It's a Wonderful Life

Tonight is opening night for "It's a Wonderful Life" at the Children's Theatre of Knoxville.  I have had a blast working with this great group of young actors - their talent, professionalism and enthusiasm has been a blessing. This weekend's shows are tonight at 7pm, Saturday at 1pm and 5pm and Sunday at 3pm, then continues for two more weekends after that.

Please make time to come see this adaptation of the holiday classic with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. There is something special and meaningful about being reminded, especially this time of year - especially this time of the Age, that each of us MATTER.  We all affect everyone around us, we all have the potential to do great things, and there has never been anyone born that would've been better off not being on the Earth.  What we do with our lives is up to us, and we shouldn't be convinced everything's out of our hands.

Remember, even in a small way, you can do something important.  No one is truly alone.  And no man is a failure if he has friends.

http://www.childrenstheatreknoxville.com 

Peter Pan opens tonight at the Oak Ridge Playhouse

Think lovely thoughts and join the mischievous Peter Pan and the Darling children on a magical tuneful trip to back Never-Never Land, an exotic place of pirates, crocodiles, and the dreaded Captain Hook.

Based on the play by J.M. Barrie
Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Music by Mark Charlap and Jule Styne

November 21-December 7
Oak Ridge Community Playhouse
227 Broadway in
Historic Jackson Square
Oak Ridge, TN
865.482.9999

Purchase Tickets


In case anyone's wondering, I'm Musical Directng this production, which means I teach all the vocal music to the cast, play piano for the show and lead the orchestra.

Come see us!

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

Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em...

...and unfortunately I don't know one from the other.

Every year at the TTA theatre conference several of us play a rolling game of, ahem, "friendly" poker. This year I came in on the second night, and only won one hand the whole night. As a result, I'm down almost 75% of my original stake.

Although it could have been a much better night, if I'd been paying closer attention.

We were playing a 7-card stud variation called "Baseball". 4's get an extra face-down card (a "walk"), and 3's ("outs)" and 9's ("innings") are wild. The thing about 9's are if you get one dealt face-up, you have to match the pot to continue. I was working on a straight flush, needing only one particular diamond or a wild card - when I was dealt a 9.

Which required me to match the pot, or get out. The pot at that point was over $4, and matching it would've put me very very low. So low in fact, not to mention the fact that my up cards weren't worth much on their own (the strength was in the 3 and diamond in the hole), I decided to fold. I couldn't afford to stay in and risk losing almost my entire set of chips.

Yes, you read it right. I forgot the 9 was wild. I was so intent on deciding whether I could match or not, I forgot. So I folded. With a straight flush.

Which would've won me a pot of about $20 or so.

I think I should stick to music....

Countdown

We endured our first dress rehearsal for Suessical last night. One down, two more to go then we open Thursday night.

Last night was not a good night for the cast as the energy was way down. It was a good night for the band, however, as we began to pull together and find a good volume level.

So many of the cuts in the show make playing difficult - forever turning pages, skipping entire marked out sections of music, repeating where no repeats were notated... it can drive a band (and leader) crazy keeping everything logical and in order.

The choreography for the show, plus all the costumes and multitude of props and set pieces the cast has to deal with is very complex and it's taking up all the cast's brainpower to remember where to go, what to do, what to hold and what to wear. As a result, energy, enthusiasm, vocal precision and commitment to character and story begin to suffer. I have high hopes these next two dress rehearsals will smooth over those problems so that when Thursday night comes they'll be ready to tell a story to the audience through music, words, dance and visuals.

I am tired, probably more tired than I've been coming up to a show in a long time. Part of that has to do with me staying up late when I get home to play work on my new computer. But I need down-time, and I can't simply go to bed, nor does watching TV do it for me all the time. Keeping my brain active while my body rests is what's relaxing to me, not vegetating.

It's interesting, though, I have more confidence and less stress about the band than any show I've been in. What helps is having good, talented seasoned pros around me that I've worked with many times before. I really enjoy spending time with them and having a good time.

Come see us!

Remind Me Again Why I Do This To Myself?

I went in this morning at 10:00 am for Suessical rehearsal.

I got back home about 10:30. PM.

Yes, that's a 12 hour rehearsal.

I just keep repeating to myself....I love theatre, I love theatre, I love theatre....

Suessical opens this coming Thursday at Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville (in the Bearden area). Tish is coming - everybody join her!

