BWW is excited to present a new blog, which will follow the Early Stages of CHIX 6, a new multi-genre rock musical written and composed by Lourds Lane (lead singer and multi-instrumentalist from the national touring band, LOURDS) and directed by DJ Salisbury which is now being workshopped...
In case you missed it visit the blogs for: Week One and Week Two
DAY 13
Wednesday, August 18
Lourds Lane (http://lourdslane.com) here.. back again from a much needed day off. Presentations of the 4 week CHIX 6 (http://chix6.com) Equity workshop are around the corner now... August 31, September 1st and 2nd and there is still a lot to do! Load in was at 8 AM to get the baffling around the drums all set up. Sarah is here! Yay! Sarah Vasil is the most badass drummer in the planet... and I'm not just saying that ‘cause she's my pal and bandmate... She just is! But she doesn't read music. She plays by feel. So when it comes to musical cues in the script, she just memorizes where they are. A wee bit tricky to get all the nuances of a two hour show down in less than 2 weeks, but Sarah makes it happen. Amazing!
The first thing we did was score drums for the dance sequence in the "Break-up Scene." The dance is intricately woven into the dialogue. While Ron and DJ were marking the dance, the ASM and SM would speak the dialogue so that everything could be perfectly counted. I beat out drum parts for Sarah with my mouth. Wendy meticulously charted out the irregular counts. By the end of the hour, the map for the scene was created! TEAMWORK!
Snap! I took a picture of Eric and Carrie doing Carrie's "Putting on the Ritz" cheezy smile pose... hysterical! As they went off to work on their lines, others in the cast mused whether or not they'd ever dated because their on-stage chemistry is so believable. Nope. They were in "Mamma Mia" at different times and hadn't met before CHIX 6. Their acting is just THAT good.
Lots of simultaneous action in the studio today! Move over, hoops... Bobby Hedglin Taylor is now teaching Molly how suspend herself in swaths of electric blue silk!! At the same time, Wendy was working with Ruthie on her flute solo and with Jana on the keyboard parts. Gail and Elliot were busy doing arts and crafts to create a "Jay" carousel... gluing photocopied pictures of Eric onto the spokes of a coverless umbrella. I was on a conference call with investors-- a frequent event. Brian Ronan, our sound designer, scoped out the studio and introduced us to our sound guy, Gabe, who will join us the end of next week, when the band also joins the process (only a few days before our showings on September 1 and 2!). WHEW! Busy day but A LOT was accomplished!!
DAY 14
Thursday, August 19
More work on the "Break-up Scene" to check the drum score we created with Carrie and Eric actually speaking the dialogue. It's a little hard to watch again and again because the lines in the scene are words ripped from my own life. Yep, I've actually LIVED this very "break-up scene" when I was dumped earlier this year ... right at the time when I was re-writing my script. It's conceptually pretty to turn pain into art but man, it sure dues sting when I have to constantly pick at the scabs. Whose bright idea was it to put my actual break-up into the script? What a dumbass! You think I'll eventually get numb after seeing it a few more thousand times?
Moving on... Mary came in looking rad in her flashy new red glasses and pumps to embody her character, "SEVEN." We launched right into SEVEN's classroom scene where Mary and the girls had me cracking up. DJ worked his musical staging magic to capitalize on every joke written in the script. And new jokes and gags were added based on how the scene was unfolding. Without the off-beat, colorful, comic book set that we envision, DJ was brilliantly able to indicate dream-like surrealism based on his quirky musical staging. When the seated girls are clicking their heels and tap-tap-tapping their toes to a butchered "Jeopardy" theme, it's clear that we aren't in Kansas anymore. Then, DJ staged the square-dancing country hoedown to Mary's solo, "I hate your guts!" Carrie did cartwheels holding onto Ruthie's legs without touching the ground. After the third or fourth go-around, Gail asked a breathless Carrie if she was OK. Pulling her shirt down, she answered honestly: "My boob's out... but I'm fine!"
