Oh gosh!

Well this will be interesting!  "Crazy P" is having a little bit of turmoil in his life.  I noticed yesterday morning that he was walking a little bit slowly when I took him out for a walk.  He usually is way out in front of me and sometimes pulling on the leash.  That was not the case.  Then as I walked him again in the afternoon I noticed that he was favoring one leg.  I thought maybe he had something stuck in his paw or had stepped on something.  So i inspected and found nothing.  Last try, I took him for a walk last night and on the way back into the house as he began to walk up the stairs to our room he stopped and started yelping!  He's in pain!  

So I've decided to keep him calm (medication will be used) for the next couple of days and see if it get's any better.  He's been really good about staying in his bed and relaxing so far and I'm hoping to keep that up.  A little bit of puppy massage is showing me that the area that is tender is his left rear hip area.  So I'm hoping that perhaps he just tweaked something.  If it's not better in a few days I'll have to take him for an X-Ray.  Sigh!  I hear they are quite costly.

Oh well.  That's really the news for today.  No Professional Blunder yet.  I suppose given the concern of the day being on "Crazy P" I'm glad it's subsided, for now at least.

Hoping for healing in the Mountains of Musical Madness,

CK

It's that time.

Well folks, it's that time.  You're shocked (if you know me well) that I have gone this long with out talking about the food...but today is the day!  There's a reason that I really haven't talked about it much. It's great!!!  We've made a huge step up with this from last year.  We have a new chef here for reasons that are slightly round about in nature.  Basically the old chef punched had a slight altercation on the grounds of our company and had to be fired.  Yay!  He made the same thing over and over again and it was never good.  Our new chef....brilliant.  Everybody loved her, we'll call her "Betty".  She has spoiled us so much this year with her food so far.  And I must say "Betty" has a tough job.  On staff we have a vegan, 4 vegetarians, one person who is allergic to gluten and a person who follow the Paleo diet (that's the toughest one to accommodate).  But EVERY person has felt like they have choices and are really happy with delicious food.

Yesterday for we had homemade chicken wings (honey mustard, BBQ and buffalo) with homemade blue cheese dressing, home made fried rice and salad.  Wow!  And let me tell you.  "Betty" makes THE BEST Macaroni and Cheese. So good that I refer to it as "Crackeroni and Cheese"!!!

I would like to end by saying that this morning I woke up missing the three little people in my life.  Recently a picture was put up on that social network sight that you all know with two of them.  I looked at it and really wished that I could squeeze those three little guys.  Thank goodness for a Skype conversation this past Monday.  The littlest one just stared at my face on the screen looking puzzled at how I was in there.  Every now and then would stick up her little princess hand and wave....gulp!  The best part was when one of them exclaimed, "I want to come inside there with you."  I smiled so big at the innocence of that cute little girl!

Okay, I'm off to work.  Things are going quite well but I am forecasting that in the next day I will have Professional Blunder #2 for you.  It's in the works.

Signing off from the Mountains of Musical Madness.
CK

Logs or Chips

Good morning all.  The work week has begun.  STILL RAINING and forecasted to do so through the beginning of next week.  That's no good on two levels.

"The Men at Work" (see last post) are certainly being slowed down by this weather and now there is beginning to be some concern about people being able to do be in the new part of the building on the day we open.  I mean it sounds like it would be okay, right?  "Just keep people out of that part, I'm sure you could open the new wing of the building a few days late."  WRONG.  That's where the only public bathrooms are.

[I guess yesterday they went up and made plans for the 7 brand new dressing rooms.  By that I mean shelving, counter space, storage, draws, shoe racks, clothing racks.  The sure sound like they're going to be pretty swanky.  Most of you know I have a friend from home here, we'll call her "Mary Poppins"... "Mary" for short.  If you know her that should make sense.  Anyway, so "Mary" got to pretty much design the dressing rooms.  She's really good with that kind of thing.]

The second problem with the rain is that the crew is really struggling to find dry space to build and paint.  Right now, I understand the painters are mixing things and trying to find just a dry corner to get some things painted.  It really is a rough time of the season though, because they're essentially building the first 4 shows all at the same time.  I can't imagine how they keep it straight.

Okay, so you probably looked at the name of today's post and went..."What the heck does that mean CK?"  So I'd like to fill you in on a little game we like to play here.  When sitting on the porch in the morning, meal times, evening, middle of the night....okay so really anytime you can guarantee that trucks will drive past.  Huge trucks!  The kind you can't even think about talking over.  The trucks are traveling to and from a logging plant that is about 1.5 miles up the road from us.  They send out logs and wood chips to places all over New England.  So the game is really simple....as you hear the massive, deafening truck approach you say, "Logs or chips?"  Everyone around you then 'places their bets' and you await the outcome.  There's no prize, no wager, just dignity.  AND, nobody here gets paid enough to put a dollar amount on such a stupid game.  So that's really all.  I guess it's the mindlessness that is an easy break from stress, fatigue, annoyance, hunger...okay really any other human emotion.

