This Sunday is our concert of our second season. The concert, titled “Gloria”, will be a program celebrating friends, passion, spirituality and the simple goodness that connects one human being to another and will feature classical and contemporary sacred works with a light Christmas theme and perhaps even a wassailing and drinking song or two. If you are in London, come out and see us!
I signed my second choral publishing contract the other day. It’s official, I’m going to be a published composer once again. And once again it feels rather surreal. I still don’t really feel like a composer.
The piece being published is titled “sweet child” and it is a lullaby set for SSA choir. There is a little story behind the piece. I started work on it several years ago as an exercise in lyric writing. Up until that point I had never written anything with words and was convinced I wasn’t capable of it. Words just seemed too complicated and I much preferred to work with just harmony and melody unrestricted by text. However, I decided it wasn’t in my best interested to restrict my artistic scope like that, so I set myself down at the piano one day with the explicit purpose of writing a short lullaby. About two hours later I had the basic sketch of what would eventually become “Sweet Child”. But for a variety of reasons, I set the piece aside for nearly three years, only occasionally going back to it but never really doing much to it. That was until “If Thou Wilt, Remember” was published. After that first publication, I decided to look at some of my other pieces as possibilities for further publications. “Sweet Child” was the obvious choice to work on. I brushed it up, re-worked the lyrics, polished the harmonies and voices and sent it in the Lighthouse Music Publications with my fingers crossed and my breath held. And lo and behold, lighting struck twice!
I doubt the piece will be released until the beginning of next year, but you can be sure I will post about that when it happens. Until then, the contract is signed and I might spend a little time going over the piece and making sure everything is as I want it to be before the official release date.
It’s such a good feeling to have this second publication under my belt. It makes me feel as if the first one wasn’t just a fluke. I have several more pieces tucked away at the back of my closet and I intent to take them out and look them over. I hope to submit another work in the future. Probably not for a few months, but hopefully by March (the process is taking longer and longer). I also plan to submit my released pieces to other publishers and see what nibbles of interest I can get! The way I see it, it can’t hurt to try, so why not give it a shot?
We are half way through our run of The Gondoliers and several reviews have been published on local theatre review sites. The reviews are rather mixed; some love the 1950’s setting, the colour, exuberance and use of 1950’s cliches, while other hate it. The most common critique is that the orchestra was too loud. I myself get a brief mention, which also is mixed. Essentially, one reviewer liked my energy and acting and thought it made up for a lesser quality voice. Sigh, oh well. One can’t have stellar reviews all the time and it’s good to know that I need to ratchet up the vocal intensity. It’s something to work on between now and tomorrow’s show. However, I was flattered that they liked my acting.
At any rate, I’m having a wild time performing in this show. The large audiences make it all that much better, and each performance has been different with new memorable moments, including one night when a large bat was flying around at the top of Act I. I don’t want the run to end. I already feel strange and useless in this 4 day break we’ve had. I can’t imagine how much I’m going to miss it when the final curtain comes down.
I’ll write more about the show, my thoughts and experience later, but for now, I’ll link to the various reviews here, here, here and here.
Last night we had our preview performance of The Gonodliers and it was a great preview, though there were a few minor snags and hiccups that I’m sure will be ironed out at tonight’s opening performance. I had a blast last night and was on such a post show high for several hours after the curtain closed. I really do come alive and thrive on stage. There is just no better place to be.
Tonight’s performance should be spectacular and I can hardly wait. Last night’s audience was a little small, so the reactions were few and far between. There is something of a critical mass of audience members required before they feel safe enough to laugh, clap, hiss, whistle and generally respond. It’s certainly frustrating as a performer because we feed off of the energy an audience gives us, and if the energy is muted, it makes our job all that more difficult. But, with a larger audience on a Friday night, I am hoping that the theatre will simply be bursting with energy and laughter.
We unfortunately have had a cast member fall ill. Our “Gianetta” has been battling the flu for nearly a week now. She performed half of last night’s run before she had to call it quits and we had our director step in to sing her part from the wings. Tonight, our director will be taking the role completely until our regular Gianetta is well enough to go on.
It’s such a sad situation. I can only imagine how disappointed and devastated I would feel if I had to sit out of a show. Thankfully, it’s never happened to me *knock on wood* and I hope it never does. My thoughts are with her now and I am eagerly waiting for her return. Our Gianetta is stunning and an inspiration to everyone in the cast. She really is superb and a delight to work with. I’m going to miss her terribly.
But, the show must go on, as they say. And indeed it will. That’s the marvelous thing about theatre, no matter what happens, the collective good will and determination of the group always manages to pull the show through. Where a hole appears, everyone steps up and fills it in, one way or another.
