SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET

Date of Run: September 23- October 9, 2016
ROLE: Chorus

My second show of 2016 was a show on my bucket list of shows that I wanted to do at least once: Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This was my second show at the Raven Theater in Healdsburg after appearing in Evita three years earlier. Auditions for this show were in late May and mine was the very last one. I sang the most operatic theatre song I could think of, which was Old Man River, did a few scales with Lucas Sherman, the music director, so that he could know my range, and did a couple line readings for the roles of Sweeney Todd and Anthony, which felt weird since I was speaking song lyrics. I told Carl Hamilton, the director, that I was fine with whatever role he gave me because this was a show I always wanted to do. Costume fittings were on June 1, and then for the longest time we were waiting for the first rehearsal which wasn't until August 15.

Kerry Duvall, the stage manager, told me months later, that they still talked about my audition and said they were surprised and amazed at my voice and how well I did that song.

I'm reminded of the last time I saw this show when the Santa Rosa Junior College did this show four years earlier. I had auditioned in the first round, which was for the main roles, wasn't taken and then I decided not to audition for the chorus and did something else instead. After seeing the show, I felt that one day I would wake up one day and say "Damn, I wish I had done that." But not this time. I felt I made the right choice to do this show instead of something else because, apparently, this musical was not often staged in Sonoma County. At the first read through, Carl said that he had wanted to do this show for ten years, but each theater company he approached had turned him down, not wanting to stage it.

In the cast were my friends Matt Witthaus (Sweeney Todd), Tika Moon (Mrs. Lovett), Garet Waterhouse (Judge Turpin) and Athena Gundlach. The rest of the cast consisted of Jackson Phillips (Anthony), Emily Doyle (Johanna), Troy Evans (Toby), Robert Finney (Beadle Bamford), Kelly Hitman (The Beggar Woman), Craig Bainbridge (Pirelli), Joe Gellura, Carolyn Cole-Schweizer, Kimmy Colisch, Arabella Harrison, Ariana LaMark, Whitney Lawson, Christine Naber, Tory Rotlisberger, Jolie Santos-Ramsey, George Schweizer and Rebecca West.

The rehearsal schedule was the worst possible time, starting at six in the evening, which meant I had to hope to get off work at five or ten minutes past five at the latest and get to Healdsburg or Santa Rosa where we had the early rehearsals. Tuesdays and Wednesdays were easy for me, when I was called to them, because they were my days off, but the traffic was terrible. When the show was finally running, I had an easier time on Saturdays and Sundays getting to Healdsburg.

The rehearsal schedule for the first four weeks of rehearsal we focused on music from Monday thru Wednesday and on Thursdays we had choreography. Blocking the show did not come until two weeks before opening.

The music director of the show was Lucas Sherman. I had never worked with him before but had seen a few things that he had done in Sonoma County. From the start though, I was not in agreement with some of the choices he made when teaching the music. There were quite a few songs where he did not follow Sondheim's tempo markings, dynamics and music terms. For instance, in the opening number "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," there was one that read poco a poco, and we were supposed to start loud and then get softer, but he had us do it in reverse. Not to nick pick, but there were times I wished he had done it the other way.

He also did not appear to be very fond of solos for the chorus members. While there were some, probably half the solo lines were duets or groups rather than one person. Whatever the reason was, I wish we had gotten to have our own solo in the show because the chorus in that show gets so little compared to the characters with names. While in the end, the show sounded wonderful, there are still some things I wish had been more like the original Broadway cast recording.

The choreographer was another matter entirely. His name was Tony and he was the most bizarre choreographer I ever worked with. He and Carl had vowed to do this show together when Carl first wanted to stage it, but two years before it could be realized, Tony had a fall, hurt his spine and almost died or at least, that's what I heard later. Now he was using a walker. A choreographer with a walker, if you can imagine that. To show the cast what he wanted he brought in Diane Dearmore to show the cast the steps. While I could get over all that if he had a clear mind, let's just say he was not what I would call efficient. 

Choreographing the show was a nightmare. For starters Tony was not good at communicating and he was horrible with names, forgetting mine literally ten seconds after hearing it and confusing people with other people. In staging the opening number, he would wave his arms if he needed us to move to the next part and one point, he was waving his arms all over like he was possessed. He also spent a lot of time on that opening, even though it was so simplistic.

