EVITA

Date of Run: June 21-July 21, 2013
ROLE: General and Chorus

My summer show of 2013 was Evita. This was my first show with the Raven Players or simply The Raven in Healdsburg. Auditions for this show were in late March. I had hoped very much to do this show because it would run for a month and then would end just before my vacation. The day that auditions were announced I signed up immediately. The director of the show was John DeGaetano, the music director was Les Pfutzenreuter and the choreographer was Melinda Murray.

I auditioned for the show on Wednesday March 20 at 7 o'clock in the evening. The other day was Saturday March 23 at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I was forced to miss a rehearsal of Young Frankenstein due to that, but as it turned out I probably could’ve auditioned on Saturday and not been late to work since I worked the evening shift that night. However, since my schedule changed every week and my work week ends on Thursdays, I couldn’t take any chances. The auditions for this show were unlike any I’d ever done before. All who were auditioning were brought into the theatre and when we were up on the stage we were given a microphone to sing with. Unusual. I was the first one to audition for the show. They asked for a contemporary song so I sang “If I Can’t Love Her” from Beauty and the Beast. After everyone was finished we did the dancing.

Callbacks were on Sunday March 24 in the afternoon. At first I thought I would have to work so I said I’d come a little later, since I usually worked on weekends. Luckily I found that I would not have to work that day at all. Obviously I would not be considered for any of the three leading male parts since there were only three; two were out of my vocal range and the other was a much older man. So I would do the dancing. In the room there were about 25-30 women and I was the only guy. The routine they taught was very hard. So much kicking, jumping and turning. I was sweating big time when it was over. It took a while for me to get the moves down. At the end John said everyone had a place in the show. He picked the core dancers and secondary core dancers (not me) and everyone else was given ensemble. He then asked us to try to find “one hundred” men. His reason for so many was because this was a big show and he wanted a big cast. After he said that I checked how many were in the Broadway productions and it turned out the original Broadway cast had 50+ people and the 2012 revival had 45-50 people.

As soon as I got home I spread the word to people that they needed men. I said I could 100% guarantee they’d be cast. Only one person responded, but I guess he changed his mind because he didn’t do the show. The final cast itself is too large to list but consisted of exactly 51 people.

While waiting for rehearsals to begin, we were notified by email that they decided to extend the run an extra weekend so the show would now end on July 21. At first, I panicked because I was going out of the country for two weeks on July 18. I sent a reply stating that I couldn’t do that and that if it was a problem I would have to drop out. They told me it was fine, and I shouldn’t worry. Other people couldn’t do that weekend either.

Our first rehearsal was a meeting of the creative team and a first look of the cast. We received the contact sheet and a calendar of rehearsals. After reading it I saw that it was different than what I was accustomed to since some rehearsals were on weekends and in the afternoon. I would also soon not be available for a month due to my commitment to Young Frankenstein.

The first rehearsal where we started working was a music rehearsal on Saturday April 20. We spent two hours doing the first song, “Requiem for Evita.” It was necessary because we had to sing in Latin and get the tempo down correctly. Though we were given instructions on how to use an online accompaniment called Accompanese, I brought my recorder with me to all rehearsals for vocal pitch purposes. They decided to use this because they decided it would be more convenient than spending $400 on printing the script and score out for everyone. It took some time to memorize all of it.

After that rehearsal I did not return to the production for a month. Production for Young Frankenstein took up all of my time. The Evita rehearsals for May were mostly during the day on weekends and two days a week. This was weird for me because it caused me to have to juggle my job and other commitments. I worried that I was missing too much. There were many times when I thought that maybe I should just make a clean break and leave the production. I decided to wait and see how it played out and that I would not leave unless they asked me to. Luckily, I didn’t have to appear in too many scenes in this show. Or so I thought.

