Characters

Okay, sorry for another Oz-themed post.

Okay, I lied, I'm not sorry. :P

I've been thinking a lot lately about my character and who he is, what makes him "tick", per se etc. I think the characters in The Wizard of Oz are so wonderful, and so human. In my opinion, the reason that The Wizard of Oz has been around for so long and become a classic is because there's a bit of Dorothy in all of us, a bit of Scarecrow, and Tin Man and Lion, and we can all relate and resonate. I love the story, and I love the characters. Sure, they're larger than life, and somewhat caricatures, but there's beautiful, human elements in each one, and that's what I'm really excited and interested in exploring, finding and expressing.

News

Hi. How are you? Life is really good with me. Like, really good. I'm just really, extraordinarily happy right now. Not because of anything in particular, but rather because of a combination of smaller things that have happened or are happening in the future.

Things that have happened since I last blogged:

The Wizard of Oz. I auditioned for a large community theatre production of The Wizard of Oz. The audition went really well, I thought, and weeks later, I found out that I had a callback. Went to the callbacks, and then the waiting began. The day that my dad and I (and two good friends of ours) left on a backpacking trip, I got a text from my mom saying "call me!". I called home, and found out that the director had called, and I was cast as the Tin Man! You guys, you have NO idea how excited I am! It's 16 shows in December in the largest theatre I've ever performed in (it's got a balcony!). I guess this show is kind of this years "huge annual Christmas family show" so it's usually sold out and really popular and stuff. It'll be great. Tragically, the man who was supposed to direct it suddenly passed away, but the assistant director has stepped in to direct and the show is going ahead. This may sound silly, but I'm also pretty excited to do WoO because when I was younger, The Wizard of Oz was actually a really big part of my life. I was kind of obsessed with it for a number of years, and when I was probably about 9, I had this big elaborate plan to mount my own production of The Wizard of Oz. I had the script ready, I'd contacted many of my friends to be in the production, and had double-cast myself as both the Wicked Witch of the West and the Tin Man. To this day, I still don't know how I thought I could manage that. :D But it's kind of cool, years later, to be indeed be playing the Tin Man in a much bigger productions (we're going to have flying monkeys that fly, people!).

Backpacking. As I mentioned, I went backpacking with a friend of mine from Scouts, his dad, and my dad. Great trip. We didn't have the best weather for the hike we wanted to do, and consequently had to change our plans a bit, but it was still a great trip. Backpacking is amazing and I look forward to many more trips.

The Fringe. I had the pleasure of being part of the Fringe festival this year in a show that I wrote the music in. (I think I've mentioned it before. One of my friends "concieved it" and wrote the book, then another friend of ours wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music). We got good reviews (my first ever reviews!!) and our last shows were sold out. We even made some money! Hurray!

I got my learner's license. Finally.

I also have applied for 5 jobs and haven't heard back from any of them. That's an achievement, right?

My most recent big news is that I'm going to school this year. Which is a big change for me, since I've been homeschooled my entire life. The school I'm going to allows lots of flexibility, and is self-directed. I can work at my own pace, and I don't have to "sit in a classroom", but I likely will have to be there (I haven't got my time-table yet) for regular school hours. It's crazy, but strangely, I'm really, really excited. It'll be a change, which will be nice. Not that I was unhappy homeschooling by ANY stretch, quite the contrary, but I was just looking for a change of pace, change of scene and a good way to get these courses done. And I'm taking French, and possibly Italian and Spanish, so I'm very excited about that! It just feels really right for me at this point in my life.

Lots more has happened, but this is long enough for today. :)

This summer has been fabulous, but I'm looking forward to jumping into new adventures. And I'm looking forward to blogging again!

I don't know if anybody reads this blog anymore, but if you do-thanks! If you read that entire post, survived, and are still planning on reading my blog, you rock and I love you.

Take care,
Dan

Update

Hi folks,

I obviously haven't been blogging recently, because I've very busy getting back into my regular schedule of life. I'm back at weekly piano and flute lessons, but not voice lessons yet because my teacher is busy being a new father. :) But I've started something new: Musical Theatre! Twice a week, for 3 hours. On Mondays, we alternate between dance and acting for the first half, and then have choral for the second half. And then on Thursdays, we have vocal masterclasses. It's fantastic, and I'm learning loads!

And of course, I have "school work" too. I'm also taking an online writing class, so that's good.

The theatre company I'm with is doing A Midsummer Night's Dream this November, so I'm just starting to get pretty busy with that too, directing, music writing, and lots of rehearsal scheduling! It's going to be fabulous.

Also, in case you didn't know, I went on a big backpacking trip to the mountains with my Venturer company, this past August. I'm working on a big series of blog posts on that, which I will post periodically.

Anyway, just thought I'd post a quick blog to let you know what I've been up to!

Take care,
Daniel

The Tempest!

