TOSCA a far cry from "Park & Bark"

Rehearsal Week 2

Things are beginning to take shape. Costumes have all been tried on and adjustments are being made. What we do at Opera Grand Rapids is what a number of other companies do. We rent costumes from a large company—whether that company is strictly a costume house or a larger opera company that has built and kept another production of this opera. OGR just doesn’t have the time, money or manpower to build our own costumes at this stage in time. I have taken everyone’s measurements--visiting artists’ agents send theirs along—and compiled them into a large spreadsheet. I then e-mail that massive list to the rental company. They go through their production and pull out the costumes that we need and make the basic adjustments to them so that they will fit our cast. In the case of the chorus we often fit the singer to the costume, but for comprimario and principal singers we always fit the costume to the singer. For Tosca it is especially challenging because not only is there a large chorus, but there are also supers—people who neither speak nor sing, but are present as characters in the drama—all of whom need more than one costume each. I received 6 shipping crates of costumes on October 10th and my costume staff has been sewing their brains out ever since. Thanks ladies! Everything looks great!

Over at the rehearsal hall, the opera has been roughed in, so to speak. All the scenes have been visited and blocked (figure out who goes where and does what during each line). Stage Management takes extensive notes so that the director can keep track of what business is going on when and make it all work together dramatically and harmoniously. From here on out is the fine-tuning. They say that God is in the details. Oh, man are they ever right! I am fascinated by the inner workings of an opera. Not only do we spend a lot of time considering what goes on while the performers are on stage, but good directors spend time considering what the characters have been doing in the drama before they appear on the scene. And what they will do when they leave. All the inner workings of the plot and motivations have to be balanced carefully in the mix.

Opera wasn’t always this dramatically sensitive. There was a large period of time where the style of performance is what a friend of mine calls Park and Bark. The singers used to wear elaborate costumes (some of which they owned themselves!), wander out to the middle of the stage, stand there and sing. The heck with acting, it was all about the music. I’d like to think we have a better balance of acting and singing these days. This production and this director are going to be especially mindful of the acting aspect. And the singing is out of this world.

On Thursday the Lighting Designer arrives in town. He will meet up with our Technical Director and Master Carpenter and talk about how the set will work with the lights and vice-versa. They will all attend the run through Thursday night at the rehearsal hall to see how the singers will interact with both scenery and lighting. After that, Stage Management packs everything up, pulls the tape off the floor and I will come with a few strong backs to load it all up and take it to DeVos Hall.

And then the fun will REALLY begin.

Staging: As Holmes used to say to Watson, the game is afoot!

The visiting artists have arrived and rehearsals have begun in earnest. Last night we bid a fond farewell to the Central Reformed Church, where we have been working with the adult and children’s choruses for the past six weeks. We won’t be back there again until we begin to work on The Elixir of Love in December. Now we are moving ahead with staging rehearsals which are being held in an empty store near Centerpointe Mall. Extra-super thanks to Visser Development for letting us use the old Dunham’s store. We love it! (And for anyone out there who is looking to lease a large retail space, the place is now sparkling clean!)

I’ve already put a few hundred miles on my car going from office to costume shop to rehearsal hall and back several times a day. Man, am I ever looking forward to a time when all three of those locations will be contained in one building. (go to the page on the Betty Van Andel Opera Center to see our future home!) I’ll gladly climb the stairs 20 times a day if it means that I no longer have to spend hours in traffic and use all of the remaining fossil fuels on the planet. (Never fear, environmentally-minded friends, I drive a hybrid!)

Today began with a production meeting. This is the first time that the Director, Stage Managers, Technical Directors, Properties Master and I all got together in the same room to talk about Tosca. It can be tedious going through the opera with a fine tooth comb to discuss props and scenery and costumes and lighting, but there really is no better way to do it than to put all the minds together and mentally go through the entire opera. Everyone asks questions and everyone has answers. Sometimes we need to discuss the pros and cons of a particular aspect or process or strategy. Sometimes these discussions lead us in directions that we would not have considered alone. This is one of my favorite parts of the opera: Collaboration! There was a combined century or two of theatrical experience sitting around one table. Together we are more than the sum of our parts, for sure!

The scenery for this opera is in no way literal. It is designed to represent not only locations, but also emotions and themes. There are several large panels onto which images will be projected. The set is less for the singers on the stage and more a guide for the audience’s benefit. The costumes and the props and furniture are all very, very literal and conventional. These things in the singers’ world are all realistic. I like the concept quite a lot and am looking forward to seeing everything together.

