Our Queen was a prince

Artistic Director Ward Holmquist was a real prince during Sunday’s closing performance of The Pirates of Penzance — he actually donned wig, dress and make-up to play Queen Victoria! View Ward’s debut as a supernumerary below.

Stage managers do paperwork too!

Well readers, it has been a full week but the show is open and running beautifully. The past week has kept me busy, as it was tech. Tech is exactly what it sounds like, putting all the technical elements (lights, costumes, props and scenery) together with the singers. A Stage Manager’s job is to come into tech as prepared as possible by having paperwork up to date. Luckily, I have two trusty assistants who keep up on their paperwork. As promised, I will let you into the secret world of Stage Management paperwork.

As a team, we have to know and document everything related to a production. Take my SL Assistant, who works as the costume ASM. She is responsible for putting together costume plots for every single person who walks onto the stage in costume. The plot is in a table that lists singers down the grid. Each box is filled with whatever costume that character is wearing in that scene. She is also responsible for the costume run sheet, which documents EVERY change of costume, and the dressers (people who help singers change costume quickly) use it so that they know what people are wearing and when the singers need to change costumes. You can see an example of our costume plot for La Traviata here: cost-plot-principals.

Similarly, the SR Assistant works on prop paperwork such as a complete prop list. The prop list includes all furniture and anything that is carried by a singer. She also prepares a run sheet, which tells the crew exactly where to put the props so the singers can find them or where a piece of furniture sits during a scene. We used small L-shaped bits of spike tape to “spike” a particular piece of furniture. This insures that the furniture goes in the exact same place each and every night. We also spike set pieces and sometimes even singers! X-marks the spot! Check out our La Traviata prop list here: props-run-sheet.

I generate, among other things, the techmaster. It is a master list of everything that moves on the stage. This includes scenery pieces, microphones, curtains and backdrops that fly in and out, props, sometimes lights and monitors. (Curious to see it? Click here: tech-master.) This is just a small sampling of all the paperwork that the Stage Management team generates for every show. Whew!

During the show, I am responsible for calling the show. Calling the show includes all scenery shifts, light cues, spot light cues, rail cues, and singer pages. I call the show from SL from the Stage Manager’s console. It looks like a mini command center with all the cue lights, microphones and intercom systems.

If you have been to a Lyric Opera of Kansas City performance in the past year you have actually heard my voice. At the beginning of each performance I come over a microphone for my pre-show announcement: “Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to this evening’s performance. In consideration of others please turn off all cell phones…” If you are reading this and saw The Pirates of Penzance, you have heard that speech and will know that the voice you heard is that of the Stage Manager.

As for the intercom system, I use that to call the singers up to stage for each of their entrances during the entire show. When it is 5 minutes before their entrance I grab the intercom and say “Places Mr. Smith to SL. Places Mr. Smith to SL.” I always repeat things over the intercom system just to make sure that the singer has heard the call.

Now for the technical call, nothing on that stage, singers aside, moves without my “GO!” The designers and director make the cues and then pass them on to me to make sure that they get executed properly. For every light cue I give the operator a standby, I say “Standby Light Cue 55.” And when it is time for the cue to be executed I say “ Light Cue 55 GO” and the operator hits the button and the cue goes. Same thing goes for whenever scenery flies in and out I say “Standby Rail Cue 9 the Show Scrim and Blackout Curtain coming IN at a medium speed.” Rail cues require me to say what is flying in or out and at what speed so that the operator knows what to do. So as you can see I tend to have a lot of things to saying during a show! (You can preview my tech calls here: calls___tos.)

Tech rehearsals are just as much for me as they are for everyone else. I need to rehearse timing out everything that I have to say and anticipate the amount of time it takes for my words to reach the operator and for him or her to actually perform the action at the right time. Stage Managing is a lot about logistics and organization but there is also an art in calling the show. So now when you go to see a performance and you see the lights change or the scenery move you know that there is a Stage Manager saying a lot of “Standbys” and Gos!”