Hey everybody,

I'm back to posting! The Tempest is over! Yay! I mean, I have mixed feelings about it. I'm sad it's all over, but it's nice to have the weight off my shoulders. How did it go, you're probably asking? It was fantastic! Okay, I'm pretty (extremely) biased, but honestly, it really went well. On the marketing side, we had everything together (dates, advertising etc.) way sooner and that was really nice. As a small little theatre company, we're constantly improving and growing and learning, and this was definitely our best production. Hands down.

*The following section is unbiased*
We had a killer company too. First off, we had Nicole, who was a stage manager/lighting/understudy and general on-top-of-everything kind of person. Honestly, five days before opening, we found out that our actor playing Gonzalo couldn't make one of the performances. So we called in Dorothy, who was playing a spirit/mariner and asked her to play Gonzalo for that performance (the Saturday matinee) and in five days, she had Gonzalo's lines solid, all the blocking learned and the acting was all there. And then because Dorothy was now Gonzalo for the matinee, we asked Nicole if she would stand in for Dorothy. At a rehearsal, we went to run through the dance in Act II with Nicole, and gosh darnit, Nicole didn't even need that runthrough, because she already had it all perfect. I was honestly in awe. I've never understudied, but from what I've heard, if you can understudy, you can do anything, because when you understudy, you're not only learning your part, you're learning somebody else's! And for the record, the matinee was practically perfect and Dorothy and Nicole were fantastic! Yay Nicole and Dorothy!
And then we had Josh, who was brilliant as the grief-stricken King Alonso. Josh, you were really great in a really dramatic role! And Calla, who played Ariel, was totally fantastic as Ariel. Lots of energy, but perfect at pulling out the dramatic moments and hope in Ariel. Everybody else was great too, but as they don't have blogs to link to, they don't get reviews. :P
*Okay, unbiased section ends*

But we heard lots of great reviews for the production and I (personally) think we really did it justice. Now, I'm all sad and I miss it.

Anyway, this is getting long, and it's getting late (for me), so I'm going to end it here. I'm going to get back to my daily posting, now that I have more time, so you will actually get a post tomorrow!

-Daniel

Finished the score for The Tempest!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share with you that I finished writing a score of incidental music for Shakespeare's play, The Tempest. It will be performed live accompanying Celsius Youth Theatre's production of The Tempest, this November. It took me almost all summer to write, but I am very happy with the outcome. It's the longest thing I've written (10.5 minutes), and I actually like it, which is saying quite a lot, seeing as I am quite the perfectionist when it comes to my music. Anyway, I just thought that I'd let you know! Maybe I'll find a way to post some of it here or something.

What have I been up to lately?

Well, for starters, I'm writing a whole bunch of music for a youth production of The Tempest with Celsius Youth Theatre which is the theatre company that I co-founded. I'm writing a fair amount of music, in a relatively short time, so it's rather challenging, but hey, deadlines are good. We're having some live musicians that will be playing the live music on stage with the production, so I think it will be really great. We have 1 bass guitarist, 1 classical guitarist, 1 violinist and 1 recorder. Funky combo, huh?

I'm also doing some reading. At Kelsey's suggestion via the comments section, I'm reading How Doctors think by Jerome Groopman. I'm finding it really interesting, and I'll be sure to post a review once I'm finished. I'm also reading Richard II by Billy Shakespeare. I've only just started reading it, but again I'll post a review when I'm done.

Titus Andronicus

Hi everyone,

I'm writing this post because one of our local theatre companies is doing Titus Andronicus, and so I wanted to write about the play, and why I think it's an important play. This post is about the play, and not the production.

Titus Andronicus is believed to be Shakespeare's first tragedy, and is his most violent, and gory play. I'll give you a brief idea of what it's about:

When the play begins, Rome is at war with the Goths. Titus Andronicus, a renowned Roman warrior, has just come back from war with prisoners, including Tamora, the queen of the Goths, and her three sons, Demetrius, Chiron and Alarbus. Titus, angry that a bunch of his sons have been killed by the Goths, gives his permission for Alarbus' limbs to be cut off. Tamora pleads for her son's life, but to no avail. This sets off a cycle of revenge that doesn't stop until the end of the play.

I've talked to a number of people after watching it, and number of people have said "What's the point? What's the point of this violent play?" In my opinion, the play is all about revenge and its destructive power. It shows how one small action can set off a whole "domino effect" of anger and revenge that ultimately destroys. It's tough to watch, but I think it's important, because little things we do can snowball and become worse that we had imagined.

Sweeney Todd

Okay, so I promised a post about Sweeney Todd, so here it is. I thought that I should address exactly why I love such a morbid, macabre musical.

Sweeney Todd started out as a character in a story called The String of Pearls, was made into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, and was recently made into a major motion picture directed by Tim Burton. You can read the Wikipedia article about it HERE.

The story is about Sweeney Todd, a barber who returns from prison to find his wife dead, and his daughter taken by the nasty Judge Turpin. He swears revenge, opens a barber shop above the meat pie shop of Mrs. Lovett and proceeds to slit the throats of his innocent customers. It gets nastier. Mrs. Lovett, being short of meat for her pies, makes a plan with him. Sweeney cuts the throats, sends the bodies downstairs, where she uses the meat for pies. Her customers, unknowingly gobble up the meat pies. Her shop is a success.
Not pleasant. It is so far from my normal taste (no pun intended), that you are probably wondering why I love this musical/movie so much.

