SubscribeStar Saturday: Showtime!

2 December 20232 December 2023 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

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It’s the busy Christmas season for yours portly, and last night I made it over the first of two major humps before Christmas break: the Middle School Christmas Play. The next hump is the Christmas Concert for my own students, which is this Friday, 8 December 2023, in the morning.

There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into the play, as our school particularly loves to stage light-hearted musical comedies. You wouldn’t think that a musical would involve substantially more tech setup than a typical play, but it makes the work exponentially more challenging.

The Drama teacher this year did a fabulous job, and created one of the most tech-heavy productions I’ve been involved with so far. It was a multimedia extravaganza: songs, choreography, videos, backing tracks, lights, around twenty-five microphones (stationary/hanging mics, floor mics, individual headset mics, wireless handhelds, etc.), and more.

Here is a panoramic view of my sound booth about ninety minutes before the play:

The astute observer will note two sound boards/mixing consoles, plus a lighting controller, as well as my $80 refurbished laptop, which does fine if I’m just cuing backing tracks, but otherwise runs like a potato powering a lightbulb. There’s also the spotlight, two lighting trees with around ten lights each, and a projector screen. During the production my student assistant and I had to move a projector into place, along with a auxiliary cord running to a DI box, which fed via XLR (microphone) cable to a “snake” onstage, which ran all the way back to us at our booth. We also had to move a baby grand piano (don’t worry—it was on wheels)!

Setting all of this stuff up is stressful, because it’s usually done in fifty-minute snippets of planning periods. But the finished product is worth it.

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Lazy Sunday CLX: Fine Arts Festival

10 April 202210 April 2022 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

It’s been a lazy weekend here at Portly Manor, as I’ve been recovering from a very long week of Fine Arts Festival-related activities. It’s been pretty glorious being in bed by 9:30 PM and sleeping in until approximately whenever Murphy barks me awake to the use the bathroom, which is roughly around 6:30 AM. I still need to file my taxes, so I’ll be working on that annual ritual of tedium later today.

For this week’s Lazy Sunday, however, it made sense to look back at this past week’s Fine Arts Festival, and to celebrate the achievements of the students involved. I’ve also worked in a post about Son of Sonnet’s new Locals page:

“Concert Time!” – This very short piece was written before the concert, which was a smashing success. There are tons of little things to get done to put on a concert, but this year’s ran pretty smoothly.
“TBT: Flashback Friday: Opening Night” (and “Flashback Friday: Opening Night” & “Opening Night“) – Due to some last-minute emergencies and conflicts, a few students had to back out of the school play, which meant the Drama teacher and myself end up taking on some roles. I had the luxury of reading from a script onstage, which I tried to conceal as best I could. These posts are all about the challenge and the thrill of acting.
“Supporting Friends Friday: Son of Sonnet’s Locals Page” – My good buddy and regular poetry contributor Son of Sonnet launched his new Locals page at https://sonofsonnet.locals.com/ about a month ago, on 14 March 2022. You should check it out!
“SubscribeStar Saturday: Spring Concert 2022 Postmortem” – My detailed review of Spring Concert, including full track lists. A blasphemous totem to my own achievement, or a celebration of my students’ hard work? You decide.

Now to break the fast with my chubby dog, drink some coffee, and lazily get ready for church… and taxes.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

TBT: Flashback Friday: Opening Night

7 April 20225 April 2022 The Portly Politico3 Comments

Last night my students had their big Spring Concert, and I am hoping it went well. I’m writing this post a day before the concert, but barring any wardrobe malfunctions or massive technical failures, it probably went well. My students are well-rehearsed and know the songs they’re doing, so I think we’re in good shape.

Tonight the Drama students open their two-night run of Twelve Angry Jurors (Twelve Angry Men originally, but we have a mixed male-female cast). A couple of students had to back out last-minute due to illness, family emergencies, etc., so I have to step in as Juror Ten, the bigoted one—gulp! Fortunately, I’m not expected to memorize my lines, but I’m going to try to conceal my script in a legal pad so it’s not quite so obvious that I’m reading directly from the script.

Acting is very difficult. This week’s TBT post looks back to when I played the lead in a play one of my former students wrote, Catching Icarus. It was easily one of the most difficult and rewarding things I’ve ever done—and I’ve steadfastly avoided acting ever since.

I am somewhat mercenary in my artistic habits; acting is too much of a time (and mental) commitment relative to the gains (both artistic and financial). I can slap together a good concert in a fraction of the time it takes to write, rehearse, direct, and stage a play. And if a couple of kids can’t play on a concert, it doesn’t derail (typically) the entire event.

In other words, for me, acting is too much investment for too little return.

That said, it’s also very fun when everything clicks, and I see the appeal for those who are really into drama.

With that, here is “Flashback Friday: Opening Night“:

Flashback Friday: Opening Night

23 April 202120 April 2021 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

The concert was last night and, presumably, it went well. I’m actually writing this post two days before the concert, so you’ll have to wait until Saturday for a full rundown.

Due to my illness earlier in the week and the hectic nature of the Fine Arts Festival, I’m throwing back to another old post this Friday. Our High School Drama students will give their performance of their own adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. The Drama teacher asked me to play the part of Leonato, but once I fell ill, I did something I rarely do—I backed out. Fortunately, he is a massive Shakespeare buff, so I think he is covering the part… I hope!

Anyway, it seemed like a good time to look back to opening night of my own brief theatrical career, playing “Brett” in Catching Icarus, a two-act play a former student wrote. The details are below in the original post, but I will add that it was extremely challenging—and rewarding. It’s also something I have little desire to do again, as the amount of mental and emotional energy acting demands is too much.

With that, here is January 2020’s “Opening Night“:

The Virus Kabuki

23 February 202122 February 2021 The Portly Politico9 Comments

A big hat-tip (H/T in blogger parlance) to Mogadishu Matt for reblogging this New York Times piece about masks and The Virus. I tend to view mask mandates as a form of petty tyranny—a way of signalling virtue on the cheap while inconveniencing otherwise law-abiding citizens who don’t want to muzzle themselves every time they want to buy cereal.

As such, I was surprised to see the dubious wisdom of mask mandates questioned in the pages of the progressive Left’s favorite “mainstream” rag, The New York Times.

Opening Night

10 January 20209 January 2020 The Portly Politico4 Comments

Tonight I will appear in the first of three performances (get tickets to tonight’s performance, the Saturday matinee, or the Saturday night performance) of Catching Icarus, a play one of my former students wrote. It’s a two-act play that takes place in a Waffle House in Dillon, South Carolina. It’s a cast of four characters. I play “Brett,” the father of a young man who is struggling with addiction and loss.

It’s quite gripping. It’s also been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

SubscribeStar Saturday: Kabuki Theatre

21 December 201921 December 2019 The Portly Politico2 Comments

This coming January, two theatrical events will occur: I’m playing the role of “Brett,” the father of a drug-addicted son, in a play one of my former students wrote called Catching Icarus (the hook: both acts take place in a Waffle House in South Carolina); and the Senate trial against President Trump will (allegedly) begin.

From the rehearsals I’ve been to so far, I can say that acting is difficult—and I get to spend most of the first act in a booth drinking coffee. It takes a special kind of conviction (or delusion) to invest in a role, to become another person.

For congressional Democrats, they sure seem right at home on the political stage. They are masters of the kabuki theatre of outrage.

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The Portly Politico

One Southerner's unique, erudite, conservative perspective in a hectic world

Tag: theatre