Phan gives a shout out

Tenor Nicholas Phan, in Kansas City for a concert with the symphony, sat in on a performance of The Pirates of Penzance on Wednesday.

He gives a shout out to us in his blog. Check it out!

Horseley on Pirates: “immensely entertaining and very, very funny”

Paul Horsley’s review of The Pirates of Penzance has been posted on the Independent‘s web site:

Director Dorothy Danner is not just blessed with unflagging imagination, she is also a former Broadway dancer and choreographer. As such, this Pirates contains two solid hours of intricate, solidly conceived choreography. Soloists and choristers alike must have worked as hard on the physical comedy as they did learning their roles. Barely a second goes by when there isn’t something interesting to watch…

The leads seemed made for their roles. Nili Riemer’s silver-bell coloratura was a delight on the ear, and it allowed her to add insider “quotes” from other famous coloratura arias in Mabel’s big “Poor wand’ring one” aria, which was deftly played and limpidly sung.

Chad A. Johnson as Frederic, the apprentice pirate, possesses a solid tenor that was consistent in all its ranges. His elegant stage movements were whimsical and assured without striking that “look-at-me-I’m-the-tenor” stance. Markus Beam as the Pirate King was the “hot dog” of the show, not just looking but acting like Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow, but adding to it a golden baritone. He sparkled onstage…

You can read the entire review here.

Trussell calls Pirates “irresistible”

Robert Trussell of The Kansas City Star praised our production of The Pirates of Penzance:

As Frederic, tenor Chad A. Johnson delivers a delightfully broad, physical performance, perfectly capturing the inner conflicts of a self-described “slave to duty.” Baritone Markus Beam fully invests himself in the Pirate King, the most flamboyant role in the show. Robert Gibby Brand’s performance as the Major-General is as precise as it is broad (indeed, he’s the one who will remain in your head after you leave the theater). Soprano Nili Riemer demonstrates stunning vocal pyrotechnics and a finely-tuned sense of comedy as the beautiful Mabel, with whom Frederic falls in love.

The Lyric’s … production outshines the Rep show [from a few seasons ago]. Conductor Andy Anderson elicits fine work from the orchestra.

Read his entire review here.

Bev Chapman knows Victoria’s secret

Bev Chapman, one of our celebrity Queens for The Pirates of Penzance has posted on entry on her blog about the experience. You can read all the dirt, including Victoria’s secret, here.

Local Celebrities appear in The Pirates of Penzance

Our upcoming production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s swashbuckling tale of duty gone awry will feature local celebrities in their Lyric Opera debuts playing the Queen of England in each performance.

See your favorite Queen during these performances:

• The Saturday, April 25, 2009 performance will feature five-time Emmy award-winning writer and reporter Bev Chapman from KMBC-TV9 in the role. 
• The Monday, April 27, 2009 performance will feature the Producing Artistic Director of the Unicorn Theatre, Cynthia Levin, in the role. 
• The Wednesday, April 29, 2009 performance will feature Crystal Wiebe, the calendar editor at The Pitch in the role. 
• The Friday, May 1, 2009 performance will feature News and Arts Reporter, Laura Spencer from KCUR FM in the role.
• The Sunday, May 3, 2009 performance will feature Lyric Opera of Kansas City Artistic Director Ward Holmquist as the Queen. 

Pirates preview: The Pirate King

Guest blogger: Week 2, blocking

Our amazing cast has worked so hard for the past week and a half, and I’m happy to announce that as of this evening, the entire show is blocked! What does that mean?

Well, it means that more or less, every person in the show is supposed to know where to go on stage (cross downstage left on this phrase, do a waltz for eight measures on that phrase, draw swords on the second beat of this measure, twirl parasol for one and a half measures on this high note, etc) at all times.

What does that really mean?

