Rehearsals for The Broken Jump were underway and we still had not found an actor to play Mr. Klein. JB and I debated a number of solutions, the first of which was to ask our cast if they knew of anybody. We were both of the mindset that it would be beneficial to bring in an actor who already had an established relationship with a current cast member, if not ourselves. Caitlin recommended a friend of hers and JB immediately gave him a call.
Enter “the Cuban Missile” Dan Hernandez into our hectic and odd little world. Dan didn’t necessarily “look” the part but JB and I both thought he “felt” right. He was pleasant and likable and since we didn’t want to role to be a caricature or to come across as a jerk, we both felt that Dan would be a solid addition to our cast. Plus, he and Caitlin already had an established relationship having gone to college together … it’s always good to have a degree of familiarity when starting a new project like this. They would have some degree of the same comfort level that Matt, Mel, Tony and I already had. Our cast was filled out and we felt that we could move forward, full steam ahead.
Things would quickly have a different feel than we had experienced in either Abnormal Stew or Weasel Erotica. For one, we were rehearsing in a new location, Pearl Studios, after having the majority of our previous rehearsals at Shetler Studios. Pearl was a great location with brand new rehearsal studios and the advantage of offering us a bit of a discount since we were booking so much time. Everyone (exluding myself, obviously) was not that familiar with JB (they had all met him but nobody had worked with him) and I did get the impression that there was a “feeling out” period that had been less prominent during Weasel Erotica.
I imagine that things might have been most awkward for Melissa, having directed us the last time out and being very much an outspoken leader who was comfortable telling her "brothers" what to do. However, everybody seemed to quickly appreciate JB and a sense of camaraderie was slowly starting to develop. This might have even been improved when Grace Falconer came on board as our stage manager … she was great and much of the credit for holding the whole thing together must go to her.
On a personal level, rehearsals were not all that easy for me. I spent a lot of my energy simply trying not to get sick. Exhaustion set in and set in hard and there were more than a few nights where the last thing I wanted to do was rehearse. I was having a hard time concentrating and felt very uncertain about the performance I was developing … which seemed to me odd, since the character was my creation and so very close to me. There were more than a few nights where rehearsal (for me) was more about trying not to throw up for three hours than actually getting some productive rehearsal in. I persevered … but not nearly as well as I had in the past.
On top of all this, I was trying to promote the show, attend festival meetings, get mailings out and find/buy all the props and set pieces we would need. Thank goodness for JB and Grace who had, found or donated a number of items and took some of that load off my shoulders. Some credit must also go to Kelly Heaton (who had built our weasel puppets a year before) for taking care of some of the costuming chores that I simply hadn’t the time or energy to address.
The musical portions of the show were ignored for too long … primarily because we hadn’t had the opportunity to get the music recorded. I felt bad that I had constantly dropped the ball on this and was relieved when Grace brought in a musician friend of hers to get the recordings finally done a few weeks before we opened. I was also relieved that both Jack Boice and Caitlin Mehner were experienced musical performers and were able to tackle their numbers with confidence. Tony and I, however, were a different story and much time in the last few weeks were spent getting more comfortable with our number at the top of the show.
Festival performances were also going to present a challenge in that we would have to load-in and load-out with each performance. There really was no storage space at the facility to speak of, so once again my office on 42nd Street would become the home of all of our stuff. We would re-visit the days of Abnormal Stew with a group trek to 36th Street before each performance. I would also have to cope with working in an office over run with costumes, props and set pieces. Ah, the sacrifices we make.
The more things change, the more they stay the same …
Enter “the Cuban Missile” Dan Hernandez into our hectic and odd little world. Dan didn’t necessarily “look” the part but JB and I both thought he “felt” right. He was pleasant and likable and since we didn’t want to role to be a caricature or to come across as a jerk, we both felt that Dan would be a solid addition to our cast. Plus, he and Caitlin already had an established relationship having gone to college together … it’s always good to have a degree of familiarity when starting a new project like this. They would have some degree of the same comfort level that Matt, Mel, Tony and I already had. Our cast was filled out and we felt that we could move forward, full steam ahead.Things would quickly have a different feel than we had experienced in either Abnormal Stew or Weasel Erotica. For one, we were rehearsing in a new location, Pearl Studios, after having the majority of our previous rehearsals at Shetler Studios. Pearl was a great location with brand new rehearsal studios and the advantage of offering us a bit of a discount since we were booking so much time. Everyone (exluding myself, obviously) was not that familiar with JB (they had all met him but nobody had worked with him) and I did get the impression that there was a “feeling out” period that had been less prominent during Weasel Erotica.
I imagine that things might have been most awkward for Melissa, having directed us the last time out and being very much an outspoken leader who was comfortable telling her "brothers" what to do. However, everybody seemed to quickly appreciate JB and a sense of camaraderie was slowly starting to develop. This might have even been improved when Grace Falconer came on board as our stage manager … she was great and much of the credit for holding the whole thing together must go to her.On a personal level, rehearsals were not all that easy for me. I spent a lot of my energy simply trying not to get sick. Exhaustion set in and set in hard and there were more than a few nights where the last thing I wanted to do was rehearse. I was having a hard time concentrating and felt very uncertain about the performance I was developing … which seemed to me odd, since the character was my creation and so very close to me. There were more than a few nights where rehearsal (for me) was more about trying not to throw up for three hours than actually getting some productive rehearsal in. I persevered … but not nearly as well as I had in the past.
On top of all this, I was trying to promote the show, attend festival meetings, get mailings out and find/buy all the props and set pieces we would need. Thank goodness for JB and Grace who had, found or donated a number of items and took some of that load off my shoulders. Some credit must also go to Kelly Heaton (who had built our weasel puppets a year before) for taking care of some of the costuming chores that I simply hadn’t the time or energy to address.
The musical portions of the show were ignored for too long … primarily because we hadn’t had the opportunity to get the music recorded. I felt bad that I had constantly dropped the ball on this and was relieved when Grace brought in a musician friend of hers to get the recordings finally done a few weeks before we opened. I was also relieved that both Jack Boice and Caitlin Mehner were experienced musical performers and were able to tackle their numbers with confidence. Tony and I, however, were a different story and much time in the last few weeks were spent getting more comfortable with our number at the top of the show.Festival performances were also going to present a challenge in that we would have to load-in and load-out with each performance. There really was no storage space at the facility to speak of, so once again my office on 42nd Street would become the home of all of our stuff. We would re-visit the days of Abnormal Stew with a group trek to 36th Street before each performance. I would also have to cope with working in an office over run with costumes, props and set pieces. Ah, the sacrifices we make.
The more things change, the more they stay the same …
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