A guest entry from Valerie Vigoda, Lyricist of Sleeping Beauty Wakes, about final preparations for the Festival.
Okay, technically it's one day away - but that's because the
whole process of NAMT is such a whirlwind; time seems to go faster than usual,
and it feels like we have just started rehearsal.
We've got one more two-hour runthrough-plus-notes session
today, with the full cast + Brad Haak on piano + our wonderful Gene Lewin on
drums - and then that's it! Performance Thursday morning (we kick off the
festival at 10:30 AM)...and after yesterday's terrific rehearsal, I feel really
good about the whole thing. I can't wait!
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| Gene, Brad, Nicholas, Olli, Mary Jo and Katrina at sound check, photo by Vigoda for NAMT |
These actors, some of whom came in at the very, very last minute (for instance, Christy Altomare, who is starring as “Rose”, came in to save our butts two days AFTER
rehearsals had begun!) - they are ALL AMAZING and doing something truly heroic,
which is learning these roles in 25 hours of rehearsal - actually even less, in
most cases -and then portraying them as if they'd been in production for
months.
Yesterday felt like a turning point - where the nervousness
seemed to vanish and the whole cast started relishing and enjoying what they
were doing, really sinking in to their parts...and the energy in the room truly
started to pop. Brad the music director smiled more and more, and so did Marcy
the stage manager. Always a good sign.
There are some pretty tricky close harmonies for our four
patients - and I've never seen singers learn their parts so fast and so
accurately. There's a wall of energized, perfectly in tune,
