h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So...on Sunday, I started rehearsals for West Side Story.

"But...David, aren't you rehearsing for Titanic?"

Yes, I am, but the rehearsals don't clash, thankfully.

"But...David, aren't you too old to be a Jet or a Shark?"

Yes, I am indeed. Which is a shame. However, I'll be playing one of the four adult characters, Doc.

"But...David, aren't you a few decades too young to play Doc?"

Yes, right again... So how did this happen?

- - - - -

A few weeks ago I had a chance encounter in the pub with the lady who is the musical director for this production, which is being mounted by a local Performing Arts school. I asked her how the production was going, and enquired about the adult cast members, explaining that whenever I've seen the show, I've been disappointed by the adults, who are just not anywhere near as good as the Jets, the Sharks and their girls.

Then, last Wednesday, another friend (who had played Bill in Me and My Girl) contacted me via Facebook and said "How about putting your money where your mouth is?" It transpired that they were down one adult male member of the cast, and my name had come up. So I went along, read the parts of Schrank and Doc for them, and they decided that they would transfer my friend from Doc to Schrank and have me as Doc, as we'd be better that way around. Half an hour later and I was rehearsing a scene with the Jets and Anita, where I shout at everybody. What a wonderful first impression to give them! This was the first time this scene had been done at all, and it was quite a horrible one, where the Jets taunt and almost rape Anita.

It's more thana tad scary coming in when the rehearsals have been running for quite a long time. The kids all know each other and know what they're doing. Old Doc/new Schrank at least knows them, but he's now at the same place as me in terms of knowing what he's doing - Schrank's scenes have not been rehearsed yet (though, to be fair, he hadn't done Doc's scenes very often).

The part is a nice one. Entirely spoken, no singing or dancing, but the scenes I do have are quite challenging, displaying a range of emotions. It'll be a challenge. Doc is normally played as quite old. He doesn't have to be, but I will still have to act and look a little older than I actually am, as he's supposed to be a surrogate uncle figure to Tony, the male lead.

It should be fun. Challenging, but fun. Performances are one month away, so I've got to learn and perfect this quickly. But I'll enjoy performing with my friend again (haven't done so since Me and My Girl in 2006), enjoy working with the talented energetic youth, and enjoy doing something somewhat different.

Congratulations on the part. I'm sure the makeup folks cam make you appear older. They do some amazing things.

The important thing is for you to have fun with it.

I have more that needs to be added, but will just say this in passing - my attempts at a Bronx accent are dreadful. Truly dreadful!

I would have a hard time with a Bronx accent myself. How do you go about learning an accent? Are there tapes to listen to or do you have a dialect coach or what?

My problem with WEst Side Story is that I never was good at snapping my fingers.

I would have been happy with Officer Krupke, Shrank or Doc, but when I did WSS eight years ago I was too young for those roles, and ended up endeavouring to emulate a teenager, as a Puerto Rican punk (or to be specific a member of the Sharks). The finger clicking wasn't too hard, the gymnastics of the fights, and climbing of the scaffolding were much fun (though I think my cartwheel was less than elegant) - the most memorable part though was for each performance having to bring my hairline forward and hide my bald patch by spraying on 'Mane' - a hair thickening product that in my case just coloured my scalp until showered off afterward, turning the water black.

Be thankful you have the maturity to avoid this spectacle

Interesting, David. And I also would like to know the answer to Hypatia's question about learning dialects.

or is it ?

Wants to hear more....

P.S. Now we can soon drop your name...to trumph other namedroppers

Well, over the course of 3 rehearsals this week, my role has expanded somewhat...

I am still playing Doc, though much giggling was caused during one scene where Tony tells Riff that Doc has owned the drugstore for 27 years, which means that i inherited it at the ripe old age of 2! I am older than the Jets, who are appropriately aged, but some of the sharks are definitely older than me, very peculiar.

I'm also doubling as Officer Krupke, which is even more bizarre in terms of 'typical David roles'. He's on in three scenes, but doesn't say much - mostly looks confused and (once) falls over. I do get to blow a police whistle a lot, though, which should be fun. I'll also be in full police uniform, to make it less obvious that Doc is moonlighting. [They're clearly desperate!]

Also, I'll be singing in the wings at various points, though that is not exactly unusual for me as I have done that in seven shows thus far!

