Taking on this theme was important to me because I have several friends that are gay and have a difficult time with their ability of self-expression. Or the family members not accepting their sexuality.
I've always been for equal rights. And this play needs to be seen and heard.
PFLAG was the perfect cause for the donation. I will say it again, I was very happy when the chapter president came up to me and personally thank me for suggesting them. How often does that happen? Most charities will just take the donation, but PFLAG really supported the show. Got the word, wrote letter's to the Editor's of the Woodstock Independent and the Northwest Herald. They came out to the shows and showed their support to TUG, the cast and crew and being a representative of their organization.
How much could you ask for?
Writing the score for the play was an interesting challenge (as I mentioned before) but how I wrote it was something else. I read the script from the time I got it in early December. Wrote ideas down. Met up with Tim and Tim. Talked about ideas for the play. But A LOT of the score for the play came from being there at rehearsals. Capturing the emotions of the play with the music right on the spot.
I fed off the actors. Their emotions of the character. They fed off of me.
Also playing the Beethoven and Chopin pieces was another challenges. For one, I'm the polar opposite fan of the B&C. I played them as a part of the self-learning process. However, I'm a Mozart & Liszt fan. Give me any Sonata and Transcental Etude and I'll run my fingers among the keys.
The kicker is, that, I haven't played any classical music in over 13 years.
That means all the classical music I played at the show came back to me in seconds plus some practise.
I'm no prodigy or natural. I'm just Frances.
With an "e" not and "i" cuz I'm a girl.
It was fun revisiting the classics.
I hope that anyone who watched the play recognized the Beethoven's Pathetique Sonanta Mvt 2. Which I added in because if you remember Schroeder played often.
It also gave more meaning and emotion to the specific scenes for the characters of Beethoven and Matt. Particularly the scene with "moonlight sonanta." and having me play it live also allowed for character recognition for Matt prior to the bullying.
The response from the audience was equally positive. Several came up to me and told me how wonderful of a job I did. One person emailed me and said that I made a huge contribution to the play.
My favorite moment was on closing day when these young girls came up to me and told me how great I did. One of them, an Asian girl asked my advice on writing. I gave her some, and told her my information was in the program and she can contact me whenever she'd like. Her face lit up.
I felt so amazing that I can be inspiring. I never thought of myself as being in such a position.
The cast was also responded to my music in such a positive way.
It was a new experience for the cast to have music specifically written for each scene.
In the end, I did what I've done in the past. Recorded the performances and created an album for the TUG producers, the Cast and Crew.
I created artwork and liner notes to go along with it.
Each person received an envelop with a copy of the liner notes, with a personally note from me along with a SPORK that included a URL to download the album.
Anne said, that "setting up the soundtrack for us- there is no better way to relive show memories than listening to the music that went with each scene."
I plan to perform some of the music in my future concert sets.
To end. Thanks again to Tim Curtis and Tim Mosbach for thinking of me. It was a great re-union to work with them on a production. And look forward to what the future for TUG to bring.
I renewed friendships and made new friends. Eric even enjoyed himself through the entire process and it was his first time ever seeing a theater production come together. So it was a new experience for him.
To close... I know the everyone who was a part of the show would like to show their thanks and gratitude to everyone who came out to the show.
This should annimate (if anything try it in IE)
until next time.
o/o
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