The Jury and the Fringe--Was it worth it?

By Diana Howie, bookwriter

A friend called recently who was considering taking his new musical to an out-of-state festival. He asked what we got out of taking our musical, The Jury (www.thejurymusical.com), to Minneapolis.

That strikes us as a funny question now because what we hoped to achieve in finding an interested producer
did not occur. But overall, we felt it was a worthwhile (although not a perfect) experience.

Producing in a festival was not a new experience for me. I had taken a show to the Edinburgh (Scotland) Fringe Festival in 1990 and attended that same festival in the late '70's. I remembered the excitement in the air in the seventies and the thrill of having choices among all the performances. It was a festive occasion: chatty crowds, a constant theatrical buzz on the streets, a feeling that you were lucky to be a part of such fun times. The Minnesota Fringe in Minneapolis, now claiming to be the largest in the United States, promised some of the same qualities although it was smaller, 168 shows compared to Edinburgh’s more than a 1000 shows.

Every festival differs and may have rules that might not enhance your show. In Minneapolis, two rules worked against our show: the Fringe assigned venues (i.e., there was no possibility of choosing the most ideal stage configuration for your show) and the shows could not run over 90 minutes. Since we were not familiar with the Minneapolis festival, it did not occur to us that we would be somewhat unique with a full-length show. There were only nine shows out of 168 that ran over 50 minutes.

With the time restrictions, we had to cut four songs from the show's 24 songs. Since The Jury is not a musical revue, it was difficult to cut and shorten songs. Comments from our viewers indicated they were missed. Although the final 90-minute show seemed short to us, some viewers expected a 50-minute show based on the other shows they had seen in the festival. And we couldn’t even take the normal break at 50 minutes, since we needed all our stage time.

Our space in the Bryant-Lake Bowl had low ceilings and a tiny stage. While a perfect cabaret spot, it did not even hint at the grandeur of a courtroom setting. Some choreography with the nine characters had to be eliminated since there simply wasn’t enough room. Even lines were deleted because there was no room to place an actor on stage. Comments from viewers indicated those dialogue cuts were missed.

But, yes, it was worth it for one particular reason: we got to try out the story of these jurors in a totally different part of the country. While we found many Houston and Minneapolis audience members loved the show for the same reasons, the criticisms were remarkably different in these two cities. The comments from both places were what we needed for the musical's development. We’ve considered each and every comment in our post-Fringe revisions.

As there is no way to gage audience interest in a new piece other than to put it up, taking our show out of Houston to "virgin territory” was a good step forward. The Minnesota Fringe served us well as we continually work for a more perfect product. And yes, after the Minnesota Fringe got underway, it was fun to be there. The momentum of all those shows going on at the same time creates an infectious enthusiasm, especially among the audience. You want to see it all! You feel you are where the action is!

Unexpected Crisis Days Before Opening

by Anna Fay William, composer/lyricist

While we had trepidations about putting up The Jury (www.thejurymusical.com) out of town, we never imagined the crisis that actually happened with the show. Two events almost put us in a tailspin.

One week before show time, our Director John Garrett became ill with painful headaches. At the time the show was at a critical juncture because everyone was not off book—meaning the cast hadn’t memorized their lines. Everyone was working diligently but the performance was still rough. And we were only five days from opening.

Diana Howie and I were getting very nervous. We knew we would have to figure out how to keep the show together. Fortunately, we had a wonderful cast and they kept working throughout very long rehearsals while John recuperated from a sinus infection. The stage manager wasn’t letting anything slip past. She, in essence, became the director for those days—running lines and checking on blocking for the scenes.

When Garrett returned in a few days, the actors told him that it was good that he hadn’t seen them rehearsing during his absence. “You would have fired us all,” they said. But John reassured them all. “Everything gets worse,” he said, “before it gets better. It happens in all shows.” He assured us it would all go smoothly. We are dealing with professional actors.

But we not prepared for what happened at the tech rehearsal only THREE days from the opening. The Festival only gave us only a couple of hours to rehearse on the stage, run through some of the blocking and check out the lighting. Our rehearsal was scheduled for noontime at the Bryant-Lake Bowl in Minneapolis. Everyone was there except one cast member who had been consistently late to rehearsals. When the stage manager called him about 10 minutes into the rehearsals, he told her he was not coming because he had to work. She persisted, “You were told you had to be here.” The phone went dead. She called him back and he said, “I quit.”

What a crisis! We didn’t have anyone to step into the role. Small productions cannot afford the luxury of having understudies. When we broke the news to the cast members, they began searching their memories for a replacement. It wasn’t long before several thought of an actor who had been in a show with them. And Garrett called him during the rehearsal. He accepted the challenge. We were greatly encouraged when he was able to deliver his lines with some dramatic flair after only the second rehearsal.

This is a fascinating process--living on the edge of dramatic disaster. It takes some fortitude to stick with it, especially when the actors must improvise when a cast member leaves. Our actors seemed to live by the often-said premise-- “The show must go on.” In retrospect, our crises were not any different than those experienced by many other shows. We were probably lucky that we only had two such events.

