Pippin – Week 6
This week has been tech, which actually went more smoothly than I had expected. There was a lot of programming and also some ‘re-rehearsing’ to be done before we got into the theatre though.
Patch Programming
I hate MainStage. I’ll say it again – I hate MainStage. But, it is the industry standard for patch programming in the MT world right now, so that’s what we’re using. I’ve spent many many hours this week creating the patches for the Keys 2 Act 2 music cues, and although it’s been time-consuming and at times frustrating, I have learned some stuff.
New Instruments – I am know familiar with the sounds of a few instruments that I did not know of before. The Calliope, RMI EP and Chekere for instance are sounds that I can now reference going forward.
SFX Programming – There are a few points in the score where Sound Effects are called for, so learning how to program a WAV sound effect to a specific key has been a good little nugget of knowledge for me to know.
Arpeggiation Programming – In a few cases, the score requires a harp gliss or similar to be triggered from a single key, so it’s been useful for me to learn how to setup up midi patterns that can be triggered from a single key press.
How Many Patches?! – Personally I feel that this Keys 2 score has some ridiculous patch changes in…like a full orchestral hit on one bar, then something else for the next bar, and then another change in the following bar. When played on its own, the book seems to lack order or continuity, but I suppose the main job of the keys 2 player is to just ‘beef up’ the sound, and so the orchestrator has done what is necessary to optimise that. I’ll have to see how it all sounds in context, and if it works well then, well, I’ll know for when I am orchestrating my own show!
Re-Rehearsing
Early rehearsals this week consisted again of re-working choreography that had previously been set…
On Monday for instance we spent an hour or so re-working a 90-second ‘bed’ routine that the choreographer had previously spent a rehearsal teaching to the cast. The movement had been set, and so effectively now we were re-doing a rehearsal we’d done two weeks ago. The director had decided that she didn’t like the original choreo, despite being present during the initial rehearsal where it was set. I suppose this is her prerogative, but now the choreographer has finished with her hours here and so it was down to our dance captains to create new movement for the routine. They actually did a great job – they had devised a new routine and were able to teach it very quickly. There was however other secondary movement to consider, and the director appeared to have given little thought to this prior to the rehearsal, which meant that we were brainstorming as a group and trying things out to see how they looked. I understand that this might be part of the process, but it seems to be our approach for every rehearsal and it takes such a long time. Moreover, during this time I was simply playing the same piece over and over again, and so it is a rehearsal that could’ve been done just as effectively last week with the rehearsal track when both MDs were away.
Building Parts
Another area of frustration, or confusion at least, for me this week has been that smaller parts in the show appear to have been hammed up a lot in an attempt presumably to feature the actors more. It seems that the comedy of this work is being either misread or sacrificed in order to appease grumbling performers who are upset with their casting…
Playing Comedy – It is my opinion, and only my opinion, that if there is comedy in the writing of a scene/routine then it is the juxtaposition of a ‘straight’ performance that makes it funny. In our production, some of the comedic writing is being delivered with such farcical over-exaggeration that, for me at least, the comedy is less effective. This is either an attempt to appease the cast or an oversight by the director. It could also of course just be my ignorance and lack of dramatic understanding.
More and more though I am finding myself internally questioning the decisions of the director – her dramatic choices, her scheduling, even her rehearsal approach. I am of course not a director, nor have a trained as a director, but I feel as though I am not learning anything from our director during this process. I do not understand many of her choices, and I feel that when I’ve questioned her (from a genuinely curious place) she has seemed overwhelmed and became defensive or passive aggressive. I’ve stopped asking questions now – I don’t want to risk bringing the vibe down. I am however a little upset about this because I really enjoy learning about and understanding the dramatic elements of writing and performance and I am hearing such great things about the creatives working on the other productions at this time. I think that the RCS has an obligation to bring in directors that not only direct well but can also explain and educate the students on why they are doing what they are doing – why they are making certain choices. In my opinion our director is not able to do this.
Tech Rehearsals
The last 3 days have been tech rehearsals, so Rachel and I have been confined the band room next to the theatre. In many ways this has been a nicer experience than being stuck in a dingy orchestra pit, although it has meant us feeling somewhat detached from the action a little bit.
I spent a lot of time in the first instance at the Keys 2 chair as Rachel was working through Act 1 with the team, although in general the experience was fine. There were of course a few MainStage and equipment gremlins to iron out, but between us we’ve got a pretty good handle on things now. The cast were all very patient and cooperative too, which helped speed things along a lot. Despite being in the room next door, our in-ears had a good mix of the tech coms, cast mics and keyboard, and it was nice to have the means and a lot of time to practice the Keys 2 book with all the patches that Rachel and I have prepped.
There were some frustrating aspects, like the way we had to spend some of the tech time blocking numbers or scenes because we just hadn’t covered them in rehearsals. It also transpired that the ‘bed’ routine got cut as the director felt as though it did not achieve what she wanted it to. It’s fine to make cuts and I totally understand, but that routine cost us two full afternoons of rehearsal time, where aspects like timing out dialogue with underscoring has been given no time at all, and it’s just been up to Rachel and I to butcher the score in order to tailor the music as best we can to the actors’ rushed dialogue.
Dealing With It
Despite all of my grumbling, and I do understand that this post might read like a long rant. I am very happy about getting a great opportunity to work on my Keys/Conducting in a performance context with an actual band. This is very exciting and has become my main focus going forward. Rachel and I will be looking to do some practice runs with just keyboards over the next week in order get confident with the Acts we are each less familiar with.