Author Topic: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...  (Read 5931 times)

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Kait-e

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Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...
« on: Feb 15, 2011, 01:57 am »
Working on an operetta, we have one final dress rehearsal before we bring in a live audience, and last night's run with the ensemble was rocky (went over the same piece 3 or 4 times, several others needed to be restarted due to wrong tempo and/or musicians getting lost). I had been given instruction from the PM to take control when things derail, so I either gave the line leading up to the music cueing in, or gave a vocal line in the piece (the singers wouldn't know offhand where we would be going if given a bar number).

However, if this happens during a show, I am uncertain what to do - do I let the conductor pick things up and hope the singers figure out where he went back to, or do I break the fourth wall and do as I have been?
I am very reluctant to do the latter, but wonder if it is better for the audience to know there was a mistake but we got back on track rather than have them witness a fumbled song or two.

Opinions?
Thanks in advance.

On_Headset

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Re: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...
« Reply #1 on: Feb 15, 2011, 03:43 pm »
The most important thing is that you're on the same page as your conductor, dancers and musicians. The worst possible outcome is for nothing to happen. (The conductor thinks you're going to fix it, you think the conductor's going to fix it, the musicians and dancers are completely lost...)

One tactic is to sit down with the conductor and agree on designated "reset points" within the score. (The start of a verse, etc.) If you need to stop and restart during a song, you always go to the previous reset point and run from there. The musicians will need to mark these points in their scores, the singers just need to remain aware of where the verses join. This keeps everyone on the same page, and so long as someone takes the initiative to halt the number, you can get things moving quickly without stage whispers or pauses for discussion.

Something to bear in mind is that if your company blows a number the first time, odds are pretty good they'll blow it on subsequent passes as well. This can be a tricky judgment to make, but stopping and restarting a number only to have it break down again is a very, very bad outcome. You may do better to halt, skip the rest of the number, and move on. (Or you might halt, skip the number, move on, and run the number as an encore.)

Kait-e

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Re: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...
« Reply #2 on: Feb 16, 2011, 12:27 am »
They tend to blow the number due to someone getting lost (at times this is the conductor - I watched him lose the beat during a piece today yet the musicians and singers kept going).
They've been good(?) about not always messing up the same thing. IE what they messed up Sunday was good today, but they messed up things which were fine on Sunday... So it's about individual mistakes rather than being bad with a particular piece.

But today (thankfully) went better overall.  I spoke with the conductor afterwards and essentially told him it was in his hands during shows. I'm there if things get really wrecked, but he's getting a better sense of where to pick up from and I've told him to "sing along" if one of the singers is really lost which helped in previous rehearsals.

I'll see if I can grab him for a few moments to go over good re-starting points for the singers (they worked with canned music for weeks and we tended to go back to the same spots in rehearsal), and he's close enough to the handful of musicians that he can whisper/mumble out a bar number if necessary.
Thanks for the tips!

Mac Calder

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Re: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...
« Reply #3 on: Feb 16, 2011, 08:14 am »
Do you have a conductor cam? or is your conductor visible to the cast? I have worked on a number of school musicals etc in theatres where the easiest way to keep everyone on the same page was to give the conductor (music teacher) a series of hand signals to indicate land marks like "start of the verse" "start of chorus" and "start of song" and to agree upon how we will handle stuff ups that we could not play through. Upon a major stuff up, the conductor would re position, give the hand signal nice and clearly (cast able to see either due to conductor cam, or the fact that the conductor is stick up out of the pit) and everyone knew where to restart from.

Joshua S.

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Re: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...
« Reply #4 on: Feb 17, 2011, 01:20 pm »
While, yes, this is a big concern, I would usually handle this the way I would a straight play.  In performance, if the actors get lost or jump a huge section, it is usually up to them to get back together and as stage manager i have to figure out if they missed any technical cues and whether or not to jump those cues or speed through them.  In this case, the conductor is part of the group of performers (as are all the pit musicians) and it is his/her concern to keep the music together.  I'm a big advocate of not stopping during a performance unless it is a safety issue.

sievep

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Re: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...
« Reply #5 on: Feb 20, 2011, 09:07 pm »
While, yes, this is a big concern, I would usually handle this the way I would a straight play.  In performance, if the actors get lost or jump a huge section, it is usually up to them to get back together and as stage manager i have to figure out if they missed any technical cues and whether or not to jump those cues or speed through them.  In this case, the conductor is part of the group of performers (as are all the pit musicians) and it is his/her concern to keep the music together.  I'm a big advocate of not stopping during a performance unless it is a safety issue.

I really couldn't disagree more.  We have to work together in order to keep the show going and the story being told.  To sit back and let the show train wreck is irresponsible.  On_Headset has got it right . . .talk it through, have a plan.  If worst came to worst and you have to stop . . .well, you've already stopped.  If you break the fourth wall, so be it.
"This lovely light, it lights not me" - Orson Welles

Joshua S.

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Re: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...
« Reply #6 on: Feb 20, 2011, 09:40 pm »
I'm not advocating that you sit back and let the performance fall apart.  You have to do what you can to keep the show going, and so does the conductor.  I just think there are better ways to fix problems then simply stopping, saying "lets go back to the chorus" and starting over.

On_Headset

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Re: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...
« Reply #7 on: Feb 21, 2011, 01:10 am »
I'm not sure the two are really comparable, though.

If an actor dries or gets lost, okay: someone on stage eventually has to say something, and through improvisation or sheer force of personality, the show will get rolling again. If your cast is really really good, the audience won't even notice the lull.

With music and dance, if the company gets lost, you're in serious trouble. The audience will notice. Confused dancers are by-definition a safety hazard. (Things which would be mere mistakes in dance rehearsals can now become catastrophes. If you miss your mark, you fall off the stage. If you go out of sync, you start colliding with other dancers. If you realize you're in the wrong place and rush to where you ought to be, you collide with set and props. etc. etc. etc.) Singers can easily pick up their place if they get lost, but instrumentalists have a much tougher time, particularly in smaller pit bands. I've only ever known a few musicians who are capable of bootstrapping themselves seamlessly into a running number. (Of course, if your musicians are a rock combo, that becomes much much easier than if you have a more traditional score--but in that case you almost certainly wouldn't have a conductor.)

You don't stop a number every time the second bassoonist blows a pick-up note, but if the conductor has well and truly lost her place in the score and control over her musicians, it starts to become a good idea.

(And, to cover my ass, I don't mean to suggest that dancers are especially stupid or ignorant or incapable of handling themselves. The job they do is  quite risky even when conditions are absolutely perfect, and any amount of confusion can become a very big problem very very quickly. In all but a few circumstances, even if an actor completely drops the ball, nobody gets hurt, nothing gets damaged, and we keep on going. In all but a few circumstance, if a dancer is even slightly off, you start running a very serious risk.)
« Last Edit: Feb 21, 2011, 01:17 am by On_Headset »

 

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