My most recent project was a musical adaptation of the Somerset Maugham short story, Rain. The basic premise (for those of you that did not read the story or just failed high school english back in the day) is that two couples are forced to stay in a hotel in Pago Pago (Pahngo Pahngo) on the island of Western Samoa in 1924 when their ship is quarantined due to a Measles outbreak. The balance of order is thrown with the arrival of Sadie, a "workin' girl" making her way to Australia. Everyone's patience, virtues, and morals are tested over the course of a week in the hotel and its paper thin walls. That's all I'm going to say about the piece itself. You're just going to have to go and read it if you want to know what happens. See? I'm helping you all be more culturally aware.
Anyway. The musical, as it was presented here, is in the workshop stage. This means that the show has been substantially developed and they are hoping to put it on its feet before they move further with it. In the case of Rain, the fully realized production (sets, lights, costumes, orchestra) will be presented at the Old Globe in San Francisco which is run by our brilliant director, Barry Edelstein who is making his debut as a director of musical theatre. The score is by Tony nominee Michael John LaChiusa and has a book written by Tony nominee Sybille Pearson. The two previously collaborated on the recent musical, Giant, which was produced by the Public Theatre a couple of years ago. For our production, the creative team decided to present the entirety of the piece (a full two act musical) at music stands with only a piano accompaniment. Despite the lack of instrumentation, the score is still amazingly beautiful; something that I can't wait fort the rest of the world to hear.
We began the rehearsal process, like all shows do, with a meet and greet of the members of the cast and creative team. I was beyond excited to be "meeting and greeting" some of musical theatre's greats which range from Tony Nominees like Jennifer Westfeldt and Elizabeth Davis, to Broadway vets like Jason Danieley, Benim Foster, James Joseph O'Neil, and performing vets that are sure to be household names in the theatre community like Carmen Cusack, David Harris, Jennifer Hubilla, and Tommy McDowell. All nine of these performers are some of the most talented and humble people that I have had the privilege to work with and I will not soon forget the time that I got to spend with them. After the meet and greet, we then dove into rehearsals.
The first two days were spent learning the entirety of the score. It was like I was having a private concert being performed for me with Michael John (MJ) and/or J Oconer (our musical director) at the piano and these theatre giants singing right to me. I couldn't believe it, even while sitting there. Once the score was learned, our director, Barry, dove into the book with everyone. They picked it apart bit by bit and then we went and had a read/sing-through to get a sense of how the piece had come together since the industry reading in New York this past Thanksgiving. Once that was over, the creators went back to the drawing board and began making more extensive cuts and changes to the piece. At the end of the first week, we had yet another reading of the piece before we moved into the theatre. This reading was done presentation style (behind music stands) so that we could start to get an idea of what this incarnation's final product would be like. This allowed our creators to use the Equity day off to be able to work out kinks and cuts that needed to be made so that the piece had a solid starting place in tech week.
What was great about this particular show was that I was serving as the acting ASM on the production. Because of the contract that we use (SPT Tier 3) for those of you contract buffs, any show with more than 10 performers is required to have both an Equity PSM and ASM team. Since ours only had nine, we were only required to have an Equity PSM. What I came to find out was that the cast and the creative team all thought I was hired by NYSAF to as an Equity ASM for the production. To their surprise, I was merely an intern randomly assigned to the production, which had all of them very much impressed. I guess school IS paying off, Mom and Dad.
The other aspect of this production that was probably the most beneficial to my training as a Stage Manager was the fact that it was a new musical which means that there were re-writes after re-writes and changes upon changes. One day songs were in and the next they were out. Or re-written. Or in an entirely different key. Or all three. It's one thing on a musical that has a six to eight week rehearsal process but for a show that has a two-week process, it's even more daunting. A great deal of my duties were tracking the changes made throughout the rehearsals and updating the master script along with our PSM so that the production has a fresh starting point when it begins rehearsals this upcoming winter. It also was another testament to the time and stress management skills that I have developed and will continue to develop over the years.
Needless to say, the day off leading into tech week brought about a massive script change which, of course, the PSM and myself were in charge of distributing to the company. Each day during tech week, we started rehearsal by taking out old pages from our script and filling them with the new ones. Jut to give you an idea, by the end of tech week, we had successfully filled two boxes that hold reams of paper with our recycled script pages. On Tuesday and Wednesday we worked through the piece, adding some simple staging so that we would be ready to go for our 10 out of 12 on Thursday. If you don't know, 10 out of 12s are where the company rehearses for 10 hours out of a 12 hour time block. In this instance, our rehearsal started at 11 (9 for the SM team) and then ended at 11 at night (12 for the SM team). In that day, we rehearsed a majority of the show. We did not complete the last 4 pages but we picked up with those Friday morning.
In that rehearsal Friday morning, we finished the last 4 pages and then we promptly gave the actors even more cuts and changes to the script. Everyone seemed to be running around like chickens with their heads cut off since we were presenting the piece that afternoon to a preview audience (another requirement of this particular Equity contract). Once that finished, we had a dinner break and then gave our first public presentation which seemed pretty well-received. We all went out for celebratory drinks afterwards and then went to bed so that we could get ready for our rehearsal the next day.
Oh yeah. In the professional world when you are in "Previews" which is sort of what Friday was, you are allowed to rehearse for a certain number of hours before the performance in an effort to incorporate changes in the show. Our big change that we worked at that rehearsal was a brand new opening sequence. After watching the show twice the previous day, our book writer and composer felt that the opening didn't introduce us to one of the characters fast enough, so they re-wrote the entire opening sequence which is similar in style as well as length to the "Prologue" from Into the Woods.
After hard work and dedication, we ended up ending that rehearsal early, completing the incorporation of the new opening as well as additional cuts/changes before our curtain that evening. Because the show was "frozen" which means that the show is set, all of the company seemed to be much more relaxed since the show was now going to be the same for the next three shows which allowed them to focus on bringing more details of the story to life. Each of the three remaining shows (despite minor hiccups) went extremely well and seemed to be favored by audiences. It makes me extremely excited to see not only the fully realized production in the spring, but also the reactions of a wider audience than the 700+ people that saw it this past weekend.
I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to work on this piece. First of all, I enjoyed the fact that it's a bit different from the "commercial" shows that are dominating Broadway right now. Granted, those are nice, but they can only maintain their appeal for so long; it will be nice to get something fresh and new in the American Musical Theatre scene. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, I feel so honored to have been able to work with all of these wonderful professionals and to have gotten to know them all both personally and professionally. We all took the time to get to know each other and to talk with one another all the way from Tony nominees down to Seth the Stage Management intern. I shared a great deal of laughs and received wonderful advice from some of the theatre's giants and will never forget how wonderful these past two weeks were; we were all a part of the life of a new American musical and I cannot wait to see where not only the piece goes, but also where all of these talented artists go next. It is yet another reminder that I have chosen the right career path and am happy with that choice. Enough sappiness. I need to get some sleep so that I can be a fully functioning human in the morning. Until next time!
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