Calgary Musicals

October Projects: Singin’ in the Rain and New Puppies

What with vacation, business travel and a new puppy (see picture gallery below), October’s been a busy month, so I’ve cut back on posts here. That, and I have come to the conclusion that I need to stop letting my blog get too much in the way of:

1. Sleep
2. Exercise
3. Time with my husband
4. Housekeeping (I’m willing to let pretty much anything get in the way of housekeeping, when it comes down to it)
5. Writing my own musicals
6. Everything else that gets shoved to the bottom of the list when one takes on a new project

Back in June, however, I attended the Calgary Alliance of Community Theatres (Calgary-ACTS) Annual General Meeting – only so I could vote for their annual CAT awards, I confess, since you have to attend a meeting to qualify. They were looking for adjudicators for their shows – a benefit all members can request – and since I’m going to all the musicals and critiquing them anyway, I figured, “why not? I might learn something, and make a contribution at the same time. And what’s one more project?”

There are a few differences between adjudication and theatre criticism:

Audience: Adjudicators write for theatre-doers rather than theatre-goers – more of a coach than a critic

Content: Adjudication focusses on those things within the company’s control, so does not judge the writing of the show itself, just the interpretation of it

Privacy: Adjudication is private and intended for the sole use of the theatre company for the benefit of the participants. The artistic director may or may not choose to share the results with those involved

Timing: The adjudication report goes out after the run is over, and is meant to provide learnings for future performances, rather than the current one

The Calgary-ACTS adjudicator is provided with a form to fill out in which they rate the lead and supporting actors, ensemble, director, choreographer/fight stager, costume designer, set decorator/props master, sound designer and general audience experience. Some questions include: “Character: Developed and maintained the physical and vocal characteristics of their character as presented in the script; not just themselves reciting lines”, “Blocking: moving actors on and off and around stage effectively and with purpose,” and finally, “consider for CAT nomination?” The form provides consistency and a helpful structure to say why something – or someone – works or doesn’t work well, and gives them specific suggestions for improvement. It should be a kinder, gentler form of criticism, but I suppose that depends on the author.

Front Row Centre’s production of Singin’ In The Rain (the 1983 stage version of the classic 1952 movie of the same name with Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor) was my first foray into adjudication. I intended to review the show here as well, but I ended up having to go late in the run, and wasn’t able to get it written up. As it was, I did well to get my adjudicator’s form in (almost) on time. Hopefully my input will be useful for those involved.

I don’t see any point in going into the specifics of my observations after-the-fact, but suffice to say I thought Front Row Centre’s Singin’ In The Rain was a decent production – about average by FRC standards. It was a pretty ambitious show for a community theatre company to take on, since it’s got lots of dancing, but the leads and chorus carried it off well enough. I quite liked their interpretations of  ”Singin’ In The Rain” (complete with real rain and soggy singer), and ”Broadway Melody”. The fact that pretty much EVERYONE learned to tap dance was also pretty impressive. I do feel that this is one of those many occasions where the original (movie) version worked better, however.

In case you’ve never seen it, or are feeling nostalgic, here’s the Gene Kelly version of the title song, “Singin’ In The Rain,” from the movie – one of the all-time great numbers in movie-musicals. As I write this, Hurricane Sandy is pelting the eastern US and Canada with heavy rains and wind. Here’s hoping those of you out there manage to survive the worst that he (she?) has to offer and are able to be back singing afterwards, if not during.

As it turns out, Sandy was the name of my childhood Cocker Spaniel, which one of my sisters won by entering a contest.  Although I was only three at the time, one of my first memories is of the man standing in our front vestibule with the dog under his coat (Sandy was born around Thanksgiving, so I imagine it would have been mid-December, just in time for Christmas). For the longest time, my brother, who was born in November of that year, thought Sandy was his little brother, and I recall him asking later when Sandy was going to lose his hair.

And so we somehow manage to segue, rather awkwardly, back to the topic of new puppies, my other October project. For those of you who are only reading this far to see the pictures of my adorable new Airedale Terrier puppy, Betsy, here they are (with supporting roles by Betsy’s littermates, Duffy – our unimpressed 7-year old wire-haired fox terrier, my husband Mark and myself):

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