Joseph and the Amazing Community Theatre Experience


I've been away from the blog since February because I've been busy. After the NATS and NFMC competitions this past winter, there was another Shubert Alley in the Valley show at the Sautee Community Center. I had the pleasure of singing "Barcelona" from Company with Cheri Crutchfield-Luhn and "You're Just in Love" from Call Me Madam with Laura Owenby, plus singing and moving (we judiciously won't call it dancing) in group numbers from Kiss Me Kate, Mame, Hair and La Cage aux Folles. In April, I took the month off from performances and focused on selecting music for next year's classical and Broadway competitions.


The full cast of our '60s-style Joseph sings the finale

In May, it was auditions for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the summer production at Habersham Community Theatre in Clarkesville. I love this theatre. It is remarkably vibrant and well-supported for a small-town theatre, with a newly renovated space in an old movie house off the square, and fierce competition among old-timers and newcomers alike for roles in upcoming shows.

I was cast as Jacob, Joseph's father. It was a smaller singing role than I would have liked, but Jacob is on stage a lot, acting out in pantomime parts of the story that are being told in song by the narrator and other characters.

It was a challenge for me and I liked it. The beautifully turned and carved walking stick loaned to me by the grandfather of one of the girls in the chorus helped me feel more like a Jacob on stage, and my buddy Laura Owenby's ideas--which she generously shared after generously attending our final rehearsal before dress rehearsal--gave me more to do on stage and, just as important, led me to my own ideas for new things to do that helped enhance the energy and sketch Jacob's character in clearer detail. (In this way, acting is so much like writing, I find: What is my character thinking here? What does he want? What is he doing? Show don't tell!) I gave Jacob brief moments on stage where he talked with God--imploringly, happily, angrily (when his other sons tell him Joseph is dead), and gratefully at the conclusion when he is finally reunited with his favorite son.

These bits of business went a long way to making me more comfortable with the character of Jacob and with my portrayal of him. As a result, I loved every one of our eight performances--and dropped some pounds, too, during the run of the show. So in addition to the opportunity to stretch one's singing and acting chops, learn more about the theatre and how it ticks, make new friends of all ages, and enjoy the unique communal experience of warming up, making up, stressing out, calming down, sweating, bonding, harmonizing and dancing with nearly 50 other local performers, the Joseph experience was good for my health, too. How can you beat it?

One of my favorite scenes from Joseph--"Those Canaan Days," a beautiful ballad comically sung by Jacob and sons as they reminisce about the glory days of Canaan when Joseph was with them





Time to pump it up!

This is the second year I have entered the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) state competitions. I don't like that word because competing is not my intent; most of the entrants are college music students and I feel competing with them is like an orange competing with an apple. But ... I placed third recently in the classical music category for men over 23 in their 1st and 2nd years of study. Whoo-hoo! I was thrilled. Came home with a certificate, a $25 check, a little bit of pride, and six sheets of comments from the judges--three for the classical music I sang, three for the selections from musical theatre. Now I'm pumped and ready to kick my breathing and my work on my high notes up to the next level. After all, next year at the NATS competition I've be in the advanced category--men in their 3rd and 4th years of study. No beginner's excuses any longer!

Loesser's lasting impressions

Watching All the Girls Go By/photos by Charlotte Teagle and John Luhn



What fun to do the celebration of Loesser's music on Jan. 23, 2011 to a sellout crowd of 90+. A few of my favorite images from the experience:

• The older fellow seated directly in front of me who knew all the words to "The New Ashmolean Marching Society" from Where's Charley? and sang along with us as we did the number. I learned later that this is a standard piece often performed by barbershop quartets.
• The look on Ted's face as I sang "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" to him.
• Smiles across the room.
• Working with a small ensemble of four (a first for me), the joy of all the group numbers we did, and doing "Fugue for Tinhorns" with nary a wobble when I had thought it couldn't be done. It was also wonderful to hear the laughter in the audience when all three of us started singing our disparate verses together and staying on track.
• The satisfaction of knowing I hit that E-flat in "Coffee Break."
• Looking pretty darn good in a hat.
• The relief of waking up the morning before the performance and knowing that I didn't have a sore throat or cold; this despite the fact that colds were running rampant in our community all through January. I really think being compulsive about hand-washing helps.
• Fully understanding that drinking water is not needed during a performance if you have hydrated well in the days beforehand.
• A fellow whose opinions I respect saying that I had done a wonderful job.
• This thank-you note from the center director: "You have a beautiful voice and a wonderful stage presence--you made me laugh out loud a few times!"
• The thrill of doing a show with fine musicians and solid performers--Laura Leigh Owenby, Barbara Luhn and C.B. Henson. Love you all!

I've Never Been in Love Before



Once in Love with Amy--Ha, ha, ha, ha!

There's no coffee!

Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm

Guys and Dolls

Fugue for Tinhorns--"I've got the horse right here."



It's almost showtime!

Preparing for the Heart & Soul cabaret-style revue has been a great experience, and makes me wonder how people did things like this before the Internet age. Our pianist has a jam-packed schedule, but we three singers have been able to rehearse sans live accompaniment thanks to CDs I made by downloading all our songs by different performers via iTunes, and then transposing them to the keys we selected via some free software I downloaded called Vocal Remover, which is meant primarily to remove voice tracks from recordings (I've never been able to get this function to work), but also lets you change the pitch and the tempo of selected works. With the aid of this CD, we have been able to rehearse the entire show consistently over the past few weeks, working out blocking for our group numbers and practicing the brief dialogue between certain songs. Next week--the week before the show--we have three rehearsals scheduled with the accompanist. We've been able to honor her schedule as well as get our kinks worked out well in advance of showtime. And now I am really looking forward to hearing how we sound with the piano accompanying us rather than Ray Bolger, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Robert Morse, Megan Mullaley and all those lovable toughs from the original cast of Guys and Dolls.