Of Arks and Chair-like Box Thingies

Hey folks! So I’m probably going to be going to posting every two weeks, but I figured I should try to get a post in this week because I’m going to be away all next week, and I seriously doubt I’ll have time to write a blog post.

A quick note on Hunchback before we start. I read a review of it a few days after opening, and I must say that it is probably the single worst review of all time. Not because it said negative things about the show . . . on the contrary, it was very positive, but . . . the show was directed by Dustin Ceithammer, costumed by Debbie Rao, and starring Heather Sembeida (that spelling might be slightly off . . . I don't have my program handy). The review, however, talked about (I am not making this up) the wonderful acting and singing of Heather Sambaed, the great costumes by Debbie Rio, and, best of all, the wonderful direction provided by (really, I promise I'm not making this up) Dustin Catheter. So let's have a big round of applause for Mr. Catheter and his team. 'Cause they really would've done a good job, no doubt, had they actually existed.

My respect for The Sun is pretty much gone now.

Okay. Now that we have that out of the way . . . since I'd like your opinions on it, and since AJ asked me post it anyway, I'd like to take this opportunity to show you all the monologue I wrote for Noah Auditions. Since that took place far prior to this post, I feel like I need to start with it before we get into more current things. And so, without further ado:

A Rant on Biblical Names by Mark Harbison
Look, I’m not saying anything against Christianity, I just think naming kids after Biblical heroes is taking it too far. Yeah, we want to emulate them, but I think their biggest weakness was naming their kids. Takes Job’s buddies: Bildad, Zophar, Elihaz, and Elihu. No doubt their parents were sitting there, contemplating what to name their children, and somebody sneezed, and they said, “Hey, yeah! That’s great!” I think Saul’s son Jonathon was probably drinking some wine or something, and in the middle of a big gulp his wife took him by surprise by asking, “Hey, Jonny, what should we name our son?” Jonathon probably didn’t even know they were having a son, and so naturally he tried to ask what was going on. But since there was still wine going into his mouth, and probably coming out his nose, it just came out as something unintelligible, and bam, his wife named their son Mehpibosheth. His friend David probably heard about that, and when his wife Maacah wanted to name her son, he didn’t know what to say. But he was using Absalamisil for his athlete’s foot, so he named the kid Absalom. Or, hey, take Noah. Great guy, but I don’t know about his naming skills. I guess he was hungry or something, and he thought his wife was asking what he wanted for dinner when he named Ham. So you’ve gotta admit, all things considered, naming our son Wayne isn’t THAT bad.

And there you have it. It was originally about twice as long, but I had to cut it down in order to make it fit the time requirement (one minute). But I was rather happy with it, and Mom, Dad, Uncle Ted, and Bev all really liked it.

As, apparently, did Burning Foxes. (Burning Foxes is the production company that’s working with Lifehouse to produce Noah . . . Dustin, Nathan, Tim, and Randy.) Tim happens to be Bev’s son, and he was talking to her about completely unrelated issues and I came up (I guess), and he apparently told her that they had all been “blown away” by my audition and were all very impressed that I’d written in myself. As I said, though, they were unable to find a place for me in the show because Dustin had very specific people in mind (as Amy Grace mentioned, most of the cast is made up of his friends that he called and asked to be in it).

However, apparently it DID get me something in their eyes, because last Thursday morning I got a mysterious phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. I was in a different room than my phone at the time, so I didn’t get it, but they left a message. Upon checking the message, it turned out to be Nathan. He asked me if I wanted to be “part of the Burning Foxes team producing Noah at Lifehouse.” I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but I was (of course) interested, so I called him back.

It turns out that one thing Burning Foxes is trying to do is make Lifehouse more professional (something that Wayne has been campaigning for as long as I’ve been there). Nathan said that one thing most professional theaters have that Lifehouse doesn’t is Stage Managers, and so they were looking to start getting Stage Managers for Lifehouse shows. He also said that “Stage Manager” doesn’t mean someone who sits backstage and does all the dirty, thankless work (which is essentially what stage managers were when Lifehouse DID have them), but more of an assistant to the director. Their job is basically to know everything so that when confusion arises, there’s someone there to clear things up if the director is not around or is busy with other things. Essentially, the impression I got was that it’s essentially a gopher and a trouble-shooter. (“Gopher” as in when they need something done that’s not really in anyone’s job description, I do it . . . e.g., go for coffee, go for such and such prop, etc. Not the animal.)

