I would love to update this blog more frequently as a means of keeping in touch with people following my musical career.  It seems hard sometimes to keep up with blogging when life keeps moving so fast.

This week has been a long and tiring week teching and opening Barter Theatre’s production of “Annie”.  This classic musical is a lot of fun, and I’m very pleased with our production of it.

This is my second opportunity to music direct a show on Barter’s mainstage (last fall, I md’d “Forever Plaid”) and my first musical as Resident Musical Director.  I’ve also music directed several shows in the past at Barter’s Stage II (a smaller thrust stage theatre).

“Annie” is a large production, involving a large cast, lots of kids (we actually wrote two more orphans into the play than are called for in the script since we had so many girls audition for the show), lots of music, large set, etc., etc., etc.  To prepare for this production, we actually added an extra eight hours of tech which made this week seem even longer and more exhausting!  Eight hours of tech on Tuesday, two “10 out of 12” tech days on Wednesday and Thursday, and another 5 1/2 hours of tech on Friday before our first live audience showed up Friday night.

So far, we’ve done three performances (one last night and two today) and have two again tomorrow followed by an eight-show week.  Once we complete next week’s full schedule of shows, we’ll move into a rep schedule with the next mainstage show that is scheduled to tech and open, “Blue Sky Boys”.

I’m also currently in rehearsals for “Violet” which techs in a couple of weeks.  It’s non-stop in this theatre, but I’m loving just about every minute of it!  If you are in the southwest Virginia area anytime between now and mid-August, come by and see “Annie”.  You’ll enjoy it, I’m sure!

steve 🙂