lights, camera, ......

i had my first paying gig this week of my whole life. it was only $20 but it was probably about the normal pay for the amount of time i put in as a performer this time. we did a medley of the 50's (happy days, come and go with me, the laverne and shirley theme song, etc.) and a michael jackson medley at a retirement community.

this is the second time we've performed this particular show for an audience. last time we had this awesome stage built for us to use with lots of different elevation layers and all...we didn't have that this time. the first thing i asked when we got there was, "what are we going to change because of our lack of stageage?" the chorus teacher said "nothing"...and then we proceeded to change about half of our spots we needed to hit.

can i just take a moment to talk a little bit about the suckage that it tech rehearsals?

thanks.

so...last time we did this show, and every other time i've done a show, at this college, that wasn't run by the music staff, we've had about 4-6 days of rehearsals that ranged from about 4 to 6 hours each. and usually, i'm singing as well as playing instruments. that's cool and good times and all, but they normally tell those who need mic checks to get there an extra hour early...

does any one else think that this is absolutely ridiculous?

i mean...it takes literally about 20 seconds each to check the microphone. and there's normally about 12 of us. the time just doesn't really add up to me.

plus, every time i've had to do this, a majority of the 16 TO 36 HOURS of rehearsal is spent doing absolutely nothing. since it's normally a collaborative thing, we (the instrumental music people) sit around, stare at the wall and wait back stage for the other people to practice.

PRACTICE?!

i'm sorry. but when you get to the tech rehearsal, you should only need to check the lights, mics, and stage changes. if you're going into the dress rehearsal, the night before you perform for a real audience, and your instructor is saying that you don't have memorized what you need to and that you have to come in 2 hours early to the performance to do it again to prove that you actually can do it or you'll be cut out of the show, you need to get your act together(literally) or change majors.

anyway...

luckily we didn't have but one of those and we needed it. because we were changing half of the spots we needed to hit and we had a new backup band, who did awesome by the way. it was a good performance over-all but it wasn't as good as the first one. we got paid a little this time though...and that made it better.

i did other things that weren't just sitting around...but if you're like me, you're probably bored by now and don't want to read about them. i'll put them in another post...maybe...probably not though. i'll probably forget. oh well. you'll deal.

PEACE!