I
got in to Toronto after a week's holiday in Montreal, tired for the
overnight bus but ambitious enough to buy a bike off craigslist
within a couple hours. With a metro pass running $130 a month, it
seemed like a better deal to buy a $70 bike I could resell afterward.
I got accustomed to my new wheels on the way out to the director's
house in the Beaches, where I met the cast and crew in person for the
first time. Having never worked closely with actors before, I was
surprised at how quiet the room went when they had to step outside to
do promo shots. I hadn't realized the four of them had been filling
the room! We did a read-through of the show during which the vocal
director and I demoed the songs for the cast. I'd forgotten that all
the keys had been changed, so I had to mentally transpose all of the
guitar as I played it, which made for a slightly harrowing
beginning.
We started rehearsals the next day, teaching the cast to sing the songs one at a time. It went pretty smoothly, with a few hiccups. They had the sheet music, but we were able to teach cast members who didn't read music by imitation and repetition. Since it had been several months since I wrote the songs, and even then in a different key. I sometimes needed to learn as much as they did. Once I'd developed lead sheets for myself to play from, I could really focus on what the actors were doing. We had the most trouble with the idiosynctratic harmonies and rhythms I'd sometimes used. I did make an effort to keep the music simple, but forgot that included the singing, too. Those things were apparently a lot easier to understand by listening than by reading the sheet music, so I started making special demos for the actors with their vocals isolated so they could hear exactly what was going on prior to each rehearsal. After that, things went way smoother.
The first chance I had to rehearse with the band was a couple weeks in, after we'd finished teaching the cast the songs – I'd been accompanying on guitar up until then. I was amazed how quickly we managed to put the songs together as a group; in three hours, we had all nine songs and the overture sounding the way I wanted them. I guess it didn't hurt that they didn't have to memorize anything. I promptly cancelled the rest of the band practices until we had to rehearse with the rest of the cast, because they were ready to go.
We started rehearsals the next day, teaching the cast to sing the songs one at a time. It went pretty smoothly, with a few hiccups. They had the sheet music, but we were able to teach cast members who didn't read music by imitation and repetition. Since it had been several months since I wrote the songs, and even then in a different key. I sometimes needed to learn as much as they did. Once I'd developed lead sheets for myself to play from, I could really focus on what the actors were doing. We had the most trouble with the idiosynctratic harmonies and rhythms I'd sometimes used. I did make an effort to keep the music simple, but forgot that included the singing, too. Those things were apparently a lot easier to understand by listening than by reading the sheet music, so I started making special demos for the actors with their vocals isolated so they could hear exactly what was going on prior to each rehearsal. After that, things went way smoother.
The first chance I had to rehearse with the band was a couple weeks in, after we'd finished teaching the cast the songs – I'd been accompanying on guitar up until then. I was amazed how quickly we managed to put the songs together as a group; in three hours, we had all nine songs and the overture sounding the way I wanted them. I guess it didn't hurt that they didn't have to memorize anything. I promptly cancelled the rest of the band practices until we had to rehearse with the rest of the cast, because they were ready to go.
The
vocal director, Claire, had been running the music rehearsals with my
help, but the director, Jess, was in charge of the next step:
dialogue and blocking. We'd run the songs as we came to them in the
script, but the focus was on acting and making good choices for the
characters, as well as the logistics of where the cast needed to be
at what point. Unlike the music rehearsals, it was sometimes hard for
me to tell when something wasn't working, or what Jess was looking
for. What helped is that she did have a consistent vision for the
tone of the show, that the cast and I eventually came to
understand.
In style and conception, #WeddingMusical was broader and more marketable than most other Fringe shows I've heard of. And unashamedly so; the graphic design was professional and iconic, the characters were archetypical, the premise familiar with a fashionable social media tie-in. It was cool working on a project that was made to be accessible, appeal to different generations (I brought my 88 year old great aunt!), and sell tickets. Also, working on a project I wasn't in charge of; I was responsible for making sure the part I controlled fit the aesthetic and added to the fun.
The least
fun I had on the show's run was probably opening night, though. We'd
only got a couple of hours in the venue the weekend before the first
performance, and the sound tech we'd worked with that day wasn't
there for the show. I was stuck onstage with the band, so there was
no one to realize and relay that the actors' headset mics were
feeding back like crazy because the stage monitors were too loud. As
a result, the reviews for the first show weren't particularly good,
or clear on the content of the show. Fortunately for my self-esteem,
even the most negative review I saw successfully identified the best song
I'd written and cautiously recommended the show on the strength
of it.
Honestly, though, reviews were somewhat incidental to the people that were showing up for the performances. They were coming based on the premise, the great promotion work our producer David was doing, and the fact that the hashtag in the title put us first in the alphabetical Fringe programme. Our showtimes were all over the map – from a weekday afternoon to an 11pm slot – and the crowds varied accordingly. What lines got laughs varied absurdly from show to show. At the 11pm show, they were laughing at things that weren't meant to be jokes! I definitely understand what stand up comedy is like a bit better as a result; it was the same material, but different crowds had different reactions, and thus, a different shared experience. Of course, the delivery of the material varied as well; the second show, I broke my lowest bass string on the very first note and had to take half my parts up an octave on the fly. And actors modified their lines as they remembered them, or as costume problems and prop malfunctions permitted.
The show got a lot smoother as we went on, and we got an extra show as a result of winning the “patron's pick” Fringe award for our venue; based on our attendance numbers, the venue thought we were their best chance to cash in by splitting an additional show with us 50-50. Thankfully my flight out was a couple days later, so I didn't have to worry about changing it. The cast party was fun, but people kept asking me what my next project was. I said I wasn't really sure, but that I did have an album to finish.
In style and conception, #WeddingMusical was broader and more marketable than most other Fringe shows I've heard of. And unashamedly so; the graphic design was professional and iconic, the characters were archetypical, the premise familiar with a fashionable social media tie-in. It was cool working on a project that was made to be accessible, appeal to different generations (I brought my 88 year old great aunt!), and sell tickets. Also, working on a project I wasn't in charge of; I was responsible for making sure the part I controlled fit the aesthetic and added to the fun.
Honestly, though, reviews were somewhat incidental to the people that were showing up for the performances. They were coming based on the premise, the great promotion work our producer David was doing, and the fact that the hashtag in the title put us first in the alphabetical Fringe programme. Our showtimes were all over the map – from a weekday afternoon to an 11pm slot – and the crowds varied accordingly. What lines got laughs varied absurdly from show to show. At the 11pm show, they were laughing at things that weren't meant to be jokes! I definitely understand what stand up comedy is like a bit better as a result; it was the same material, but different crowds had different reactions, and thus, a different shared experience. Of course, the delivery of the material varied as well; the second show, I broke my lowest bass string on the very first note and had to take half my parts up an octave on the fly. And actors modified their lines as they remembered them, or as costume problems and prop malfunctions permitted.
The show got a lot smoother as we went on, and we got an extra show as a result of winning the “patron's pick” Fringe award for our venue; based on our attendance numbers, the venue thought we were their best chance to cash in by splitting an additional show with us 50-50. Thankfully my flight out was a couple days later, so I didn't have to worry about changing it. The cast party was fun, but people kept asking me what my next project was. I said I wasn't really sure, but that I did have an album to finish.
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