Well, many of you folks whom I call friends got a glimpse of my command (urk!) performance in Godspell last year. The production was put on by the great folks of The Stage Hands, our local community theater company here in little ol' King City (pop. ~11,000.)
Well, being the control freak plus theater nut that I am, when the opportunity came around I took the big leap. I'm directing our next production this summer, MAME.
Not to be confused with the stupid computer arcade simulator that dominates the stupid search results when you're trying to find a pic for your stupid blogpost...
Anyway, I have never seen the movie, and don't plan to, at least until after the production closes. I had never listened to the music, never seen any production, and only knew that it was Angela Lansbury's signature role.
One of the other Stage Hands members had a file copy of the script that she gave to me to read to decide if I wanted to direct.
That reading was a real revelation. Some of you, my friends, know that my personal philosophy includes the idea that life is an adventure, and there is nothing but to live it all the way.
That is exactly what Mame is about! So I downloaded the Original Broadway Cast recording from iTunes, which includes Lansbury and the inimitable Bea Arthur. The music was by Jerry Herman, of Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles fame. It is catchy, lush, standard mid-century Broadway fare that really gets under the skin. A delight all around.
So we're heavy into preproduction right now, designing, budgeting, prepping for auditions at the end of April.
Watch this space for updates, photos, and whatever else I can kluge together!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Sounds of the Past
Okay, I thought this was really cool.
It seems researchers have found the *real* first recording of sound, scratched in soot on waxpaper... written in smoke. This recording predates Edison's legendary "Mary Had a Little Lamb" recording by several years. At the end of the linked article is a link to the actual sound itself. It doesn't sound like much. In fact it isn't clear at all. Still you can hear that it's a human voice, at least, sort of like hearing sound through water, or in this case, smoke.
Here's the thing that is surreal to me. This lady's voice is one of the myriad sounds of the year 1860. Eighteen-Sixty. Abraham Lincoln won't be elected president for the first time until the end of the year. Martin Van Buren, the 8th President of the United States, is still alive (and still will be for two more years.) Victoria is Queen of Great Britain. Napoleon III is Emperor of France. The Pony Express has just begun. The Second Opium War is ending in China. Charles Dickens will publish the first installment of the now classic GREAT EXPECTATIONS. Anton Chekhov, Lizzie Borden, Annie Oakley, General John Pershing, and Billy the Kid have all just been born. Charles Goodyear and Arthur Schopenhauer have just died.
And this young lady is singing Au Clair de la Lune in the smoke, the sounds of her voice captured for us to hear, however rough and faint, nearly 150 years later.
Truly awe-inspiring.
Posted by Looney @ 9:12 PM