The day ended with the girls getting DOWN to Ron's hip hop choreography in "VICTORY" or as Ruthie's Korean mom would say, "BIKTOREEEEEE!"
DAY 15
Friday, August 20
Yeah, so now we have tap dancers pounding it out in one of the neighboring studios... and they sound like they are tapping directly on our wall... or the sides of our heads. Even though the African drummers are gone, I broke into Wendy's celebration dance anyway. I found out it's a move Wendy does in her Intensati class (a high energy workout combining yoga, aerobics, martial arts, and affirmations). It means "playing full out." How perfect!
Once again... simultaneous action! DJ worked with Queen V on "Lioness." She roared with venom in her makeshift "cage." Ron worked with Justin and Molly on hoop choreography. Wendy worked with Jana on keyboard parts, and continued updating charts. I worked with Sarah to hone in on a few drum licks. Bobby taught Molly more tricks to suspend herself in the silks, now yellow instead of electric blue.
Then DJ began staging "Mama's Lookin' For a Sex Slave," Danielle's number. In it, "Mama" hawks men in the audience and heckles them sexually. In every reading of the show, the racy number has been a showstopper, mostly because Danielle is hilarious and sings the f#@* out it. Now with the new Harley Davidson motif-- hot, leather-clad chicks on Hogs singing about f-ing-- this
in-your-face blues jam is undoubtedly going to rrrrrrev people up. SO PSYCHED!
DAY 16
Saturday, August 21
So last night, Danielle, Gail, DJ and I went out for margaritas and some food... margaritas first... Yeah ummm... maybe not so smart... I've got such a low tolerance nowadays that this morning, one eye just refused to open until I apologized to it for my behavior.
The day started off with a run-through of "THE CIRCUS SONG", which features Ruthie on accordion. It's the first song where the protagonist, Katie gets pulled into the surreal comic book world so it needs to feel like we are witnessing a twisted, psychedelic freak show. Without sets and lights, DJ worked his musical staging magic once again and the scene already feels delightfully demented. I loved playing distorted, phase-shifted violin when I performed song as "RISE." But I gotta say, when I hear the oompah of Ruthie's accordion, I feel like I'm sitting right on the carousel. Wendy says, "Accordions are like children and puppies... they just make you happy." I completely agree. I wish I had Ruthie around when I was producing the concept album! Oh, and Ruthie said her accordion's name is "Francis." Molly asked, "Boy or girl?" Ruthie responded, "Both... ‘cause it's push and pull!" Pahahahaha! That girl cracks me up!
DJ blocked the show's final "BIG REVEAL" scene today. At one moment, the entire cast was singing a capella in the audience while Eric and Carrie brought the book work to thrilling life. It was chill bearing! A few days ago, DJ had asked everyone to write up the back story of their superhero characters and my favorite part of today was when the cast read their "homework" out loud. Who are the CHIX 6? Where do they come from? The stories the cast came up with were unbelievably imaginative! Connecting personal history to the character's backstory shifted something for the actors in a clearly powerful way! Danielle actually researched the exact time and place where the tornado in her story would have taken place. Mary connected SEVEN's psychology to the fact that she was the seventh child... as was Mary. Ruthie wrote her homework in the form of a "program bio"... and it was absurdly, adorably nerdy, just like her character! Queen V (we call her "V" most of the time) invented a guitar-playing element to her character "BLAZE," just like V herself. And Molly's history was the most twisted elaborate, roller coaster FAAAAAAAHNTASY of a story... it felt like a movie. All the stories were emotionally deep and fully detailed. The exercise had the cast connect to their inner superheroes ... and I saw yet another facet of these truly brilliant women.
Then... we ran straight through ACT I! AMAZING! Still some work to do... but at the end of it, DJ and I were ecstatic. HNL! HOLE NUTHA LEVIL! Yay!
DAY 17
Sunday, August 22
It's a dark, rainy day and emotions were on high.
