Musical Woes

So my life right now is entirely absorbed with the musical for high school (please note that I did not say "High School Musical" - that phrase has forever been ruined for me now). We are 5 weeks out from production, and what a scary 5 weeks we have left!

Yesterday, the director, choreographer and I met to plan out the rest of the rehearsal schedule - have I said that I would much rather be in charge? I am finding it very interesting to work with the director - our styles of running rehearsals are vastly different. I can't stand wasted time - it seems as if every rehearsal the kids are standing around for at least half the rehearsal. The blocking and choreography she wants to be "organic", meaning that the kids decide what to do - but to me it looks sloppy and chaotic. So often I find myself jumping in and taking over - just because I hate empty time - but I'm not in charge.

I was opposed to choosing this musical, and I still am for the following reasons: 1. This show was written for professionals (our students are very much not) 2. It was written with the understanding that everyone's voices would be amplified (we have 6 body mics, and 6 hanging mics) 3. This show is made up of mostly singing and little unaccompanied talking, and the vast majority of the cast is made up of young people with very little experience in singing, let alone singing complex harmonies. This in turn does a disservice to the score as written by the composers, and the overall show is missing something.

Having said that, the kids do like the music, and most of them are doing the best they can (which, quite frankly, is not Broadway great). The director herself I find a fascinating mixture of creativity and contradiction - she has a vision that seems to be clear only to herself, and will frequently say things like "These kids have no rhythm! They can't sing at all! But boy, aren't they doing great?" Yesterday she told me that the caliber of performance done at this school is consistently high, but the kids in the cast aren't up to it, but the show is going to be fantastic.

Huh.

The choreographer and I have both directed shows in our previous lives, and we are both very frustrated - we each would love to take control, but we don't want to step on any toes. So, we have to be diplomatic and tactful and sugarcoat to get things accomplished. Hence the meeting yesterday - since many of the cast members have come up to me to ask what the rehearsal schedule is (and I honestly didn't know), I decided that I deserved to know and so do the kids. At this meeting, we all collaborated in planning the rehearsal - and here's the thing: I could have done it all myself - I was trying to defer to the director, since she's in charge, but if I had done that nothing would have been decided.

Argh.

I don't know - I realize that I'm complaining, and in someways I think I'm complaining because I'm in charge without having the credit of being in charge. Does that make sense? I realize it's an ego thing, and when you work with kids, it's all about them anyway, so it's not about you.

Before school began this year we had a production meeting - our responsibilities were laid out clearly. As the music director, I am responsible for the music - teaching the songs to the cast. The band director is the rehearsal accompanist (bless him) and in charge of the pit orchestra. That's it. It did not say that I should have responsibility for planning the schedule, typing up and distributing cast lists, blocking and choreographing scenes, running regular rehearsals, etc.

Ah, well. It will all be over in 5 weeks, right?

Everything else in my life is a blur. We had all of last week off from school - for Eid Al Fitr, the feast days that mark the end of Ramadan - and it seems as if those blissful days were decades ago, instead of just a week past.