The Wizard of Oz- Part 2
I left off at Dave Blakey in the last entry.
It was notable that Dave came up to me at the very first rehearsal, took me out, and told me that anything I needed to do to make it back to California with Sara could be excused. This was when her dad was sick. I wound up being released from rehearsal for four days so that I could go with her and my dad for the beautiful memorial service for her father, Edward, in Napa. "You're a smart guy, and you'll be able to catch up," he reassured me.
Well, I don't know about smart. But I knew from the first rehearsal that I would have to be incredibly hard working to keep up with this very productive, creative, talented cast.
When I spent the evening in Sacramento airport with my dad, waiting for a flight to Chicago that would never get rescheduled, I hit my script hard. I read all of my lines, multiple times, to make up for not being in Prospect Park Auditorium for that Monday night run-through of the entire show.
Dave made sure I did get caught up. Inch by inch, I caught up with everyone else, stretching from costume pieces, dance review, and lines I needed to call.
Ultimately, I don't think I ever had a performance night where I was letter perfect. Goodness knows, on the second Saturday night, in performance, I caught myself saying "The Wizard of Oz" arrived and enslaved the Winkies, cut myself off mid-sentence, and said "I'm sorry," and "The Wicked Witch of the West."
Nobody yelled at me. Maybe they had a dialogue behind my back, heh.
You know who else was great? I don't think I talkeed enough about Lillian Cobert. Responsible for rescuing two domestic bunny rabbits from the Butterworth Garage Parking lot on 7th street at midnight following one of our earliest rehearsals, this young actress and recent high school graduate, whom I'vek nown since she played a lost boy in Peter Pan, had a game changing performance with Music Guild. An adult role, dual role, as Auntie Em and Glinda the Good Witch. Lillian was poised, graceful, forceful one minute in managing her Kansas farm in 1939, balling out her employees, and then charming and youthful the next. She pivots perfectly between playing older and younger. She has mere minutes for the costume changes between characters. That's to say nothing about the character change between scenes, bunched close together.
I was thrilled to look at my phone and Sony Digital Camera to see that I had remembered to get a picture with LIllian. Here's one of us flanking the Wicked Witch of the West.
Other things of note from this production:
I don't know if I talked about Harold Truitt as the Wizard and as Professor Marvel. Oh wait, yes I did in the last post. As mentioned, he was really thunderous when he delivered his Wizard lines live, before they were pre-recorded.
Mariana Karfis played a munchkin. She had some solo lines as the Barrister. She's this petite ten year old girl who is playing a munchkin lawyer there to declare the Wicked Witch of the West legally dead. She was crisp, she was concise, she hit her numbers, she was composed, and she was precisely the type of child actor who makes me look inward and realize just how much I have to step it up myself to earn the right to be acting at her level.
But here's the thing, Mariana, as well as Tessa Czekalski, also an office-holding munchkin with lines, were as gracious as can be. I don't know, maybe it was the fact that I never wasted an opportunity to lavish them with praise if I was within earshot or walked into a room, but they acted as though they had much to learn from me.
In fact, they would watch my scenes from the wings and congratulate me.
It was great fun to watch those two, plus Addison Kopp (no relation to Phil Kopp as far as I know), who played the Coroner. And she delivered her lines with great articulation, great diction, and terrific enunciation. I complimented her with all the vocabulary words I could think of from middle school literature and music class. She nailed it. She was a great child performer. And then she goes back into the dressing room with a hand-drawn portrait of me saying "you are awesome."
These kids were great actors. And maybe they knew how great they were, at least I sincerely hope they know how great they were, but they acted with such humility and decency. And whenever they were praised, they turned it and passed it on back to me or onto other people. A really kind and gracious group.
Joseph Ngyuen was a munchkin, a resident of Emerald City, and he played the monkey, Niko. This was his big scene-stealing moment. Niko is the overworked monkey that the Wicked Witch of the West just expects to have working overtime, so that he and his monkey co-horts will run into Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion, bob and weave around the jitterbug dancers, and make off with Dorothy, also tearing the Scarecrow to shreds.
