playing the same musical 9 times in two weeks

[BassmanA440]

I had a chance to do the Wiz a couple years ago at the LA theater center. I had an absolute blast. The pit (if you can call it that) was located behind the backdrops way behind the stage. We watched the production on 8" black and white monitors and listened through headphones. Except for the MD, who had to run out at the end to take a bow, we played the gig in shorts, tank tops, and tennis shoes. We had to enter and exit through the fire exit, but that let us sneak out for a smoke and joke. We also had the luxury of being able to pick and choose the lines we played from either the play or the movie soundtracks; sometimes we combined both versions in one song. In the sequence where they enter the Emerald City, the movie version won out, totally kicks but.

[Dkerwood]

Originally Posted by BassmanA440

I had a chance to do the Wiz a couple years ago at the LA theater center. I had an absolute blast. The pit (if you can call it that) was located behind the backdrops way behind the stage. We watched the production on 8" black and white monitors and listened through headphones. Except for the MD, who had to run out at the end to take a bow, we played the gig in shorts, tank tops, and tennis shoes. We had to enter and exit through the fire exit, but that let us sneak out for a smoke and joke. We also had the luxury of being able to pick and choose the lines we played from either the play or the movie soundtracks; sometimes we combined both versions in one song. In the sequence where they enter the Emerald City, the movie version won out, totally kicks but.

The highschool that I do most of these productions at is set up like this, too. We all sit behind the backdrop, eating, drinking, acting like fools... We didn't get the monitors or the headphones, though. Just a couple of hot spot monitors and a lot of carefully figured timings...

[Bard2dbone]

Originally Posted by BassmanA440

I had a chance to do the Wiz a couple years ago at the LA theater center. I had an absolute blast. The pit (if you can call it that) was located behind the backdrops way behind the stage. We watched the production on 8" black and white monitors and listened through headphones. Except for the MD, who had to run out at the end to take a bow, we played the gig in shorts, tank tops, and tennis shoes. We had to enter and exit through the fire exit, but that let us sneak out for a smoke and joke. We also had the luxury of being able to pick and choose the lines we played from either the play or the movie soundtracks; sometimes we combined both versions in one song. In the sequence where they enter the Emerald City, the movie version won out, totally kicks but.

Oh hey, Rob. It was cool running into another TBer at the GC the other week.

This reminded me of a not-quite-pit experience I had a few times. We did it two ways, which one you got depended on the facilities available at the movie showing.

But we did live improvised soundtracks for old silent, black and white movies.

One way was to wear all white and have a white backdrop. The movie was shown on the backdrop, including actually projecting on us. It sounds cooler than it was.

The other way was for us to be behind the screen. We couldn't make any eye contact with audience members, but we couldn't with the movie projecting in our eyes, either.

Both types lead to great improval in improv skills. It was great.

[CamMcIntyre]

I played for 2 school musicals in addition to show choir [6 seasons-4 w/our Varsity group and 2 w/our JVs]. I enjoyed doing these enough to want to pursue it for a living.

I've done full versions of: Grease & The Wizard of Oz. I've done selections from......Wild Party, Aida, Wicked, Godspell, and more others than i care to remember.

I'm studying with a guy you guys might dig.....his name is Tom Mendel. I thought-if i wanted to pursue playing for musicals, the best guy to study with would be the area guy doing one of the better musicals around-in this case, Wicked [Chicago]. Tom is a killer player & teacher.

[basspunk2005]

has anyone else here played Little Shop Of Horrors?

[gdawg27]

I loved playing in pit orchestras especially the shows with minimal to no music breaks like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and JCSS. The bad thing about them is the fact that I still have a lot of the lyrics (and dialogue) stuck in my head from playing certain shows so much.

[Wildcat]

I played Little shop of Horrors....... for my wife's school drama group... I had just started playing again after almost 20 years,.. It was a great time but a lot of flying by the seat of your pants.

[Mixmasta J]

my HS just did guys and dolls, and it was a lot of fun

a lot of the music is jazzy because it is set in the 20's, and my director let me improvise a lot of the chords for the walking bass lines.

definately an enjoyable experience