Pictures from opening weekend!

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All photos courtesy of Jeff Dachowski – www.dachowskiphotography.com/

Pictures from Opening weekend!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

All photos courtesy of Jeff Dachowski – www.dachowskiphotography.com/

Days 8 and 9!

We have come a long way in the past two days of rehearsal. On day eight we had a full day of learning choreography for the Lady Gaga section. The movement in this section is very different from the movement we have done this far in the process. Speaking of that, we have indeed learned many different styles of dance this far in the rehearsal process AND that has been one of the biggest challenges. We have to switch styles very quickly in this show. That takes a lot of hard work and focus! I feel like we’ve go the cast for it!

By the end of day eight we finished learning all of the choreography for the Lady Gaga section! You know what that’s means… Right!? Well, if you guessed THAT meant we were done learning all the choreography for the show… You we’re right! Yay! We did it!

Okay ready for something awesome! Well you better get ready because I am gonna tell you. I am proud to announce that along with all the awesome dancing, singing, music, lighting, there will be some really awesome FLYING. That’s right folks, flying at the Palace Theatre AND for the first time in Palace Theatre History!

So, let’s just call day nine” Fly Day”. After doing a run through of the full show we had our flight orientation! Everyone that flies in the show put on there harnesses and our flight director taught us how to fly! Everything went great and tomorrow we get stated with all of the flight choreography and putting the show onstage! So, stay tuned and I will let you know how things go! Until then, peace, love, and flying at the Palace Theatre!

Royalty of Rock ‘n’ Pop days 7 and 8

At this point in the rehearsal process we have learned all of the choreography for Act One. That in itself is a huge accomplishment seeing that THAT includes all the the choreography for the Elvis and Beatles sections of the show. We have also learned most of the choreography for the Michael Jackson section of the show. That is a huge accomplishment times 2! Things move fast here at the Palace Theatre! We learned over half of the show in just seven days… but wait… There’s more!

I am happy to announce that on day seven we finished the rest of the Michael Jackson section of the show. We started day seven with a rehearsal with the boys. We whipped though a really fun Jackson 5 medley and a sexy dance to “The way you make me feel”. After that the girls joined us and we did a run through of the entire Michael Jackson section of the show. Carl brought in some members of the staff to give us an audience for the run through. They seemed to be very excited and Carl seemed to be happy with the run through as well. Really awesome positive energy all around! But wait…. There more!

After our run through it was on to Lady Gaga! We spent the last of day seven learning the choreography for “Born this Way” by Lady Gaga! We got through the entire dance number. It is going to be really awesome to perform!

Wow! That all happened in day seven! Sounds crazy right! It very well could be a crazy experience. I mean, this show is a huge vision put together in a short amount of time. Things could get very hectic but our production crew is very organized and doesn’t waste any of there time or our time! It is a very creative and positive atmosphere! That is a beautiful thing! It is an experience that you grow from AND that is a beautiful thing as well!

Okay that’s all I got for now! Stay tuned for more! Peace, love, and Palace Theatre!

Days 5 and 6!

With the Rock portion of the show done it was time to move onto the pop section!  No other place to start but with the king of pop himself.  Yup, that is right,  “Michael Jackson day” is the name of the day people!  Day five was dedicated to one of Michael’s greatest hits and the opening of Act Two of the show, “Smooth Criminal”.  Carl choreographed a high-energy dance piece for this musical number in the show.  It is jam packed with Michael Jackson-esque movements (with Carl-esque influences).  THAT basically means a lot of articulate movements that are choreographed very musically…  THAT basically means a huge challenge for us as well as a lot of fun to perform!  It is sure to get the audience going for the rest of the Michael Jackson section of the show.  After learning most of the choreography for this number, our Michael Jackson joined us and we spent some time putting him into the number.  Just wait till you see our Michael Jackson!  He is really a great performer to work with.

Yesterday we had our first day off since we started rehearsals for Royalty of Rock and Pop.  It was a great day.  We spent the day letting our bodies and minds relax.  We learned a lot of choreography in the first four days of the rehearsal process so it was nice to have a day to let it all soak in.

After our day off it was on to day the next day of rehearsals.  The majority of day six was dedicated to learning the choreography for a very exciting Michael Jackson medley.  We got all of the medley done today and it is going to be great!  At the end of today we did a run through of Act One with our singers!  It was our first run through of all of Act One.  It went pretty well.  It was defiantly good to have a refresher of everything we had done this far with Act One.  It’s a very diverse Act that starts with Elvis and ends with the Beatles, so it covers a lot of ground. I haven’t talked much about our great singers because while we are busy learning all of the choreography for the show, they are busy learning all the vocals for the show.  We have come together time to time so they could learn their staging as well as learn choreography they do.  We all have our work cut out for us but everyone is very talented and we have a great team leading us so I know it will all come together!  All right, I think that covers everything for now.  Stay tuned and I will let you know how things go tomorrow and the next!  Peace out!

Days 3 and 4!

Things are really moving along at the Palace Theatre. We are rocking and rolling along! The beginning of day three was all about finishing up the Elvis section. Carl has choreographed a beautiful contemporary dance piece to Elvis classic ” Can’t help falling in love with you”. It is sure to be a show stopper! After finishing that dance piece we were officially done learning all the choreography for the Elvis section! Yay us! We have a lot of cleaning to do, but we have a cast of hard workers that will get the job done. So don’t worry about that!

After lunch we totally switched styles! It was time to work on the Beatles section of the show. Carl explained to us that this section would call for a lot of improvisation as well as moving set pieces around the stage to create a visual experience for the audience. There will be some really awesome things happening in this section.

On day four we continued working on the Beatles section. I am happy to say that we finished the entire Beatles section. At the end of day four we went back to the Elvis section to do some cleaning with our show captain Missy.

We are doing really well and tomorrow it is on to the Michael Jackson section of the show. Everyone is really excited about getting to work on the MJ section! As usual, The energy of the cast and production team is still very positive. Stay tuned and I will let you know how everything goes. Until then peace, love, and Michael Jackson!

Taking Care of Business

You know, I would be willing to bet that if the king of rock were still around he would say that we are really T.C.B (taking care of business) at the Palace Theatre, and he would be absolutely correct about that!  We are in day two of the rehearsal process for The Royalty of Rock ‘n Pop.  For anyone that has experienced a rehearsal process a Palace Theatre production, you know that it is fast and furious. This is my third show that I have been involved with at the Palace. I am constantly amazed at how quickly they put on a show without sacrificing quality, and THAT my friends takes a lot of hard work from everyone involved. We have got a great cast of talented performers and as always an awesome production team guiding us to the finish line.

Today, we worked through more of the Elvis section in the show and I am happy to say that things are really moving along nicely! Before Carl released us for the day he had us run through everything that we have accomplished thus far in the Elvis section. In only two days we have learned the majority of the Elvis section, which is a big chunk of the first Act. There is still a lot of work to be done and everyone is up for the challenge. The plan for tomorrow is to finish learning the choreography in the Elvis section and move on to the Beatles section. Like I said before, we are really T.C.B.  Stay tuned and I’ll let you know how we do after day three. Now, I got to get some rest because there is much to be done and I will need every ounce of energy! Until then, peace, love, AND Rock ‘n Pop!  

 

Thank ya… Thank ya very much.

Royalty of Rock ‘n Pop

Let me tell you, things were really rocking in the rehearsal studios at the Palace Theatre. Today was our first day of rehearsals for The Palace Theatre’s brand new production, Royalty of Rock ‘n Pop. We started at 10 am. Our director Carl began the day by giving us a quick run down of what his expectations for the show are.

As always, Carl is really thinking big. It is sure to be an event that you will not want to miss. He explained to us that he wants to create an experience rather than any ordinary revue show. The cast seemed to be very excited to get started with learning the choreography.

Today we worked on the Elvis section of the show.  We got through about four of the musical numbers in that section. It was a good positive start to the rehearsal process!  We have a lot of work ahead of us though, so stay tuned!! We ended the day around 6 pm. As I type this blog some of my cast mates are going choreography, I should be too so, I got to go. Check you later!

First dress? Huge success!

I honestly can’t say what is happening with this production, but it has been one of the least stressful mountings of a show I’ve ever experienced!  Throughout our whole (extensively shortened) rehearsal process, everything has seemed to come together in a relatively effortless fashion seldom seen in this business.  Granted I haven’t been there for the crew’s late nights, and haven’t been around to see the “snags” they hit before they got ironed out, but this process has been a dream!

Last night’s first run on the stage, like I said, wasn’t as much of a step back as it often is.  Then there was this evening’s first full dress rehearsal…  Never…  Never have I ever… had a first dress rehearsal where everything went as smoothly as it did last night.  There aren’t many costume changes in this show, but a couple of them are rather elaborate, and even those happened with a few seconds to spare.  After we changed out of costume we had a brief notes session to give us some things to think about overnight and went home exhausted!

*Side note:  If you’ve never seen Dance Moms, do your best to maintain that fact…  I’m not sure which is more difficult, watching it or stopping watching it.

Then today we woke up to… SURPRISE!  SNOW!!!!!!  I guess it’s been an unseasonably dry winter thus far in Manchester, but we made up for some of that today!  When we arose this morning, there were already a few inches of delicious fluffy snow on the ground and it was still coming down in huge flakes.

But it’s no snow day for us!!  We will be back in at the theatre at 6 p.m. for mic check followed by a 7 o’clock go in front of a small invite only audience before our official opening, Friday the 13th…  bum, Bum, BUM!!!  But don’t worry, “from here on out it’s clear sailing, absolutely nothing can go wrong.”

Let’s hope!

Doors! Doors! Doors!

Remember how the show was all done and all the actors were perfect and we were ready to open?  Well, that was when we were in a REHEARSAL HALL on a set that consisted of lines on SPIKE TAPE on the floor with no actual WALLS, or worse yet, DOORS to deal with.

That being said, tonight was not as much of a step back as it often is the first time taking a show to the actual set.  Except for the facts that Larissa cut her toe open, Jess took a spill out of the closet hurting her wrist a bit, and I ended the evening with two cuts on my face (both self inflicted – one was from smashing my chin against a wooden part of a couch… and actually both took place in curtain call!), our first run, with many stops and starts, went relatively smoothly.

Perhaps, a little too smoothly, so to speak.  The entire floor of our set is going to be carpeted, but is not yet, so to add to the fun of a first run on stage, we were basically ice skating our way through the show tonight…  which was a fun change.  Also, there were a few fun unintentional line changes tonight coming in the heels of our relaxing off day.

However, tonight was a huge; simply getting through the show all in one piece on the set and literally just figuring out when doors need to be left open, when they need to be shut, and when you just need to shut up and open the door was all extremely helpful going into tomorrow.

Tomorrow we have all day to prepare ourselves for an evening run, so you best be sure the cast house will be all a flurry with running lines, planning fast costume changes and general prayer/meditation activities.  Because… tomorrow evening at six o’clock is mic check, and at seven we begin our first full dress rehearsal, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go put on a dry pair of pants.