Tech Week in Chattanooga

Well, it wouldn't have been tech week without one or two things going wrong, right?  Going into the job, I knew that the biggest hurdle would be my getting used to the keyboard, the patch changes, volume changes.....basically the technological aspect of it.  So it posed somewhat of a problem when I got to rehearsal the first day and they'd forgotten to ship the keyboards from the warehouse.  We expediently rented some equipment from local music stores and did the best we could to integrate my part into the orchestra- without the proper sounds, of course (There are three new members of the 11-piece orchestra, so my integration was a large part of these rehearsals).  Luckily, my keyboard came in time for the sound check/wandelprobe.  Surprisingly, I'd never heard of a wandelprobe before this rehearsal process.  This entails the orchestra playing through all or most of the music while the cast sings a little and moves around- somewhat marking their blocking and singing and getting used to the stage.

I kind of lucked out with my roommate that was chosen for me.  He plays Belle's father, Maurice, in the show.  He's a great guy and it turns out that we know a lot of the same people in the Prather world.  This makes one aspect of this tour a relief.

I've only been with the band a week and it feels like I've known them for months.  It's a very closely-knit group, which is understandable, seeing as how eight out of 11 of them were here last year.  If there's one phrase I can use to describe them, it's this: "Work hard, play harder."  They are all fantastic at what they do.  The get to the theater quite early to warm up and practice.  Their execution and musicianship are outstanding.  But when the curtain falls, you bet they're immediately searching for a bar in order to while away the rest of the night.  Let's just say I'm doing my best to keep up while still keeping my liver intact.

We had two preview performances in Chattanooga at the end of the week, which went well.  I'm getting a good handle on my music.  Next, onto Nashville for our official opening.