Dinner Theatre Returns to Knoxville

Grab bite, take in show for one-stop entertainment

Patter Productions was founded to return dinner theater to the Knoxville area. The group's first production is the musical comedy "Nunsense," opening Friday at Faith Lutheran Church in Farragut. It will be presented Friday and Saturday, June 22-23 and 29-30.

Dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. Fridays, prior to curtain time at 8. The 1 p.m. Saturday matinee will be presented without a meal.

James Fisher and friend Tracy Walker, both theater performers, partnered up to create Patter Productions.

The team at Patter Productions also includes Fisher's partner, professional theatrical designer De Wayne Kirchner; Walker's husband, bandleader Bill Walker; and actress/singer Julie Stelter.

Theater companies tend to do the warhorse musicals and plays that are familiar to older people, Fisher says. Patter Productions wants to attract younger audiences, while also pleasing the mature theatergoer.

Fisher and Walker say the dinner theater will offer "a good show and good food and very affordable prices."

Bill and Tracy Walker are the founders of The Atomic Horns and have become good friends. I've also worked with Julia, James and De Wayne on several Oak Ridge Playhouse shows as well.

Come support a new up and coming theatre company in Knoxville!

Ouch

I bwuised my widdle thumb...



(I can hear all of you: "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww..........")


Ok, maybe not.

But for the first time in a while, on Saturday, I returned to playing upbeat rock, swing and jazz after a month or more of accompanying a cast on Broadway tunes. The difference in styles is not terribly far apart, but enough to make me remember I have a lot invested in my hands...

Anyway, the tip of my left thumb is bruised because I slammed it repetitively too hard on the keyboard Saturday night. Now it hurts to play it just normally, and even to use the computer. I take for granted how much I rely on ol' lefty - that's the finger I use to hit the SPACE bar, also the ALT button. Both get used a great deal - look back and you can see how many times I hit the SPACE bar in writing just this short paragraph. You see the pain and anguish I put myself in for YOU, Gentle Reader????

Ah, the sacrifices I make...

But seriously, I think from time to time the vital importance I have in my hands. I am a full-time web programmer, so obviously I'm on the computer all day. The mouse can only do so much, there are times you have to use the keyboard. If something ever happened to my hands, even one of them, my livelihood would be put in temporary or even permanent jeopardy.

That doesn't even take into account my avocations - musical theatre, my band, church music.... they all require me playing a piano keyboard of some kind or other. If even one of my hands were injured, I would be unable to play at all.

Does anyone remember the M*A*S*H episode where the soldier lost some functionality in his right hand, but was a concert pianist? I think about that sometimes. Charles found him some specially written concertos for the left hand. What a guy, that Winchester.

Hey, it just occurred to me if something happened to my hands, I couldn't blog. Some of you might consider this a good thing.... :)

It's incumbent upon me to protect my hands, because if I lost their use even for a short time, my job would suffer and I'd have to quit any show I was working on.

It's a little scary.

Hang in there, guys...

More Tech Etiquette

Now I don't want to go off on a rant here..--



Wait, you know what? Yes I do.




Please indulge me to rant about e-mail for just a moment. Specifically, email habits in the business and group hobby world (in this case, community theatre).

As we continue deep into the 2nd week of rehearsals for "Suessical", it has become somewhat critical that we fill several major holes in our cast. Three main characters have yet to find actors, which is not a good thing.

[Side note - if you are or you know a young performer (ages 12-25) that would be interested in performing, PLEASE let me know]

Starting last week, when we knew we'd have to start searching for replacements I began calling in contacts of various local theatre and musical people I know. I asked their assistance in giving me names of folks they've worked with in the past that might be interesting in joining our show. These are high schoolers, mostly, with some middle schoolers thrown in.

In total over the past two weeks I received about 15 different email addresses of possible cast members. In most cases, the emails were for their parents. In addition, I gathered email addresses for some cast members of last year's "The King and I" and sent the invitation to participate out to them as well. All in all, in the past week and a half, I've sent out approximately 20 emails to different area performers and parents, either to see if they or their kids had any interest in being in the show, or to request they check some of their contacts.

Since then, I received one reply. One. That was from a dad of a kid who was interested in being in the show.

I heard nothing else from anyone I sent emails to. Not a "thanks, not interested." Not a "thanks, I'll see if I'll check my schedule." Not a "thanks, let me see if I can find anybody for you." Not a "thanks, I don't think I can really help you."

Nothing.

