Candide, indeed

OK, so Candide isn't set in France and I'm not rehearsing it in France.
But Voltaire was French, and even though the story starts in the imaginary land of Westphalia and continues all over a crazy unexplained world, as far as I am concerned, this still connects me to France.

I had no idea what Candide was about when I was invited to audition, all I knew was that the choreographer was near and dear to my heart, and I was elated at the prospect of working with her again.

When I got the official call that I was being offered Candide, I jumped around my apartment like a jackrabbit on crack. OMIGOD! I get to be on stage again! And in New York! At Lincoln Center! And I get to work with Patty Birch again!

Wow, what can I say. The rehearsal process is over and we've opened the show (if you're in NYC, you still have time to see it before we close on April 2oth...)

This has been such a wonderful experience. Our cast is so talented, as is the creative team and the often overlooked stage management and technical crew. And did I mention the 30 piece orchestra and the singing chorus? And the extremely talented actors and actresses who are our covers/understudies (who will sit patiently on beeper each night... waiting to be called in to perform a role that they have studied and rehearsed that may never be seen by the public) ?

The tech week at City Opera is different from the typical 'Broadway/regional theater' process, since we only get 3 1/2 hours on stage per day vs 10-12 hours that the theater community is used to. And we didn't hear the orchestra until the day before our final dress.

Hearing the orchestra for the first time was mesmerizing. The music that Leonard Bernstein composed for this show is so beautiful and in rehearsals we only had a pianist (who amazingly played the whole orchestra). I think I practically swooned in our first orchestra stage rehearsal from the shear beauty of it.

to be continued.....