the home stretch

To read an interview with Fowler Black on my way go the ilistpaducah.com and click on ilist playlist on the left side of the page.

Monday and Tuesdays rehearsals have all gone to 10 pm after starting at 6:30. By about 9:30 it becomes a law of diminishing returns. The performers are starting to drag after working in a very focused manner for over 3 hours straight and any complicated melodies start to unravel around the edges a little. But we make significant progress each night. Monday was a run through of the entire show with the band. Tuesday we worked on music sections from 6:30- 8:30 and then took a 5 minute break before running the first act. Tonight we will touch up a couple of spots in the first act and then continue on working and polishing act two.

An example of one of the spots we worked last night was a moment where Victoria and Fowler are singing the song I believe. They finish the song and without missing a beat they start into Let's get away from it all. The problem was that Patt's music ends with the a complicated section at the end of the page to finish I Believe. Then he has to turn the page and play a new key and chord change without missing a single beat that is moving fast at the end of I believe. There is no time for Patt to turn the page and play the chords he needs at the same time. Patt is in the process of memorizing the music so that he can continue playing until he gets a rest in the music to turn the page. Fortunately Eddie the bass player doesn't have a page turn there and can keep the tempo going for Victoria to continue while Patt fits in the page turn.

The performers are having to really learn how to syncopate their parts to fit with the jazz music in the show. Sinatra had a way of surprising you with his phrasing that often starts on the half beat either before or after the down beat. That gives it a great jazz sound but can be-devil singers if they aren't constantly thinking about it.

Tech rehearsal is this Sunday at 1:30 pm. That will be the first time with lights and costumes. I've ordered a "rain" curtain for the show. That won't arrive until Tuesday so we will have two days with that before opening. A rain curtain is a curtain made of strips of shiny metallic film that overlap. Often you will see performers walk through the curtain and appear. I'm also planning on a projection screen for behind the band so we can put up images of some of the things talked about in the show.

This morning the carpets are being cleaned in preparation for the new season. Jim Keeney went through and tightened all the seats and arm rests in the theatre.

Last night the board of directors meeting approved raffling off a flat screen television during the run of my way to raise money for the new seat campaign. We are hopeful that we will be able to install the new seats in time for the opening of the 46th season. Right now we are applying for grants to match $20,000 of our current funding to finish the project. Grants however generally take about 6 months to a year in order to process and receive funds.

Our ticketing system has been giving both Marsha and Alexis fits. We upgraded the system a couple of weeks ago and suddenly all our reports changed due to technical glitch that was caused by the upgrade. It appears to have finally been resolved. Marsha kept telling the company to check certain database areas and the company kept telling her it couldn't possibly be that. Finally they checked the areas she told them to check and there was the problem.

For as wonderful as the computerized ticketing and database software that we have can be, they are also a constant source of frustration for Marsha and Alexis making their jobs more difficult than necessary sometimes. MHT purchased the software three years ago at a cost of about $18,000. We pay over $2,000 a year for service and support. Both Alexis and Marsha are constantly saying to me "How much are we paying these people for support!" The sad thing is that from what I hear from other theatres, we are working with one of the best systems in the industry. Nobody seems to get enough technical support these days and a constant turnover of people in the support department.

It's times like these I feel very fortunate that we have experienced staff with a long history with MHT like Marsha and Alexis.