When I finally did return, I learned I would not be an aristocrat, but a general instead. No matter since either way I had to learn the blocking. So for the first half hour John had me go upstairs with five other guys who were generals. They reviewed it a lot, but no matter how much I asked they couldn’t tell me where exactly to stand or move. It took until the last five minutes before the entire cast reconvened before we got anywhere. The next two hours were for music. I had to sing more than I thought because apparently they wanted the ensemble singing everything, even if it was supposed to be a solo. For about 90 percent of the time we used the recording of the original Broadway production rather than use a rehearsal accompanist, except in music rehearsals.

 

The next rehearsal went better. I learned the first part of the General’s movement during “Peron’s Latest Flame” and then we learned some dancing for “Buenos Aires.” I did very well in that part. The two women I was partnered with to learn the steps for the partner section, Joy and Lauren, both remarked that I was very good. I wanted to keep going, just because I was enjoying myself.



With Lauren Trettin

 



On the first Saturday I returned we went through the first act and I discovered it would be rather relaxing for me. Over the course of rehearsal John threw me in here and there. In addition to what is already mentioned above, I would be a pallbearer in the very first song “Requiem for Evita” and also Eva's escort in “Charity Concert.” It wasn’t much, but I suppose I might have been in more scenes had I actually been able to attend earlier rehearsals. The following Saturday I found I was in the balcony scene, as was everyone else, and also in “Rainbow Tour” and “And the Money Kept Rollin’ In,” though for that song I didn’t learn what I would be doing a that rehearsal.

 

The Pallbearers in the Opening Scene

 

About a week after I returned, I met with Yvonne Wormer, the staff accompanist at Sonoma State University, to record my vocal part so that I could catch up faster rather than having to listen to someone next to me and possibly get lost. The music, however, was incredibly difficult. I can identify with Patti Lupone, the original Broadway Eva Peron, on this. She has stated in interviews that the music was very difficult and demanding and she practically screamed her way through the role. Most of the music in Evita is crazy belting, almost screaming (especially “A New Argentina”) and low and high notes jumping around all over the place. It wasn’t until tech week that the muscle memory was engrained in me, but I'll tell you now, by the end of the show I was in the best vocal shape of my life.

 

The principles were not there as often, at least not as often as the ensemble. They were given the full score. Since Evita has only three principle roles and they had the majority of the singing they would definitely need it. The role of Eva was double cast. One was named Lauren from San Jose and the other was named Ana from (wait for it) Argentina. Lauren, however, bore a closer resemblance to Eva Peron than Ana, in my opinion. I did not see Lauren until three weeks before we opened, but when we first staged the balcony scene which is the opening of the second act, Ana was the Eva we had. When she sang “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” she started with the recording of Patti Lupone and then before John turned off the music a little into the song and she continued a cappella. She caught me by surprise by singing an extra verse in Spanish at the end of the song when it's solely music. She sang like an angel and at the end a few people were even wiping their eyes. Lauren was the same. I felt emotional after listening to both for the first time.

 

Costumes were going to be difficult this time around. The costume designer was Pam Enz, with whom I had worked with at the two Spreckels shows. She even told me at the cast party for Young Frankenstein that it was going to be difficult because The Raven didn’t have that many resources. She could provide a few things, in my case just the military jacket and hat, but we’d have to provide the rest if we could. I had the basics such as a black suit, white dress shirt and a white t-shirt. 

Then two weeks before we opened, I started shopping for costume pieces at the local Goodwill Store. Per Pam’s requests I found a bright colored shirt (red to be exact) for “Buenos Aires.” Whenever I think of what dancers would wear for a Spanish dance, such as the tango or the salsa, my mind jumps to bright red. I had an idea for my worker costume from viewing videos of the two Broadway productions. I thought of brownish pants or overalls and a beige or tan colored shirt. I found a shirt about the right color as well as a pair of suspenders I felt would match. I did not find the pants, but I would keep trying. I also had to find a pair of white pleated pants for my military costume. A hard find in a thrift store, but they did exist in the world at chain stores. Then a couple days later I found out that John changed his mind about what he wanted, and I would just be wearing black pants the whole time. Then after that I realized I would have to get rid of the tan shirt because I would have time to change in and out of it in the second act.

