On Demo CDs
Got my BARE: A Pop Opera demo/sampler CD in the mail this week! Yay! (You can order one here.) I've been really looking forward to this since seeing the show back in April. Wow. Maybe a month ago, and it seems like so long. I've put up two new shows and a benefit cabaret in that time. Eek!
Anyway, I'm really enjoying the sampler because it gives me a chance to revisit some of the music from BARE, which I enjoyed very much live, and really listen to the words. Words are going to get a little lost sometimes anyway in live theatre, and as I mentioned to the music team when I saw the show, there were times when the vocals just needed to be mixed more "in front" because they were getting lost in the accompaniment. The sampler also gives me a chance to introduce Ned to Romelda T. Benjamin, who plays Sr. Chantelle and sings "911! Emergency!" on the disc (although her tour de force "God Don't Make No Trash" is not included. That's the song when I KNEW she HAD to play Jocelyn in the prison musical.)
Listening to this sampler, I'm tempted to compare it to the "Johnny Guitar" sampler, the "Ministry of Progress" sampler, and the demo CD Ned is recording with songs from the prison musical. I have to say, Ned's stuff is pretty darned close up there to BARE and head and shoulders above the JG and MOP demos. Of course, Ned records things for a living. Still, considering the prison songs are just Ned and friends performing in our home studio, and BARE is a professionally recorded studio demo with the original cast, band, orchestrations, etc., it's amazing how good Ned's stuff is turning out. And he's got some really teriffic songs in there too! Yeah, some need to be changed, especially 85 Percent, although we have to figure out what we're doing with Debbie first. It's odd - if Ann Harada were playing her, I could see the character going one way. If Kaitlin Hopkins were playing her, she'd go another way. I wonder if other playwrights let their casting choices dictate the choices their characters make? At any rate, as I was reading through the latest draft, I found another place to musicalize (one of Debbie's letters to Steve) and it will be interesting to see who I hear singing it in my head as we write it.
I don't know what all this has to do with moving to NYC, which is ostensibly why I started this journal. I had a brief chat with an acquaintance from All That Chat who, it turns out, is the first and so far only person to tell me "Move here? Are you kidding? Stay put!" Of course, she moved there from D.C. which isn't too different from NYC. Certainly not as different as Branson. Here, it's much more affordable to work on the new musical, record demos, get a reading at the Vandivort Center Theatre, etc. But in NYC we could audition for the BMI Musical Theatre writer's workshop and get actual professional actors and actresses to do our reading. Of course, we'd have to win the lottery to pay for it (or become really really good friends with Robyn Goodman, my preferred method.) Then tonight Christina called - she's been downsized at work. I reminded her she hated her job and that she should be temping - and of course, "When God closes a door, He opens a window," which I truly believe. And with all that, she still believes in living in NY. If we follow our dreams, does everything always somehow workout? I dunno - living here, solvent, or living in a cardboard box but rubbing shoulders with people like Jeff Marx and Bobby Lopez. It's a toss up. What is my true dream? Perhaps it's time to go get some sleep and try to find out.
=:@}
Anyway, I'm really enjoying the sampler because it gives me a chance to revisit some of the music from BARE, which I enjoyed very much live, and really listen to the words. Words are going to get a little lost sometimes anyway in live theatre, and as I mentioned to the music team when I saw the show, there were times when the vocals just needed to be mixed more "in front" because they were getting lost in the accompaniment. The sampler also gives me a chance to introduce Ned to Romelda T. Benjamin, who plays Sr. Chantelle and sings "911! Emergency!" on the disc (although her tour de force "God Don't Make No Trash" is not included. That's the song when I KNEW she HAD to play Jocelyn in the prison musical.)
Listening to this sampler, I'm tempted to compare it to the "Johnny Guitar" sampler, the "Ministry of Progress" sampler, and the demo CD Ned is recording with songs from the prison musical. I have to say, Ned's stuff is pretty darned close up there to BARE and head and shoulders above the JG and MOP demos. Of course, Ned records things for a living. Still, considering the prison songs are just Ned and friends performing in our home studio, and BARE is a professionally recorded studio demo with the original cast, band, orchestrations, etc., it's amazing how good Ned's stuff is turning out. And he's got some really teriffic songs in there too! Yeah, some need to be changed, especially 85 Percent, although we have to figure out what we're doing with Debbie first. It's odd - if Ann Harada were playing her, I could see the character going one way. If Kaitlin Hopkins were playing her, she'd go another way. I wonder if other playwrights let their casting choices dictate the choices their characters make? At any rate, as I was reading through the latest draft, I found another place to musicalize (one of Debbie's letters to Steve) and it will be interesting to see who I hear singing it in my head as we write it.
I don't know what all this has to do with moving to NYC, which is ostensibly why I started this journal. I had a brief chat with an acquaintance from All That Chat who, it turns out, is the first and so far only person to tell me "Move here? Are you kidding? Stay put!" Of course, she moved there from D.C. which isn't too different from NYC. Certainly not as different as Branson. Here, it's much more affordable to work on the new musical, record demos, get a reading at the Vandivort Center Theatre, etc. But in NYC we could audition for the BMI Musical Theatre writer's workshop and get actual professional actors and actresses to do our reading. Of course, we'd have to win the lottery to pay for it (or become really really good friends with Robyn Goodman, my preferred method.) Then tonight Christina called - she's been downsized at work. I reminded her she hated her job and that she should be temping - and of course, "When God closes a door, He opens a window," which I truly believe. And with all that, she still believes in living in NY. If we follow our dreams, does everything always somehow workout? I dunno - living here, solvent, or living in a cardboard box but rubbing shoulders with people like Jeff Marx and Bobby Lopez. It's a toss up. What is my true dream? Perhaps it's time to go get some sleep and try to find out.
=:@}