Chat About Contra Costa Musical Theatre- 10/13-11/11

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Lightman7
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Re: Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Walnut Creek, CA - Oct 13-Nov

Post by Lightman7 »

As I'm sure you are all aware, for privacy and copyright reasons, there is limited information that can be shared about the production process.

Here is some of what I can share:

The Lesher Center is owned by the City of Walnut Creek, and the main theater seats about 785, almost all of which have been opened up for sale, and sales are going very well as you could tell from the ticket seating charts.

There are a few "returnees" form the Berkeley production, although this theater is much better suited than the Berkeley venue.

The set will be custom for the stage, although there will be the traditional kitchen/bedroom mobile unit.

We started rehearsal last night. For those of you unfamiliar with musical theater rehearsal process, the first rehearsals are music only, with no staging. I might be biased, but I think we sound really good (For reference, I mainly since with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, some of the south bay opera companies, and occasionally some musical theater.)!

Of course the first thing after the administrata and introductions was two hours of dialect coaching. We are going with a Durham, not Geordie, accent, as it is easier for US ears to understand, but still sounds appropriate to the region. We have a fabulous dialect coach.

One cool thing is that one of the staff works for SHN, the main organization that brings Broadway tours to San Francisco, and they got these (appliques/tattoos/transfers/whateveryouwanttocallthem) that SHN used for guerilla marketing back in 2011 when the US tour 2.0 came through (its last venue before shutting down and being reorganized into tour 2.5, which was the final tour that ended in Sao Paulo). Evidently SHN was just going to throw them away!

Image

Ironically, right next door to the rehearsal space is this shop:

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And this is what finally made it set in that I'm actually in the show!:
Image
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CJ-Rochester
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Re: Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Walnut Creek, CA - Oct 13-Nov

Post by CJ-Rochester »

Thanks for all of that info, Lightman7. It will be exciting to follow a Forum member's adventures through this process.
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Lightman7
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Re: Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Walnut Creek, CA - Oct 13-Nov

Post by Lightman7 »

And in a bit of poetic irony, we staged the opening strike scene tonight, on this US holiday of Labor Day, a day that pays tribute to the working class. ;)
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angelenroute
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Re: Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Walnut Creek, CA - Oct 13-Nov

Post by angelenroute »

Very cool, Lightman. Thanks for sharing! :D

Sean

"Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it." -Edward Albee
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Lightman7
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Re: Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Walnut Creek, CA - Oct 13-Nov

Post by Lightman7 »

We more or less finished staging the first half on Thursday night, so today was the big day: Braden joined us! As you would suspect, there was no need to fly him across the country until the rest of us had learned the lines/songs/blocking. I can already tell he is an amazing Billy - it is too bad he never had a chance at one of the national level productions. And I have to say, I have never seen a production before this where the family physically LOOKS like they are all related.

MODS - please note I have both Braden's and his mother's permission to post this picture here:

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For those who have met me in London or wherever, you know me without a beard. But I grow beards for shows, and to help differentiate the ages of the miners, I have it to look older since we have so many young miners.

This is going to be a great production. :D
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angelenroute
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Re: Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Walnut Creek, CA - Oct 13-Nov

Post by angelenroute »

Nice pic! And welcome aboard, Braden!

"Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it." -Edward Albee
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Lightman7
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Re: Chat About Contra Costa Musical Theatre- 10/13-11/11

Post by Lightman7 »

We started doing full run throughs yesterday, so the two weeks until opening are going to be like one long Billython for me. FYI, the theater is just a BART ride away from the San Francisco Airport for anyone traveling in. ;) And if haven't gathered yet, Braden is fantastic.
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CJ-Rochester
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Re: Chat About Contra Costa Musical Theatre- 10/13-11/11

Post by CJ-Rochester »

Here's a very nice preview video:

https://vimeo.com/238135217
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Lightman7
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Re: Chat About Contra Costa Musical Theatre- 10/13-11/11

Post by Lightman7 »

One interesting piece of Billy Elliot memorabilia that has found its way into the show is this:

Image

Anyone care to guess what it is? (Porshesrule you can't play, you know what it is).

Now that hell week and opening weekend are over I will hopefully be posting a bit more on the process in the next few days.
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angelenroute
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Re: Chat About Contra Costa Musical Theatre- 10/13-11/11

Post by angelenroute »

Lightman7 wrote:Anyone care to guess what it is? (Porshesrule you can't play, you know what it is).

Now that hell week and opening weekend are over I will hopefully be posting a bit more on the process in the next few days.
Not a clue. Would love to know.

"Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it." -Edward Albee
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