 

My costumes in the show, l to r: General, Worker, British Representative. My "Buenos Aires" costume is above.

In my opinion, and not to sound arrogant or self-promoting, I can say in all honesty that I think I was the best male ensemble member in terms of learning my material and even one of the better ensemble members because, even though I wasn't there as often as most of them, by the time the show opened I was more off book than they were. For a few simple steps in “Buenos Aires,” it seemed just about all the other guys in the ensemble was having some sort of trouble whether it was starting on the correct foot or turning the right way.

Some members of this cast I really never wanted to work with again. One guy was incredibly thick because whenever someone said something he often repeated it as if he didn’t know what it meant or asked me what they meant. One guy was completely incompetent, unable to remember even one single thing and always asking questions that had literally just been asked and answered by someone else while he was in the room. Obviously not a theatre person because even from day one he asked questions no true theatre person would ask because they would already know the answer. Apparently, he was also blind in one eye (as was Lauren, one of the Evas) and also had a bad leg and probably a mental problem (Not exactly fit to do a musical in my opinion). In short, he was a real piece of work. Another guy hummed along to the music and singing even while onstage, which I found very annoying. And one guy was just too mentally old to be doing musicals anymore, and he was not good at taking direction. In fact, a number of people had difficulty remembering many things.

I also loathed the assistant stage manager (ASM). Now, he was basically a real drill sergeant, the one trying to keep the cast in line. He was always yelling at us telling us not to put costumes backstage and to stop talking, goofing around and making noise backstage, a futile effort because people in general are incapable of such things. Ordinarily I would be grateful that there was someone like that, but there is a very, very fine line between handling the cast and being an asshole; I don’t care if he’s running around doing a million things at once. And this guy crossed the line. 

The final straw for me was two nights before we opened when they gave the ensemble microphones. I saw mics laying on the stage in the packs and assumed they were the principles. Granted, they did say they would hook some in the ensemble up with mics, but at no time did anyone say exactly who would be getting them or that the mics onstage were for the ensemble. Then just before we began the second act, the ASM comes over and tells three of us that they’re our mics and he was a real prick about it. Then he blamed us for not grabbing packs for them and we’d have to put them somewhere else. With the show being so disorganized and every technical detail being put off until the last minute even when it didn’t have to be and everything falling on his shoulders, I could understand him being frustrated. Regardless, I never spoke to him again and never wanted to work with him again.

In spite of him and the cast members I didn't like and contrary to what I wrote in the post about Young Frankenstein, I was friendly with some of the people, especially some of the younger cast. In the beginning I was definitely on my guard with the cast. I didn’t try to talk to anyone, but they kept reaching out to me and we ended up being friends. I especially goofed around with two guys Nate Mercier and Matt Doran. It took some time for me to truly warm up to the cast, but eventually the barriers were taken down somewhat.

The stage of the Raven Theater was very small, but the house was cavernous. The building was a former movie theater. The wing space was tiny and the audience would be able to see us no matter how much we tried to conceal ourselves, though this was lost on a number of people, who made no effort at all. The theater had no dressing room space. The set pieces was too big to be stored offstage without being seen or getting in the way and then shelves for props were added offstage which made it increasingly difficult to maneuver other set pieces off in the first act. And since they didn’t want people going outside and opening the doors, everyone was standing around and the little kids wouldn’t stay still. Offstage on both sides were microphones for the ensemble to sing into when not onstage. Offstage on both sides were a small television set hooked to a camera that focused on Les. Nicknamed “Les TV,” it helped keep us offstage left in time. He also mouthed the words with the singing, which was incredibly helpful.

