Rehearsal, Technically Speaking

Posted by January LaVoy, actor--

Whew! We've just completed the first 40-some-odd hours of Coraline tech rehearsals (with a few more to come). It's left me feeling simultaneously exhausted and compelled to blog a bit about the experience. 

I've been doing theatre for some time now, and have been fortunate enough to act in a number of new plays.  But I've never felt the type of creative energy and commitment that I feel from our Coraline tech and design crew. Each day of tech rehearsal has brought new delights - incredible and intricate set dressing, unbelievably gorgeous and inventive props, mind-blowingly beautiful lighting effects, fabulous and innovative costume designs... I could go on and on!  But I won't, because you simply must see it for yourself! 

I also wanted to send out some mighty props (not the stage kind) to the folks who are helping us put it all together backstage - our wardrobe crew, dressers, deck carpenters, ASM, PA's, et al... There is a huge group of people putting this show together, and they are doing it with amazing generosity and good humor. I'm so grateful to everyone involved.  Every night this week, as I fell into bed, thoroughly exhausted, I thought about how lucky I feel to be a part of this show, at this moment in my life.

Onward, now, to our first public performance tomorrow night...

Score!

Posted by Lewis Flinn, composer—

The music in The Third Story is an exercise in theme and development.  The first trick was composing a theme, a short melodic hook, that sounded at home in all the various worlds of this play - a nineteenth century Russian fairy tale, a 1940's Hollywood gangster film, and the lab of a mad scientist.  It needed to be able to be reinterpreted for both romantic scenes and action scenes.  Once that melody was discovered, the next trick was making it all sound authentic (not a pastiche) and believably orchestral.  Of course, there is no budget to hire an orchestra, so it all had to be done by me on my computer, using samples of real players and some music production tricks.  Finally, there was the challenge of the scope of the score - there are over 120 music cues, ranging from short transitions to long underscores.  The latter is often compromised of several overlapping elements that blend in and out at particular points in a scene so that the music remains specific to the dramatic moment.  Just like a real film score.  Hopefully.

Click here to listen: