Actors need lines to read, or scenes to enact; musicians need notes to play, or parameters within which to riff. Blues For A Royal Flush requires a group of artists, diverse in their expertise, to come together to put notes, words, and details ahead of the actions of actors, musicians, and technicians, so that this theatre piece can step onto its unique platform, and be experienced.
..is very precious. As children I don’t believe we comprehend just how informing the opportunity is, being able to freely muck about in a specific space of imagination, sharing toys and tools with any other like minds who bumble over the sides of the box to play. At present, the analogy of a ‘sandbox’ is particularly apt for me, and has broad parameter around music. In bringing together a classical orchestra, the sandbox for ‘creating’ is identified as the rehearsal room; here, the music score is rendered through a certain experimentation of ‘phrasing’ and finesse, accent and ‘attack’.
I have been very fortunate in the last two years to be able to lecture at Stanford in Washington, giving context and synopsis ahead of the operas they see. The closing lecture was ahead of attending Showboat, at the Kennedy Center. ..I have to admit to this particular lecture being one of the most complex and uneasy to cover comprehensively.. But there is significance to this piece of musical theatre.. I wanted to share what I came to appreciate; this is the text of the lecture.
It’s funny, but when the days are in the freezing rip of winter, there’s little thought of “chill”; it’s too cold! ..But the days are now doing a dervish sport of tag, and hurtle from one extreme temperature to its opposite.. Blasts of arctic winds sweep along the streets; green buds brace, clasped tight to naked sticks. And then, perhaps even a few hours on, the day changes- pivots into a warm working sunlight; the air seems to expand, gain weight, heat, and suddenly a shiver goes up the spine as the thermometer wrestles out of cold..
…the ‘right’ thing would be to write; to chronicle occurrences, as they are occurring. But the reality is –that’s a difficult track to maintain. ..to be honest, as I get older I find it is better policy to keep my mind on what I’m doing, rather than to try and map my thinking along the way, or versify the topography.. Much.. –no; an immense amount of work has been going in the silence between my last entry and this one.