Screw it

Tuesday night this past week was BABY rehearsal. For the next 2 weeks, we'll be rehearsing at Mount Paran Christian Church in Marietta in one of 2 classrooms on the 3rd floor. Room 321 is our "Monday and Tuesday" room, and 310 is our "Saturday" room. We won't rehearse at the actual theater until after the new year. You can see the sanctuary through a window as you walk up the stairs to the 3rd floor. You get the view from the balcony. I finally saw it today. It's tremendous. Why can't we do the show there instead?

Tuesday was just a Danny and Lizzie night. We went through some solos and duets. We had quite a discussion about a "screw it" which appears in a song. Our British director and Australian stage manager were planning on cutting it and changing it to "knew it." Apparently, in Britain and Australia, "screw it" is considered much more profane. Saying it to them is just as bad as saying the other word that means screw. We Americans take that phrase pretty lightly. I hear people say it all the time. The Americans in the room were saying that since we're keeping the "shit" that's in the script and the G-Damn, then we can certainly say screw it. The director said she was just concerned about when the sponsors from Chick Fil-A come to see it; they're Baptist. I said that if they get offended, screw 'em.

After getting my Danny and Lizzie songs fix on Tuesday night, today we rehearsed with the rest of the cast. We did two full company songs (We Start Today and Two People In Love), then whittled it down to the 6 leads. We did a sing-through of as much of Act One as we could do. I recorded some stuff on my phone. It'll be good to listen to to see what I did and didn't do well, and overall what it sounds like from outside ears. It's coming along. Our accompanist is sometimes tentative with the tempos, and I'm chomping at the bit to do these at "show speed," but I'm sure that'll come. I loved doing the Danny/Nick duet (though I want to see a voice teacher and work on getting a couple of high notes to sound clean). Our Nick has literally 1 1/2 years of any acting experience. He's tall, fit, well-put-together, one of the most beautiful men you'll ever see, and a professional masseuse with his own studio, or salon, or whatever you call it. In early 2008, he thought what the hell, why not give acting a try. Auditioned for a show at Act1 in Alpharetta, and he's got a resume of 7 or 8 shows under his belt already. Usually the lead. He even did a few months of A SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT LOEMANN'S at the Ansley Park Playhouse, written by the guys who wrote PEACHTREE BATTLE. LOEMANN'S is another one of those open-ended-run deals. He'll really go places if he sticks with it. He seems impressed and a little intimidated by my experience, and said he'd love it if I had any vocal suggestions or notes for him along the way. I will probably take him up on that, but the whole actor-giving-notes-to-a-fellow-actor thing is a very fine line. That's a can of worms I'll talk about in another post one day, I'm sure.

Food is ready. I'm never late for soup. If there's anything else interesting I think of, you'll hear about it.