DJ staged the big finale, "START THE FIRE NOW!" Ruthie kicked it off with her solo: "There was a broken girl who found her world crushed and without reason. Though a heart can break, the sun stills stays, she pushed to a new season. I won't be bound. I won't fall down..." And before she can finish the rest of the lyric, she was in tears saying... "Damnit, Lourds... your music..."
DJ gave Ruthie the space to let it out, get to the other side of her emotional response. He pushed forward in the staging of the finale. DJ jokingly dared the cast "not to cry" when Carrie makes eye contact with the girls one by one during the last epic guitar solo. He's seen the finale performed enough times to know when the waterworks flow in the cast... and in the audience. Mary responded, "Nah, I'm not a crier." Then after re-considering, she continued... "Though I've cried... like... four times since this whole thing started."
And speaking of crying... Jana, our accompanist/conductor, accidentally smashed her head into a pole during lunch break. She went straight to the hospital. Actually, I don't know if she cried... but I certainly got weepy worrying about her when I heard what had happened. OWEEEEEE! The good news: I found out she is fine. Wendy was out with Mamma Mia, and Jana went home to rest. So for run-though of ACT I, I jumped on the piano to accompany the cast.
DAY 18
Monday, August 23
Last night, DJ and myself saw Mary rock her single dimple off (only her right cheek is dimpled), singing 80's hard rock classics in the off-Broadway show, "POWER BALLADZ" at the MIDTOWN theatre. We were loud and proud, waving our lit-up cell phones in the air when Mary sang Heart's "ALONE." And that last note she hit on Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again."... WHAAAAAAT? SICK! What a fun night!
Woke up pumped... and then it's off to rehearsal! Jana is back! Yay! She told me she was running in the rain, head down, to buy an umbrella, when... BAM! A pole jumped in front of her! She asked me if I wanted to see the staples in her head... I said no... and then closed one eye, and had her show me anyway. OWWWWW! Crazily enough she said it's not the first time her head got stapled!
Some highlights of my day:
1. I will never get sick of watching Wendy score music to dance. This time, she was working on the combative adagio between "Lightning Girl" and "Mi Roar." I wrote a Middle Eastern instrumental piece called "THE FEAR IS OVER" which has 3 main melodic themes. After DJ talked to her about the dance's story content, Wendy masterfully wove, stretched, transposed, truncated, varied, and connected the three themes to accentuate and intensify the choreography that Ron created. Then she transcribed it so Jana could play it! It's truly magical to watch! I ADORE YOU, Wendy Bobbitt Cavett!
2. The "classroom scene" makes me laugh out loud. "SEVEN" (Mary) pretends to be a manic school teacher obsessed with spelling to prod "Katie" into expressing her emotions. On her make-shift sketch pad, pre-printed words are spelled "correctly" on every sheet... well, except for one sheet... When Mary revealed the "correct" answer, she flipped to the next page on the sketch pad to expose the hand-written word inked in black sharpie-- "INSENSATIVE." Oops! Made me chuckle... but hey, mistakes are allowed! It's a workshop!
3. "Brackum brackum" (with the "r" rolled) has become part of the CHIX 6 vernacular. Since our drummer Sarah doesn't read music, I verbalize the beats to communicate with her. I would say "brackum brackum" to describe a drum fill involving a flam, a kick, a flam, then a kick. Now it's just part of CHIX 6 speak and very time anybody says, "brackum brackum," I can't help but smile from ear to ear.
4. I worked with Ruthie, Sarah and Jana to accentuate the nuances of Ruthie's solo in "The Circus Song." We tightened up the punches and incorporated more quirky cowbell action. When it finally got tight, we spontaneously started high fiving with sheer glee.
5. It's like the ice cream truck has arrived every time Carrie opens her mouth to sing... That girl can WAIL!!!!! Pahhhhhraise!
Week 3 is now complete! Spirits are high! One more week to go!!