 

The Opening Number



Nothing was comparable to the staging of "A Little Priest." The concept of the piece was to have the entire cast on stage in partners, with Matt and Tika going around and Matt slashing the throat of someone. By the end of the piece everyone would be on the ground dead. Tony wanted the dance to be a half time waltz, but it became clear early on that he was going to make this more difficult than it should have been. It was too obvious that he had not listened to the music (if he had, not a lot) and he was constantly confused about where we were and what would happen next. Every time he counted the tempo for us he absent-mindedly lapsed into saying 1-2-3-4-5-6 da-da-da-da-da-dee-da-dee-da, etc. and and often, it sounded nothing like the song. It was very hard to keep count with that. One night we went on about two hours, progressing very little, without even Diane knowing what was going on. Most of our Thursday rehearsals were spent on this number after running the opening more times than actually necessary. So much so that we were still working on it two days before opening.

Then even more annoyances came about two weeks before opening. On the first day when we were supposed to start blocking the show we found that the choreography would have to be changed, and some people repositioned because the set was going to have a few levels rather than being flat as we had been staging. Which meant spending two of three hours of rehearsal reworking it and running it over and over. Needless to say, many of us were annoyed. I still have a hard time comprehending that they would choreograph something without knowing the dimensions of the stage or taking such things into account. And to make matters worse, Tony was a perfectionist. That in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there came a point where he should have put that aside because he squandered too much time.

Long story short, Tony was an old dinosaur long past his prime.

The second day was not much further progress. Most of it was spent on the small minuet dance in "Poor Thing." Then after that moment we were instructed to trudge oh so slowly offstage leaving a good thirty seconds of silence. 

Each day brought little progress, even though Carl was a minimalist director and let the actors bring a lot to the table, while rarely inserting anything himself. This sadly left some scenes uninteresting, such as "Kiss Me," where Anthony and Johanna are supposed to sing to each other, but they never budged from where they were standing. Unfortunately, Carl subscribed to the theatre practice where if you messed up something, even if it's one lousy line, you start all over again, no matter how far along you are. A lot of time was spent on entrances and exits. I could have breathed easily even with that, but some people were still not off book and were messing up their songs or solos. Some people rarely got it right, even late in the run. On the Monday before we opened, we had our sitzprobe without finishing it. Eventually rehearsals began running as late as eleven and even two days before opening, we were still not fully finished blocking.

On our last night before opening, I prayed that we could get a full run in without stopping. But that was too much to hope for. Everything was going fine until we came to "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" and found that Craig had mic problems, so we had to stop to fix that. Then when we got to act two, we found that the trapdoor for Sweeney's victims to slide down out of the barber chair wasn't open, so we had to stop for that. But strangest of all, when we got to the end of it, Carl had disappeared. Just left without warning. I never found out why.

For some reason, Carl had the chorus members and all principal actors except Matt and Tika, wear masks while they were onstage. We all had three to start: A white one for serious or neutral moments, a colorful one (mine was green) for the two upbeat ensemble numbers ("Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" and "God, That's Good"), and a yellowish one with black marks for the asylum scene. Those in the minuet had a masquerade type mask and those who died changed at the end from a white mask to a red one. I did not see the point of the masks since they covered half my face and robbed me of being able to convey emotions while I was singing.



In this photo, you can more clearly see the masks

In this show I finally got an onstage death! Technically I got two, but the moment in "A Little Priest" doesn't count because that was a fantasy sequence. I got to be one of the people whose throat gets slashed by Sweeney Todd and then dropped down the trap door out of the chair. That was awesome! We had to have a fight call before every show for those who went down it, which was me, George, Bobby, Kelly, and Garet. Kelly was always a little nervous when it was her turn. Me? I couldn't wait.



Moment before death

Going down the slide after death



Opening night wasn't a complete disaster, but there was still some flubbing on lines and singing. I estimate that there were around 50-60 people in attendance. Some of the music wasn't right either. At one point in "A Little Priest," where the music is supposed to stop, Lucas must have had a brain fart because he didn't stop. The second night was a bit better, but four mics of the leading characters went out. First it was Bobby's, then Troy's, then Craig and in the beginning of the second act, Matt's.

Sunday had a small, but responsive audience. I think there may have been twenty or so, but it looked so empty in the cavernous theater. The heat was at about 100 degrees that day, so my guess is that people went to the river or maybe just decided not to leave the house in that weather. I was miserable because I had a splitting headache (maybe a migraine), and the weather wasn't helping it. I was so hot I left my jacket off during "Priest," and then I remembered that my mic wire was showing because I had to wear it outside in front because of the slide. I spent the whole number attempting to hide it and when I died, I tried to fall in a way no one would see it. On Sunday's we had a talk back with the audience, but on this particular day, I just wanted to get out of there and take a nice cool shower. Not that it helped. I could still feel a slight dull pain in my head where it was the next day.