That event, however, is still weeks away. In the meantime, we will rehearse and bounce ideas off each other. We will make more decisions and think about things like wigs and makeup and stage blood and daggers that have retractable blades. We will figure out where to place the offstage singers and where in the world we will put all of the orchestra musicians in the limited orchestra pit at DeVos Hall. I suggested using a bit of Crisco, but no one else thought that was a good idea.

I guess that is why we collaborate!

Where to Build the Show - Searching for a Rehearsal Hall...Again

Tuesday, October 14th has been one of THOSE days.

I arrived at my office at 7:30 AM, toting my makeup, curling iron and evening attire for the “P” is for Puccini event at the Public Museum tonight. At 8:00 a.m. was the meeting of the Facility Committee, on which I sit. We are working on all the details for The Betty Van Andel Opera Center. At the moment we are down to making decisions on construction materials, faucets for the bathrooms, numbers of and locations for electrical outlets, computer networks, phone systems—all the nitty-gritty nuts and bolts of the building. It is both exciting and incredibly tedious all at once. Groundbreaking will occur when we have met our capital campaign fundraising goal—and not a minute sooner! Everyone in the industry has heard about or even lived through the nightmare of an organization building a facility only to discover that they haven’t raised enough money to pay for it. Our Board of Directors has sworn not to let that happen to us!

Unfortunately just before the meeting was supposed to start, our Interim Executive Director called. She was in a fender-bender on the way to the meeting and got a pretty big knock to the head resulting in a concussion. No “P” is for Party for her tonight! To add insult to her injury, our Marketing Director is also among the walking wounded. She called to let us know she’d be working from home today, but would stagger (literally) into the event tonight to do her thing.

The rest of today has been absorbed by the search for a rehearsal hall. Still homeless with 4 days to go, I’m beginning to perspire a bit. It’s tough to find a space that is big enough, hasn’t got too many supporting columns, has heat, lights and enough bathrooms and parking for a cast of 50. I’ll be so glad when we can finally move into a facility of our own. This will save me countless hours, miles and grey hairs, not to mention making the process of creating art a whole lot more productive for everyone involved.

At 4:00 was the fastest meeting of our Executive Committee on record. Everyone was out the door by 4:45 and on the way to get changed for tonight’s event. I joked with one committee member that I’d be having breakfast and dinner with him today. It is days like these that I am most grateful for our Board volunteers. These are all people with, you know, day jobs. They don’t get paid to spend hours working for Opera Grand Rapids. They do it because they love it and because they love the community where we all live and they know that having strong, vital arts organizations makes that community better. These are the people who lend their expertise to us on an hourly basis for free. What could be better than that? Nothing, I tell you!

And now it is time for me to get down off my soap box and curl my hair. “P” is for Puccini starts in 1 hour and it would be ever so nice if I didn’t look like I’d been dragged behind a truck when I get there.

Hope springs eternal.

Creating TOSCA - The Chorus

I have the best job in the world.

It is Monday evening and I am sitting outside the Tosca Chorus Rehearsal with my laptop. I must sit here and be serenaded by 35 exceptionally talented people who are rehearsing Puccini while I work. Darn! What a hardship!

As the Production Manager for Opera Grand Rapids I am in charge of getting everything and everyone that you see in an opera and getting it/them on the stage. That may sound like a tall order, and believe me, it is! This is my second season with Opera Grand Rapids and I have relaxed the death-grip on my desk ever so slightly. Oh, I’m still a bit white-knuckled, but I have already fallen into most of the pits that come with this job and while still wary, I’m getting better at dodging the new ones.

I actually began working on this season’s operas last January. Once the operas are agreed on the promotion and planning begins immediately. Scenery, costumes, props, lighting, wigs, staff, music, principal singers, chorus, orchestra—all these components must be agreed on, assembled and assigned and that takes time. Lots and lots of time.

There are some components that must wait until the last minute, though. Locating and securing a place to rehearse and a place to work on costumes is always a last-minute item. You would think something that is as vital as having a place to work would be top priority, but without a facility of our own, we must rely on finding a big, empty space with parking and bathrooms for a cast of 50 or more that can be used 24/7 for two or three weeks at a time. As some of our former cast members can attest, heat and lights are optional. Usually that takes the form of vacant retail space. Because landlords are justifiably holding out for someone to lease their space long-term and pay market-rate rent, they are reluctant to allow the opera to take over a prime location until they are absolutely certain that no one else will rent it. This certainty usually comes 7 to 14 days before I would like to move in and start using the space.

Today I signed a lease on a costume shop (extra thanks to Spatz Development, Inc. for the bargain basement rent!) with only 72 hours to go before my costumes are scheduled to arrive. Whew! I’ve still got 10 days to find a rehearsal hall. Keep your fingers crossed!

Am I sure I have the best job in the world? (pause to appreciate the music drifting into the hallway) Oh, yeah!