Preparations for Rehearsals - 22nd June 2013

So, no rest for the wicked. Despite preparations going ahead for LOpSoc to take it's 2013 summer production of Ruddigøre up to the International G&S Festival in Buxton, the other thing that I've got to do over summer is prepare rehearsal tracks for the cast to help them learn their parts.

I started doing this for Ruddigøre, and the whole reason for doing this is ensuring that principles and chorus have the ability to continue learning their parts at home, or on the go, or wherever so they can come to rehearsals fully prepared.

Obviously, recording piano rehearsal tracks for all principles, then all sections of the chorus (for example, where songs split into 11 different parts!) takes a great deal of time, so this has to be done in advance.

The cast will initially be taught the music at rehearsals, and if there's anything they're not certain of, both Katherine and I, and hopefully our AMD, will be able to go over the music with them and ensure they know it. Of course, it also aims to cut down time wasted at rehearsal, for example, if a member of the chorus misses a rehearsal, I don't have to teach them their part and waste the time of the rest of the chorus while I take them aside and teach it to them, in that they can go online and find the track they're looking for and learn it themselves.

Set up for recording rehearsal tracks - Summer 2013

So, slowly, I'm sat at the piano recording each part, song by song, so by the time rehearsals start, once a song is covered in rehearsals, the cast can go and listen to the recording and continue learning it via that method.

Of course, while I do this, as you'll see in the photo, I'm also aiming to do a similar thing for Sweeney Todd, our 2014 summer show, and though this show is more or less a year away, the vocal score alone is 400 pages long, and in the interests of time, I wanted to get started now!

This method of recording individual parts seemed to go down really well with cast members for Ruddigøre, so, it made sense to repeat it again this year! Of course, any interested cast members can listen to the soundtrack and find the vocal score online this summer if they want to make a head start on learning chorus parts, etc. The soundtrack recording we will be using can be downloaded from Amazon here: Pirates Soundtrack Recording.

Orchestral scores are also available for the orchestra on the Facebook group for the LOpSoc orchestra, and if you're interested in joining (or want me to send you a copy of a certain part) then email me (MD@LOpSoc.co.uk) and I'll get back to you.

Right, that's it for now, once more into the breach!

Your Loving MD,
Thomas