Anyway, as I’m sure that you’ve guessed by now, Nathan offered me the position of Stage Manager for Noah. He told me, “You’re going to think this is a load of bologna, but it’s probably the hardest job on the production staff. But we think you can handle it, and we’d love it if you were part of the team.”

Obviously I wouldn’t have said all of that if I didn’t say yes, so I am officially the Stage Manager for Noah and the Ark. This means that not only do I get to be involved in the show I’ve wanted to be involved in for five years after all, but I get to see the side of producing shows I’ve never seen before.

Orientation was last Thursday, so that was my first experience . . . on that night, my job was basically to be production assistant; to get their paperwork (medical release forms, code of conduct forms, etc.), get their conflicts, get their contact information, and so on. It was kind of overwhelming at first, because I had basically no idea what I was doing and they had to give me a 20-minute crash course on the job, but once I kind of got into the swing of things it was all good.

Orientation followed pretty much your typical format: introducing everyone, going over Lifehouse’s history and mission and such, and then reading through the script, with the addition of a worship time before we read through the script. Which was really really cool.

As, for that matter, was the script. The show (as advertised) follows in the tradition of Esther, being a primarily comedic retelling of the biblical story (unlike Esther, however, it is not a “Dazzling Musical Comedy,” but rather a “Musical Good Time”), and it is HILARIOUS. However, it’s also extremely poignant and powerful (especially at the end). After the read-through, I thought to myself, “If this is executed well, this has the potential to be right up there with Esther, Pilgrim’s Progress, and Hunchback . . .”

On Sunday night, celebrating Dad’s birthday was cut short by a call from Tim asking if I could be at Carl’s Jr. for a production meeting at 5:30. (Speaking of which, Happy Birthday, Dad! I hope you don’t think I’m just skipping over your birthday celebration . . . but there’s really nothing to tell . . .) It was my first-ever production meeting, so it was pretty exciting. They went over everything from the pose for the publicity photo to the color of the chairs. I offered my input a few times, but mostly I just sat there and soaked it all in, watching some of the most creative people I know just pounding out ideas of how to make the show work.

The entire set consists of eight chairs, three ladders (two six-foot, one eight-foot), two planks, and eight trunks that sit on the edges of the stage and never move. And the remarkable thing is, every location that is needed for the show can be easily built out of those pieces. The entire ark is built out of the ladders, planks, and chairs, and it somehow still looks awesome (Dustin had models and was building stuff for us). A really large, really impressive looking altar is made entirely from chairs. It’s probably just about the coolest set ever.

And the ironic thing is that, even with only those pieces, the set goes over the budget set aside for it. Aside from the budget being ridiculously low (low enough that I, who have no experience in this stuff whatsoever, noticed that it was really low), they also have to buy all three ladders (which aren’t cheap) and build all eight chairs, ‘cause . . . they aren’t really chairs. I believe Randy termed them “Vaguely chair-like square objects,” or some such thing. So, if nothing else, you should all come see the show just to see the chairs.

On Tuesday, we had the first rehearsal (in case you haven’t guessed, Noah is pretty much the only things that’s been going on since I last posted). The first five rehearsals are slated to be music rehearsals (although I’ll be missing the next two, since I’ll be in La Mirada . . . read on). Normally, music rehearsals are long and boring, but for a number of reasons I really enjoyed this one. For one thing, we had a worship time at the beginning of rehearsal again, which is really cool. When I was talking about it with Dustin, he said, “Yeah, I really like it, too. It reminds me why we’re doing this . . . and without it, I’d just get caught up in work-mode, and become a perfectionist.” It’s just a really cool way to start rehearsal, and it kind of helps me relax from whatever stress I’ve had from the day and just focus on God for a few minutes . . . which also clears my mind to focus on Noah once we start rehearsing.

