The NYFOS@North Fork concert always provokes a lot of conflicting feelings in me. It’s late summer and I’d really like to relax, spend time reading, start my cocktail hour a little earlier, and watch some movies. But the Orient program—Orient, NY, that is, at the eastern tip of the North Fork of Long Island—has become quite a tradition. This year they even bought a new piano for the hall and spent a fair amount of money getting it into shape. Everyone seemed to have their hearts set on a NYFOS show. How could I refuse?
Now, of course, I’m glad I succumbed to pressure. It’s wonderful to share the beauties of this town with my cast, and I chose a theme that sparks joy: Happily Ever After: A Modern Person’s Guide to Operetta. I am a fan of happy endings and grew up on Gilbert and Sullivan, so the terrain is familiar to me. The material in the concert surprised me with its emotional variety. Drawn from Spanish, English, Viennese, German, Argentine, American, French, and Italian theater pieces, it digs deeper into the human psyche than you might expect, using humor, irony, and a gimlet eye.
With so much theatrical material and a lightning-fast, six-day rehearsal period, I decided to hire a stage director to craft the show with me. I’ve had three wonderful experiences collaborating with Katherine M. Carter—two at Wolf Trap, one at Juilliard. She’s a dynamo with a sharp mind, a great eye, tremendous powers of concentration, and a wicked sense of humor. Also a class-A time-manager. I am happy to hand the rehearsal schedule over to her. Working in tandem does mean that I have less ongoing one-on-one coaching time with the singers, but I also have a partner who doubles the value of every minute we spend in the room. I need to do less, and what I contribute seems to be more effective, more to-the-point.
Unlike previous years, we had the luxury of early preparation time in New York. Tenor Scott Rubén La Marca started in on his songs in July, and baritone Philip Stoddard in August. We didn’t see soprano Adriana Stepien until last Thursday, when we had a pre-Orient sing-through of the entire show in New York. Usually all of the work starts on Day One, and the task seems daunting. How will we ever get all these songs into shape? But the glories of the cast (manifold) and the areas where they needed work (well, that’s why we’re here) revealed themselves days before we all landed in Orient. And Katherine and I were ready to dive in like laser surgeons.
To give a tiny sense of Katherine’s finesse: I longed for a triangle to chime in at the end of a duet from Gilbert and Sullvan’s Iolanthe, and also a wood block to go “clop” during another piece. She saw to it that both were there on the first day. Another song requires a turban (don’t ask)—and of course, it was there this afternoon, a hilarious gold headdress with a black feather. The woman’s a powerhouse.
Oh, the singers? I’ll tell you about them tomorrow.
PICTURED above, left to right: Philip Stoddard, Adriana Stepien, Scott Rubén La Marca, and Katherine M. Carter, performing the ritual Shucking Of The Corn, a kind of music-theater bris for the concert.
Happily Ever After will be performed at Poquatuck Hall in Orient, NY on Sunday, August 25, 3PM. Tickets ($30) HERE.
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