Today marks the first rehearsal after the choreographers' call.
The leading choreographers called me and asked me to set up groups of children so that she could more easily choreograph numbers such as "Be Our Guest" and "Belle".
My musical director and I decided that it would be better for her as the vocal expert to pick out the individual singing solos herself. She has also worked with a good number of the cast members before, and most definitely knows their vocal abilities better than I do.
So far, we have managed to work two big numbers (the 2 that we have decided to involve the WHOLE cast, "Belle" and "Finale", consequently the opening and closing numbers of the show) without scripts in a good majority of the student's hands. However, today we decided to change that. After carefully looking at the contract we found something called a Chorus Book for the students, which would be perfect for the students that do not have named parts. It is also significantly cheaper, at less than half the cost per book. After discussing with my supervisor and my vocal director, we decided to purchase 50 chorus books, 50 (more) family matters books, which explain the value of theatre in a community as well as ways to be the most effective production member possible, and 3 rehearsal CD's for Gaston, Belle, and Beast. It was definitely a good thing to actually call up the MTI representative and talk to them and to see what the process of altering a contract is.
It was also an eye opening experience to know that they can make mistakes too. Many aspects of their contract were inaccurate, and to be able to find that, and to perhaps add a level of humanity to the legal issues. It went a long way to reassuring me of what I was doing.
I have a growing concern in an actor, particularly a lead actor, leaving rehearsal early today to have surgery on his foot. I am told by him that he will be fine by performance time, but it is definitely a concern. Although, it was the first of many today. I officially was told that 4 members of the cast have dropped out, although thankfully they are members of the chorus whose absences are much more easily managed. I was also worried when I had another lead cast member tell me that she would be gone for almost 2 weeks, cutting right up until the final dress rehearsal. I calmly explained to the young actress that such a large absence should have been noted on her audition form, and that I would be assigning her an understudy. Unfortunately, said actress was moved quite literally to tears at the thought, and so after rehearsal I spoke to her guardian/parent. It turns out that her absence is actually going to be only 4 days during the week before tech week, which is much more manageable...although, it was definitely a first for me to have to worry about replacing an actress.
Today also marked the first bout of unacceptable behavior from some of the students. While the student in question has some social disabilities, it is still not acceptable to be hitting other students repeatedly because "its funny" during rehearsal. This was a difficult position for me, one that I very carefully had to handle. Luckily, I was able to witness the situation, so I knew exactly what had happened. But there have been reports from other students that he has done this before, and now I'm wondering if I handled those as well as I could have.
I am also starting to question my decision to double cast the student playing "Gaston" as the "Prince"...while I know that I originally wanted to have a second student ready to step in as the Prince while I had someone else as the Beast, I'm thinking that I might have chosen the wrong character....but I am also not exactly swimming in male high schoolers to choose from. Now I am considering keeping the Beast the same, and merely pulling off his mask and fur coverings and replacing his jacket. I think that with the right tech crew I could do it very quickly, and it might work out better that way. However, for now I am still undecided.
So far, this experience has been beyond incredible...despite not being in my actual performance space, I think that we are making great progress. I am very truly excited to move forward as much as possible in the coming weeks!
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