Tech Week Update!

Hi everyone,

We wanted to give you an update about our tech week schedule and how the week is going to work! Please note that some things are subject to change, but hopefully this should be the plan that we are able to stick to for the week. Note that we are at Alderney Landing Theatre for every day of tech week including Sunday November 20.

Sunday November 20, 5-9 pm
The first hour of this rehearsal will be for getting into the theatre, figuring out final costume and prop elements and getting settled. From 6-9pm we will be marking through the show with the platforms in place to get used to the space. We will also be doing all sound levels for the show on this evening.

Monday November 21, 6-10pm
This rehearsal will be used for lighting specials only, so only the following people are called:

Jennette, Joanna, Colleen, Sid, Dan, Natasha, Georgia, Mackenzie, Morgan, Jordyn, Leah, Alan, Jenny, Clare

Not everyone listed above will be needed for the entire rehearsal - we will release a detailed schedule for this evening in the lead up to tech week.

Tuesday November 22, 6-10pm 
Full company called for cue-to-cue rehearsal.

Wednesday November 23, 6-10pm
Full company called for dress rehearsal.

Thursday November 24, 6pm call, 7:30 pm show

Friday November 25, 6pm call, 7:30pm show

Saturday November 26, 1pm call, 2:30pm show, 6pm call, 7:30pm show
We will take a dinner break on Saturday between the two shows (approximately 4-6pm). We must strike the show after the final evening performance, so be prepared to budget some time for clearing out your belongings, removing any garbage, and returning the dressing room space to clean and tidy.

Some Things to Know About Alderney

• There are two entrances. One is the main entrance by the staircase/glass elevator in the hallway connecting the ferry terminal and the market space. This entrance is only available before 5pm on weekdays. After 5pm the gate is drawn and locked. If you arrive at the theatre after 5pm, you will have to use the side entrance. There is an exterior staircase right outside the market doors adjacent to the NSLC/Craig Gallery. Go up the stairs and the door at the top will take you into the backstage of the theatre.
• Throughout the week, you may leave belongings in the theatre as we will be the only people in there. HOWEVER please do not leave garbage or food laying around, and please keep the dressing rooms very tidy.
• There will be someone from Xara at the theatre every day of tech week starting mid-afternoon. You are welcome to arrive before the 6pm call and get settled/eat dinner/start preparing for the rehearsal or show.
• There is a microwave and a fridge onsite that you can use to store food for the week. Again, please be tidy and clean any dishes.
• You will be assigned a dressing room at the beginning of the week by Erin. Please keep all of your belongings in that dressing room and keep the hallways clear.

Tech Week Etiquette

As you can imagine, this is a busy week and we have a lot to do to make things go smoothly. We are asking everyone to be professional and respectful. This means not talking while you are on stage, staying focused in rehearsal, and being flexible and able to adapt if things have to change as we work through something in the space. We will do our absolute best to make the process as efficient and fun as we can, and ask only the same from all of you. It also extends to taking care of the dressing rooms and stage space, being very gentle and mindful with your costume elements, and being kind and considerate to everyone around you. If we are all compassionate and helpful to one another, it will make for a beautiful and fun week!

Notes for POWER WEEKEND Nov 12 & 13!

Hi everyone!

We are so excited for our big power weekend this coming weekend! :) Thanks for your hard work on Sunday; getting Jing-ga-lye-ya so tight was a totally amazing feeling!!! Now we just have to do that for the rest of the show, but we are going to get there!!! :) Here's the plan for this weekend!

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12

Call Times
SSAA Company called 9:30-4:00pm
Tenors & Basses called 12:15-4:00pm
Jennette called 12:15-4:00pm

Schedule
9:30 Physical Warm up
9:45 Vocal Warm up
10:00 Pakkanen Music & Blocking
10:40 Songbird Music & Blocking
11:10 Clocks Music + Lie Light Princess Blocking
11:30 Lunch + Troll delivery
12:15 TENORS & BASSES ARRIVE + props personnel come back from lunch early:

• Men: Vocal Warm up (CM)
• Prop Assignments (CL) + Joanna, Sid, Natasha, Mackenzie, Georgia, Leah, Alan

12:30 Snowdrift
1:00 Nothing Else Matters Music & Blocking
1:40 Get ready for run
1:50 Run
3:15 Notes/Fixes
4:00 Home

So as you can see we will be working with just the SSAA company in the morning. Men will arrive at 12:15pm for vocal warmup and then we will start with SATB rehearsal at 12:30pm. Those cast members indicated above for prop assignments will need to come back from lunch 15 minutes early in order to receive your props and start working with them in the run that afternoon.