Originally post on www.showgab.blogspot, Feb. 20, 2006.

THE JURY Comes to Life in Rehearsals

by Anna Fay William, composer/lyricist

In our rehearsals we were able to see how the characters in The Jury (www.thejurymusical.com) came to life. We saw how our director John Garrett brought out the emotional responses and characterizations from the actors throughout the rehearsals.

The Jury is an ensemble piece with six jurors and a bailiff in singing roles and two officers of the court in non-singing roles. Every role is critical to the development of the story. Everyone makes a strong contribution to the decision that is finally made by the jury—just as with a real jury. The show is a process in which minds and personalities are changed and we hope in an entertaining fashion.

Each character is very different and also represents a different cultural background. While such individualism is obvious in the opening, each character grows in his/her ability to act with one another. The first act focuses on the jurors who don’t want to spend much time serving on a jury. An aggressive female stockbroker Alexandra prods them on. In the second act, several jurors feel they are being kept unjustly by another juror Della who is headstrong about wading through all the steps of the deliberation process in this murder case. The tension rises throughout the musical as the two women go head-to-head. The other jurors find their alliances shifting, and their own opinions emerging by the second act with an unexpected conclusion.

At the first rehearsal, director Garrett told the actors that their acting direction would come from how they felt about their characters. His role, he said was to enable them to perform because they were all very talented. To get a reading on how they felt about their characters, he asked them to bring in some descriptions of their characters and why they acted as they did in the play. Very early on, his blocking began to shape the movements of the actors and their positions on the stage. Blocking is just one way in which movement adds to the emotional content and the opposing forces on stage. Throughout the rehearsals the director called upon the actors repeatedly for their understanding of what was happening on stage..

Subtle movements and facial expressions emphasize the dramatic content and humor in any show. We’ve all seen how audiences go off into peels of laughter with an actor’s slightest shrug of the shoulder. These are the actions that aren’t usually stated in a script but which seem to come naturally to good actors and directors. In this show, small actions showed how the jurors became involved with one another. As strangers, they are trying to find the some way to get their own voices heard--often in comic moments throughout the play.

Timing is everything in a performance. That is why actors want to make sure everything in the script and music is pinned down quite quickly and, hopefully, never changed. Once they commit their lines to memory their reflexes are built on what they’ve learned for both the lines and blocking. They need a stable framework to work out their emotional changes. But with a new work and a new cast changes happen—and as they do we as authors gain some experience in understanding what is and isn't working in the show. So with changes we expected some upset and grumbling from the actors but we were very fortunate. Our actors held their tongues and their tempers and the rehearsals went quite smoothly.

Scenes were done repeatedly in the rehearsals. Voices were raised and emotions expressed. “God, you’re difficult,” Della shouts at Alexandra. In one evening they went through this scene three times. The actors wanted to run scenes over and over. It is also often customary to do speed-reading without worrying about the blocking. The lines are delivered in a rapid-fire manner. It’s a memory check. For this kind of rehearsal, almost everyone is off book—meaning no notes, not even on their palms.

The actors began to interpret the subtext of the play as they created their roles in the rehearsals. Even though they might have trouble with their lines in the beginning, their variations on the lines were usually very close to the script. Not always exact, but the thoughts were very much the same. And their variations might even be adopted.

Anyone who thinks that acting is an easy job should go through a production one time. It takes patience, an ability to find form in movement, an ability to capture the emotions of an individual and importantly, an ability to memorize a script in a short period of time.It is incredible that actors will dedicate so many hours of their life to so few performances. As writers we appreciate their dedication.

Originally post on www.showgab.blogspot, February 20, 2006.

Preparing JURY for Out-of-Town Show

by Anna Fay William, composer/lyricist

As the writers of the musical, The Jury, (www.thejurymusical.com) we were excited when our show was selected for The Minnesota Fringe in 2005. But the prospect of putting on an out-of-town show caused us some second thoughts.

In Houston, we had six weeks for rehearsals for the February-March 2004 productions at the Country Playhouse. We knew the acting community in Houston but we didn’t know what to expect in Minneapolis. Our budget also limited the amount of time we could spend in rehearsals.
But we were lucky in one big respect—the same director, John Garret, signed on with us. We greatly respected his talent and judgment in putting up the show. Those at the Minnesota Fringe offices assured us that we would find a wonderful talent pool in the Twin Cities. We were also fortunate in having Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis provide us with audition and rehearsal space. This was one of the keys in our ability to stage this production with limited funding. So while we had some concerns we were optimistic!

We advertised our auditions for almost two months before the show in the Twin Cities classifieds. We had 10 actors sign up for auditions. One of our first finds was Lindsey Ingles who already had experience as a stage manager in the Twin Cities. We knew quickly that we would need someone like her who was familiar with the theaters. We were also fortunate in locating a musical director Kyle Nelson, who was well recommended for his shows.