Tonight, I’m going in with high hopes and high energy. I’ve been waiting and dreaming for this evening since I landed the role of Tessa and I can’t even begin to describe the number of ways this role has changed me as an artist. I can hardly wait to run out on stage and just show off all our hard work.
And now I’m off to the theatre to start the character transformation and live in those few short hours where life is perfect, I am happy and nothing beyond the stage matters or even comes to mind.
Opening Night of Gondoliers is fast approaching. I’m exceedingly excited but also nervous. I wish we had more time. I especially wish me had more time with the orchestra as tonight’s rehearsal was our first time singing with them with staging and tomorrow is our dress rehearsal after which we open and all opportunities to practice and fine tune will be gone.
Looking back at this whole process, this entire show and been one steep learning curve for me. For example, I have never had to move and sing at the same time. I have never had to dance and sing before. I quickly discovered I need to whip my cardiovascular endurance up quick. Similarly, I have never sung with an orchestra. The textures are vastly different than piano. It is an all together different experience weaving one’s vocal line with those of a multi-instrument ensemble. The complexities and nuances of tone and colour make for a richer and more exciting musical experience. However, with so many independent lines, bringing them all together into one cohesive idea is much more difficult. Changes in tempi or dynamics drastically impact the piece and the performance. This evening, I found myself struggling to maintain a steady tempo or to make my voice carry over the pit and into the audience.
That brings me to another “first”. The Palace Theatre is without a doubt the largest stage I have ever sung solo in. While the theatre itself is not particularly large by theatre standards, seating roughly 350 people, it certainly is the largest space I’ve been in vocally and I’ve had an interesting time navigating the space. While it for the most part has a great acoustic, there are some dead spots. I originally feared I would be walking into a dead space and would have to force my voice to carry. But I have found that the theatre accepts the sung voice rather well.
I am nearly buzzing with anticipation for opening night. I can’t wait for an audience. However, I am also aware that a theatre full of people loses a certain amount of its acoustic capacity. But at the same time, what is lost in acoustic is more than made up for in the energy that is created by the connection between performers and a live audience. I can’t not wait to have that live audience to play to. As much as I throw myself into rehearsal, it is never quite the same as when there is a room full of people to respond. That’s when performances become electric and I am waiting for that.
The show is going to be wonderful, so if you are in London or the area please do come and see the show. You can check out the Musical Theatre Productions website for show details. Get your tickets while you can!
I received a wonder compliment from my director /choreographer for The Gondoleirs. She told me she was delighted by how willing and enthusiastic I was to try anything on stage. After blushing a little and feeling all warm and fuzzy, I got to thinking; it’s kind of true. When I’m on stage I can try anything and risk anything without any real fear. Not only that, but I am able to do it in front of an audience of hundreds and do it over and over again, night after night. It doesn’t faze me.
And yet, in my personal life, even the smallest of ventures is agony. On stage, I don’t worry at all what people think; off stage, it’s almost all I can think if. On stage, I have no qualms looking silly, taking the things I want, saying what’s on my mind (or character’s mind), being sexually aggressive or forward, being ugly, being crazy, being funny, being sweet or cruel or anything. Off stage, I can barely bring myself to pipe up with more than two words in the company of strangers.
I’ve often wondered why I’m able to do the things I do on stage with relative ease and comfort and be unable to replicate that confidence in my real life. There are people for whom the stage is the most terrifying place. And given that I am someone who carries a significant amount of social anxiety and worry with her everywhere she goes, I should be one of those people. There are few places beyond the stage where one is singled out more, scrutinized more and where there is more potential to embarrass and humiliate one’s self in front of hundreds, if not thousands of friends, family and complete strangers. So, why does that not bother me?
Well, actually, that’s not entirely true. To a certain extent, I do worry about my stage performances, but only after I’ve left the stage. While I’m on it, I in all honesty don’t give two licks about what I look like, sound like, move like, whether I’m good or horrendous. As soon as I leave the stage, well then my real life returns and with it comes the anxiety.
I guess the moral of the story is, if you want me to try something new, you better put me on a stage.
At any rate, the compliment was lovely to hear and was a great boost to my ego.
Darn it all, I’ve lost my voice. Damn you laryngitis! And with only 10 days until opening night of The Gondoliers. This is just perfect timing, non? There is enough time to get well and I’m hoping this only lasts a couple of days. But as it stands right now I can’t even speak let alone sing.
I won’t lie, I’m worried. I need every moment of rehearsal time we have left, and I certainly do not want to miss out on performances. This is my first operetta, and my first lead. I would be devastated if someone else had to step in for me. So, please, keep me in your thoughts.
Right, time to gargle more salt…god I hate it so much.
