Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Sayonara Mad Butt

Congrats to my Madama Butterfly cast who closed the weekend with a sold out show and a visit by the police department. The show literally stopped traffic. The cause? An overflowing parking lot. We can only hope for continued violations in the future. As for the show, the audience reaction was amazing. We actually received a phone call already inquiring about Carmen tickets for next season. So now that the pressure is off for the current opera season - well, not completely since we start rehearsals for the Young Artist’s Pirates of Penzance at the end of March - we move on to the next project, Oklahoma!

So this is how crazy the Pineda family is. Sunday’s Butterfly matinee ends at five-ish, we strike the set, Trish runs out for MacDonald’s and we start rehearsals on the same stage for Oklahoma! at seven. Crazy, no? Anyway, the cast is fun and will sound amazing once we really start drilling them. But the stress is already mounting since we’re already dealing with cast members dropping out and rehearsal conflicts piling up. We had a major argument at the post-rehearsal production meeting with one of our producers and stage manger regarding understudies. Of course, we’re used to getting our way since we’ve always produced independently. But today we had to munch on some humble pie since CDC is not our theater and we must constantly remind ourselves that we’re now employees. It’s difficult, since we all have pretty large personalities, to put it mildly, and if we want to keep this relationship cordial and long-lasting, we’re going to have to make some compromises. It certainly is going to be a challenge considering the Pineda clan has definite control issues. It’s difficult to admit that the world does not revolve around a Pineda-axis. Well, at least not all the time, hehe. But we seemed to iron it all out by the end of the meeting.

Anyway, some random thoughts on Butterfly:

This is the first time in LOC history that we ran a show more than once in its entirety before the first performance. We actually had three full run-throughs! That’s just plain ridiculous.

I had some major agita Friday night, having been stuck at the office until well after six. I rushed to catch a late bus and nearly missed my show’s opening night. I managed to get to the theater by quarter of, only to find out that Gustavo (Sharpless) was stuck on a broken down bus, John (Pinkerton) was caught in traffic and Judd (our often MIA Commissioner) was no where to be found. But by eight the cast was complete, the house was full and everyone actually had a costume.

Val went to her bad place during the first intermission, asking me to pass on the note for the principals to "start acting." I decided to hold off on that note which turned out to be a wise decision, since the cast finally relaxed into their roles by the time Act Two got rolling. I’m sure the combination of stress, nervousness and that fact that three leads and the director were missing at half hour greatly contributed to their lack of concentration at the beginning of the performance.

On Sunday, the concert master arrived well after 2:15 PM for a 2:00 PM curtain. Juan and I were very close to losing our sh*t since the conductor didn’t seem to think this was such a big deal. We were about to start without him, but the second chair player informed us that the CM had the only copy of the violin part with the bowings marked in it. Two other orchestra members also arrived late, one by more than half. Val promptly told her to go home. This &%$*%& musician didn’t even have the decency to apologize and instead merely asked how much she was going to get paid. Paid?! She’s lucky I didn’t shove her bow up her ass. I don't care if she's friggin' Midori, who I'm sure would never arrive half an hour after the start of a performance anyway.

The theater has a serious restroom issue. We held curtain for both intermissions over five minutes waiting for people to pee!

Production photos posted shortly.

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"I'd rather be nine people's favorite thing thana hundred people's ninth favorite thing."

Jeff Bowen, Lyrics "[Title of Show]"