I thought I was tired, but then today happened. Oy vey! I almost didn't make it to the performing arts center in time because I fell back asleep! Thank goodness I woke up again...
My day started out bright an early with callbacks for Volleygirls, a new musical that is being workshopped by two faculty members. It's based on a play, but essentially it's a feel-good show about a women's volleyball team that comes up from the bottom and takes the championship. A sports musical! Aside from Damn Yankees, its never been done!
The music is really catchy and modern -- much like "The Wedding Singer" and "Legally Blonde". We had the girls learn 32 bars of a song which they sang and did choreography to. All in all, they did very well! The best were chosen and we start working on a section of it tomorrow morning. There is a great choreographer coming in the do the sessions, so it's mostly centered on dance rather than music. They are shooting for the show to open in LA where there is a huge volleyball community, and eventually move to Broadway. Even if it doesn't do anything, it's still really exciting to workshop a new musical!
After that, I assisted with a musical composition class lead by Frank Wildhorn. If you don't know who that guy is, he's written Civil War, Scarlet Pimpernel, and Jekyll and Hyde. He's a pretty relaxed guy, and definitely knowledgeable about songwriting structure. He had kids get up and perform some of their original pieces, and we talked about what could be done to improve them. Unfortunately, none of the kids had a lead sheet or any readable music, so my job was pretty pointless. I still loved the chance to get advice from the guy who wrote "This is the Moment"! I did have to work through lunch being there, but at least they ordered pizza for us.
Next came another grueling session with Binder. He was in good spirits and the pieces were all pretty clear, but it was still more sight-reading. However, most of the kids were great singers, so it made it much easier to follow them. On top of that, Betty Schneider was there helping to coordinate music for me. But oh my gawd, it was colder than the 7th circle of Dante's Hell up in there! I managed to get through everyone, though. Binder had me transpose several songs for people, which wasn't a shock at this point. It definitely kept me on my toes, and made me look like a wizard to Betty! That's the great thing about having someone next to you in auditions -- when shit gets crazy, you have someone to commiserate with rather than just be dumbfounded by yourself!
I had a much desired beer with dinner, and came back for rehearsal in the evening. We were on the main stage working "Coffee Break", and we got some really great work done! I met the drummer, and let me tell you he is fantastic. I'm sure that this guy can really throw down. but what amazed me was how much attention he gave to specific details regarding choreography hits and musical accents! Oh yeah, I should mention that he's writing his own part... which is great, since I don't want to write a drum part! Speaking of which, I need to write bass and keyboard parts for that tune tonight.
Amazingly, we finished early! I was home just before 9pm, which may be a new record! Let's see what tomorrow holds; hopefully they'll give me a little time off during the day to write/relax/catch my breath.
Staci -- I'll have to tell you all about Speech Level Singing! I think you'd really get a lot out of it... but I need to learn more details first. :)
Julie -- Still haven't gotten the needle! :( That's ok though, I honestly haven't had ANY time to knit. Well, maybe a little, but not when I had the energy and focus!
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