At our Minneapolis auditions we found a group of singers with remarkable voices. Isaiah Waid, probably a little young for his role but still within the age boundaries for our ambitious newscaster. Gizelle, (Debbie Erickson) had studied acting and movement with the best pantomime artists and had a voice with a sharp dynamic appropriate for an aggressive female stockbroker (Alexandria). Elana Gravitz would make an idea Cuban-American single mother with her dark curly hair and vibrant voice. Joel Liestman, an Equity actor/singer, was an ideal Officer Thompson in looks and voice. Thomasina Petrus, a well-known jazz singer and Equity performer in the Twin Cities on her way to sing at a wedding, knocked our socks off with her rendition of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.” She would be a perfect Della, an important role in our show. We were elated with the talent we found—even in casting two non-singing roles as officers of the court with Stephen Jahn, a University of Minnesota drama major, and Jerry Seifert, who has many years under his belt in Twin Cities community theater.

BUT we still had not cast two major parts—an Asian American convenience store owner and a rapper. There were only a few weeks before rehearsals would begin and we had to return to Houston. We asked our musical director to assist us in auditioning others. We were then fortunate to line-up Sherwin Resurreccion for the Asian-American role upon the recommendations of several musical directors. Several cast members had recommendations for the rapper and we were able to locate a singer who would eventually leave the cast creating a crisis. (Fortunately, Ron Collier was able to step into the role within a few days before the opening.) Our casting was completed only a few days before rehearsals—not unusual but a real nail-chewing exercise for us.

After casting, John Garrett provided us with a schedule for the three and one-half week rehearsal period. With such a short time, we would be rehearsing six days a week. On the first three days our musical director would rehearse the cast around the piano. During the next two evenings, our director would take them through the blocking and the scenes without music. On Saturdays everything would be pulled together—both singing and scenes. The schedule accommodated our musical director and several actors who were just finishing other shows. Just one of the concessions that small shows must make when they want to talented actors and directors.

It would remain to be seen just how quickly we could pull our show together. We had a lot of good wishes from friends there but we still had to make it happen. (For more pictures and information on THE JURY see our website--www.thejurymusical.com.)

Originally post on www.showgab.blogspot, February 20, 2006.

Putting Up THE JURY in Minneapolis

By Anna Fay WilliamsComposer/lyricist

This blog will share the experience in creating and putting up THE JURY, http://www.thejurymusical.com, a new musical. It’s not a how-to-do piece; we’re still learning ourselves. We’d like to hear from others who have had similar experiences and invite their comments.

THE JURY began as collaboration between Diana Howie and myself in the Fall 2003. We had worked together when I composed an electronic score for a video she had written. Then, we began working with her book for the jury--almost on a weekly basis. We presented our first scenes in the summer 2003 workshops sponsored by The Field in Houston, which encourages artist’s efforts in different fields.In September 2003 we had our first staged reading at the Country Playhouse and the comments were favorable. The audience stayed almost an hour afterwards to discuss the reading.

We had hoped to interest John Garrett, a talented director who worked with the Stuart Ostrow’s musical labs at the University of Houston, in directing the project. We were fortunate because he he liked the concepts and had some recommendations on the play's development. He came onboard as director and truly part of the creative team in the process of shaping what comes to the stage.

For several months we made revisions, revisited our characters and prepared for our first fully staged workshop—eight performances over three weekends (February-March 2004) at the Country Playhouse, Houston. The theater seats about 85 persons and we were almost sold out before it opened. When the Fox News channel broadcast songs and interviews from the show, we sold out completely.

The audience enthusiasm and comments at the performances were encouraging so we began entering the show into festivals and workshops. Through the luck of the draw, we were selected for the Minnesota Fringe Festival with five performances (Aug.4-14) at the Bryant-Lake Bowl in Minneapolis. This represented a very speculative gamble for us but we decided it would provide a good showcase--even if it was in a bowling alley. We were assured by the locals that this was a very good and popular venue--something like the Minnesota version of Preservation Hall in New orleans. Hopefully, we’d get the attention of some producers. Several Fringe productions from the New York City festivals continued in off-Broadway runs.

We also hoped we'd be reviewed--an important part of getting recognition for the show, but also a somewhat frightening prospect for the creators of a show. There is so much belief that a critic can kill or make a show. But that was another part of our gamble.

THE JURY? What’s it about? It's all the officers can do to corral a group of unwilling jurors into the jury box. The raucous jurors are more interested in their jobs, their flirtations, and their appetites. Several immediately push for a Guilty vote without even talking about the defendant’s plea that it was an accidental shooting. After all, they reason there were no witnesses and the killer clearly fired the gun. They ask: “Why stay? “What else is there to talk about?" They are confronted by one persistent juror who wants to talk about the case.

Next, we'll discussing the out-of-town casting and what happened as we pulled the show together for the Fringe Festival.

Originally post on www.showgab.blogspot, August 2, 2005.