The dance in "Priest" was staged to have one person from each couple die before the other one. During rehearsals, with learning it being frustrating, we all begged to die early. At first, we thought it would change every night, but eventually, from what I could see, Matt went in the same pattern, killing the same person in each couple every time. Ariana was always the first to die before everyone. When I asked her what she'd do if Matt pulled a fast one on her and killed her partner first, she responded that she's cry and panic. 

I was partnered with Kimmy, who was promoted to dance captain during rehearsals. I always died first, and I was killed at the moment when Tika said "Bulter," and Matt replied "Subtler." Matt, ever the eternal and diehard Batman fan, said he was going to start calling me Alfred. When I asked him "But which actor?" he thought a moment and he decided that he really liked the latest actor to portray Alfred, Jeremy Irons. I told Matt he could cut Kimmy a break and let her die first, but since she was the dance captain, the cast asked that she stay alive so they could follow her.



During "A Little Priest"



Every night during that number, I was terrified while I lay there on the floor. I was afraid that Matt or Tika would accidentally step on me. I tried to die so I'd be out of the way and also be as comfortable as I could. Some nights when Kimmy died, she landed on top of me, but that didn't bother me. I always knew when that was coming so I could brace for it. If she had died first, I could have died in a more dramatic way, and it wouldn't have mattered if it was uncomfortable because I wouldn't have been there long. Whenever she apologized if she felt her falls were hurting me and if I was okay, I told her not to worry and that I was more afraid of being stepped on than of her falling on me.



End of "Priest"



On the first night of the second weekend, we had a big and responsive audience. The second night's audience was about a third the size of the night before and quiet. The third night had the same size as the second night. The Sunday show had a large audience, and it was a much better experience than the first Sunday with the weather being less brutal.

On the last weekend we had an audience of about sixty on the first night and one hundred on the other two. The second night in particular had a very responsive audience, probably the best one yet. However, that night had its share of problems. The mic problems continued; Emily had the worst of it because hers was not working at all the entire night. Tika's mic slipped out of its pack and caused her to stay still during her song, "Wait." There were also line flubs and missed entrances which made the first act rather shaky.

We had two reviews of the show. While both praised Lucas Sherman's music direction and the orchestra, they were less kind toward the staging and the performances. The praise or criticism toward the main characters depended on the review, one liking certain people and the other disliking them. They were both unanimous in that the staging was stiff. Thank goodness it wasn't just me thinking it.

On the final day some people were crying or almost crying because it was all over, but I wasn't one of them. I hardly had time to be sad because the next day I was going down to Disneyland!

THE THREE MUSKETEERS

Date of Run: June 17-26, 2016
ROLE: Rochefort

This was a show that almost wasn’t.

Nearly a year would pass after West Side Story before I did another full scale show. I had chosen not to do a fall show because I had taken a vacation to Hawaii and there was nothing else auditioning at that time. Then I got some bad news from work. I couldn’t return to the stage for some time because my two bosses had time off coming the following year at the same time. One went on maternity leave from January to April 2016 and while she was gone, the other one left on a two week vacation in February. However, in February I was offered to take part in a one night only staged reading of a play. Script in hand, minimal set and only for ten minutes, but I was honored the director asked me to do it. After that I had to wait until June at the earliest to go do a full show. I only had a few options for that time, but I went for them all.

I auditioned for three shows that would play in June, but I was not cast in two of them. One of the directors didn’t give me a callback and never even contacted me saying they didn’t have a role for me. Then I was cast in The Three Musketeers at Pegasus Theater Company, directed by Beulah Vega, which was probably the one I wanted to do the least. From the beginning I had reservations about doing this show for several reasons. It had nothing to do with the people, but rather what it involved and the location.

To begin, the show was to be staged outdoors at the Riverkeeper Park in Guerneville, underneath the Highway 116 Bridge. Because it was outdoors the show would start at six in the evening and from what I had heard of the show that Pegasus had done the previous year, it was a race against the clock since there were no lights. That would probably not be the case this year since the show would be in June, whereas last year it had been in August. It also meant mosquitoes, motorcycles (and there were quite a few each night), and the miserable summer heat.