Joseph was so great as Jean Michel in Cinderella last summer. And here, without real lines, but rather through monkey shrieks, gestures, and stage tumbling, he handily conveys in monkey language everything that he intends to; that he wants a vacation, the monkeys are tired, and maybe nobody, really, likes, respects or appreciates the Wicked Witch of the West. even her own followers. As for Joseph, I was happy that he and I had our own little moment. In the scene where I was the guard at Emerald City, I had this big monologue where I tried to reassure everyone that everything was alright and the Wizard had matters well in hand, after the Wicked Witch of the West writes Surrender Dorothy across the sky. Joseph improvs a moment where he grabs me by the arms and shakes me. For him, I would riff every night. I'd say something under my breath, like "I'm out of my depth," "I have no answers," "I need a vacation," "I need to visit the Emerald City Spa," "If you get past me they take it out of my Christmas bonus," etc.
I haven't talked about the Jitterbug! This was a sprawling jazz dance number. It goes on for about four or five minutes. And all of the jitterbuggers just loved i. They didn't mind how much work it took to learn it within the first three weeks of rehearsal. They just threw themselves into the task with wild abandon. I think they enjoyed it so much, it wasn't really work by performance night. Oh, to be sure, they were tired. Joseph Ngyuen, mind you, was Niko the monkey, then would change into a jitterbug costume in the wings ot dance to that, then would change back into the costume of the monkey, replete with mask and wings, and go out to do the choreographed stage combat of fighting the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, and kidnapping of Dorothy.
Oh, it was fun to watch the jitterbug. So much fun, I threw myself into the dance in two of the early rehearsals, filling in for actors who were absent. The first night, I faked it well enough to stumble through with Rori Meyers. The next night, I partnered up with Paulla Houston. Both Rori and Paula were absolutely gracious about guiding me by the hand through a dance in which I wasn't qualified to beat to the drum that everyone else was, and quickly found myself out of my depth. I was just thankful to be a guest in the fun experience. I was happy to retreat to the wings and sing along with that part once performance time rolled around.
Great success by the production staff. Blakey knew what he was doing. I'll grant you, yes, at first, I thought to myself, "Dave, what are you doing bestowing upon me a speaking part as large as Uncle Henry and the Guard? Is this some kind of joke? You mean I've gotta' sing alone during the first part of "Merry Old Land of Oz?" I thought I had pulled the greatest grift in the history of Music Guild, getting myself a fairly large part where I had to sing a solo and lead a dance at the same time, knowing how confirmed of an ensemble player I am, content to follow other people further downstage of me in the big dance numbers. I thought I had convinced them that I had more skill than I actually had. And eventually, either they'd replace me with the real Uncle Henry/the Guard at Emerald City, that it was a big joke, or that the'd grow wise to the fact I was massively underqualified for the role I was given. But Dave never said "the joke's on you," or "We're on to you, the jig is up." He shepherded me through the whole process. He helped me see it through to fruition.
And now I'm glad that I was part of this whole process. I feel as though it was it was meant to be the whole time, that everyone else was on board with me playing simple Uncle Henry and dance master of ceremonies the Guard.
Great work also by Curtis Fischer-Oelschlaeger as the music director and pit orchestra conductor. Great work by Deb Swift as Assistant Music Director. Great work by Deb Shippy as our Assistant Director, who along with Dave made sure that I was able to get all the time off that I needed to go back to California to be with Sara for the memorial service of her dad. Great to have Craig Woodard as the Stage Manager, great to have Emma Benson as the choreographer. I was not, actually, out of my depth with this show, dancewise. I had Emma's help with a thorough demonstration and explanation of all of my dance moves. She also hosted a great cast party at her and Aaron's house.
Great work with props by Julie Hummel. Great light design work by Robert and Brittney Crist. Great sound design by Ryan Mandle. They had to balance the visual effects of the tornado coming directly for the Gale's homestead in Kansas.
I am sure in spite of my best efforts, I have inadvertently forgotten to mention somebody who did something great within the Wizard of Oz. Oh yeah, Costume Designer Sue Woodard! She and her staff helped me find costumes that fit me perfectly. She had help from Angie Stark and Carol Moon, who helped me with costume changes. Michelle Steen also helped me with a quick change one of the performance nights. Also, thank you to Sue Cates and her sister, Sandy, for their help with the make up every night. I couldn't get the foundation right, and I relied on them heavily for help. Thanks to the COVID restrictions being lifted that I could use the same make-up kit that they used with other performers.
I was very happy to be part of The Wizard of Oz at Music Guild. It was a remarkable experience, and I will remember everyone involved in this show with great fondness and love.
