The Freshman Experiment

Turns out a week in the rehearsal room is exactly what was prescribed for carpal tunnel. My hands do not hurt and I’m more excited than I am nervous. Today is our private reading of The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown for “the suits” as well as our student reading. We have a group of 16-18 year olds coming to see it from one of the local performing arts school - something that many of our friends have scoffed at: “You mean we can’t come but a bunch of teenagers you don’t know can?” Yeah.

Personally, I’m glad that these teenagers probably know what a reading means. It means that we spent 4 days drilling actors on the score and like twenty minutes preparing for the performance. Our actors, of course, are all rockstar veterans but that doesn’t mean that Brian’s rhythms don’t kick their asses. So it’s been a long week of plunked out notes and head bobbing and toe stamping - not always in the same meter. But as long as the teenagers know what they’re in for, I think they might just like it.

And I’ve never felt so excited about a draft of a script. For the first time, Brian and I really feel like we’ve landed the show where we want it. This doesn’t meant the rewrites will halt completely (this is where all the opinions start getting thrown in - if my understanding is correct) but THIS is the draft we want to be working from. This is what we’re going to use as our base upon which to build. No more restructuring. It’s really exciting to be at this stage. We like all the songs in the show and it all just flies by so quickly - as well it should… it’s only 90 minutes.

I’m really proud of this. It’s been a really long several weeks as we agonized over the opening number (which I think works like gangbusters - gangbusters? Did I really just use that cheesy showbizzy word? Really?) and this week has been so fruitful. Our actress playing Kelly (Sam’s best friend) accidentally said “I’m not your spiritual guider, Sam. Say whatever you want.”  Not surprisingly, the linehad been “spiritual advisor” but this was just too silly and hilarious so it’s now changed. I love when little things like that happen in rehearsal. I love crossing out extraneous words and sentences. I love adding malpropisms. I love honing the grammar and making it feel more like people. And I love watching actors really connect with the character - and having them be surprised by how real a musical theater character can be (when we’ve done our jobs right).

To use the overused (especially in our show!) metaphor of a roadtrip. It’s like we’ve stopped at one of those lookout points on the highway and we can see the canyon we’re driving into for a moment. We weren’t exactly sure where we were going when we pointed randomly on the map and said “Let’s go there.” But as there sits before us - still miles off but finally visible - we realize that this was the place we were looking for all along. And that it’s so beautiful.

We have some designers and orchestrators coming to see the show and I cannot wait to see what this could someday look like. The show is at moments heartbreaking and and others totally silly. We’ve done so much work to dig deep at the emotional core of this character and really push her to her breaking point but in this draft we were able to gloss over all the hard work we did. It’s been such a strange and unrepeatable process. It isn’t over but we’re hitting a new stretch of proverbial highway. The green and white road sign ahead names our destination for the first time. Unless we fall asleep at the wheel, we’re going to get there. I think. I hope.  And there (with fingers very much crossed, wood knocked on, and turning around three times and throwing salt over my shoulder while holding a rabbit’s foot) includes a dizzying combinations of beaches, coastal highways, costumes, Mexican food, dry ice, and a real live car on stage.

Send good thoughts!!

Not that I have carpal tunnel… but I might have carpal tunnel. Exactly one week ago, the day after our concert, I began rewrites on the book of Samantha Brown. We had been working on the opening ten minutes of the show for approximately 2 months and I’d rewritten basically all of the lyrics to “The Girl Who Drove Away” and was trucking along with our new group opening number (This has to be the 13th group opening we’ve tried . Hopefully, 13 is the unexpected charm.) so it was time to start the book. SB is always about 90 pages and about 50-60 of those pages are sung so that leaves 30-40 pages to do all the remaining book work. This, the continuing effort to finish our thirteenth opening number, and a recently developed obsession with Minesweeper is why my hands are crampy and tired and ready to rest up for a week.

Instead, we start our workshop today. Actually, I’m really excited. We’ve got a wonderful cast and our good friend Danny is directing. He and I read through the script on Saturday afternoon over a couple of Pacifico beers on his rooftop. I was skeptical of this process. I secretly believed it might be a waste of time but it was fun and illuminating. We just read all the parts and talked through it as we went. I came home with a great sense of relief that the show was moving in the right direction and a clear idea of what transitions and questions still remained to be dealt with.

So, experimenters, I’m very sorry that we haven’t been working on Brian’s epic mini-opera of ChristineCoke’s debauched weekend. I know he’s done a little bit of further work on it - he hasn’t shown it to me yet either… but we will come back and write more very soon and while we’re in rehearsal (if I have an internet connection) I’ll try to do a little blogging on the inner workings of our fancy private 29-hr reading. There are invitations. That’s what it’s called - a “private reading”. Doesn’t it sound like it should be taking place at the New York Public Library instead of a loud sweaty rehearsal studio surrounded by dance calls? Do I kind of wish it was? Maybe. If only for the reason that fewer women find it necessary to change in and out of their dancing tights and touch up their fake eyelashes in the restrooms of the NYPL.

hey it’s brian. so this is unrelated to the freshman experiment. but i just have to post it because i think it’s so f—ing cool. jenn colella and kait sang our song “Freedom” from …Sam Brown at a Barack Obama benefit last week and the video’s up on youtube. check it out and tell me if jenn and kait aren’t belting their goddamn FACES off. and looking mad hot. i feel like a fanboy. i am a fanboy check it out. word - b