Directing Musicals.

First thought on this subject?

AUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

After I have taken a breath, and then got on with the buissiness of it, it gets a bit more interesting. Firstly, I need to take a moment to apologise to one of my Mentors, Pete Rowe, who - amongst other things - also directed musicals. I assisted him on Sondhiem's "Company" and my dis-interest in the medium was as clear as day. The idea of using song to express emotion, tell a story, move the audience along from one world to another. Not things I was very open to.

"Jackass", I say to myself as I type this.

The second half of my play is a Sangeet Natak. For lack of any better translation, and actually I should just admit it, it translates best, to Musical. Pete, if you're reading this, feel free to chuckle at my expense.

Now, I didn't plan this. It happenned. Just, naturally, and my gut said, it was the right way to go. My wonderful musical director, Arun, has a way of delivering exactly what the play needs musically in the way of underlying score, and seems to be doing just that with the singing section.

So we have - opening scene of second act. From Forest to Tribal Song via Kollatta, a stick dance done in a circular form with everyone hitting each others sticks in rhythm and moving in step. The circular patterns vary, single circle, alternate people moving left alternate people moving right, circle within the circle, inner circle clockwise, outer circle counter clockwise, and so on and so forth. Great way of introducing the tribe.

We then have a bit of dialogue and move into the - you need to learn our language song.
Needed, and it works.

We then have some more dialogue

And then the song - the title song of the play - did i forget to tell you? Our Play now has a name! Kathe Kathe Karana.

I wrote down a bunch of ideas I needed to write in terms of what was important in the song. Akshara penned the lyrics - they're beautiful, and the title emerged from within it.

But my GOD. STAGING THEM!!!! Thank God for sitting in on some of Pete's rehearsals. The only way to do it, is with GREAT patience. WITH GREAT GREAT GREAT patience. Listen to the song at the begginninng. Pick out a roadmap of what you want to show on stage, in order of importance, and if the words ( in Kannadda, a language I do NOT know) match with the action, BONUS! Ok, not true, I know exactly when I need to do what in this song.

But listen first, to the whole song, know it well, and then go about the buissiness of trying to figure out how to move from one ' postcard moment ' (thank you Bill) to the next, in the time that it takes to go from one chorus to the next.

Did I mention the amount of patience it needs, the absolute need to let go of any kind of stage logic I have going on in my head, and stop it from dictating things to me about how things have to be. Real time, stage time, real space, stage space, all get conflated into one bunch of fragments which - once I allow for - really help the song and story along.

Did I mention the amount of patience it needs? Patience? Patience? Patience. Staging, blocking and all of that happens line by line, Bar by bar. I spent the whole second and third section today on Kathe Kathe Karana, and have only got as far as the first section. There are two more sections to go. EEESH.

I have vowed to myself to be done with the whole play, both acts, by day after tomorrow morning. Thats four rehearsal sessions away. But I'm terrified at the amount of time required to nail each thing.

Left -

2 Sections of Kathe Kathe Karana
1 Scene with the King - Dialogue THANKFULLy
1 Burning Scene - still haven't told you that part of the story have I?
1 Denumont (spelling?)

5 in four sessions? Oh woe is me.