Day Seventeen

The band has arrived!  Julia and Rich spent the morning rehearsing with them.  I stopped by just long enough to hear the second half of "Love Me Better" - and they sound amazing already!  They are: Jeremy Yaddaw on drums, Anthony Rubbo on guitar, Lorenzo Wolff on bass, Sean Hagerty on violin and Ro Rowan on cello.  (Hard at work in the photo at left.)

Our rehearsal was more of the same wonderfulness - we worked on a few scenes before doing another run, followed by working through a few notes from the run.  It's fascinating to watch Joe and actors adjust things based on the larger picture.  I've never been a part of a production that had that kind of luxury of time before, but since everyone's been at the top of their game all along we actually have time before tech to work through the overarching trajectory of the show.  In a show with emotions this high this often, it's interesting to see actors work through emotional pacing the same way they might work through their vocal trajectory once they know the show as a whole.  I guess this is another "Duh, you wrote it" moment, but that pacing can be intense - in a show that aims to lead the audience such a specific emotional journey we don't want to peak too soon or else we might lose them.  And watching the actors and Joe and Rich work through this, I just can't get over how good everyone is at their jobs and how lucky we are to have them all (still and always, I guess.)

Tomorrow is a big day - we have a run first thing and our sitzprobe (sing-through of the score with the full cast and band) after our dinner break.  It's also the day we bid farewell to the Lloyd Rehearsal Hall. But that means we're just one step closer to tech - and one step closer to letting all of you see what we've been up to!