In addition to that, it was also cool because I wasn’t just learning harmonies that will never actually be enacted on stage (which is usually what happens at music rehearsals). For one thing, since there’s only eight people in the cast, the harmonies WILL happen onstage, because it’ll be glaringly obvious if people aren’t doing them. It’s also a cast of really responsible, strong singers, who are all eager to sing harmonies anyway. For another thing, I wasn’t actually LEARNING these harmonies (which I’m rather bad at), I was just writing down what notes I could about them (such as who was singing the high, middle, and low parts, who was making the funky sound effects, who came in when for the round, etc.). I think that they’ll be helpful, too, if confusion or forgetfulness ever sets in . . . so I felt pretty good about it. And it was kinda fun.

And it helps, too, that I really like the songs and the harmonies. I’m typically rather indifferent towards them, but these are really, really cool . . . I think, anyway. I suppose AJ might have a different opinion if he comes to see it. But we’ll see.

On July 4th, we had a second production meeting (we’ll ending up having three . . . hopefully not more). At THIS meeting (taking place at Del Taco), we went through the script line-by-line, going over most of the blocking, set changes, props, lighting effects, and sound effects . . . and other such things. We were hoping to go through the whole script in two hours, we ended up getting through act one in four. But, as with the first one, I really enjoyed it . . . seeing how everything comes together, seeing the show from the side of the production staff . . . and just watching Dustin work. My respect for him grows every time I see him. Anyway, at the meeting I did pretty much what I did during rehearsal: I wrote down everything I could, as quickly and legibly as I could (had to kind of find a happy medium). But again I had great fun . . . and I’m now convinced, based on the one rehearsal and the production meetings (now that I have a general idea of the talent level of the cast and a more complete idea of what’s going on), that this could definitely be the best show Lifehouse has ever done. So everyone needs to come see it.

And that’s pretty much all that’s been going on. As I said at the beginning, there’s definitely not going to be a post next week, because I’ll be at Biola University, at Emmaus Forum. Emmaus Forum, for anyone who doesn’t know (which I think is everyone except AJ), is a summer camp/retreat-thingy that Torrey Academy does . . . so we live on campus for a week, and attend lectures and discussions and stuff . . . it’s essentially what we do during the school year (other than the on-campus thing . . . and the in person thing, for me), except that we have different texts and topics, and it’s more concentrated. I’ve been looking forward to it all year. So . . . that’s where I’ll be next week. When I get home, I’ll no doubt sleep for a few days, and then post about it.

In two weeks, then.

Comments:
Stephen: I’ll have to check those sites out sometime, when I have time to get obsessed with something else. Wow, that’s amazing . . . 780 on math is, like, unearthly to me . . . darn you crazy smart people. I fully intended to go back this week and try to figure out the pants thing, but I forgot . . . maybe tomorrow. I’m happy you guys liked the quote. I see . . . well, yeah, I guess pursuing another girl when you’re engaged WOULD cause problems. I’m not really sure which job strategy to take . . . I’ll get back to you guys on that. Congrats on first comment!

Rae1 (and 2, since they’re the same): As I said, I’m not really sure which strategy to take . . . but I’ll take both into careful consideration. Thanks for the advice, guys!

Amy Grace: Yeah, I know, when I saw the cast-list, I thought it looked almost like a Lifehouse All-Star team . . . all the old stars coming back . . . incidentally, it’s Erin Allen now. But everyone keeps calling her Erin Mahoney and correcting each other . . . it’s funny . . . and *gasp*! What show are you thinking of doing??

AJ: I’m happy you’re so excited about all this stuff. I added those as much for my convenience as anything, as I can now get to them without going through other blogs. If you had a choice between the cast there is, and substituting me for one of those people, I really rather doubt you’d pick me . . . and I’d hit you over the head if you did (but thanks). Still haven’t heard from anywhere. Good luck seeing Pirates. I’m . . . not really sure when Hunchback closes . . . but yeah, you should see it. You have you precious numbering system to thank for this. I’ll look forward to the notation. Go Stephen. It’d be step-cousin . . . John would be our step-cousin-in-law. Actually, you had 15 once.