Third Wench from the Left - Part 5

Jane Bridges, intrepid FoTT board member, is a cast member of the new original musical Treasure of Lefty the Pirate, Oct. 2 - 4 at the Tybee Gym. Music & book by Eddie Wilson, direction by Mel Gordon. Jane will be blogging about her experiences. Click on title above to link to info and tickets.

Did I say we had four different rehearsal venues? Make that five. We rehearsed Monday night on the concrete slab at Memorial Park!  Here are Mel and Wolfgang Hartz with the blue tape marking the stage, the exits, etc.,

AGAIN. And we were delighted to see Lucinda Morin,  our amazing choreographer. Here she is, going over a routine with Glory Padgett in the fine weather we had that evening. Don't we look studious with our books? Call it P-A-N-I-C. The show opens this weekend!

And here's our distinguished Captain Kenn Wade, having a wardrobe moment with Twila Davis, our costume designer. Don't ask!  Despite the hum of the generator powering Eddie's music and the chorus of 2,000 cicadas, it was a delightful evening until the sun went down.

We practiced by starlight and car light for a while longer, then we all went home!

See you at the Show!

Jane

3rd Wench from the Left - Part 4

Jane Bridges, intrepid FoTT board member, is a cast member of the new original musical Treasure of Lefty the Pirate, Oct. 2 - 4 at the Tybee Gym. Music & book by Eddie Wilson, direction by Mel Gordon. Jane will be blogging about her experiences. Click on title above to link to info and tickets.

One of our three rehearsal venues, the Black Box Theater, has two sides, and here we are practicing our conga line in the art and reception part.

Good thing for us it has some comfortable couches. All that dancing
makes us tired!

Now, here we are in the performing side of the Black Box. You may think that's Howard Bowden standing on a chair, but it's actually the character Roger, standing on the bow of the cruise ship; the one that Mel and Jim are building in the Tybee Post Theater.

Mel has been working on that thing too much! He told us how many feet wide this part would be, and how long that part would be, and where the wall would be, but he did stop short of telling us how many 2x4s he used. Come on, Mel! We just wanna sing and dance!

One of the secrets of Lefty's Island is the romance between Wendell and Susan, aka Tracy Priest and Samantha Claar. Aren't they a cute couple? They have a shipboard romance and a big secret!

Back at the Gym.  Pictured are Willow, Ritajane, Polly and Rick. Willow's a theater major performing with us for the first time! Ritajane co-directed our performance of South Pacific on  the pier in 2004. Polly is a welcome addition to our chorus, and you may remember Rick's unforgettable line as Chicken Man in Best Little Whouse in Texas.

 Eddie Wilson, script and music writer, and Lucinda Morin, choreographer extraordinaire are two of the main brains behind this production. Lucinda is a former Rockette who has danced on cruise lines and all up and down the east and west coasts and now dances in musical productions at the Savannah Theater.  She just listens to one of Eddie's songs, comes up with a dance and staging concept for it, and somehow, she gets us to make it into a Cecil. B. DeMille style production! At least, that's what we hope. We are trying to keep all our left feet on the imaginary stage in the gym. But at least we're in the room where the play will actually be performed!

All for now,

Jane

Third Wench from the Left - Part 3

Jane Bridges, intrepid FoTT board member, is a cast member of the new original musical Treasure of Lefty the Pirate, Oct. 2 - 4 at the Tybee Gym. Music & book by Eddie Wilson, direction by Mel Gordon. Jane will be blogging about her experiences. Click on title above to link to info and tickets.

There was a rehearsal going on in front of the IGA this weekend! I was on my way in for lettuce, wine and other essentials, when I heard the haunting strains of "Paradise is a State of Mind," an original tune by Eddie Wilson. What in the world, I thought. And what to my wondering eyes should appear but some of my fellow cast members selling show tickets plus split-the-pot raffle tickets in front of the store. These people will REALLY know the songs next rehearsal!  

If you missed them this weekend, you'll have another chance to get tickets to the performance and split the pot on Saturday when they camp out in front of Burton's on the south end. The pot will be worth over $1,000 and raffle tickets are only $1, so that's a pretty good deal!

From Chris Garbett:

Thanks to great wenchers and wenchettes we sold 250 raffle tickets and generated a lot of buzz!!!!!

We will have a table next Saturday, 9/19 at Burton's at the Beach (the old Isla del Mar) for a short period only, from 12-2 during the noon rush. I will be there with supplies. Would be helpful once again if dressed up pirates could come to sing and draw a crowd. This really works. I realize time is full with lots of rehearsal but anyone welcome who can spare 2 hours.

Third Wench from the Left - Part 2

Jane Bridges, intrepid FoTT board member, is a cast member of the new original musical Treasure of Lefty the Pirate, Oct. 2 - 4 at the Tybee Gym. Music & book by Eddie Wilson, direction by Mel Gordon. Jane will be blogging about her experiences. Click on title above to link to info and tickets.

Mel announced the exciting news that the Tybee Post Theater will again have sets, starting this week! It's pretty hard to find a suitable place to build sets when you don't have a theater. The Post Theater doesn't have AC or seats yet, but isn't it great that it's being used to build a set? Here are the results of Mel's work with Jim Ingham so far. See the gangplank? No pirate play would be complete without one! 

 
And look for this big fat blue nautical rope when you come see the play.

While I was there, I took some shots of the windows that are due to be installed in the Theater this month!

I can tell you as an amateur actress, I really look forward to the day when we can rehearse in the same space as the production. We have dance rehearsal tonight, and it's hard enough to get all those steps right without having to imagine where we'll be when we really perform it. Our rehearsals are actually being held in three spaces: the old cafeteria, the black box theater, and the gym. That's a lot of adjusting for someone who ain't that great a dancer in the first place!

Third Wench from the Left

Jane Bridges, intrepid FoTT board member, is a cast member of the new original musical Treasure of Lefty the Pirate, Oct. 2 - 4 at the Tybee Gym. Music & book by Eddie Wilson, direction by Mel Gordon. Jane will be blogging about her experiences. Click on link above for info and tickets.

Jane practicing her curtain speech, Kim is is unimpressed

The Cast!

Eight rehearsals down, four weeks to go!
This play has everything: adventure, intrigue, humor, and a great love song! We are having a great time rehearsing for it. Mel told us one night that if we couldn't sing, we could just lip-synch! So then, JR asked, if we can't dance, can we just foot-synch? Seriously, we have some really accomplished singers in the cast, and it looks like everybody is having a great time so far. We've learned four songs!



Eddie & Mel







JR wants more lines

Renee emotes for the camera

Rehearsal # 9. We record a radio spot!

Here we are circled around a standing microphone to do a radio ad. It will air on Q105.3 Quality Rock. Listen for us. We give no quarter to Pirates!

All for now, Jane.

Never work with kids or dogs!