Here's the scoop. If someone sends you a personal email with some kind of call to action, reply to it. It can be as simple as, "thanks." That's it - just acknowledge receipt. If someone walked up to you on the street and asked you a question or if you would do them a favor would you just ignore them and keep walking? Of course not, you'd stop, say hi and respond in some way.

If you have an email address and you give out that email address to the world as a contact point, you have just as much obligation to check it and respond as if you gave someone your phone number.

But then there are people who screen calls with caller ID or answering machines and only answer or respond to those people they want to talk to. In other words, it's all about themselves - not others.

Email contact is huge and only going to get bigger. You may miss out on an important opportunity, or contact with an old friend. I doubt I'll be contacting any of these people again soon to be in a show.



But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Cell Phone Voice Mail

Does anyone actually check the voice mail on their cell phones?

I've left business messages on two peoples' cell phones in the last two days, specifically explaining my requests and asking them to call me back. I was fairly explicit in the importance of my call.

So far, I've heard back from neither of them. I'm reasonably sure at least one of them is in town, but it's possible they aren't.

Incidentally, both of them are women if that makes a difference.

Do you return cell phone voice mails promptly, especially those that aren't strictly personal? Do you give it a few days to stew? Do you ignore them? Or do you even check voice mail?

Reaching the Point

This was an exhausting weekend. I spent approximately 5-1/2 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Sunday working auditions for and casting "Suessical" - my next big production I'm Music Directing. I'll be keeping tabs of that show as time goes on until we open at the end of June. I hope local folks will be make plans to come see it, it's a great show for kids and all fans of Dr. Suess.

In addition to that, The Atomic Horns played Saturday night at a cruise ship-themed fundraiser for Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge and its Foundation. We started playing around 7pm and I finally left about midnight. Again I didn't sleep well that night, with the usual post-gig "wiredness" keeping me awake.

On top of all that, my dad's doing much better. He should be heading home from the hospital today.

At one point yesterday afternoon in the middle of auditions, I almost reached that point of exhaustion. Combine with additional drama at home afterwards as the director and I tried to solve other casting problems over the phone, plus a partial meltdown by Brainyboy....

I slept well last night.

What pleased me about the aftermath of Brainyboy's meltdown is that he came back out and contritely apologized, admitted he had messed up and told us he didn't know how to keep from losing his temper. It was a nice step for him. I had taken away some TV privileges but restored them since I think I saw some growth at that point. What do you think, should I have hung tough and kept the punishment or restored the privileges based on his apology?

Come One Come All

Tonight the Atomic Horns play their first more-or-less open-to-the-public concert...

Atomic Horns
Eagles Lodge
Oak Ridge
(turn left at the Illinois Ave./OR Turnpike intersection, it's just ahead on the right. There's apparently a "FOR SALE" sign in the yard)

I have no idea what cover is (I assume its minimal) but kids under 18 are not allowed.

The Atomic Horns play all styles of music, from funk to rock to soul to polka (ok, no polka - but we'd sure like to). Elvis, Jimmy Buffet, Motown, oldies, Blues Brothers, all over the map. There's something for everyone, and we try to make sure everyone has a good time....

Last night we played for the Oak Ridge Playhouse fundraiser. The event was at the new Flatwater Grill/Inspiration Point in Oak Ridge and the facility/restaurant there is amazing, go have dinner there some night. We were under a tent behind the meeting rooms, and it was cold and drizzly. I have a sore throat this morning, but it isn't affecting my voice thank goodness.

Come on down tonight!

My Life Thus Far

I'm typing this from my new work HP Laptop, delivered today, viewed on the new 19" flat-screen monitor. Mighty sweet. Laptop has wireless access and CD/DVD burner. Double sweet.


Brainyboy's team made the State Finals in his Destination Imagination competition this past Saturday. The State is in mid-April in Nashville. The Nationals/Globals, should they make it that far, are Memorial Day weekend back here in Knoxville. Ironically enough, that's the weekend of my brother's wedding in Austin, TX. Do well, BrainyBoy, just not too well....


24 and Battlestar Galactica are dead to me.


Good thing I still have Lost, The Office and 30 Rock. If Studio 60 comes back I'll be a happy camper. I haven't seen a single episode of Heroes - those of you in the know, has it progressed thus far as a good enough show to rent the season 1 DVD when it inevitably comes out in the fall?


One of my best friends is having surgery as we speak for a herniated disk in the back which will lay him up for several weeks. Please remember him and his young family in your prayers. This could be the best thing in the world for him, as he's a major workaholic and needs to take a break.