For lunch, you have 45-60 minutes, so you are welcome to bring a lunch or go out, as long as you are back in time. Make sure to bring water, snacks for yourself as needed, your script and music, and a pencil. Some costume elements will also be in play this weekend, so you may receive instructions from Matthew Peach about what to wear or bring for Saturday/Sunday's rehearsals.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13

Call Times

Dan, Sid, Colleen, Jennette called 1:15-5:50pm

Joanna called 1:40-5:50pm

SATB Company called 2:00-5:50pm

Schedule

1:15 Fight Choreography (Dan, Sid, Colleen, Jennette)
1:40 O Yo Yo Dance (Dan, Joanna, Jennette)
2:00 SATB COMPANY ARRIVES - Physical Warm up
2:10 Vocal Warm up
2:20 Fixes from Saturday’s run + Run + Break + Fixes

5:50 Home

During Sunday's rehearsal, we will do some work on some outstanding blocking/choreography first, then we will work with the full company to do additional fixes from Saturday's run. Following that, we will do a complete run again, with time for notes and fixes afterward. So by the end of the weekend we will have done two complete runs of the show! Reminder that Alto 2s are on snack on Sunday + any tenors and basses who are able to contribute!

Tickets
Reminder that all ticket orders are due THIS SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13 NO EXCEPTIONS!!! All order forms and money can be given to Erin during the power weekend. After November 13, your friends and family are welcome to purchase tickets online or by calling the Alderney Landing box office!

Here's the link to the ticket order form in case you need it!

Rehearsal Notes November 6

Kayama - VIDEO

First 6 measures in a clump. First two measures standing still.

3rd system - first measure lean out to left and right (split down the centre), second measure come back to centre, third and fourth measures standing still

Letter A

Formation change, very slowly, following Antoinette leaning to the right for the first 7 measures. Then return to original clump over the next 7 measures (top of page 61)

Letter B

Lean out for four measures, then lean back to centre over the next four measures

Letter C

Move to Trio formation (two groups of 5, on either side of the stage with Shila and Jess nearest the centre)

Letter E.5 (Instrumental)

Create two parallel lines, lean out (holding hands), lean back in, meld into new clump (see video for timing)

Letter F

Formation change, very slowly, following Antoinette leaning to the right for the first 4 measures, then return to centre over the next 3 measures.

Formation change, slowly, following Kallie leaning to the left for the next 2 measures, then return to centre over the last 2 measures.

Letter G

One step forward per measure, starting on the right foot (4 measures of this)

Return to Trio formation. During the last two measures of the trio, return to the clump.

Letter I

Same as letter F

Letter J

Same as letter G, but now every person standing on the floor does the 4 steps forward.

Parting Glass - FULL VIDEO

VIDEO M 1 - 16

M 1 - 4 King sings to the audience and the people

M 4 - 8 Tenors & Basses move in toward the centre, facing one another - upstage

M 8 - 12 Sopranos & Altos move in toward the centre, facing one another - downstage

M 13 - 16 Pivot to two rows across the stage, shorter people in the front. Men in the middle. Joanna between Katelyn and Leah, Jordyn between Maria and Natasha, Morgan between Hayley and Karen, Mitchell between Dan and Alan.

VIDEO M 17 - 31

M 17 - 24 Sing to one another when you have the melody (T & B) and out to the audience (S & A)

M 25 - 28 Sing to one another when you have the melody (S & A) and out to the audience (T & B)

M 29 - 31 Move to mixed scattered formation, take one or two steps and remain in these places until the end of the piece

M 31 - 32 Small single wave with right hand starting when everyone sings “Good”. Your hand should be three

M 33 - 34 Small single wave with left hand starting when Tenors sing “Good”

Notes for Sunday November 6

Hi everyone!

Excellent work yesterday! Despite the little messy areas in the run, it was awesome to get a sense of the overarching shape of the show and test our memory work! We just under a month away from opening, so now is the time to really push to make it amazing! Here's the plan for this coming Sunday.

Call Times
Full SATB Company & Jennette are called 1:15-5:50pm

Schedule
1:15 Physical Warmup
1:25 Vocal Warmup
1:35 Scene 7 Blocking (SATB)
2:00 Kayama Music (SSAA)
2:20 Scene 8.1 & Kayama Blocking (SATB)
3:15 Break
3:30 Parting Glass Music (SATB)
4:10 Scene 8.2 & Parting Glass Blocking (SATB)
5:10 Jing-ga-lye-ya Music & Blocking (SATB)

5:50 Home!

To Be Memorized This Week

Kayama (SSAA)

Parting Glass (SATB)

Reminders

Alto 1s are on snack! If any tenors & basses wanted to contribute that would also be awesome, since we have the full company present for the whole rehearsal.

Scenes 6-8 need to be offbook by Saturday November 12.