Signing off from The Mountains of Musical Madness.  (logs just passed)
CK

Rainy Rehearsal Day

Alright, the work week begins, today is my first day of rehearsal and also the first day with our full working company all in order.  Rain!  Which wouldn't really be a big problem except that.... [here comes a lengthy story]

This past Columbus Day a major structure, the one standing directly next to the current performance space, was burned completely to the ground.  How did it start?  Not sure...electrical? arson? cigarette butts from the bat next door?  No one really knows.  Regardless, it's gone and so is every musical instrument the theater owns (save a grand piano and a crappy rehearsal drumset), music stands, amps, power tools, hand tools, years of set pieces (many of which were reused for shows over and over), dressing rooms, wardrobe space (hair and make up), and years and years of fond memories.  Additionally the performance space had a good amount of damage and we're told that in 5 more minutes of unattended fire, it would also have burned to the ground.  The facility that I speak of was very old and not in great shape but still....tragic!  However, out of disaster has come something great.  The structure has been rebuilt and now will have 7 brand new beautiful dressing rooms, a huge bright new lobby, a gigantic construction and paint shop, tons of storage and a beautiful new back stage space.  Well here's the dilemma....it's still under it's last stages of construction.

Okay so that means that the crew has no covered space to work in because contractors are still working to complete the space, install the plumbing, door fixtures, electrical, furniture, molding, etc.  So it looks like they'll put on their ponchos and hope for the best.  They've been preparing for this however and we're all confident that it'll be just fine.  Our first show will undoubtedly be bit scary however.  I'm fully expecting that they sets will be getting touch up paint and construction, the piano will be getting tuned and the floor of the theater will still be getting mopped as we are just about to open!

As for me, first day of rehearsal with the "Hired Help".  I'm excited, nervous and anxious all at the same time.  The thing that's great is that we all start on the same page.  Not knowing one another (although I do know one of the "Hired Help" from past work with the theater), we are able to have at least a few days of work together where we are all on the same page.  Inevitably, what happens within days, however, is that we (actors and directors alike) will learn each others quirks and idiosyncrasies and that inevitable leads to a summer of adjusting to each other as professionals.  Bring it on!  We theater types are all passionate about what we do and have a flair for the dramatic.  That combination is always an interesting one.

Okay I need to get Crazy P settled (he escaped from my room on Saturday...so I'm changing his pen name to "Houdini").  He'll probably end up sleeping all day because we had a busy day yesterday and he looks a bit pooped.  Then I'm off to work...the fun begins!

With excitement from the Mountains of Musical Madness....

Cheers.
CK

First Day Off

Today is the first day off for the Company (a word used to describe the whole unit of working people at this theater) here.  It's going to be an interesting day off, however.  Today all 10 of the "Hired Help" and much of the technical staff who have not arrived will be getting to the house.  Normally on Sundays we have no food provided here at the house and everyone fends for themselves.  Last night we had a conversation about how that's not so welcoming to the people who haven't been here yet.  So "The Man" and I will be grilling tonight and some of the technical staff have offered to make some salads and such.  

Before that can happen however, I have quite a bit of work to do.  Yesterday I sat with "The Man" and worked through the music for the original musical that he wrote to be performed here.  The script is quite good....it's funny!  The music however, it's very much in working stages....that means that my day off will be quite full of adjusting, transposing, re-working chords, etc.  The idea of it happening so last minute (the day before the show is in rehearsals) is very much like an episode of Smash, where the writing team is making changes until the moment it goes on stage.  Okay, so maybe it's not THAT drastic...but it's not ideal.  The goal is for the cast not to feel a sense of lacking on the first day of rehearsal for the entire season.  We'll see how this goes.  

There's a group of deserving "Day-Offers" who have planned a trip to the river since it's sunny and 80 degrees here.  A perfect day for a nice outdoor adventure...we'll see if that happens.  I'm not hopeful.

Happy Sunday from the Mountains of Music Madness.

CK

Bring on the blunders!

Back for more...to all of you nay sayers who thought I couldn't do this more regularly, I'm on to day two.  The trick will be continuing on with this next week as I start rehearsing with "The Hired Help".

The 10 hired actors (we'll call them "The Hired Help," for lack of any other term...and not knowing them enough to make up a sarcastic and possibly critical term) from NYC and Boston are beginning to arrive today and will conclude on Sunday night.  However, yesterday we were notified that "Hired Help #9" and "Hired Help #10" had informed management that they were to arrive together by car on Monday night at 6:00pm.  You could probably guess that management's reply was something to this effect:

[Dear "Hired Help #9 and #10",
     Your contract start date is Monday morning starting at 10am as clearly stated in the document that your agent has received and forwarded along to you.  Starting the season with an infringement of your contract would be a poor way for us to begin our working agreement together.  Please inform us of your alternate plans for travel into The Mountains of Musical Madness.]

This late arrival would cost the theater, collectively, a missed day of rehearsal on the first two shows that are rehearsing.  Let's see if they solve the problem...which I'm guessing is created by the fact that one of them has a gig on Sunday night that they did not get out of.  Perhaps a very late night of driving is in store.

