I won't steal the thunder of our Show & Tell but I will take a moment to highlight our wonderful collaborator, Ami McKay. In addition to being a world famous author, she also has a master's degree in Music Education and an undergraduate degree in vocal music. Her first book, The Birth House, (which gained her a feature on the Oprah Winfrey show!) was about a midwife in Nova Scotia and her research for this book is what sparked The Hours Turn to Nothing.
The music for this show is luscious and beautiful. The show is framed by a horrendous moment in Nova Scotian history but the feel of the work is actually one of hope and strength. It will be a full company show with no lead characters and minimal spoken text. Ami has written the script and it is poetic, imagistic, and historical in its flavour.
For your enjoyment over the holidays (if you so choose), I've already uploaded references recordings to the google drive. Here is the list (please note, we are still waiting for permission from a couple of composers/arrangers whose works are unpublished so there's a vague chance there may be some changes, but we're hoping not!):
Winter Sky (Judy Collins, arr. Sarah Dacey)
[A piece being composed by our own Jenny Trites that will be fast and intense]
V'la l'bon vent (trad. Acadian, arr. Allison Girvan)
Pacem (Don Macdonald)
Crònan (trad. Gaelic, arr. Stephen Smith)
Even When He Is Silent (Kim André Arnesen)
Snow (Stephen Chatman)
Kyrie (Stephan Carlson)
In addition to the amazing music and the beautiful movement that will accompany it, we will also have two rehearsals with Ami McKay where we will create soundscapes for several moments in the show.
Finally, the best part of this show is that we have FOUR MONTHS to get it ready and it's not as complex as Tales was (from an extra-musical point of view ... like costumes, props, dialogue). This means that the pacing of our rehearsals and the memorization will be much more spacious and we'll be able to enjoy some shorter rehearsals, by call sessions for vocal pedagogy, and other skill-building activities. As an illustration of that, here is the memorization schedule as we have planned it so far (obviously subject to change!):
| Jan 22 | Winter Sky |
| Jan 29 | Jenny's Piece |
| Feb 5 | Soundscapes 2 |
| Feb 11 (Sat) | V'la l'bon vent |
| Feb 12 | Pacem |
| Feb 19 | Soundscape 3 |
| Feb 26 | Soundscape 4 |
| Mar 5 | Cronan |
| Mar 12 | Even When He is Silent |
| Mar 19 | Snow |
| Mar 26 | Kyrie |
That's no memorizing for the first three weeks of rehearsal, no weeks with more than one piece on the list, and several weeks where it's just soundscapes that we will have workshopped in rehearsal. As well, this has the show fully memorized and blocked by March 26 so we will have a full month of just runs and perfecting!
I hope this gets you as excited as we are for this beautiful show. Feel free to be in touch with either Claire or me if you have any questions prior to January. In the mean time, have a wonderful holiday season!!
Christina