Upcoming Rehearsals

Reminder that on Saturday Nov 12 and Sunday Nov 13 we have a POWER WEEKEND! Which means rehearsal from 9:30-4pm on Saturday, and regular rehearsal time from 1:15-5:50pm on Sunday. Both rehearsals will be at St Matthews. This is going to be an awesome opportunity to really dig in and make the show amazing with lots of time for fixes, tweaks, transitions, and working with costumes.

Tickets

We have the opportunity to sell tickets hand to hand for this show, in addition to tickets being available at the Alderney Landing box office & online via Ticketpro. This is awesome because when you sell a ticket hand to hand, your ticket buyers save a bit on service fees! Tickets are $23 for adults and $13 for students and we can take payment in cash or cheque. You have until Sunday November 13 to take orders for tickets - all money and FINAL ticket numbers must be submitted at that rehearsal. Erin will be uploading the ticket order form to the Facebook group this week or you can pick one up from her at Sunday's rehearsal. 

Wreaths

We are now taking orders for our annual fall fundraiser - beautiful hand decorated Christmas wreaths! The order form is available on our Facebook group (pinned to the top). Tenors & basses are welcome to take part in this very fun and easy fundraiser - we would love the extra support in raising funds for awesome shows like Tales! Wreaths are $20 for a decorated wreath and $18 for an undecorated wreath. Wreath decorating day is Saturday, December 3, which is also when the wreaths will be available for pickup.

Rehearsal Notes from October 30

Reminders & Housekeeping

Wreath orders are to be done online this year - see Alex's pinned post in our Facebook group

Ticket order forms MUST be in on November 13th. Any questions, please send a message to Erin

Music & Blocking

Kayama

See edited score

Call of the Flowers - VIDEO

M 1 - 4 Birds clumped in the Upstage Right corner, Soldier & Princesses make a line on the diagonal from downstage right towards upstage left

M 5 - 9 Birds cascade downstage between the Princesses & Soldier (three lines of birds)

M 5 Group 1 (between Natasha & Georgia) - Jess, Rhian, Jordyn, Karen, Morgan

M 7 Group 2 (between Georgia & Joanna) - Maria, Antoinette, Rowan, Katelyn, Catherine, Gabrielle

M 9 Group 3 (between Joanna & Mackenzie) - Rylee, Kallie, Shila, Leah, Hayley

M 11 - 12 Reconfigure into a trapezoid with Mackenzie and Joanna downstage, Georgia and Natasha upstage, with groups around each character in a small horseshoe. Special group movements from measure 13-16 as follows :

• Group A Rylee, Kallie, Shila, Leah (with Mackenzie) - special group movement on measure 13
• Group B Hayley, Gabrielle, Catherine, Morgan (with Georgia) - special group movement on measure 14
• Group C Maria, Antoinette, Rowan, Katelyn (with Joanna) - special group movement on measure 15
• Group D Karen, Jordyn, Rhian, Jess (with Natasha) - special group movement on measure 16

M 17 - 18 Princesses and Soldier clump in the centre, Birds spread into a large U around them

M 19 - 20 Birds drift toward the centre, maintain the U shape

M 21 - 24 Slowly drift upstage left to reform a clump in the corner. Group 1 should be furthest left, Group 2 in the middle, Group 3 closer to the centre of the stage. Princesses and Solder make a line on the diagonal from upstage right to downstage left

M 25 Group 3 moves in line between Mackenzie & Joanna

M 26 Group 2 moves in line between Joanna & Georgia

M 27 Group 1 moves in line between Georgia & Natasha

M 28 (when the piano starts again) Birds swiftly exit stage right, Leah & Kallie remain on stage until the end of the piece, and then exit stage right with Princesses & Soldier

Clocks - No video this week (it’s really, really simple ;-) )

Enter when piano begins, over the top platform. Sop 2, Alto 1, Alto 2, Sop 1

Sop 1 - Top platform

Sop 2 - Lower platform, close to centre

Alto 1 - Lower platform, close to stairs

Alto 2 - Stairs

M 1 - 96 Birds sitting upstage on platforms and stairs, Soldier sitting downstage centre.

M 97 - 105 - Soldier stands up

M 105 - 112 - Stand up (same order in which you entered at the beginning of the song)

M 113 - 125 Stand up, walk down and create a mixed scattered formation around the Soldier. Sop 2 & Alto 1 Move when you start to sing. Alto 2 move when Alto 1s are out of the way, Sop 1s move when Altos 2s are out of the way.

M 126 - End Sing in these positions.

Notes for Sunday October 30

Hi everyone!

What a great rehearsal yesterday! Thank you to everyone for your hard work. From here on out things will be getting more and more detailed as we continue to refine the show and start adding the visual elements like costumes, the Troll, and props!

