It’s Monday night. I just don’t want to mess up like I did last week. But it kind of feels a bit inauthentic. Maybe only once I think I’ve written you on the night before. What’s been fun is being present, in the moment, in the mornings consistent to start the day with you and a mug of joe as the sun rises. Instead, tonight I’m ending the day with you and a short beer (7oz Corona). I guess making a thing out of Tuesday’s being about Tuesday really isn’t a thing. Old habits die hard. But this way, it won’t be late railroaded by the unexpected matters that can pop up during the morning. It’s all good.
What is incredibly good is that it’s time to wrap up our rehearsals in our beautiful new rehearsal hall. We’ll be moving onto the Paramount stage Wednesday afternoon. What we call a “Stumble-through” is a first time attempt to run the entire show without stopping with it understood its okay to get lost, forget a prop, ask for a line, stop for safety, go back and start over a scene, song, or dance, etc…but no one stumbled on Saturday afternoon! It’s more like watching the Olympics as our newsies fly through the air singing their hearts out. What athletes! And their voices!
Then during the scene work, you can hear a pin drop as our actors have developed a fine rapport and obviously care so much about each other and the story they’re telling. While it’s agreed we are in “good shape,” for me, it’s still hard to tell how clear and effective we are until we leave behind the intimacy of the rehearsal space and get on the set. That’s a whole ‘nother ball game!
Delivering on expectation in our own unique way, we are being true to what we have experienced in our process.
To our advantage we have a very fine grounding in the performances developed by our leads. Young, determined Justine Cameron’s beautiful “Katherine” is taking charge with a pop mezzo soprano belt in “Watch What Happens” that had the whole room going up as did Alex Prakken’s pop tenor mastery of the impossible closer to Act 1, “Santa Fe.” I mean minutes long ovations! Prakken has played “Jack Kelly” before and I’m taking so much pride in him finding new discoveries for himself. He’s game to try new things and that can be said for the entire cast. Bret Tuomi is crushing it as “Joseph Pulitzer” and our “Medda Larkin,” gorgeous Jerica Exum, raised that new roof singing “That’s Rich!” Michael Kurowski (Crutchie), Koray Tarhan (Davey) and the kid brother “Les”, Nate Buescher and Daniel Font-Wilets, are creating together the foundation we are building upon: smart, funny and surprisingly moving. Delivering on expectation in our own unique way, we are being true to what we have experienced in our process. It’s ours. It’s honest. But it is with more than a little anxiety for me that we approach the epic scale of all the work ahead of us onstage this week. So, keep a good thought!
And guess what? It’s Tuesday morning!
Love & thanks,
Jim