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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
OT: My Major Award
OT: My Major Award
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1444 posts
Dec 15, 2012
10:03 PM
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For the past two months, the Payne family has been doing something none of us has ever done before, we've been on the stage.
My son happens to look a lot like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story," the director said as soon as he walked in he wanted him for Ralphie. Next thing you know, my wife is the mom, and I got cast as The Old Man.
So, for the last two months, all I have done is memorize lines, go to work, be at practice and it's finally drawing to a close. Tomorrow is the final show of the 91st season of Kanawha Players, the last show of the "A Christmas Story" run.
I do play harmonica in it. When The Old Man's major award is broken, I take it to the garage and play Taps on the harmonica.
We did get our pictures in the newspapers.
In the picture, Ralphie (little David) is holding his legendary official Red Ryder 200-shot carbine action range model air rifle, which he has had since he was very little.
They took this pic at a regular rehearsal, so David is out of costume. Me, I had just gotten off work, but I was in costume as my everyday dress would usually pass for 1930s attire.
My Major award
Little David and kids in cast
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David
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
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David
Elk River Harmonicas
 
Last Edited by on Dec 15, 2012 10:16 PM
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Hobostubs Ashlock
1974 posts
Dec 15, 2012
11:54 PM
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thats cool,Sounds like your having a blast;-)
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Hobostubs
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nacoran
6290 posts
Dec 16, 2012
1:13 PM
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Sounds like fun! My only experience in theater was in college. I took a theater class and for the final project we split into groups and each group had to put on a short play for the rest of the class. As a aspiring writer I happened to have a short story handy and I showed it to my group and they agreed to put it on! Yippee!!!
It was a happy story. Not. It was about a young girl dealing with the suicide of her sister and trying to decide if there was anything left worth living for. It was a series of dream sequences and memories leading up to her ultimate decision.
As a theater class we didn't rate much access to the stage. We got access during finals week to actually put it on, but not before then. When our turn came up, we realized we'd made way too many props and you could barely move around the stage. We didn't realize how dark it was back stage and my actors could barely make it onto stage. Meanwhile, I was back in the back helping the lighting person with stage cues. The narrator was also in back with me. About the only thing that what particularly well was the cue to hit the tape deck to get the music to play for the end of the play.
Here is the thing though. I thought my script was pretty good, and my lead actress was also starring in the production of one of the other theater teachers plays that was being performed on the stage, and our group was most of the better students in class, and so after a brief discussion, we decided that that wasn't good enough, so we asked the teacher if we could do it again. He agreed, and we got scheduled for a redo later in the week. The only obstacle in our way was that our narrator had an appointment the day before for MAJOR oral surgery. The show must go on though, so we had her record her narration on tape. It meant in addition to cuing the lights and hitting the tape deck for the narration and the final song, but no biggie. We were ready.
Well, except we had forgotten about that darkness back stage issue and hadn't done anything to fix it. Fine. Our actors would stumble onto stage, but it was a less cluttered stage now, so hopefully everything should be fine, and we got of to a good start, then something about my script jumped up and bit us in the butt. A series of dream sequences aren't a very linear way to do a show, and there was no one back stage who could cue the actors on what seen was next, and, well, they got out of order. Up in the booth, me, the lighting tech, and our narrator, her mouth wired shut, noticed they'd gone off script. Still, our narrator read on!
I smashed the eject button and there was a moment of silence while I found the spot in the script and started reading in my booming baritone. There was a little confusion in the audience, and on stage, but my troupe soldiered on, and for the second time the music to close the play cued up perfectly.
We still got an A, but that was some crazy sh**!
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Nate
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nacoran
6291 posts
Dec 16, 2012
1:20 PM
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Of course, that's not the whole story. We were lucky. The other theater teacher had been planning to attend the play. At the last minute he couldn't, but I didn't know that at the time. Aside from his lead actress also being my lead actress, why was he bothering? Well, you see, I was a writer on the student newspaper and I'd been assigned to write a review of his play.
His play was easily the worst play I've ever seen. It had so much profanity that half the audience- including a bunch of college aged people- walked out. It wasn't good profanity either. It was just there for the shock value, like the characters had Tourette's. I knew Robin (the lead actress) had complained that the skirt he had her wearing kept riding up and she'd been told she couldn't fix it because her character wouldn't care about that. There was a single monologue that inexplicably broke the fourth wall once, and then just went back like nothing had happened. The dialogue was stilted. The acting was okay, except the teacher's role (I'll give him that one though, the regular actor had dropped out at the last minute). The school had given him a fair amount of freedom, usage of the hall, and a budget, so he had a lot riding on it, and I had to write a review.
How bad was this review? Well, our editor-in-chief, who had the writer/director as a teacher, called all of the editors into his office. (I was the sports editor at the time, so I was there- I'd just been doing the story as a favor to features). He said he'd read the reviews and he was worried. He said the only way he could run the review was if the rest of the editors out voted him, so he had some cover. We did, and it ran.
I eventually did get to talk to the man. He was actually pretty gracious about it. He said I'd made strong points. He disagreed with me about them, but he said I'd backed my arguments up well. My boss got his A in his class too.
That's my only theater experience. It was sooooo fun!
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Nate
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rbeetsme
973 posts
Dec 16, 2012
1:23 PM
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I recently recorded 8 Christmas tunes for a play to be used as a soundtrack. Story had a small boy playing harp, my harp. Never saw the play, never heard the soundtrack, was told it was what they wanted. Next time a friend asks if I can help I'll ask more questions, rarely play first position melodies. Was good practice reading tabs, which I rarely do.
Last Edited by on Dec 16, 2012 1:27 PM
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bonedog569
753 posts
Dec 16, 2012
3:57 PM
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You get to unbox the leg lamp with pride ? - Mazel Tov!
This sounds like a ton of fun - and fantastic that your familly is involved in the project together.
I love the movie - and loved Jean Shepard on the radio - listening to the stories the movie was drawn from, late at night on WOR in NYC.
Enjoy your holiday experience, - I'm sure you will. Post more pic.s when you get em. I see 'Ralphie' is holding a genuine Daisey Red-Rrider - perfect!
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Last Edited by on Dec 16, 2012 3:59 PM
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daijoubu
16 posts
Dec 16, 2012
9:26 PM
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Looks like a lot of fun! I spent time doing lights, sound and building the sets for a friends troupe. We put on some well received childrens plays, but the most memorable moments are when things go wrong and what you went through to recover.
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Rob
Six Eight Time
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1445 posts
Dec 17, 2012
2:41 AM
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That's certainly true. One of my favorites was on the third night when the kid (a four-year-old girl with short hair, it worked) playing Randy - who always has to go "wee wee" in the play, had to do so in real life during the first scene. So she just announces it and then takes off - right before I had some lines to Randy. The Old Man always is bringing in mail, so in the pile of letters I had was a little outline I had made of what was supposed to happen in that scene. So, I just looked at the outline and skipped Randy.
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David
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
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David
Elk River Harmonicas
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