Monday, March 22, 2010
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Six and a half weeks ago, a friend called to ask a favor.
She had been given the enormous task of putting together an entire musical production in just six weeks and with a budget smaller than my monthly gasoline bill.
And she wanted my help.
When Marly selected Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, she knew six weeks was not enough time for our amateur, though incredibly talented, cast to assemble the entire show. Instead, she decided to perform all of the musical numbers and a few selected scenes, while tying the story together with narration. Narration which she asked me to write.
I had never seen the movie before. Or the play. I had to Google it to find out what it was even about. I went to the auditions because I
For six weeks we rehearsed, I wrote, we painted sets, we gathered props, and we became friends. I loved every minute of working with these incredible people, getting to know many of them better, and becoming good friends with some I had never met before. It's been such an experience.
We had a tech rehearsal on Wednesday night, our first time running through the entire show, start to finish. It was also the first time I really heard my narration out loud. And I realized there was a lot of down time in between scenery and costume changes. My work was not yet done.
Our narrator was not able to make it for Thursday night's dress rehearsal, so I filled in and did double duty. I made copious notes and knew it was going to be a late night. I needed to add about 20 minutes of narration to the show, or the audience would be bored out of their minds waiting for curtains to open.
And so, I was up until 2am Thursday night/Friday morning, trying to finish early enough to get the updated script to the narrator so that she'd have time to go through it. At 2, I was stuck. I was on the last scene, but my brain was so tired it simply refused to finish. I went to bed, woke up at 7:30 and finished the entire thing about an hour later.
Yes, I was still writing the script eleven hours before curtain.
(I don't know if I ever mentioned that I do my best work under pressure.)
(Seriously, I once got an A on a 22-page paper that I wrote in one night.)
We opened Friday night to a full house. There were a few people standing in the back because we underestimated the number of chairs we would need.
Everything came together perfectly.
Dance moves we had always had trouble with were seamless.
Lines that always got mixed up were just right.
We even remembered all the words for the acid-trip-penned "Spring Spring Spring."
("...Even out in Australia the kangerous
lay of butterfat and all french fries..."????)
It couldn't have been better.
Really. It couldn't have been.
Because Saturday night was a different story.
The show opens with the narrator, Briana, who plays Milly and Adam's granddaughter. She begins by singing part of the song "When You're in Love" and then opens a book. Four children come and find her. They are her younger cousins and soon learn Briana is reading from Grandmother Milly's journal. They want her to read to them, and so she does.
Of course, all of this is supposed to happen after a few announcements and an opening prayer, being that it's a church production and all.
Except that the music started and Briana sang and there had been no prayer, no announcement about silencing cell phones, no introduction of any kind.
I turned to the other girls as we waited in the wings. "Oh, great. Tonight's going to SUCK and someone's going to break their leg for real."
Briana finished and then we had the prayer and announcements and then it was on with the show.
- The curtain opened too early on the ballerina that was dancing to Milly's "Wonderful Day."
- Benjamin fell jumping over something. He never fell a single time in rehearsal.
- Milly and Adam mixed up a move in the barn raising scene.
- Also during the barn raising scene, Gideon jumps over a stick to show off to the girls and compete with their suitors. It rolled off the stage and into the audience.
- My count was off in "June Bride" and I started one part too early.
- A couple of other funny things happened that I can't remember right now.
Even though it wasn't perfect, it was still awesome. It felt great to hear the audience getting so into it. Laughing at the right parts. Laughing at things we hadn't prepared for. Clapping to the music. It was better than I ever imagined.
My sincerest thanks to Marly for allowing me to be a part of this exceptional cast, and also for yanking me out of my comfort zone to write something that was performed in front of an entire audience of people. I was nervous and unsure, but today I'm nursing a bit of a swollen ego from all the praise.
I would also like to thank the cast and crew for making this such a great experience.
Now I have to try to remember what I did on Wednesday nights...
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I'm glad it was so successful!
ReplyDeleteI saw it in high school like 4 times, because there was a hot guy I had a crush on, who was in it. :)
It sounds like a great time Karen! Kudos to you for all your hard work :-)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on a successful production. How fun!
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm so glad it went well and that you enjoyed the whole process. Congratulations on having your script performed! Maybe next you'll do a screenplay? :-)
ReplyDeleteYay Karen! I love theater and miss it so much. I was great reading this post and remembering all the fun I had myself. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteWOW! That sounds like a great experience....
ReplyDelete......you really wear many "hats" in this life, my friend Karen!
Congrats! :)
What a blessing that you were able to do that!
ReplyDeleteTakes me back to my community theatre days. Very small stage, volunteers designing, building, and decorating sets. 6 weeks of rehearsal (but we always rehearse at least 4 nights a week). And the stories about the fumbles and bumbles!! One of our biggest onstage accidents was during "Man of La Mancha" when a ladder gets staged around in a very choreographed fight scene. One guy forgot to duck fast enough... and took a ladder to the forehead. He was a doctor so he administered first aid on himself as soon as he could get off stage. And he went to the ER after final curtain and got 5 stitches! Crazy!
ReplyDeleteI grew up watching the movie version. My son and I watched it together yesterday and he got a kick out of it, too. Glad you had such a fun experience and congratulations on sharing your writing.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad it was so awesome! I knew it would be! I wish, WISH I could have gone! When I used to be able to be in plays, everything went wrong the second night but it was always the most fun! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I tagged you in a fun game!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I tagged you in a fun game!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like so much fun! Following you from Lady Bloggers!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lot of work and a wonderful payoff! You should be very proud that you conquered such an undertaking.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great experience. Glad you had so much fun.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your success. It sounds awesome. 7 Brides for 7 Brothers is one of my favorite musicals. It's impossible to not start singing, "I'm a lonesome hound dog..."
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I'm so glad it was a success and you enjoyed it so much. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers has always been way up high on my list of favorite shows to watch. I REALLY wished I could have seen your production.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to see this! It sounds like it was a great time and an awesome experience! Sometimes I think about getting involved in community theater again....but then I remember why I stopped. :p
ReplyDeleteEven with all the faux pas, it still sounds like it was wonderful!!!!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your wonderful success!
ReplyDelete