This show had the worst tech week I ever had. I know it’s called “Hell Week,” but this really set a new low. Tech week began on Monday. In the past, theatres usually began tech week on Saturday and Sunday, both of which were cue to cue and lasted all day. But this time Saturday was a four hour day of rehearsal and Sunday was an hour and a half of rehearsal and most of the sitzprobe. This was the largest orchestra I ever had: 20 pieces. Looking back, I think it was a bit too large. Then on Monday and Tuesday we did the cue to cue. Tuesday was even worse because during the sitzprobe we only got through act one and now we had to combine learning the lights and music. There were mostly light changes, but both nights we got off at eleven. Then even worse was Wednesday where we ran the whole show, still filling things in and starting and stopping and we weren’t released until almost midnight. On Thursday we ran through some scene changes, amongst other things and were out by eleven. In fact we never got a full run through of the show without stopping as I constantly said we wouldn’t. I didn’t like this style of tech week at all. It deprived us of the chance to tighten the show before opening. But at least there were no notes at the end.

The Raven had no dressing rooms, at least not then. The leads had a dressing and make up area offstage right, but that was it. Due to the small space and little room backstage, we could not have costumes back there except for a quick change. The costumes and changing area had to be left outside in a tent. And to make matters worse they didn’t want us opening the doors going outside because then light would spill onto the stage. Of course, by the second act on all days except Sunday it would be a bit darker. I didn’t have a quick change until the second act, but what they wanted created quite a conundrum because I couldn’t have my general costume offstage and I couldn’t go outside to get it. I’m guessing they didn’t consider such things. The first weekend it was cool in the evening and quite windy and on Sunday it was cloudy, but the second weekend. In fact, it was about the mid-90s at times. The tent wasn’t much help. I think it held the heat in there and with so many people in there at times that made it worse. The third and fourth weekends were better, being cooler in the evenings, but the Sunday performances were still warm.

This program different from what I've seen. Rather than have individual photos, they had group shots. Unfortunately, they did them on a day when I wasn’t available, and they did no redos. They also asked for short bios from the ensemble, none of which made it in. And to further ruin it, my name was misspelled. TWICE! I’ve been dealing with people misspelling my name my whole life and all I can think is why is my name that hard to spell? It’s a common name, so it shouldn’t be hard to spell it. Apparently, they did ask us to proofread it when I wasn’t there, but they didn’t bother finding me and asking me to check mine. Honestly, I wouldn’t have used the program to line a bird cage.

I was afraid that opening night would be shaky because we never had a run through of the show, but thankfully, other than a couple minor technical mishaps and some missteps on some of the generals, all went smoothly and briskly. Unfortunately, we endured sound problems. Some said the music was too loud, others said the singers were too loud. Either way, it was very loud. The house was about half full. In fact, at every performance the house was at least half full. The largest house we had was on June 27, which was the discount night. We had the best audiences on my final weekend. I never saw if we had standing ovations or not sometimes because I was always standing behind others and other times because it was too bright to see into the audience.

This was not one of my preferred shows that I ever did partly because I was not doing as much. I was mostly offstage singing and standing around and in my few moments onstage I was on only briefly. Very briefly. In fact, now that I think about it, my entire stage time was probably twenty to twenty-five minutes give or take. My main part was one of the generals; that was the costume I wore the most. My two main moments as that were in “Peron’s Latest Flame” and “She is a Diamond.” In those moments we had to march. My years in the marching band served me well. I never once made a mistake in that part. We all got better and better at every performance. It always seemed to get tighter and tighter. For the final weekend one other guy, Paul, and I would be gone so only four would be left.

 

The Generals

I did not want to do another summer show at this theatre after doing this show, at least not unless they got dressing rooms, mostly because of the heat. It drained what little energy I usually had doing a matinee show. I also was not sure if I wanted to do another show in Healdsburg mostly because of the cost of the gas. However, the show itself was very successful. We were never given a review in any publication, but the audience members enjoyed it immensely. Several commented that we should be on Broadway!

I would not mind doing this show again simply because it helped with my singing tremendously. As the run continued, I felt I was singing better and stronger than I ever had in my life. I had an easier time reaching the higher notes. One of the two Evas even complemented my voice.

About a month after the show closed, I found, to my immense surprise, that I was paid for doing this show. I assumed I wouldn't be paid for doing this show. They said they would pay according to distance and role, but I did not assume for a minute I would receive anything. Go figure.