For me, the main reason is the music. All the music is by Stephen Sondheim and it's absolutely breathtaking. The harmonies are so cool, often dissonant (depending on the mood of the piece) and are so much more interesting than the normal pop harmonies often found in musicals. His use of language is brilliant also. For example, in the song, "My Friends", the way he uses consonants in his music is incredible.

The following video is fascinating to watch. It's Stephen Sondheim himself teaching a masterclass on "My Friends". Its about 9:00 long, but worth watching if you are at all interested. What Sondheim says at 0:30 shows his genius. He doesn't just write songs to sound good, he really thinks them through, and every rhythm in the music and consonant in the lyric is important to the mood of the song.
Here is the video.

At 2:25, Sondheim offers another fascinating insight. He says "The reason that there are so many Ss in the beginning of this lyric is because it has a whispered quality When you get to "my friend" which has no Ss, I want to feel a swelling, so thats where you start to come out in a way, it starts to get passionate..."

Interesting eh? And brilliant. (By the way, I don't think the actor singing Sweeney is a particularly good actor in this video, but he has a good voice. The young woman singing Mrs. Lovett is brilliant though.)

Here is a clip from the movie with Johnny Depp (Sweeney) and Helena Bonham Carter (Mrs. Lovett) singing "My Friends". There is nothing scary or violent in this clip (I would rate it G). The song starts at 1:30.


Thats all that I'm going to write concerning the music, but I think think it's absolutely brilliant. One of the best musicals out there. Another thing about it is that you almost don't even notice when the characters break into song because the music is so beautifully woven into the characters and the plot that it just seems so natural.

Now I'd like to write a bit concerning the movie, which came out in December of 2007.
Tim Burton directed it and the cast is headed by Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, and Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin.
A lot of people really don't like the movie at all. Of course, it's incredibly difficult taking a Broadway musical and turning into a blockbuster film, but I think Tim Burton did a wonderful job of it.
None of the lead actors are professional singers, and that was one of the things that the film was criticized for. Personally, I think Johnny Depp has a great voice in the movie, and the bit of roughness in his voice only adds to the character. Same with Bonham Carter's voice. Sure, the singing isn't perfect, but I think that it would only take away from the characters if they had perfect, pure voices.
Artistically, the film is amazing. In typical Tim Burton style, he creates something that is very visually appealing. The costumes and set is very dark and dreary, almost making it seem like a black and white movie, of course until the blood comes. But even the blood is theatrical and heightened, a bright, fake red that contrasts against the dreary setting. Visually, it's really quite stunning. In fact, it won the Acheivement in Art Direction award at the Oscars. It was also nominated for Best Costume Design.
And of course, the acting is amazing (Depp was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars).

Just a note: no matter how artistic it is, it is still very graphically violent, so if you are at all sensitive about that sort of thing, you should be warned. There is a lot of blood and violence. It is rated R after all. Just...be warned, and it would probably be a good idea to read the Screenit review before deciding if it is something you want to watch.

The character of Sweeney is very interesting to think about also. Most consider him a villain (he slits the throats of innocent people!), but a lot consider him a tragic, victim character. We see a man who, hurt and treated unjustly, swears revenge on the world (he says "They all deserve to die", a line from one of the songs, "Epiphany").

All in all though, it's an incredible masterpiece of musical theatre, and brings up some good questions about revenge, and some interesting insights on humanity. Oh yeah, and the music is incredible. Have I said that already? If you ever get a chance to see it on stage, or on film, I highly recommend it. But again, I have to stress that it is very violent, and isn't really for the faint of heart. If you feel you don't want to see the movie or the play though (and I can understand that!), definitely check out the music and read a synopsis. The music is really good stuff.

So that's why I like Sweeney Todd. For me, it's not about the violence and the murder, it's about the fascinating plot and and how it is told through some clever writing, and stunning music.

Thanks for reading!

Art etc...

I've been thinking a lot about art recently. I'm going to be directing a one act play this spring, and I've really been thinking about how I can make it different, how I can make it really touch people and be more than just a play, how it can become a piece of art.

I've become pretty obsessed with Cirque Du Soleil recently, for many reasons. Firstly, because its amazing, secondly, they're Canadian (okay, thats not a reason), but especially because what they do is so beautiful. They are not just a circus. They really tell stories and create beauty. Obviously, my small theatre company does not have the budget, nor the acrobats to create anything like what they do, nor do we want to. But I really do want to create art that is beautiful, and can touch people.

So thats my current project/dilemma: How can I make a small unassuming play really mean something, touch people and be artistic...

Yea!

I have to say that this has got to be one of my favorite times of year. For those of you who know me, you probably know that I am obsessed with Shakespeare, and where I live, we have a month-long Shakespeare festival, which I always volunteer at. This year, they are doing Richard III (one of my top five Shakespeare plays) and As You Like It. The festival just started and I've been there almost every night. Ahh, life is good.