My directing job fell through. Nothing more till music directing Suessical in late April.


Atomic Horns gig on Saturday was a pretty big hit, unfortunately nothing more with them until mid-April.


What's everyone else up to?

Holding My Breath

I haven't been very consistent in my blogposting lately, and I'm not sure why. Looking back over the last few weeks I think I've had more Friday Feasts than anything.

Mostly because my life is in a bit of a holding pattern, waiting for things to start or confirm to start.

I still haven't heard if I'm going to be directing a play down in Athen, TN - or even whether they want me to direct. All I got was an inquiry whether I was interested, and haven't heard anything more. Since auditions are March 11, surely some sort of decision or offer will be made any moment now. This will have a huge impact on my extracurricular activities during March and April.

I am music directing a show beginning late April, that's confirmed. I'm just in waiting mode for it to start. Which is fine, but it's interesting to be scheduled for something this far away in time (I've been attached to the project - how Hollywood! - for a couple months, already).

I also had an offer to music direct a show at Theatre Knoxville, but had to turn it down due to conflicts with the April show and possibly the Athens show. Who knew I was so popular? It's a shame, because I've never worked with them before and they have an interesting lineup of shows coming up. Hopefully we can work something out in the future.

BrainyBoy's Destination Imagination team is wrapping up work on their big aviation project, and is set to compete in a couple of weeks. This, combined with a number of other heavy school projects, has brought out some good work in him. The school science fair is upcoming which is a huge project as well.

Tink continues gymnastics and just being Tink, which wears her out.

I'm also prepping for another Atomic Horns gig Saturday night, this time at the UT Nuclear Engineering 50th Anniversary conference at the Knoxville Convention Center. Hopefully I will either hold off or get through the cold I feel brewing inside me, or any of the much worse stomach stuff that seems to be slowly working its way through town and our family.

Even more exciting is the two tickets I have to the UT/Florida basketball game tomorrow night at Thompson Boling Arena. I'm really looking forward to going with my dad, who I haven't gone to a game with in years. I think I'm more excited about spending time with him than going to the game itself (don't get the big head, dad... :) ) Especially looking forward to this, but am a bit nauseated at the prospect of this.

Finally, big projects at work weigh heavy, but are either out of my hands completely or I continue to wait on content, graphics, etc. Corporate websites are a huge collaborative process, but sometimes people tend to place that as a small priority in their daily responsibilities. And the guy whose job it is to build the sites has no choice but to wait.

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

The Beat Goes On

The overnighter was a big success. The kids decided to have a Jurassic Park marathon and collectively they watched all three movies back to back. I only made it half-way through the second one (the worst of the three, IMHO) and crashed about 2:30. The next morning the ones who fell asleep during the third one watched that one again.

That night the Atomic Horns had another gig, this time in the beautiful Oak Ridge Moose Lodge Hotel Ballroom, Casino, and All-Night Laundromat. The room was kind of small but the crowd was happy, the beer was flowing and a minimum of cold air creeped in through the doors.

That's two gigs for the band, and the next is not scheduled until the end of April so we're looking for something in-between then to fill in the creative gap.


I have an opportunity, possibly, to direct a play down in Athens, TN. Still waiting on some details but if it happens I'll be going almost directly from it into music directing "Suessical" back here in Knoxville so it looks like it's going to be a really busy couple of months.


I've been fortunate to get a couple of freelance website design jobs as well that pulls in some extra money. The sites are for real estate companies opening up new subdivisions, which is an interesting and fairly lucrative niche because a lot of what I do is simply redress the first site I built and use the new information with basically the same site structure. If I can keep these jobs coming in fairly regularly and find the time to do them, it will be a nice secondary (or tertiary?) source of income. In fact, I have my eye on a couple of new Dell desktop PC's....

Tennesee Theatre Association 2003 Conference - Part 1

First some definitions:

The Tennessee Theatre Association is Tennessee's official advocacy and informational organization for the theatrical arts. All state colleges/universities, secondary schools and community theatres are invited to join and participate. TTA presents an annual conference that brings together these groups from all around the state to perform, audition, attend workshops, and network with like professionals and amateurs from all levels of the art.

I have a BA in Theatre from the University of Tennessee, and as long-time visitors to the Inn know I still participate in theatre activies in East Tennessee, mostly at the Oak Ridge Playhouse. I'm a director, musical director and actor primarily though I have dabbled in accompanying and sound design. I love theatre, and I love drama in many forms. If you've never attended a play or haven't in a long time it's an experience that will stay with you for a long time - frequently longer than your average movie-going experience.

