into High School Musical-land to tweak some student choreography. With HSM opening in just three days, we simultaneously rehearse and start run-throughs so that the
multiple casts can get at least one full dress rehearsal before the first
Wednesday matinee.
Though exhausted, we stay late tonight because Val has her first HSM
orchestra rehearsal. As the strains of faux,
quasi-musical theatre pop echo through the empty theatre, I put finishing touches on
the set and wonder why we didn’t choose a less strenuous career path, like
marathon running or Olympic gymnastics. Speaking of the Olympics, we
ended up missing almost all of the coverage. Oh well, there’s always
2016.
(July 31) Tuesday night is my first orchestra rehearsal for Legally Blonde.
I’ve barely had enough time to shower let alone study the conductor’s score, so
I’m basically winging it. Hopefully, I won’t come off as a complete moron
in front of the mostly professional orchestra. The rest of the Pineda
clan stays late with me to continue their never-ending work on costumes, lights and sets all to the soothing tones of the "Bend and Snap."
(Aug 1) Wednesday afternoon is the first performance of HSM.
With the theatre in use, I take the rest of the campers down the road to the
Elk’s Club and continue rehearsing Legally Blonde.
Unfortunately, a huge chunk of the dancing ensemble is also in HSM.
With all the missing people, ensemble clean-up and detail work is
pointless. Instead, I spend most of the time choreographing the first act
finale, which I’ve let go to the last minute in the hopes of being “divinely
inspired.” No such luck. Once again, I’ll just have to wing it since we open in
three days.
A few hours later we’re back at the theatre where Val is politely kicking the stragglers from the HSM audience out of the lobby. Thus begins our first dress rehearsal of Legally
Blonde. Everyone’s exhausted. This is our fourth show to open in a week and the kids are wandering the stage
like zombies. With the addition of props and set pieces, the cast seems
to have forgotten all their blocking.
Undeterred, at 5:30 we push the student zombies out the door, order Chinese food and get the
theatre ready for the evening performance of HSM. I’m not
really involved, so thankfully I can just veg out in the lobby during the
show. Mercifully, the junior version of HSM is much shorter
than the full licensed version so we are able to get everyone out, lock up the theatre and get home just before midnight. In the last
two weeks, we have rarely spent less than 14 hours a day at the CDC. Ah, the glamorous life!
(Aug 2) Seven hours later and we're back at the theatre. Today is basically a repeat of yesterday's hellacious schedule except we stay late after the evening performance to change over to the Legally Blonde set. What does “change over” consist of? Oh, just repainting the HSM flats, side
stages and benches, striking the un-needed HSM set pieces, hanging set pieces from the fly rail, re-setting the pit and cleaning and
re-setting the dressing rooms with a new set of costumes. Sound “fun” yet?
For tonight's change over it’s all-hands-on-deck, including ma and pa Sieracki (Val’s parents)
who are visiting from Florida.
Apparently, they’ve also been staying at Juan and Val’s house this week, though the only evidence of this has been the whiff of breakfast I smell on the way out the door in the morning as we head to camp. We finally get a chance to catch up with them at the theatre over the
roar of power tools and the smell of wet paint. Sexy. Tonight we skip the HSM closing
night cast party because by the time we call it quits, the party
has long since finished.
(Aug 3) We drag our asses into the theatre early on Friday morning. We are all running on just a couple hours of
sleep and late night McDonald’s drive-thru.
We have one day to complete the change over we started the previous night
as well as squeeze in two full dress run-throughs, one with full orchestra (the
first and only time the cast will get to rehearse with the orchestra before we
open tomorrow afternoon).
With a cast full of mostly first-time summer conservatory students, the
sense of anxiety and panic is palpable.
These kids are used to months of rehearsals at their high schools, not
our three-week crash-and-burn schedule. Juan and I
lie through sincere smiles and assure the young cast that everything will be fine. Don’t get me wrong, by Sunday the show will be up and running like
clockwork, but what happens at the first performance Saturday afternoon is
anybody’s guess.
Surprisingly, we are able to get through two full run-throughs without any
major hiccups. Some years, the first
performance is the first time we actually run the show non-stop. So we’re in great shape; though we still won’t
know exactly how the show will sound since our bass player wasn’t able to make
the final dress and our drummer wasn’t able to get to the rehearsal until
halfway through the first act. No
matter, it’s still one of the smoothest final dress rehearsals we’ve had for a
summer show.
