I'm excited to see a music workshop of my play, The Forbidden Phoenix. There's a public presentation at Gateway Theatre in Richmond, BC Saturday night. I'm hoping that this will be the first step towards a production of the play on the west coast. My composer is hard at work scoring the piece and he said that all is going well. I can't wait to see the reading. Hopefully, it will give me a shot in the arm for revising my book. Still sluggish, but I'm making progress. Good thing I have time.
Recently in Forbidden Phoenix Category
Oh boy, it's been a while since I had to look at this play, but I dragged it out for my road trip so that I could get it ready for publication. I still have to create a glossary and study guide questions this week, but the script looks in good shape. It's interesting that the reading experience of a play is way different than the performance. The bits that worked in the play worked because they were performed. Now that I see them on page, they just look stilted. Interesting.
It's a very strange feeling to see great reviews of The Forbidden Phoenix like the one in Now Magazine when I know that the show that's been reviewed no longer exists. Thanks to some incredibly bad luck, the actress playing Phoenix was hurt on opening. Her injury is too bad to continue in the physical role. Thanks to some quick thinking and generosity from the rest of the cast, the actress is going to switch her role with the actress playing Empress Dowager, who sits on a cart for the entire show.
Tomorrow, the cast will rehearse the two switched roles after they perform the original show (with our Phoenix on crutches). The cast will continue doing double duty, performing the show with the original cast while rehearsing the new roles. By Sunday, we'll have the official switch. I can't even begin to imagine how the cast is keeping everything straight, but I'm so proud of all of them for stepping up to the plate.
I don't even know where to begin. If you've been following the sage of The Forbidden Phoenix, you know about the injury to one of the actors. I found out yesterday that the theatre cancelled the performance because not only was our actress still hobbled, but our percussionist had kidney stones. It was a little too much to ask the audience to forgive an actor on crutches with no sound score for the fights. Instead of the performance, the cast and crew rehearsed the new Phoenix into her scenes. The new Phoenix is the old Empress and the old Phoenix will become the new Empress. Make sense, yet?
Anyway, it's going to be a hard week with the actors performing school matinees with the Phoenix on crutches, while the actors playing Empress and Phoenix learn the lines for the other parts. On Wednesday, I think they'll rehearse the new roles and by next week, the two will officially switch their roles.
The percussionist is feeling better and should be able to do the run, but the theatre has another percussionist shadowing in case the wheels fall off the bus this week.
I've never had this happen on any of my shows, and I'm scratching my head about which gypsy I may have upset to receive this curse. I'm sending positive thoughts to my cast as they rebuild the show.
I love and hate theatre for the same reason: it's live. The fact that anything can happen on stage on any given night is a thrill, because the actors and crew have to always be on their toes. Unfortunately, live performance also means if something goes wrong, there are consequences.
On opening, our actress playing Phoenix ended up hurting her ankle so seriously that she couldn't stand without the help of crutches. The role calls for some pretty athletic moves, and we have no understudy.
Yesterday, the theatre opted to go on with the show, but adjusted the blocking so that our actress wouldn't further injure herself. To her credit, she went on with the show, even though she was hobbled and using crutches for part of the performance. Of course, the audience was informed of the injury and were forgiving.
We're waiting to hear from the doctor about whether or not our actress can still be in the show. While it's clear she can't play Phoenix any longer, we have to figure out how to replace her. Right now, the most viable solution is to switch her with the actress playing Empress because that character sits on a cart for the entire show and doesn't have to walk. The two actresses are also about the same size, so there won't be major costume alterations. But it will take a few rehearsals for her to get the blocking, lines and songs down.
If the doctor says our Phoenix actress is completely out, then we're going to move a chorus member into the role of the Phoenix and hire someone to replace the chorus member. That means two people will have to learn new roles, which is not ideal considering the show is already up and running.
We're all in limbo until the doctor gives the word, which will probably be later today. I was hoping the drama would be on stage, rather than off stage for this show, but it looks like it's going to be a wild ride for the next couple of weeks.
I have to be honest. When I heard the actress playing the Phoenix went on with the show yesterday, I was pretty darned proud. Someone who has the courage to fight through an injury to put on a show earns huge points in my book. I've seen so many examples where today's workers are willing to quit or skip work for the most trivial of reasons that I've started to become cynical about the future of society. When I heard that our actress went on even with a major injury, it gave me hope that tomorrow is in good hands if there are more people like her.
While I can't be in Toronto to enjoy the performances of The Forbidden Phoenix, I can live vicariously through the show reports from the stage manager and reviews like the one in the Toronto Star.
Yay! Now, I can move on and start focussing more seriously on the Sasquatch novels. If The Forbidden Phoenix is my last play, I'm glad I went out with a bang.
I just had a report from one of my actors and my stage manager for The Forbidden Phoenix. Yesterday, they did two school matinees, and the kids at one performance were booing and hissing at the curtain call for Empress and Horne, while cheering for everyone else. Hilarious. I loved that the kids were so into the story and characters that they felt like they needed to voice their disapproval of the villains.
From all accounts, the cast is doing well with the remount. I hope the Toronto audiences like the show. I'm sad not to be able to see the Toronto run, but such is life.