And I worked in Sonoma! So basically, it meant having to move quickly from my work to there for rehearsal, which on a day with no traffic (if I was lucky), would take roughly one hour. For me, it meant I would have to leave work an hour and a half early four days a week for four weeks. My schedule was also very hectic during April and May because I had class on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I was cast and when I gave my schedule I expected the reply to be that they couldn’t accommodate me, and I couldn’t do the show. You can imagine my surprise when that wasn’t the case. Then I was given my parts and when I read the script, I found I had relatively few lines and I wasn’t sure yet if I would be doing any fights.

We arrived at the first read-through during which, I found out that all but two people would not be in at least one fight scene, but I was not one of those two (Whoo-hoo!) I would be playing multiple roles, but if I was in any other scenes as a background character without lines, I did not know that yet (though I figured I likely would be). When I received the rehearsal schedule I saw that I would miss quite a few rehearsals due to class and a couple other previously scheduled events.

Many times, in between being cast and the first read through and during rehearsals, I asked myself, “Is this really worth it? Am I doing the right thing?” I asked myself that repeatedly when I left work to go to rehearsal, especially on Fridays when the traffic was at its worst.

The cast included my friends Nicolas Christenson, David O’Connell and Jana Molina, and also included Rusty Thompson, Rosie Frater, Athena Gundlach, Vincent Black, Elizabeth Henry, Olivia Rooney, Marcia Schwartz, Noel Yates, David Abrams, and Yelena Segal.

In the beginning my rehearsals were sparse. This was mostly due to me being unavailable Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings since I was in class. I had a few other previously scheduled engagements, but my class schedule caused the most interference. In fact, there was one period where any rehearsal when I was called ended up cancelled, in addition to that. But as soon as school was out of the way, I could get there for every rehearsal.

Very early on we lost one of the actors playing one of the main supporting characters in the show. The actor playing the character Rochefort left for what he said were family reasons, though he did build our set. It was a few weeks before we found a replacement, a guy named Martin (pronounced Mar-teen). We spent all of May preparing this show, but as time went on, there began to be problems with the fight choreographers and certain individuals that cumulated in a breaking point that nearly derailed the show.

To begin, there were two fight choreographers, a husband and wife. The husband was very well suited to the task at hand, and we made very good progress with some excellent fights. His wife, however, was detrimental to the progress, taking forever to explain how to do something or piping in saying she wanted to see more of something when we really needed to move on. Not only that, but several times when it was their night to teach, they were often late, sometimes as late as an hour, when we had only two or two and a half at the latest to rehearse before it got too dark. 

As I understood it, some actors were also not very careful with the fights. One of the actors (the lead) expressed that he did not feel safe from this, feeling that safety was the first priority, even more than lines or blocking. Though he may have had a point, he was hardly the one to say it since he still didn’t know his lines or blocking well enough, not even a week before opening. During all that time he still had his script in hand when he was supposed to be fighting. And soon enough, it came to trouble for the show.

Exactly one week before our scheduled opening, we lost that actor and then we lost another, the actor playing Rochefort. I do not know the full details of what happened that night because I was not at the rehearsal, having been at a class, but I’m not sure I even want to know. The bottom line was the lead quit the show. The following day, Beulah gave us two options: either continue on with new people and push the opening back from June 2 to June 9 or just walk away from the show all together. All except of us wanted to continue the show, save for one person, Martin, who as one another cast member said, “took the pussy way out.” I contemplated asking to play D’Artagnan, and I was close to doing so, but before I could, Beulah promoted me to Rochefort and hired Elizabeth to do my scenes. Meanwhile, David O’Connell, the original Aramis, would play D’Artagnan.

There were pros and cons to my role change. The main thing I was sad about was that I did not get to die onstage, which I had wanted to do for a long time. On the other hand, I got more lines, I still got to do sword fighting and now I had a character role, which was sorely lacking on my resume. There was one catch for the show after all this. The two fight choreographers were released from the project (good riddance) and now we had to simplify the fights for the two new people. That meant taking things out and shortening the fights.

The Big Fight in the Show

David, who was already fight captain when we began, assumed the responsibility of the fight choreographer, in addition to playing the lead. That being done, we were short a musketeer. Granted it was the musketeer who had the least amount of fighting and the fewest lines, but nonetheless, we were still an actor short. Fortunately, we found one, Jordan. Unfortunately, he went missing the very next night; not even his family knew where he was. Apparently, his grandfather had died a few days before he was hired and while he thought he was okay at first, he decided it was too much for him to go on with the show.