Learning the accent is a case of listening to examples of it and working out what happens to key vowels and consonants compared to the way I'd naturally say them. My trouble at the moment is that my attempts at Bronx are falling dangerously close to 'stereotypical Italian gangster', which is annoying. I have to attempt to create two different Bronx-ish sounds as well, for the two different characters. Krupke will speak more slowly and in a lower register.

For example, the 'o' sound in 'coffee' is the most obvious difference in accents - it becomes an 'or' sound (well, something close to it, with a sort of 'w' thrown in for good luck), so this gets replicated over other short 'o' vowels in my lines. I can't just learn my lines phonetically, I have to be able to produce the accent naturally, as things may go wrong - I could have to ad lib for a while, or change what I say slightly because my cue line is said differently. Ideally, once I've mastered all the vowel and consonant sounds, I should be able to grab a random book and read it as if I was one or other of the characters.

Oh, I will also get pointers on accent/dialect from the acting coach there, but she is (naturally) more focussed on the kids at the moment. As it's a show for Phoenix Performing Arts, it is their students that are the key, I'm just there to help them out really.

Well, I've had a very full week of WSS rehearsals, and some of my musings on proceedings can be found at my blog [ http://singinglibrarian.wordpress.com ] including a lovely pic of me in costume as Officer Krupke.

It's blooming hard work, it really is. Each time we do a run-through, I seem to nail one or other of the two characters but not both. Doc is more consistent, as he has much more depth and range (frustration, capitulation, fury, sorrow). Krupke is harder as it's difficult to concentrate on the physical aspects of the part (by lifting my chest, it makes it look like I'm a lot heftier than I actually am) and still manage to create a vaguely believable character.

Some of the kids/young people are sensational. Absolutely mindblowing. And some of the dance numbers are incredible, they blow me away when I see them. I want to be able to live up to the standard of the show, and the only place where I know I'm doing that is in Doc's final scene where he acts as the messenger, passing on the news to Tony that Maria is dead. I know that the two of us have the audience in the palms of our hands at that moment just from the reactions of the rest of the cast. And the emotions of the moment are getting to me as well. The first complete run of the show that I did brought me close to tears for the end, and yesterday I was genuinely crying. I think I'll be over that by the time we open (in four days ), but who knows.

I was off work this week (coincidence), which handily meant I could go to daytime rehearsals, which have been held since it's a group for younglings. Next week I'm back at work, so my schedule looks daunting:

Sunday
1-5 run-through and notes
5.30-8.30 band call

Monday
9-5.30 work
6.00 - get to the theatre to drop off costumes, get mic fitted and find out how Doc goes up and down into and out of the cellar

Tuesday
9-1 work
1.30ish-6 - technical rehearsal (which will have started in the morning)
7 - dress rehearsal

Wednesday
8-1 - work
2-6 - dress rehearsal for understudies
7.30 - first performance

Thursday
8-1 - work
2.30 - matinee performance
7.30 - evening performance

Friday
9-5 - work
7.30 evening performance

Saturday
morning off!
2.30 - matinee performance
7.30 - evening performance

I am going to be shattered! And, of course, you have to be there at least half an hour before performances, possibly more in my case as I'll need to sort make-up out. During each performance, I start as Krupke, then become Doc half way through act one, which involves greying my hair. Then I return to Krupke in the interval and become Doc again half way through act two, re-greying my hair which will have been returned to normal while the people in the audience are stretching their legs.

The hair-greying stuff is applied with a toothbrush (wot, no wig? sadly not), but comes out fairly easily. Quite how my hair will react to being greyed and ungreyed so many times I don't know, particularly on the days with mutiple performances.

It's exciting and daunting. How am I going to cope with a cast of 50+ folks from about 10-20 years old in the theatre? They'll all be on adrenaline highs - can you imagine? It'll be an experience, and I hope to do them proud.

Sunday, we had our final run-through before descending upon the theatre, plus the second band call.

The run-through was jolly good, though it didn't make me cry this time (Friday's did, whereas this one just made me teary-eyed, with no cheek-wetting. Doc seems to remain consistent, but Officer Krupke continues to be variable. On Friday, my facial expressions were too 'panto', but on Sunday he wasn't a strong enough character. Somewhere in between is a happy medium, I hope!

The band call went well, though there are some bits which sounded a bit ropy. This is not a huge problem, though - West Side Story is notoriously difficult to play, so teething trouble is to be expected.