Although we may not be able to improvise many moves on stage because of the great choreography, dance numbers, and large number of pointy, drawn, swords in the show (for fear of poking an eye out!), as actors, our job is to make sure that our movements are motivated by choice, by our character, by our music, and our own intensions.

As a singer and actor, it is now my job to look at my music score every night before I go to bed, and make sense of all of the little markings that I’ve added into it this past week of staging rehearsals. Not because I’ve been told to go somewhere at some point in the show, but because my character, Mabel, in her aria, motivates all of the moves, dances, twirls, jumps and turns, as she gushes about her newfound love through song.

Currently, I’m open to a page that shows the following:
Enter SL w.Parasol
XDCsteps
XCtoF.
Back to F.
XDR to E.R.
R,L,R,L, DC v.2

Which means: Enter from stage left with parasol. Cross Downstage Center on the steps. Cross Center stage to Frederick. Have my back to Frederick. Cross downstage right to Edith and Ruth. Right foot, Left foot, Right foot, Left foot, Downstage center for beginning of verse 2.

Within the guidelines of ‘blocking’, we are able to do a lot of character work. Asking why is always a good place to begin.
Why would I skip to the right here? (I’m so excited and a bit scared about being so close to Frederick!) Why do I address my sisters in this section? (They are looking at me like they don’t believe me!) Why do I look at Frederick and then immediately look away in the beginning of the show? (I just professed my love to a total stranger!) Why at the end, am I able to always be looking for Frederick? (I have realized that he has risked just as much for me as I have for him).

When you see us make a move on stage, whether it is a XDR (cross downstage right), or a twirl of a parasol, a waltz, a two-step or a leap over part of the set, know that everything has been planned and rehearsed to a tee, so that in the performance, every aspect of ‘blocking’ will look like a natural impulse and instinct of the characters interacting with one another on stage!

Guest Blogger: Week One in Kansas City and LOKC!

Hello everyone!

 

My name is Nili, and I’ll be joining the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in the upcoming production of The Pirates of Penzance. 

 

If you already read a bit about me below from the “10 questions” blog entry, you now know that I am a constant traveler and that I have lived in many cities all over the world and in the U.S.  So what better topic to write about for a first blog entry than my arrival and first week’s experiences in KC?

 

I arrived in KC with three other members of the cast last Friday evening, after a seemingly never-ending flight from NYC’s LaGuardia Airport. You see, we were supposed to take off around 11 a.m. (that means, I set my alarm for 7:30 a.m., left the apartment at 8 a.m., and made it through traffic and to the airport by 9 a.m.—just in time to be 2 hours early for the flight check-in).

 

Unfortunately, the weather in NYC had other plans for our flight, and so we finally took off around 2:30 p.m. and arrived in sunny KC a few hours later!

 

When I arrive in a new city I always like to find out about my surroundings from the locals—they always know the best places to go, the hidden gems, and the famous spots for restaurants, museums, and other city attractions.

 

Equipped with recommendations and my iphone “Maps” application, I can begin to discover the city on foot and by car.

 

Although first I’ll need a day off to do all of that! 

 

We began rehearsals for The Pirates of Penzance the morning after our arrival, with a cast sing-through on Saturday.  This is the first time that the entire cast meets each other, the director, the conductor, and everyone else involved in making the opera a success behind the scenes–including the production and technical team!  We sang through the whole show under the energetic guidance of Maestro Andy Anderson, and from there, we hit the ground running—as staging rehearsals began with our lively and spirited director Dottie Danner.

 

I’ve spent a week here in Kansas City, and I already know my experiences will be one-of-a-kind. I’m very excited to be sharing my thoughts with you as I prepare for my first-ever performance of the role of Mabel, the ex-Pirate Frederick’s love interest!

 

Until next time—feel free to comment below with YOUR favorite KC hot-spot picks, and don’t be too shy to say hi if you see me shopping on the Plaza during my lunch or dinner break hour in between rehearsals!