Gene Rayburn! Go Gene Rayburn!

With new pistons plugs and shocks,
Flox, flox, flox!
You know that I ain't braggin'
Have you ever seen a dragon?
Gene Rayburn!!

Who knew we were singing it wrong?

Greased Lighting! Go Greas----zzzzzzzzt.....*pop*

I have been quite lax lately in blogging, some because of Twitter, some just laziness, mostly a lack of anything to say.

But some things just write themselves.

Tonight opened "Grease" at the Oak Ridge Playhouse. To give you an idea of where the band is located in the show, in the middle of the stage is constructed what's basically a giant jukebox. An open area in the middle lets a platform slide back to front, and we're on a fixed bandstand above it, in the face of the "jukebox". Because we're up in the air, power to all of our instruments, lights and amps comes from one long extension cord.

About 1/2 hour before we started tonight, our power went out. Oops! Sorry, mistake. It was restored eventually.

Fast-forward to the end of the first act. It's the final song of the act, "We Go Together" and we're coming out of the drum break into a key change and the final verse.

Our power goes out. Again.

Now, we have a bass, an electric guitar and two electronic keyboards. No sound, no lights on the stands, nothing. But we have our intrepid drummer, Carey who continues to pound out the beat. Later I heard the cast tell us that they raised a few eyebrows at the lack of music coming from behind them, but kept bravely on...

The verse ended, we were about to continue into the final repeated chorus and our power came on. We were able to pick right up where they were and ended the act.

The explanation was that when they moved that lower rolling platform out of the way, it bumped the extension cord and knocked it out of the wall! Needless to say I made my concerns known quite clearly to the stage manager and she had things fixed very quickly - they added a longer extension cord and wrapped it around the top of the set.

Problem solved! I hope. Till next time, I think I may invest in a set of acoustic guitars and a xylophone just in case...

GREASE is the Word. Hopefully, For a Long Time to Come...

I just started rehearsals for "Grease" at the Oak Ridge Playhouse, and things are thus far going swimmingly.

It's great being a more-or-less established musical director, because I use the same musicians over and over (and being such a swell guy) they just tend to enjoy coming back and playing again. I'm using the same pianist from "The King and I", and my drummer and bass player have done several shows with me. It's great to go into a show without constantly worrying about putting together a band.

The cast is great, young people who are excited about a show that's been around for years and is ready for a fresh chance. One of the big problems about producing a show that's a) been around for a long time, and b) spawned a highly successful movie version, is that cast members can fall into the trap of imitating the previous performers. Being that John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John made their parts so famous and distinctive (along with Stockard Channning, Jeff Conaway, Fabian and other stars) it's difficult to go back to the original script and score and treat it as if it were brand new. As I told the cast in the first rehearsal, if people wanted to see them imitate Travolta, Newton-John and others onstage they should just go rent the movie. It's our job to create something fresh, new and entertaining.

And that's really the same for every play or musical. Directors shouldn't simply copy a convention or design that's been used in the past, either in their own experience or based on a particular staging from a famous version of the show. They should always try to bring something of themselves, and the performers to the show and make it unique to this place and time. This is something I believe community theatre has over professional and maybe even regional theatre. Professionals perform in dozens, hundreds, even thousands of shows over a lifetime. Their experiences and memories or particular shows begin to blur over time. Even as my own resume' grows, memories of shows start to run together. But more often than not, I remember very distinctive parts of almost every show I've ever been involved in. And that should be the same for anyone who's ever worked in community theatre. Each one is separate and unique, and the good memories of casts, performances, relationships, friendships and emotions should be treasured their whole life. I certainly hope to for myself.

I recently got back in touch with an actress that was in "Company" almost 5 years ago. She's in college pursuing a masters. I've worked with several people in "Grease" before, one in particular who's playing Danny also played Horton in "Suessical" and Drake in "Honk". Another friend from "Company" and "King & I" I keep in touch with via Facebook. So connections continue and experiences go on.

Anyway, "Grease". The performances are weekends of April 25-May 11. I hope you'll try to