Rehearsals have picked up in the last week as we run through the entire show every night. The show is Feb 14-16, and so far we have done all staging, blocking (who goes where, and when), and choreography. This week we are going to start working with the orchestra. Things are moving ever forward to Opening Night...!
I am in the very first scene, the "Rock Island" train bit I talked about last time. As soon as that scene ends I need to do a quick costume addition to change from "Salesman #4" to "Iowa Citizen." As soon as the train leaves the station at River City, the chorus goes into the first song, which is "Iowa Stubborn." This is sung by all the townspeople of River City, Iowa when Professor Harold Hill is sizing-up the place for his con. It's an introduction to the "small-mindedness" of small town people. However, Meredith Wilson actually grew up in Iowa. If you listen to the words, it's not so much a criticism of small town people as it is a song TO them.
And we're so by-God stubborn we can stand touching noses
for a week at a time and never see eye to eye
is followed by the kicker
But we'll give you our shirt and the back to go with it
If your crops should happen to die
You really ought to give Iowa a try.
So it's a fun song to sing with cool lyrics. Also, that bit about helping our fellow man is sung a capello, and we sound pretty good if I do say so myself.
The hardest part of the song for me is the end, where we have to sing several Iowa city names, the vast majority of which I have never heard of!
If you would like to know more about when and where our production will be, please click the Gahanna Community Theatre homepage. or purchase tickets from iTickets here
No comments:
Post a Comment