It was notable that Dave came up to me at the very first rehearsal, took me out, and told me that anything I needed to do to make it back to California with Sara could be excused. This was when her dad was sick. I wound up being released from rehearsal for four days so that I could go with her and my dad for the beautiful memorial service for her father, Edward, in Napa. "You're a smart guy, and you'll be able to catch up," he reassured me.
Well, I don't know about smart. But I knew from the first rehearsal that I would have to be incredibly hard working to keep up with this very productive, creative, talented cast.
When I spent the evening in Sacramento airport with my dad, waiting for a flight to Chicago that would never get rescheduled, I hit my script hard. I read all of my lines, multiple times, to make up for not being in Prospect Park Auditorium for that Monday night run-through of the entire show.
Dave made sure I did get caught up. Inch by inch, I caught up with everyone else, stretching from costume pieces, dance review, and lines I needed to call.
Ultimately, I don't think I ever had a performance night where I was letter perfect. Goodness knows, on the second Saturday night, in performance, I caught myself saying "The Wizard of Oz" arrived and enslaved the Winkies, cut myself off mid-sentence, and said "I'm sorry," and "The Wicked Witch of the West."
Nobody yelled at me. Maybe they had a dialogue behind my back, heh.
You know who else was great? I don't think I talkeed enough about Lillian Cobert. Responsible for rescuing two domestic bunny rabbits from the Butterworth Garage Parking lot on 7th street at midnight following one of our earliest rehearsals, this young actress and recent high school graduate, whom I'vek nown since she played a lost boy in Peter Pan, had a game changing performance with Music Guild. An adult role, dual role, as Auntie Em and Glinda the Good Witch. Lillian was poised, graceful, forceful one minute in managing her Kansas farm in 1939, balling out her employees, and then charming and youthful the next. She pivots perfectly between playing older and younger. She has mere minutes for the costume changes between characters. That's to say nothing about the character change between scenes, bunched close together.
I was thrilled to look at my phone and Sony Digital Camera to see that I had remembered to get a picture with LIllian. Here's one of us flanking the Wicked Witch of the West.
Other things of note from this production:
I don't know if I talked about Harold Truitt as the Wizard and as Professor Marvel. Oh wait, yes I did in the last post. As mentioned, he was really thunderous when he delivered his Wizard lines live, before they were pre-recorded.
Mariana Karfis played a munchkin. She had some solo lines as the Barrister. She's this petite ten year old girl who is playing a munchkin lawyer there to declare the Wicked Witch of the West legally dead. She was crisp, she was concise, she hit her numbers, she was composed, and she was precisely the type of child actor who makes me look inward and realize just how much I have to step it up myself to earn the right to be acting at her level.
But here's the thing, Mariana, as well as Tessa Czekalski, also an office-holding munchkin with lines, were as gracious as can be. I don't know, maybe it was the fact that I never wasted an opportunity to lavish them with praise if I was within earshot or walked into a room, but they acted as though they had much to learn from me.
In fact, they would watch my scenes from the wings and congratulate me.
It was great fun to watch those two, plus Addison Kopp (no relation to Phil Kopp as far as I know), who played the Coroner. And she delivered her lines with great articulation, great diction, and terrific enunciation. I complimented her with all the vocabulary words I could think of from middle school literature and music class. She nailed it. She was a great child performer. And then she goes back into the dressing room with a hand-drawn portrait of me saying "you are awesome."
These kids were great actors. And maybe they knew how great they were, at least I sincerely hope they know how great they were, but they acted with such humility and decency. And whenever they were praised, they turned it and passed it on back to me or onto other people. A really kind and gracious group.
Joseph Ngyuen was a munchkin, a resident of Emerald City, and he played the monkey, Niko. This was his big scene-stealing moment. Niko is the overworked monkey that the Wicked Witch of the West just expects to have working overtime, so that he and his monkey co-horts will run into Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion, bob and weave around the jitterbug dancers, and make off with Dorothy, also tearing the Scarecrow to shreds.