Tonight, I go to the theatre for the first time (well, the first time for this show), to explore the bits of set that my characters use and to have my mic sorted out. Exciting!

On Monday evening I turned up at the theatre for some technical bits and pieces. I had my mic checked (all working fine, though some people were disturbed by the effect of me alternating Doc and Krupke's lines as I tested it - I suppose it did sound a bit like a mental breakdown). I learned where Krupke makes his act two entrance from. I didn't find out where Doc's cellar is, as that had not quite been worked out.

I also had a crash course in the history of the boys in the Jet gang, since Doc would probably be aware of all of this information. And I helped to paint the stage red, then moved bits of set around to help with lighting.

- - - - -

Tuesday was the technical rehearsal. I arrived during the lunch break, having zoomed straight from work. I discovered that they were only up to scene four. Eek! I also discovered that Doc's cellar was not where anyone really wanted it to be and involves clambering down a rickety ladder. OK, I can do that, but not with a crate in my hands. The technical run ran, as these things do, slowly, and we had only just begun act two when we had to stop. Oops.

In the evening, we had the first dress rehearsal, which ended up being the one for the understudies. Things ran fairly well, though there were a couple of nightmare scene changes - into the Dance at the Gym and (frustratingly) the final scene change.

My performance was rather lifeless, I felt, until my big emotional shouty/hitty/wanting to cry scene at the end which worked rather well. I need to find performing energy from somewhere. More caffeine needed, I feel!

- - - - -

Today we have the second dress rehearsal and the first night. /

The first night was incredible. There were some problems with the final dress rehearsal, which made one scene more horrible than you can possibly, possibly imagine (we now have a backup plan to prevent unpleasantness again), but everything seemed to run smoothly. Apart from the beginning of the second act, which was delayed for reasons I do not know.

I got an audible gasp from the audience for one of my actions, and the place erupted after certain musical numbers, most notably 'America', which is stunning. Big, big high afterwards.

I'm no longer on a mic., which is a little daunting, but I am told I am audible even so. Hurrah for projection skills in a 1000-seat auditorium!

It's going sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo well!

When my biggest worries are making one particular line audible over the underscoring and making sure that my make-up doesn't run at the end of act two, I can be a happy performer. There have been problems here and there - wardrobe problems of various kinds, most notably, but the reactions have been phenomenal.

I am working with such a very talented group of young performers and feel deeply privileged to be part of the production.

It's all over. Audience reaction was great throughout the run and I truly enjoyed myself. I hope to be able to work with these folks again (next time they need a random 'adult'!) and am pretty certain that this is the best overall production I've been in for quite a while. Just phenomenal.

On the final night, I remained at the theatre until 1am to help with the 'get out', which involved unscrewing, untying and unpinning bits of set, loading lots of heavy stuff onto vans and painting the stage black (having painted it red on the Monday night). Then off to the after-show party, which had been going for a couple of hours already. Had a good chat with one of the backstage guys, watched the younglings enjoy themselves, managed to stay away from the water pistols and went home at 2.30am (when the party was still going).

I shall treasure the shock from the audience when Doc slapped Tony (to get him to 'wake up' to reality), the cheers at the end, the happy way in which the cast accepted me even five months after they'd started rehearsals. I shall remember the various obstacles that life threw in the way of my big act two entrance through the auditorium - a chatty audience member, an usher on her phone, a loose button. I shall have the score stuck in my head for ages.

The whole group was brilliant. Three days after leaving the theatre, I'm still on a high from it all.

Wohoooo!!! Maybe you've experienced what we Flamenco folks call Duende?

*googles* That's quite possible. I was moved to tears several times - not as an observer, but as a participant. I'm not a 'method' actor (i.e. I don't even try to "be" who I'm pretending to be or summon up real emotions - I pretend), but somehow Doc got under my skin, and his rage, loss and grief became my own in several performances. I had an entirely visceral, undefinable involvement in this show which I don't believe I've ever had before.

*nods*

Yep, sounds a lot like Duende to me *searches among quotes*

Oh bother, I can only find the beginning of the quote I was thinking of:

'Duende is a phenomenon that can be applied to any kind of performing art...'

The first time I experienced it myself was while listening to a classical concert.

Rage, loss and grief are also common themes in many Flamenco songs.