We don’t stay late tonight. It's "fuck-it Friday" - if there’s
a costume not quite right or a set piece unfinished at this point, that’s how
it will stay for the run - fuck-it!
(Aug 4) We have a larger-than-usual audience for the first Saturday matinee, mainly because the
show is so popular with the MTV crowd. There are a
few minor music cue problems and some ragged scene changes, but all-in-all, it’s
a great first run and the audience is loving it. Surprisingly, we get no audience backlash from the overt sexuality, language or gay references. I guess between Jerseylicious and The Jersey Shore, some rump-shaking and cursing seems pretty de rigueur for north Jersey.
The positive buzz on facebook started at intermission so
we anticipate a full house tonight. I’m
still not sold on the choreography for the first act finale - you know, the
number I threw together literally two days ago.
But I’ll take a closer look at it tonight. If you’ve worked with us before, you know not to get too comfortable with any blocking or choreography. Juan and I are
notorious for making full-scale changes even after a show’s
opened (and sometimes even during intermission). My infamous unfinished choreography of the last 32-bars of a dance number up until the half-hour call of the first performance has now become stuff of Pineda legend.
Because nearly every role is double cast, no two performances have the same
exact set of leads. I know that’s not
the norm for high school productions, but it’s great experience for student actors
and keeps them on their toes. It also
means the evening performance could still be a train wreck even if the
afternoon runs smoothly. With that in mind, we order take-out for dinner so we can stay at the theatre and prep for the evening show and new leads.
Thank God for social networking and the internet because in just a few hours the good word has spread and tonight’s performance
is sold out. We actually end up turning people
away at the door. As excited cast
members return from their dinner break, we give out acting notes and minor
adjustments to blocking based on the afternoon performance. With a new slate of leads, we treat tonight's performance as a second "opening night" of sorts.
The new air conditioning is blasting, but the theatre still warms up thanks to a full house. Again, except for some
minor slip-ups, the show proceeds rather smoothly. But I’m definitely still hating the first act
finale. I’ll have to go home and think
about how I can correct that before tomorrow’s matinee. We head home knowing the phones will be ringing off
the hook with ticket requests.
(Aug 5) The Sunday matinee is nearly sold out. The kids are old pros by now and we know the show is in solid shape - except for my first act finale. So at half hour I grab my dancer girls and completely re-choreograph the end of the act. I'd been re-playing the moment in my head all morning and it finally dawned on me that as usual, I've over-choreographed it. It's now time to simplify and streamline. Behind the show curtain and with the sound of the audience filling the theatre, the girls nervously run-through the new steps which they'll perform full out, in context for the first time during the actual performance. Yay, for live theatre!
The closing night performance is standing room only. Tonight is bittersweet for the kids. They're stoked about their success but sad the summer's over. I'm not. By tomorrow I'll be back in the comfort of my cozy apartment, lounging in my underwear and catching up on a month's worth of DVR, blissfully content to be working only a paltry 9-hour day at the office. But for now, I'm in the pit waving my arms like a fat, deranged, featherless turkey, trying to push the tempos in hopes of clipping at least a good 5 or 6 minutes from the performance. Tonight after the final bows come all the speeches and flowers and I want to compensate for the inevitable lovefest to come.
Per usual, the closing night curtain call is followed by the cast singing our camp song. As the opening refrain ends and the tempo changes, the kids from the other programs bum-rush the stage and join in. And then as if on cue, the tears start rolling on stage. The evening ends with heartfelt speeches, hugs and lots of flowers. It's finally over. Almost.
The kids are now hyped up on love and adrenaline. They can't wait to get to the cast party. With only thoughts of partying filling their teenaged minds, they leave a disgusting trail of used tissues, sweaty clothes and half eaten food in the dressing rooms for us to clean up - but not tonight. Tonight we party.
We arrive at the Sandoukis' household (our generous party hosts) just as a police cruiser pulls up - the true sign of a successful cast party. A group of parents magically appear to greet law enforcement. I'm too hungry to care and head straight to the hot buffet.
It's now well after midnight and I have to be at work bright and early the next day. I can catch a nap at my computer.
Note to self: take the Monday after camp off next year.
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