Pippin – Week 8
We’re now at the end of week 8 of the Pippin production and we’re officially open! We staged our first show on Friday afternoon, and then I was up to conduct the evening performance.
The Final Week Of Rehearsals
In terms of making progress and improving the product, this week of rehearsals has been bar far the most productive. Even though the first dress run left morale a little low, the second dress run was slightly better and when we got back into the rehearsal room the performers appeared to have gotten an energy boost from having been in the space.
Once again the rehearsals consisted mostly of scene work, establishing moments, intent and clarifying entrances/exits. There was also of course lots of choreo to go over again and clean up, this was however to be expected because some of the dances were only put together (re-choreographed) last week. It was a bit odd that the original choreographer was back in the rehearsal space with us given that most of her initial choreography had been either altered significantly or scrapped completely. Still, she was around to give notes and whatnot.
Vocal Cleaning
It was so nice to FINALLY have some time dedicated to cleaning vocals. the director had asked Rachel and I for the specifics of vocals we’d like to go over and so on Wednesday we both had an opportunity to spend some time with the performers focussing on vocals…
Aside from a few rhythmic parts of one of the tricky duets, and a riff that one of the leads needed some work on, my focus was on the ensemble vocals of Act 2. There are a lot of ‘Hmms’, ‘Ooos’ and ‘Aaas’ in the show, and so I devoted some time to getting the company cleaning up smooth onsets onto a vowel. There was a lot of scooping going on and general tuning issues, so I wanted to just clean that up somewhat. There were also a few harmonies that were just not sounding confident, so we pretty much went back to note-bashing. It was hard work trying to get some the performers to remember which line they were singing, so it’s no wonder the harmonies were weak. After an hour on various Act 2 BVs there was a lot of improvement and a much higher level of confidence. I requested that I was allowed ten minutes later that day to run these same parts again in order to help solidify them into the brains/ears/muscles of the performers. The request was granted, even if it was in the last (well, additional) ten minutes of the day. I was very grateful for this.
Thursday morning was the final rehearsal and we used it to perform a run-through. This was in my opinion the best way to use the time because it allowed everybody to get a feel not just for their scene/number, but also for the pacing of the show and the order. In my opinion we should’ve been running the show regularly for at least the past two weeks. During the run I played for Act 1 and Rachel played for Act 2. This allowed us each to listen carefully to the vocals of our allocated act, and also to get more familiar with each other’s allocated act.
Opening Night
We opened on Friday afternoon, and Rachel conducted the first show. She ran a vocal warmup and we were able to get a soundcheck too in order to check band/mic levels in our monitors. I am still not happy with the mix I have – there are still some weird compression issues going on, but at least I know what to expect now. Musically this first show went pretty well.
My first show as keys 1/conductor was on Friday evening. I was less nervous than the dress run and I had spent many hours over the past few days getting the tempos into my body. Prior to the show we did another soundcheck so that I could check my levels on the keys 1 mixer. Again, weird limiting going on but at least I knew what to expect. One of the performers also had some concerns about her song. The actor playing Catherine, who I had worked a lot with over the rehearsal period, was worried about not hearing the guitar enough to be able to sing confidently. I made time in soundcheck to fix these levels and make sure she felt more confident. After the show she was much more happier than after previous runs and was very grateful for the support that I was able to offer her not just prior to the show but also through the monitor during her performance. This made me feel good, and I only wish that I’d had a more time with some of the other actors/characters during the rehearsal process so that I was able to offer each of them the same support and inspire confidence in all of them.
Musically, the tempos were a much closer to mark this time, although I did cue one song a little early. I was lucky because there was some underscoring prior to the vocal entry so I was able to hold a pause until the vocals. Still though, I’m sure it threw the actor off, and it meant that the actor/muso did not have time to join in with the underscoring intro. This made me feel a bit bad, but it wasn’t the end of the world…
What was more upsetting for me was the number of mistakes I made in my playing. My piano-playing was riddled with errors, and although I thought I knew the part, I realise now that I need to be able to play it accurately, confidently and musically even when I can’t hear myself. This is tricky, but fixable – it just means I need to spend more hours with the part. This is what I’ll do.
Reflections On The Creative Team
I mused last week on some of the difficulties with having two music directors, and I’ll save my thoughts on the final production until we’re done with it next week. What I’ll say for now though is that our director, for all her faults, was really good at maintaining a positive outlook. The notes she gave after the dress runs were delivered with sensitivity, care and optimism. This must have been extremely difficult given the atmosphere of the room. I know that I have real trouble maintaining a positive energy when surrounded by long faces and moaning, but this process served as yet another reminder of the importance of positivity within the creative ranks. I’ve seen it from the externals all year, and I HAVE TO BRING THAT TO MY GAME!
Rachel conducts this evening’s show so I’m on Keys 2 again. My next conduct is on Wednesday afternoon, and I have only two more performances in which to nail the show. It’s not much, but I’m determined to give it my best.