The Day I Realized I'm Going to Miss Cafe Con Leche..

Today I was back at the OGB, Florida Grand's fairly sub par rehearsal studio.

We haven't opened yet. That's tomorrow, but I started cover stagings with the young artists, and so peeled myself out of bed this morning in order to go in and work with the two young study covers for Sulpice and Marie. Thank god for cafe con leche at Karlo Bakery or I might never have been able to keep my eyes open long enough. As it were, I took a huge nap right after I got home. Cover stagings are common in a young artist program. Generally, each major role in the mainstage opera has a "study cover" in the program. What that means here is that they learn a few of the arias/duets/trios and attend some of the rehearsals to become familiar with the staging. Then, after the opera opens, the assistant director comes into staging rehearsals with the covers and puts together a little showing of these various sections. We have no costumes, very few props, and no set since the whole thing is done in the empty rehearsal hall. Ultimately, the whole thing is an exercise to let the administration and other guests see the singer's ability to play scene. For me, it's an opportunity to work on the scene from a director's point of view, though not quite since I'm actually working off of Dottie's blocking.

It's a difficult thing actually. This is especially so since the scenes that were chosen for the staging are extremely hard to do in Dottie's staging without set pieces, a harpsichord, and, in the scene I was doing today, nine extra soldiers off of whom Marie and Sulpice continually play. I was actually pretty nervous to get started. I took a lot of time thinking about how to use this huge blank (and, frankly, unattractive) space creatively to give these kids the feeling that they are actually performing something worthwhile and fun. I turned the front around from where it normally is so that the audience is facing the small stage in the back (which is actually used for storage), then had Marie enter from behind the curtain and Sulpice come running in from the hallway. I put the rolling ladder against the back to give some levels for the periods when the two are saluting the flag, and placed some various benches around.

By the time we started I was feeling pretty confident, and the rehearsal went quite smoothly. We finished in under two hours and had half an hour to run the piece a couple of times. I was pleased with the chemistry between the two singers and loved their openness to my ideas (and their ability to make choices on their own - something that not all singers . . .even the most seasoned . . .are able to do).

In actual "Fille Du Regiment" land, we had our final dress rehearsal last night. Final dresses here (as in many companies) have an invited audience, many of them students. Dottie was really nervous about how everything would come off, but I think we were all pleasantly surprised. First of all, my chorus nailed it! They definitely still have somewhere to go, but they finally got the drill team numbers and got all but one of their prop moves. As for the audience, they were in heaven! They laughed so hard and whistled and screamed at the curtain call. I felt like everything finally came together, and I've gotta say . . . I was a bit worried there for a while.

We open tomorrow. I'm still nervous, as I always am on opening night, but feeling like a huge weight has fallen pell mell off my shoulders. After this it's easy. Three more sections for the cover staging and finalizing my paperwork...that's nothing.

I can't wait to suddenly have time for myself.