An Actor...

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

I don't even know what to call this post. There are many titles it could hold, but none of them quite seem to do it justice. The show closes today with the two o'clock performance. I used to think that closings would someday get easier. And maybe someday they will. But, every one remains to be different.

This experience...I don't even know. I have so enjoyed every single person that has been involved with this show. It seems to have become such an embedded part of life that it now seems so strange that it's going to end. It seems so rare that a whole cast seems to really click together with no exceptions, especially a whole team.

I felt like with Smoke on the Mountain that the whole "family" just seemed to mesh so beautifully, but with that there was the hope of perhaps performing one of the sequels in a not-so-distant season (and we are now, in fact, all going to be back together it seems to perform Sander's Family Christmas at Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern starting in November). But with Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter, it's one of those that you know for certain that you will never have these same people in a cast together again. It's like moving away from home.

There are so many wonderful memories. We have such an incredible time. So much fun amidst so much hard work. But everything must have a balance it seems. And having the best job in the world must have it's downfalls. Closings, for me, are the biggest of these.

With these people, I even seem to be able to take joy in the dance numbers (which frighten me on a regular basis).

I don't know that I can continue to be anywhere close to articulate about how I feel about the cast and crew and creative team, so I should wrap it up.

It's been such a beautiful story to be able to tell, with such beautiful people. I feel so fortunate to have been able to be a part of this project and I know it's one that I will forever carry fond memories of.

I really love this cast. The ones that I've been hoping to work with for quite a while, the ones that I've worked with before, and the ones I didn't know before.

This is going to sound really cheesy, but theatre seems to me to really be magical. (Cheesy continues:) One of the lyrics in the show is "Magic changes all of your faces. Open your heart and you'll find, that magic lives in all kinds of places, like deep in your heart and in mine." I have learned so much from this cast, all of them (Cathy, Corey, David, Gigi, Jackie, Jacquie, Maggie, Matt, Richard, Thomas), from Dawn, from the crew, from the playwright, from the play....I should really pull it together and stop crying. hahaha. But this has truly been one of my favorite and most magical experiences. I hope that I'm able to take that and carry it on. I hope we all are.

No Clever Title Tonight- RD

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

Dawn holds to the philosophy that the more times you get to run the show the better. Which can be very frustrating early on, when the whole piece is a mess, as opposed to having one thing down really well, but at this point, it's really rather fantastic to have the whole show getting settled into our bodies, minds, voices, etc. Especially with the many, many, many costume changes (and some of them incredibly fast!). So glad to have Renee (our dresser) backstage along with a really terrific backstage team: Jason, Robert, Eddie, and another whose name I'm forgetting....arrrgh...I'll post it when I learn it! Shame on me!

Tonight after the very stop-and-start run (which included several new props, new blocking, choreography, vocal tracks, costume pieces and more) I believe Dawn referred to the "theatre goblins" attacking the show because so many things went awry in tonight's run. But the really cool thing is that IT'S ONLY TUESDAY!!! We have until Friday!

The show is in such great shape that it was probably incredibly helpful to have a really rough run to keep us on our toes. It's definitely coming to the time when everyone (or most) is getting nervous as the opening gets closer and closer with each passing moment (cue eerie music), but still for the most part, all of that is being navigated very gracefully. It's so fun to work with a group of such talented and kind people (and FUN!).

Oh, oh, oh. I would be totally amiss if I didn't mention that the costumes look FABULOUS! The sets are HUGE and FABULOUS! The lights are FABULOUS! The special effects are TRES FABULOUS!

Derek Dumais (sound engineer) helped us lay down some backup vocal tracks today, as we have a much more intimate-sized cast compared the the production in the Edinburgh Festival and also in the workshop (one of which, I believe had 26 people). So several of the cast members (David, Cathy, Gigi, Corey, and I) just recorded a couple of the numbers to boost the sound a bit. The tracks that Julie Fulcher (recently seen in A Christmas Story at Theatre IV and Smoke on the Mountain at Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern) are FABULOUS! Oh, so beautiful!

Everyone involved has really poured themselves into this. Wendy Vandergrift and Bruce Rennie have been doing some awesome tech support. Ginnie Willard, pinch hitting as properties mistress, is doing some incredibly fast and FABULOUS work. All the carpenters and painters have built this HUGE (oh...already said that) set.

OK...I should stop. I'm really excited about the show. It's really gonna be a ton of fun for us once we're able to navigate all of our costumes, props, etc. And I'm really excited to see how it plays with an audience (ON FRIDAY!!!). I really think it's gonna be a FABULOUS show!

An Actor Is Still Preparing...

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

Rehearsals are now well underway for Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter with an absolutely hysterical cast. These people are so much fun and delicious to work with! Maggie Roop, Thomas E. Nowlin, and Corey Davis round out the ensemble as Granny, Lady Camilla, and the Blacksmith respectively, with my stunning (hahaha) turn as the King's Father at the end of the show.

We started learning the choreography for our big "tap number" last night. I have never in my life tapped. Well, maybe my fingers on my desk during chemistry class, but ya know! So some minor adjustments were made...and I was cut from the number. Just kidding! Dawn was amazingly kind and simplified a few steps and it's going to look fabulous! Cathy Motley-Fitch, our dance captain, gave me quite a bit of help during our break as well. A "time step"? Huh?! A welcome challenge!

I was talking to Jackie Jones (who plays the Queen Mother with this riotous Rosanne Barr-esque take on the role) who is quite quick to pick up these dance steps which until last night were completely foreign to me and she was very reassuring. This morning before I head off to work, I found this video in my email sent from my darling Jackie:


How cool is that! I love YouTube! It's such an invaluable source of research now! (You can also find the Theatre IV commercial on there. And the Barksdale Theatre commercial, where you can catch a glimpse of me having a blast laughing on the couch with Joe Pabst, seen as Lumiere in Theatre IV's production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast:)

So...back to work. More lines and songs to learn! And that shuffle and time step!

Shuffles and time steps! Oh my!