Now the show was really in trouble and dangerously close to being cancelled because we were only a week from the new opening and the new person would have to learn lines, blocking and the staged fighting; an impossible feat in such a short time to anyone, but an actor with prior sword training. Beulah went through her entire pool of actors, some more than once, but all were unavailable, and she refused to hire anyone she did not know or had not worked with previously.

 

We had a cast meeting at rehearsal one night and we were given the option to cancel the show. Some were in favor of ending it. I myself was much divided on whether I wanted to continue at this point. Ending the show would mean that all our work and the driving to Guerneville would have been for nothing, but at the same time, I was half hoping the show would be cancelled. Part of it was my mother not seeing the show, the first show I ever did that she missed. Part of it was also my experiences from The Elephant Man and Hamlet, not to mention the train wreck that was West Side Story the previous year, and I was wary of another bad theatrical experience. I’m sorry to anyone from the cast who reads this, and this is nothing against any of you, but that’s just what it is.

But then at the eleventh hour, the show was saved! David found a friend of his, David Abrams, who could do it, but to keep the show open there would be a price: the show would now open on June 17 and play only six performances. It was an even higher price for me because now this would be the first show of mine that my mother would not get to see. She would be on a vacation in Europe by the new opening. We spent the next few rehearsals training David and Elizabeth for their scenes and fights, and they were ready by the new opening date.

As the set was outdoors in a public park and left unwatched all day for most days (except perhaps by the builder, who lived next to the park), it was vulnerable. This became evident just less than two weeks before opening. One day a group of vandals spray painted red paint in the park with pentagrams and signs saying, “Say 10” (Satan). In addition to trees, park signs and the ground, they also spray-painted part of the platform set, but just a rail on the back. Fortunately, as I later learned from the park’s Facebook page, at least one of them was caught. It was all cleaned up before we opened.



Photos of the vandalism

Every dress rehearsal and performance we had to set up two changing tents as well as a couple clothing racks and tables and the table and chairs for the set. After each performance everything had to be taken down. Some of the things were taken up to the set builder’s house just up the hill from the park, while the rest was loaded into Noel’s car.

Not to brag, David O’Connell and I did much better at learning our lines and blocking than our predecessors, having our lines fully memorized fast; I was off book the day after the role change and David the day after that. Quite necessary since we only had so much time. However, David absolutely deserved more applause and praise, since not only did he have new and many lines to memorize (being the lead, he was in nearly every scene), but he also had to learn new blocking and fights for a new character and choreograph the fights that still needed to be done.

As Rochefort



Close-up of my face with the scar

When the first weekend of our show finally came the universe threw one last punch at us: the weather. For our invited dress rehearsal, it sprinkled a bit as we were setting up, but only for a moment. Then on opening night there were a few drops on us when the second act started and when we were taking everything down it poured on us. The invited dress and first performance had about ten people in attendance each and the second performance had about thirty. The first Sunday show had a slightly larger audience, and it was the best one yet. They cheered and applauded parts, made catcalls in others, and all in all were really into the show. In the end we got a standing ovation.

The sword fighting was my favorite part of doing this show. It wasn’t quite what I expected, since my lower body stayed still for most of them. I expected to move around a bit during the fights, but then I suppose it would have been better had we had more time and better people staging it as well as a larger space. We had to be very aware of our distance from the audience. Nevertheless, I was never happier during the show than when I spared with David O’Connell (almost all my sword fights were with him) and, at the end of the largest fight show, with Nick Christenson.

Sparing with Nick

The second weekend was unbearably hot, and the costumes were soaking during all of it. My costume in particular was hard on me because my pants made of real leather. Imagine leather pants in the summer heat, even under shade. Easy to get on, very hard to get off. The first show of that weekend had fifteen people, and the second show had thirty. The final show was sold out, but the audience was not as responsive as the first Sunday show. I didn’t ask how many people a sold-out audience consisted of, but it must have been over forty. We had a few motorcycles drive over us every performance, but on the last night a car that played loud music with the windows rolled down was stopped on the bridge over us for a couple minutes during the show. Annoying.

For the cast party we drove down the road to the Rio Nido Roadhouse for food and drink at the bar by the pool. We were lucky because the kitchen staff agreed to keep the kitchen open a little longer for us. Definitely had to give them a tip for that.

After West Side Story, I said that whatever show I did next needed to be one that I could be proud of. I said it had to be a show that felt rewarding. In a way this show was that. While I wish the circumstances could have been better, I was proud of the fact that after many setbacks and against all odds, we still managed to go on with the show.