Tag Archives: chorus line

Home Stretch

I’m on the home stretch.   It’s one-thirty in the morning here in Cascadia, yet the idea of stopping to sleep borders on absurdity.  I just reached the bottom of p127 of a show that I had estimated would run 135 pages in standard script format for a musical play.  I’ve been writing for so long that it’s difficult to conceive of slowing down and doing some light reading before bedtime, but I know it’s the right thing to do.

chi-the-homestretch-trailer-20140911I did go back after the last post and remove the four unnamed Kids from the cast as well as the entire Mainstream Chorus Line, whose players were doubled from other parts.  This significantly reduces the concentration of actors who will need to be onstage at any given time, although it only reduces the cast size from 27 to 23.  That’s probably about right, because I definitely need for this to have the feel of a large cast traditional musical without being too unwieldy.

After that, there was about a day and a half when I couldn’t put pen to paper, but since about 4pm Tuesday afternoon I’ve been working on the final Scene incessantly when I haven’t been hassled by sudden personal problems of almost maddening proportions.  I did succeed in filling out my application for the new position and submitting it to the pertinent people.   In fact, all aspects of life pertaining to work and to my church have been proceeding very well, but just about every other aspect of life is in such disarray right now, I truly fear that when I finally write the words THE END at the bottom of this document, I will not only find myself completely depressed, but possibly even collapse from utter exhaustion, after which I may find myself in a coma for weeks to come.

Anyway, that’s the buzz if you wanna know what’s happening.  This blog post was my wind-down.  Time to catch some sleep.

Moment of Decision

I’m trying to relax my high goal here, but at the same time not be wasteful with the energy that I need to apply toward it.  I just now made the difficult decision that has been blocking my efforts ever since I finished Act Two, Scene Two in the musical play I am writing.  I have finally decided to reduce the size of the Chorus Line of Street Kids from 12 to 8, and eliminate the Chorus Line of Mainstream Citizens entirely.  I had previously decided to double parts in the two chorus lines due to having earlier been cautioned that my cast size was becoming too large.  The two chorus lines never appeared at the same time in the same place anyway, and there would be plenty of time for costume changes.  But still, the presence of the Mainstream Chorus Line is unwieldy and unnecessary. 

in-any-moment-ofAlthough I sort of knew this to be true, I was resisting making the right choice because it would involve going all the way back to the beginning of the libretto, yanking out unnecessary parts and, if need be, replacing them with parts that can be performed by existing players.  So now, I have to do that very thing.  Of course I am a bit daunted by the ardor of the task.  But it’s the right thing to do.   So I’ll do it.

This changes things.  I’m thinking that, because the eighth and final Scene still remains to be written, hopefully the task of sifting through the show from the very beginning up until the end of the seventh Scene will help clarify decisions I need to make in the last Scene that have still been vague in my mind.  In any case, it seems highly unlikely that I’ll be able to crank it all out in one sitting.  On the other hand, there’s a chance it will be out of the way by Wednesday night’s choir rehearsal.

I told the people at work that my application for Minister of Music will be in by Thursday.  The present Music Minister does need to retire, and I’d like to rise to the higher calling if I can.  But I don’t want my absorption in this project to be a deterrent.  I want this draft to be done by the time of my interview.  If that’s putting too much pressure on myself, so be it.  All I can say is that working without any deadline whatsoever as of the past five years sure hasn’t gotten the job done.