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Final Dress Rehearsal| | Whoo! I am SO psyched!!!
After about 4 weeks, it's time for us to go!!! Whoo hoo! The show begins tomorrow and runs till Saturday!
This is my second time being in a musical and it feels absolutely fantastic! I've had to do things I'd always dreamed of and you can bet that it's as exciting, heart-racing, nerve-wrecking, time-consuming as you'd think it will be.
I was introduced to the concept of the musical when I first watched the Young Ambassadors from BYU Provo, Utah ("the other BYU" we call it) come down to Malaysia to perform for us years ago. I was still a wee lad then, traipsing off to primary school in my navy blue shorts and probably still infatuated with the Spice Girls (yea... i loved them) at that time. They were an amazing bunch, all star-quality performers doing an impressive show with showtunes from musicals like Starlight Express, Secret Garden, Les Miserables, Once Upon This Island, Cats and many others and it was a mind-blowing experience for a kid like me to witness such a thing. They were rollerblading around, smiling, dancing, interacting with each other, being caught up in their own little world and they were singing the most marvelous tunes! I had been completely enthralled with the magic of it all and I really think I left a changed boy after that - though I didn't know it at the time, my foot having unwittingly taken its first step into the realm of musical theatre.
So my mom bought a CD from the show which I listened to very often and would sing along to. On the second track of the CD was "Giants in the Sky" which I thought was very strange about why someone would sing about a giants. Somewhere along the road I had figured out that the character was Jack (the beanstalk-climbing, giant-slaying one) from the fairy tales, and I had also figured out quite a lot of the songs from the CD were from musicals. I came to know Andrew Lloyd Webber and Boublil and Schonberg (?) first, particularly Cats and Les Miserables. It was not till I was 17 that my friend - Hwei Ling invited me and Terence (I don't even remember if that's the correct spelling :P sorry! - they're my only two high school friends that I still have some contact with) to a screening of a musical I had never heard of which was Sondheim's "Into the Woods". Again I was blown away by the sheer depth of Sondheim's masterpiece! Maybe one day I'll shake his hand and tell him "thank you for giving me the opportunity of performing something like this". Even our director said just today, "next to Shakespeare, Sondheim is one of the most difficult kinds of theatre".
From the opening scene where you get a peek at the living quarters of three households, and Cinderella, Jack, the Baker and his Wife sing their first scene you'll know this is no ordinary musical. Sondheim's genius is apparent as is his penchant for complexity as our musical lines enter in one after the other, sometimes overlapping, all requiring precision to execute well. Adding having to use a CD track instead of a live orchestra (though it sounds just like the same thing), we have to be absolutely precise in our vocal deliveries. His accompaniments don't provide much clue as to where you're supposed to be harmony-wise either so if you mess up a line, things fall apart and chaos is pretty much what you get.
The pinnacle of the demanding nature of Sondheim appears in "Your Fault" and really is quite a beast to pin down. Rapid-fire sung dialogue that I start with "Well it isn't my fault, I was given those beans, you persuaded me to trade away my cow for beans and without those beans there'd have been no stalk to get up to the giant in the first place!" and then is replied by the Baker, then accused by Red Ridinghood, then I exclaim "No!" and Baker accuses me, then I say "No" again, and it all starts from me and doesn't pause for a beat till the very end. One screw up and the whole thing crashes and burns! Whoo!
We started off with four-days-a-week rehearsals from 7-10pm and our director Prof. Ferre really made Sondheim's intimidating libretto accessible to us. It's the question of "how do you eat an elephant?". Well, part by part, and slowly but steadily (with rice and some ikan bilis sambal on the side maybe? :P). I was excited to be Jack but also really quite apprehensive because of the whole deal with all the lines and singing the best-known song in the musical.
As I got my feet wet though, I found out that it really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I became really comfortable being Jack, whom I'd describe as a simple-minded, prone to daydreaming, earnest, naive, but good-hearted young boy who has a cute (or a bit disturbing) attachment to non-human objects such as his cow. "Giants in the Sky" is a great song since it gives every opportunity to react to what the song is saying. Through Acting 1 and Intro to Theatre, I think I've been "milking" the song quite well. Singing may be important, but vocally, there's nothing too challenging about it as long as F-sharps fit nicely into your range. What's I think even more important is the storytelling process that goes along with it, the whole excitement of the Jack's journey to the kingdom in the sky, being awed by the giantress, then being scared of her husband who wants Jack to chew on, and relief on coming back down to his mother, and wishing he could find a middle road between fantasy and real life. First it was all about getting the words and notes right, and when that was secure, I could begin gesturing and acting. It's become such a natural thing to do whatever comes to mind spontaneously in the song and I truly believe that as paradoxical as it sounds, practicing makes spontaneity work! Once you're comfortable with the song and the blocking, it's all up to you to reel the audience in. It's a real neat song to be sung by a young man and I'm glad I can.