So the first two shows (one of them being "a talking"...that is one which lacks music and dance interruptions) start rehearsing on Monday, in addition to "The Cherubs", who are in rehearsal for four different shows of their own as we speak.  Three rehearsal spaces are hard to come by, so a local church is in cahoots to help us out.  They tend to do this each year.  Thankfully the heat wave has broken here and we're looking at rain (however needed) and 60 degree temperatures for our first week working together.  This should help everyone's temperament as the last few days here have been scorching and really unpleasant to work with.

Moving on....I have my first "Moment of Professional Blunder" to share with you for the year.

Moment of Professional Blunder #1
Yesterday I spoke with the business manager, let's call her..."Godzilla" because she usually lacks any kind of grace in leadership, about a casting concern.  That is that our first show has a lot of ensemble involvement, mainly in singing harmonies for the music a certain of well endowed western/pop/broadway crossover diva.  Because of the casting of "The Hired Help" we are left with only a small number of females in the ensemble 4 ladies to 11 males to be exact. Now anyone can see that this would be a problem, especially since male voices tend to produce more sound in general than female voices....nobody needs to hear that much tenor ever...even I can admit that!  So I went to "Godzilla" and asked for some on stage support from another staff member that works under her torrential reign (notice the play on words here).  After being told by "Godzilla" that she would think about it, but had some genuine concerns about this person splitting their time between on stage duties and their assigned duties, she went immediately to the subject of hopeful relief and told her that she didn't see any possible way to have her on stage at all this summer.  [insert screeching sound effect here]

Didn't you just tell me that you would think about it?!?!  AND....what makes you think that the best way to deal with this is to not respond to myself and "The Man" who had made the request but instead to talk with the person (almost in a scolding manner) who was an innocent object of a possible solution instead?!?!  RUDE!  I brewed about it all night, thinking about how I would never respond to a professional conversation/request by going to another, VERY UNINVOLVED source.  Water under the bridge, I've concocted the response that my mom would be proud of and plan to deliver that with a smile today.  It starts something like "I'm sorry that this situation played out the way it did.  Perhaps next time something like this....blah....blah....BLAH!."  What do you think, mom?

We'll that's all for today.  I'm off to hear "The Dwellers", that is the people who live in this area, audition for hopeful spots in our shows.  Some of these people have a very rough time getting through their auditions...this should be interesting.

Happy trails from the Mountains of Music Madness!
CK

It begins!

Hello all.  For those of you who have viewed my summer blog previously, welcome back.  To those of you who are new to this....WELCOME!  My intention with this blog is to keep you informed on life here.  To keep you in the know about my life (and my dog's), but also to give you a little behind the scene's look at life at a summer theater from the eye's of the music director.  If you come to see show's here at all this summer, you'll meet some of the people that I speak of in this blog....and let's just say that there are always a few characters and undoubtedly some great tales!  Hence the name of the blog, "A Music Director's Tales"!

So I've decided this year that I won't be using anyone's real names for security purposes but that it'll be easier to keep things moving if there are some names involved.  (NO ONE that works here will be viewing this blog....hopefully!)  I'll try to use fun nick names when possible but as things grow crazy posts may get slightly shorter and nick names may become slightly more generic.  Let the fun begin...

The dog, let's call him "Crazy P", and I arrived here on Sunday night.  On the drive up here, I got an email telling me that there was a meeting to read through and original musical that is being performed here this year.  They wanted to start at the exact time that I was beginning.  So the Artistic Director, let's call him "The Man" (that's so fitting on so many levels because I REALLY LIKE HIM...despite this situation) had a moment of absent mindedness and decided that he really wanted to do it, with or without me.  Here's the kicker with this situation...it's an original musical and the plan is that the music, which has already been written, needs to have some adjustments made to fit the actors in the show.  We also need to add some harmonies and kind of add some shimmer to what already exists.  So knowing that my role will be large in the success of this show.....shouldn't I be at a read through?!?!  Needless to say, I arrived passed "Crazy P" off to a friend for dog sitting, unpacked my car quickly and then ran to my first meeting of the summer within ten minutes of arriving.  I was not so happy at the time.

All of this must be water under the bridge because in this place, there simply is no time to stay upset, hold a grudge, etc.  It's just not worth it.  I think this is one of the biggest reasons why I find myself being successful here.  I tend to be very forgiving when problems like that arise.  Part of it is because my brain shifts so quickly to the next thing and part of it is just my nature to move on with situations like that.

So this morning I start officially working.  "The Cherubs" (that's what we'll call the student interns) are auditioning for their roles in the shows this summer.  While there is not too much available after casting the pros there are a few small solos and bit parts in the ensemble of the three shows they are in.  Right now, they're scurrying around the house picking out the perfect outfit to wear while simultaneously warming up.  I wish that you could all see and hear this happen....every shower in the house is running and the sounds coming out of the watery echo chambers are the most ridiculous fits of rage you've ever heard.  I want to ask, "Seriously?!?!  Who taught you that warm up and what is the intention of such ridiculousness?"  But instead I just smile at "The Cherubs" and just think how ridiculous it is that they are all going to such lengths to prepare to audition for "The Man" and me.  I wish my "cherubs" at home worked so hard to impress!

Farewell for now from the mountains of musical madness!
CK