This Sunday is the first rehearsal where we will be doing a partial run (Scenes 1-5). That means that all music, blocking, and text in those scenes needs to be memorized and comfortable. We realize this means a big week for all of you, BUT we promise it will be worth it!! Doing partial runs is a great way to check your memory work, flag any trouble spots, and get a good feeling for the overall flow of the show.

Call Times

SSAA Company is called 1:15-5:50pm

Jennette is called 3:30-5:50pm

Sid is called 3:30-5:50pm

Tenors & Basses are called 4:15-5:50pm

Schedule

1:15 Physical Warm up

1:25 Vocal Warm up

1:35 SSAA Music (Kayama + Lie Light with blocking)

2:05 Call of the Flowers Music

2:20 Call of the Flowers Blocking

3:00 Clocks Music

3:20 Break

3:35 Clocks & Scene 6 Blocking

4:20 Run Scenes 1-5

5:00 SATB Music (Parting Glass)

5:50 Home

To Be Memorized This Week

Call of the Flowers

Clocks

All text Scenes 1-5

Reminders

Soprano 2s are on snack!!

Costumes

Our amazing costume designer Matthew Peach will be back in Halifax this week and will be at our rehearsal on Sunday. As we mentioned yesterday, Matthew will be posting a spreadsheet in the Facebook group to sign up for costume fittings, so please keep an eye out for that and be pro-active about signing up ASAP.

Rehearsal Notes from October 23

Link to Running Blocking Notes

Link to Script and Notes

Songbird - VIDEO

M 1 - 16 Standing and singing in zigzag U formation (Kallie and Rylee in front on the Soprano side, Rhian in the back row on the Alto side, on the end)

M 16 - Birds flock to form a clump upstage right

M 17 - Maria enters to dance around Soldier

M 21 - Rowan joins Maria

M 25 - Kallie joins

M 29 - Hayley joins

M 30 - Lead Birds bring Soldier to the front of the flock

M 33 - 42 Large flock movement, following Lead Birds

M 43 - Lead Birds take Soldier downstage right & Antoinette moves to join them

M 47 - Karen joins

M 51 - Gabrielle joins

M 55 - Morgan moves to the centre and beckons all the birds back into the flock

M 59 - 65 Large flock movement, following Lead Birds

M 66 - Break apart into a mixed scattered clump, not too far apart

M 69 - 80 Find someone to hold hands with, groups of two or three (Rylee with Rachael, Rhian with Karen, Kallie with Rowan)

M 81 - 85 Look at each other, still holding hands

M 86 - 89 Reform the zigzag U formation, more tightly around Soldier

M 90 - 93 Inner circle follows Krystal downstage, Outer circle follows Rachael

M 94 - 97 Inner circle follows Kallie back to U formation, Outer circle follows Rhian

M 97 - 100 Inner circle follows Krystal downstage, Outer circle follows Rachael

M 101 - Two quick steps in towards Soldier

Pseudo-Yoik Lite (sorry, no video this week!)

M 1 - 14 Troll is upstage centre, asleep on the back platform. Soldier enters sneakily with Princesses in tow (Princesses join their singing sections at measure 13). Birds will be peeking in from the edges of the stage.

M 15 - 22 All birds creep in towards the centre to support the Soldier. NO NOISE OF FEET.

M 15 Step on beat 1

M 16 Step on beat 1

M 17 Step on beats 1 and 3

M 18 Step on beats 2 and 4

M 19 Step on beat 1

M 20 Step on beat 1

M 21 Step on beats 1 and 3

M 22 Step on beats 2 and 4, step together on 6 (nh!)

M 23 - 30 Troll wakes up and startles the birds, Princesses & Soldier. Everyone flock downstage left with Soldier closer to centre and Princesses behind her.

M 31 - 35 Crouch in hiding, while the Troll looks around slowly from stage right to stage left

M 36 - 45 Soldier circling Troll

Troll moves forward, Soldier crosses in front to Stage Right, then Princesses rush toward and then away from the Troll, joining the Soldier. They then cross back to Stage Left and walk around the Troll, and the Troll turns all the way around. Birds remain crouched on Stage Left until measure 45.

M 46 - 53 Creeping into the centre, toward the Troll

M 46 Step on beat 1

M 47 Step on beat 1

M 48 Step on beats 1 and 3

M 49 Step on beats 2 and 4

M 50 Step on beat 1

M 51 Step on beat 1

M 52 Step on beats 1 and 3

M 53 Step on beats 2 and 4, step together on 6 (nh!)

M 54 - 71 Fighting between Soldier and Troll

Sopranos cross behind the Troll, returning to opening positions. Altos also return to opening positions. Princesses join their sections as well. Birds and Princesses remain in position until the end of the piece.

M 72 - 75 Soldier’s sneak attack moment

M 76 - 82 Final blow and head decapitation