At last, it's recording day for the demo of:
(Beautiful logo design by Leah Becker)
The actual recording session was scheduled to begin at noon, First to arrive at the studio was Albert, our musical director, who wanted to be there for the tuning of the piano and to request any necessary maintenance to the piano. (I think they got there at around 9:00.)
Next in was Randy Hansen, our engineer and co-producer, who helped with the layout and selected microphones. Sarah and I showed up next to "approve" the layout, answer questions, distribute packets, write checks, and pay for lunch. Here's the layout they came up with (not to scale):
Finally the cast arrived. We passed around the edited music and showed them the approximate schedule and got down to work.
Because time was very limited we recorded everything, rehearsals and all, knowing that if we got a good take on the rehearsal anything after that would be gravy. What threw the cast and band the most, of course, were the cuts. Albert talked through the cuts before hand and if anything looked tricky that section would get rehearsed. From the booth we explained to the David, the reed player, or Joe, violin/guitar, about cuts that eliminated time for instrument changes and would require a few measures to be overdubbed.
Because there were a few numbers for which we needed to record some of the cast for dialog only, in the interest of scheduling we wanted to recorded their dialog prior to recording the singing. This worked fine for the most part. On one number, however, Walter (playing Milton) was required to respond short sections of Evan (Haskell) singing. We tried it without Evan a few times but it wasn't working. Then we tried it with Evan quietly speaking the sections. Finally we just gave up and did the whole number.
Jacqueline's mom dropped by for awhile, accompanied by Jacquie's boyfriend, Patrick, and listened to the work. At one point Albert got so fed up with his headphones sliding over his face every time he gave a cue that he went running through the studio looking for some way to tighten them. Eventually he found an old coiled telephone handset cord that he wrapped around his head a number of times -- it looked like something Cleopatra might have worn (except Albert's no Elizabeth Taylor -- or Claudette Colbert!).
All day long we slipped behind schedule for awhile and then caught back up again. We began to worry that we wouldn't get everything recorded. We had scheduled a few numbers for the end of the session that we wouldn't be too upset about not getting to if we ran late. As it was we ended up asking Jacquie and Evan to stay an extra hour so that we could finish up.
Next week we wrap things up and provide some links to selections from the recording!
To read more about the production, see actor, staff, and creative team bios, etc., here are a few links.
Another Op'ning - The Immigrant,
Pt. 1
Another Op'ning - The Immigrant,
Pt. 2
Another Op'ning - The Immigrant,
Pt. 3
Another Op'ning - The Immigrant,
Pt. 4
Another Op'ning - The Immigrant,
Pt. 5
Recording The Immigrant, Pt.
1
Recording The Immigrant, Pt.
2
Recording The Immigrant, Pt.
3
The Immigrant,
A New Musical
CAP21's website
The Knapp-Alper Pages
Originally published at Suite101.com Theatre, 2/27/01
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