One of Jack's scenes that becomes a turning point is towards the end. In the DVD this was done really rushed and I don't think it got nearly the attention that it deserved. It's when the Baker tells Jack that his mother is dead. It's hard because Jack hits a moral crossroad. From being bright-eyed and occasionally lost, he's contemplating revenge on the person who kills his mother. His boyish innocence is threatened and he grows increasingly upset and infuriated until the Baker sings "No One Is Alone" - an absolute gem of a song that can be quite a tear-jerker, along with Cinderella who sings it to Red-Ridinghood. The pacing of that scene is so crucial, because it has to build and accelerate, like a volcano that has to erupt till the Baker says in frustration "then kill him! ... no, don't kill him..." so I have to undergo a transformation that takes me to the dark side of Jack as we argue and then he brings me back.
Yet another thing that's hard is interacting with the Baker in No One Is Alone. He's an experienced actor who is in virtually every school play and is extremely witty and funny but if you see him down the corridor, he's hardly likely to even acknowledge you! First time we did the scene there wasn't even eye contact and it certainly felt kinda awkward, especially since I was kinda intimidated by his experience and his aloofness. Now it's from being angry, cold and distant, to warming up to his advice, looking into his eyes for assurance and placing my hand on his as it clasps my shoulder. Each time we rehearse the scene it gets easier to emote, to trust each other. Today, he put his arm around me and I put my arm around him and I was this close to crying and he said softly "it's alright". It was an amazing experience and after we got off our balcony scene and on the way to the auditorium, he gave me a thumbs-up and a smile. The thrill of acting! I'm just so glad I took the Acting class... I'm using so many techniques I learned there and finding out how well it works!
No One Is Alone and Children Will Listen are songs that will warm you up like a good bowl of clam chowder. The former ties the moral of story together and answers the question of what's wrong and what's right. Should Jack be responsible for the whole deed, should they kill the giant etc? Here's a snippet:
"People make mistakes,
Fathers, mothers, people make mistakes.
Holding to their own, thinking they're alone.
Honor their mistakes, fight for their mistakes,
Everybody makes one another's terrible mistakes.
Witches can be right,
Giants can be good,
You decide what's right,
You decide whats good.
Just remember:
Someone is on your side, (our side)
Our side, someone else is not.
While we're seeing our side, (our side)
Our side, maybe we forgot:
They are not alone.
No one is alone.
Hard to see the light now.
Just don't let it go.
Things will come out right now.
We can make it so"
Technically, it is Jack's fault when you boil it down and he should have been fed to the giantress and justice would be served as per the witch's advice. Jack's survival and the death of the innocent giantress who only wants revenge for her husband seems incredibly unfair, but it is addressed in the song. "You decide what's right, you decide what's good". Not everybody sees the situation the same way, and while many would think Jack was deserving to die (the Witch namely), there are those who don't and they protect and stand by him, even if it meant killing the giantress. Moral values are re-examined in the musical and many songs, superficially entertaining though they may be, contain a lesson or two to be learnt.
It is with great fortune that we have such an amazing cast put together. I love working with all the fellow actors and that's not something lightly said. They are all so fantastic and I reckon we definitely match the DVD's talented cast, sometimes dare I say, even improving what they do! We play off each other a great deal, and those that I don't actually get to work with, I love to watch!
Tonight was the final dress rehearsal and it was the best one we've ever had! I only messed up one line (and that was in "Your Fault" ack! but we still held together and made it to the end) only thank goodness, cuz I missed a line yesterday and messed up an entrance and came in early on another line. Couple days ago, I came in with my hen and said "Mother look! The most beautiful har-- uh... hehe..." Yesterday, I came one without my hen when I was supposed to and was miming the best I could so it was quite an improvement today.
I have some pictures in my camera, but I took too long typing and it's really past my bedtime now so I'll get them up as soon as I can.
Take care peeps! :)
| | | Posted 2/22/2007 7:14 AM - 68 Views - 6 eProps - 5 comments
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