Joseph was so great as Jean Michel in Cinderella last summer. And here, without real lines, but rather through monkey shrieks, gestures, and stage tumbling, he handily conveys in monkey language everything that he intends to; that he wants a vacation, the monkeys are tired, and maybe nobody, really, likes, respects or appreciates the Wicked Witch of the West. even her own followers. As for Joseph, I was happy that he and I had our own little moment. In the scene where I was the guard at Emerald City, I had this big monologue where I tried to reassure everyone that everything was alright and the Wizard had matters well in hand, after the Wicked Witch of the West writes Surrender Dorothy across the sky. Joseph improvs a moment where he grabs me by the arms and shakes me. For him, I would riff every night. I'd say something under my breath, like "I'm out of my depth," "I have no answers," "I need a vacation," "I need to visit the Emerald City Spa," "If you get past me they take it out of my Christmas bonus," etc.
I haven't talked about the Jitterbug! This was a sprawling jazz dance number. It goes on for about four or five minutes. And all of the jitterbuggers just loved i. They didn't mind how much work it took to learn it within the first three weeks of rehearsal. They just threw themselves into the task with wild abandon. I think they enjoyed it so much, it wasn't really work by performance night. Oh, to be sure, they were tired. Joseph Ngyuen, mind you, was Niko the monkey, then would change into a jitterbug costume in the wings ot dance to that, then would change back into the costume of the monkey, replete with mask and wings, and go out to do the choreographed stage combat of fighting the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, and kidnapping of Dorothy.
Oh, it was fun to watch the jitterbug. So much fun, I threw myself into the dance in two of the early rehearsals, filling in for actors who were absent. The first night, I faked it well enough to stumble through with Rori Meyers. The next night, I partnered up with Paulla Houston. Both Rori and Paula were absolutely gracious about guiding me by the hand through a dance in which I wasn't qualified to beat to the drum that everyone else was, and quickly found myself out of my depth. I was just thankful to be a guest in the fun experience. I was happy to retreat to the wings and sing along with that part once performance time rolled around.
Great success by the production staff. Blakey knew what he was doing. I'll grant you, yes, at first, I thought to myself, "Dave, what are you doing bestowing upon me a speaking part as large as Uncle Henry and the Guard? Is this some kind of joke? You mean I've gotta' sing alone during the first part of "Merry Old Land of Oz?" I thought I had pulled the greatest grift in the history of Music Guild, getting myself a fairly large part where I had to sing a solo and lead a dance at the same time, knowing how confirmed of an ensemble player I am, content to follow other people further downstage of me in the big dance numbers. I thought I had convinced them that I had more skill than I actually had. And eventually, either they'd replace me with the real Uncle Henry/the Guard at Emerald City, that it was a big joke, or that the'd grow wise to the fact I was massively underqualified for the role I was given. But Dave never said "the joke's on you," or "We're on to you, the jig is up." He shepherded me through the whole process. He helped me see it through to fruition.
And now I'm glad that I was part of this whole process. I feel as though it was it was meant to be the whole time, that everyone else was on board with me playing simple Uncle Henry and dance master of ceremonies the Guard.
Great work also by Curtis Fischer-Oelschlaeger as the music director and pit orchestra conductor. Great work by Deb Swift as Assistant Music Director. Great work by Deb Shippy as our Assistant Director, who along with Dave made sure that I was able to get all the time off that I needed to go back to California to be with Sara for the memorial service of her dad. Great to have Craig Woodard as the Stage Manager, great to have Emma Benson as the choreographer. I was not, actually, out of my depth with this show, dancewise. I had Emma's help with a thorough demonstration and explanation of all of my dance moves. She also hosted a great cast party at her and Aaron's house.
Great work with props by Julie Hummel. Great light design work by Robert and Brittney Crist. Great sound design by Ryan Mandle. They had to balance the visual effects of the tornado coming directly for the Gale's homestead in Kansas.
I am sure in spite of my best efforts, I have inadvertently forgotten to mention somebody who did something great within the Wizard of Oz. Oh yeah, Costume Designer Sue Woodard! She and her staff helped me find costumes that fit me perfectly. She had help from Angie Stark and Carol Moon, who helped me with costume changes. Michelle Steen also helped me with a quick change one of the performance nights. Also, thank you to Sue Cates and her sister, Sandy, for their help with the make up every night. I couldn't get the foundation right, and I relied on them heavily for help. Thanks to the COVID restrictions being lifted that I could use the same make-up kit that they used with other performers.
I was very happy to be part of The Wizard of Oz at Music Guild. It was a remarkable experience, and I will remember everyone involved in this show with great fondness and love.