September 1st --- all ready?

September.  I dreaded September for years and years --- starting when I was six. When I was five I had no idea what school was, but I did when I was six.  That's when the dreams would start just as school was approaching. Not nightmares really, but anxious dreams where I rehearsed everything about school for several weeks before "the big day".  Those dreams generally lasted for the first weeks of school --- at least into October -- then I'd relax and the dreams would be gone --- until the next year.  The dreams, by the way, lasted until I stopped teaching --- hmmm --- in my thirties.
Now I have those dreams whenever I prepare for a performance.  They've already started for "Obsession." But in performance dreams, the music swirls again and again.  My worst show dreams were when I directed "George M" because it was all Cohen music and NONE of it was slow!  You can't sleep with "You're a Grand Old Flag" going on relentlessly in your brain.
At least some of the music I wrote for "Obsession" is "ballady" enough to still sleep with. And the good news is as the music swirls, I hear variations that help with the writing --- you know when you're writing show music you have several basic themes that need to recreate themselves, depending on the scene.  At least that's how I look at the music.
So I've gotten some great stuff written from the dreams --- in the original Frankenstein symphony piece that we wrote, there was a song that Victor, the scientist, sings in the third movement questioning all of his choices. Because of the swirling, I realized that this song should be put into the first act, in the very beginning.  We're now using it for the student scene when Victor first goes to the university and starts his quest to find the secret of life. Michael and I are very pleased with how this whole scene has turned out.  I hope the scene is as good on stage as we feel it is on paper.
Oops --- shouldn't have said that --- tonight that will be part of my dream!

getting ready for performance

So tonight I join 30+ people to do a review "43 Summers at the Croswell" which will run for three performances this weekend.
The Croswell Opera House is officially the oldest continuously running theatre in Michigan and unofficially the third oldest continuously running theatre in the USA.  It opened in 1866 and because Adrian was on the railroad route from Boston to Chicago, the Croswell was on "the circuit" and for years had national celebrities performing there including John Philip Sousa and Maude Adams (and a bunch of others that I can never remember).  In the early part of the 20th century it switched from being a vaudeville house to being a movie house.  Then in 1967, when the Butterfield group decided to close it as a movie theatre, a private group purchased the building and the Croswell continued on, once again producing live theatre.
The Croswell's success for the last 43 years has come primarily from musicals, and that's what the review is all about this weekend, featuring songs from so many shows --- from Pirates of Penzance to Rent.
This is the theatre where we are going to premiere our show, "Obsession", and the artistic director is a dear friend of mine, so of course, I said "yes" when asked to be in the review.
I'm having a great time, but I have forgotten just how much work it is performing.  I'm tired!
But every night, no matter how tired or sore I am (I didn't know I had those muscles!), I am exhilarated every time I get on stage.
The house lights dim, the spot light shines, the music starts, and I'm alive.
That's what the Croswell has done for me --- and countless others who have graced her stage since 1866.  The Croswell is home to so many of us.  WE are a rather ornery and dysfunctional family; the Croswell ghosts do their best to corral us --- yes of course there are ghosts!  But the show goes on --- no matter what is going on backstage.
My dearest and closest friends all come from the Croswell.  I met my husband there.  My son first sang on her stage when he was three.
Now, part of the cast of this revue are kids my son grew up with who now are toting their own children into the theatre to become the next generation of "Croswell Kids."

We are blessed to have this building in our midst. http://www.facebook.com/TheCroswell

Morning Commute - the video

so the idea of putting a quick video of Morning Commute stuck with me all day --- here it is.  The video portion is all free stock footage, so please don't get too wrapped up in what you see; it's what you hear that I care about.