And another breakthrough in our attempts to get to the bottom of 'Muddy Magic.' I just received this email;-
Hello Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd Blogger,
I have been enjoying your blog. The behind-the-scenes view of the show is fascinating: everyone has a different angle on the creative process and something to bring to the production.
Yes I can confirm there are only 4 "Muddy Magic" books in existence - bound in four different coloured covers. Chris Kohn the director protects the blue edition, Darren the production manager is keeper of the green edition, Jonathon Oxlade the designer is the custodian of the red edition and the author of the book (me) holds the remaining brown edition.
I'm sure prying bloggers with sneaky audio recording equipment are aware that I will be training the cast in the ways of "Muddy Magic" later next week, but you will never get past our iron-clad security!
If that's not a challenge I don't know what is!
Into the day's rehearsing.
What's a vaudeville show without dancing?! Just check out the second video down on the right, and you'll know what I'm talking about. (the woman dancing with the chair in her mouth really is incredible!)
Enter Carlee the choreographer. This is really going to be something. Actors usually have mixed feelings towards dancing. Often it's a love-hate thing. They love doing it, but it's not their training, so it's scary. And choreographers are not like theatre directors; they just say exactly what they want, they demonstrate, they don't worry about whether an actor is 'in the moment' or 'satisfied' - they just say what they want and expect the dancers to do it.
Carlee watches the first big song number and is immediately on the job-
First she wants Julia to fall back into the arms of the rest of the cast - 'trust exercise' style.
This instruction is closely followed by Julia's pointed warning to the cast;
“If any of you %$#*& s drop me!!...” Yep, we're off.
Next, it's marching, sort of to the music. Immediately, one of the actors interjects with a serious question concerning the psychological reality of his character behaving in this way. Err...yeah. Water off a duck's back for Carly. She ignores it and is onto adding a layer of 'popping' to the marching. 'Popping' is not that rap kind of stuff you sometimes see on a popular TV dance show. It's more like features added to the marching.
Starts off well. Everybody's 'popping' beautifully. Carlee wants the pops to be more “courageous.” They pump it up as instructed.
More marching, but this time Carlee asks for different arm action;- “Now...exaggerate it!” They pump that up too.
“Now we add box-step!!”
“You're joking!! I mean it...I mean it,” announces one of the actors. The room is silent for a second. But Carlee just rolls on and next thing they're all box-stepping.
“Now, we're going to move in the space. You three move forward, you move back. Then you two move in here. And when you meet in the middle, you scoop her up, and... ”
“Holy mother of...!!”
Three minutes of consternation later, and they're doing that too! Well, a couple of times, anyway, before they cut it for technical reasons. Then Chris has an idea about an addition:-
“That's a good idea!" says Carlee, "So, while we do the march forward, everybody bends down and picks a [censored.]”
Within 2 minutes Darren has raced out and found four [censored] to use. They add that into the march aaaaand...seamless!
Break.
It's a slightly weird mood. There's a lot of laughter, but not all of it is comfortable. There is a slight atmosphere underlying the laugher that already there was plenty to do; songs, magic tricks, complicated realities, characters within characters, and now choreography. Is it a bridge too far? Can everybody be expected to learn it all in the time we've got left? (Which reminds me, the poll is still running.)
After the break some of the choreography for individuals is done in a 'closed set' situation.
I talk to Matt about it afterwards. He seemed to take to the choreography with real gusto. No doubt it's the circus training and clowning that hold him in good stead. He tells me that a late, great circus entrepeneur once told him, "If you can't make it good, make it funny; if you can't make it funny, make it fast." He's being modest.
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