For a long time I've wanted to be more involved than just the hobby level - I do have a degree in it, after all - but work and family responsibilities have not allowed me to do more than one of maybe two shows a year. A good friend of mine who lives in Knoxville is the president-elect of TTA, and in the course of conversations he offered me the chance to design the TTA website. I agreed, and in the course of designing the site I realized that the organization was a perfect way to become more involved in the theatre business without sacrificing a lot of my already small but extremely valuable free time. He mentioned that there was an opening on the Board of Directors for an East Tennessee Representative - basically someone who keeps in touch with the various theatrical groups in East Tennessee, and serves as their liason, advocate and communicator to and from the organization. I jumped at the chance, and began serving a two-year term back in the summer.

The Conference is the highlight of the year for the Association, and most of the annual activities and plans are based on this conference. As I said before, there are competitions, auditions, and an atmosphere of networking and fellowship among people who love theatre and the theatrical arts. This year the conference was held in Clarksville, TN on the campus of Austin Peay University.

My friend, Les and I left last Wednesday afternoon (the 22nd) and drove straight out there. There were a few early birds that arrived early like us - the Conference didn't officially start until the next day - and we spent the evening having dinner and getting ready for the big weekend.

Our hotel was the Quality Inn. Um, an interesting place - some of the hallway floors weren't level, apparently due to some sinkholes, or perhaps the San Madrid fault, I'm not certain, but we would walk up a rise, then down a slope, then lean to the left, then the right...well, you get the picture. It was all the fun of walking drunk, but none of the hangovers.

Les, as President-Elect, is in charge of the whole Conference and as such was constantly checking on last-minute details: accomodations for attendees and special guests, badges, registration, etc. He's an Electrical Engineer by trade and has a lovely wife, a 1-1/2 year old son and another on the way and the poor guy was so stressed his stomach was bothering him for the first three days of the conference. I felt sorry for him, and was planning on helping with registration as much as possible but being a rookie I didn't have a lot of prior experience. I wish I could have helped more, but I was able to learn as I went.

Next up: Thursday, Day 1 (officially). Sometime later this afternoon....

UPDATE: Oh, one more thing. We stopped at the Nashville airport on the way down to pick up an adjuticator who was flying in from Florida by way of Charlotte. All the play festivals are judged and a winner is announced later in the conference for each category: community, college/university, and secondary schools. They are graded and commented on as well, which helps improve their performances. The adjuticator we picked up is the Producing Director for a community theatre on an island in Florida near Sarasota. On the drive to Clarksville, we got to talking about my background, and how I have musical directed several shows. She mentioned that she was needing a musical director for "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" for two weeks in February, and would I be interested? Well, the offer was to fly me down, put me up for 2 weeks in a condo on the beach, pay a salary and it wouldn't even be a full production but a staged concert - me playing piano and a pre-cast group of players to do the show. I said that sounded very interesting, and I'd love to talk some more about it later. Ohhhh, yes. We'll talk about it later. Absolutely we will talk about it later!

Unexpected Loss

We had our first preview of Company last night, and it went well. A preview is basically the final dress rehearsal before opening night, but with an invited audience. The purpose of this is so we're able to gauge audience reaction to certain jokes, etc and be prepared for them so we don't step over crowd reaction with important lines. A numbe of folks were present last night, and it was a big success - in fact, it was much more like an opening night performance than a preview. We're ready now.

However, the evening was tempered with news that an old friend of mine, a theatre acquaintance from way back, had died a few weeks ago. Her name was Ashley, and she and I have known each other off and on for about 13 years. Her husband was at the preview and we spoke a few minutes after the show was over.

Thankfully, I avoided a very awkward situation. Until I began speaking with her husband, I had had no idea she'd passed away. He congratulated me on the performance, and just as I was about to ask how she was doing he apologized to me for not contacting me and asking me to sing at her funeral! I supposed I must have gaped for a moment, although I don't think he realized my ignorance, so I played along. Apparently she had had a heart attack in the middle of the night and he couldn't wake her up the next morning - which was the same day as our auditions for this show. I spoke to other cast members later who had known her, and they had found out that weekend.

It was very shocking, and I will miss her. She was a great, brassy performer (think Ms. Hannigan in Annie and you can imagine the types of roles she played) and the lights are a bit dimmer today. Take a bow, Ash.