Fidgety Fairy Tales was invited to present at a national conference in DC this December. We are scrambling around (well, mostly Matt is scrambling around) making up a cast and a rehearsal schedule. The piece has also recently been produced in Guam (yes, Guam!) and in Duluth by other companies.
Along with Avedis Manoogian, I am writing music for Bedlam’s Marxist Fur-trade Holiday Fantasy, Foxy Tann’s Beaverdance. We were a little late getting off the ground with this one. Rehearsals begin in a couple of weeks, so I will be writing like mad, like those Hollywood musicals where the composer and lyricist sit at the piano wracking their brains and then bam! inspiration strikes and out pours the song. Hmm, looks like some people still do that.
Bart Sutter is reviving and expanding a poetry play into two acts, to be called Pine Creek. I played music for the original version–Small Town Triumphs–ages ago at History Theatre. Now, a few additional songs. I set one while I was on vacation and am not quite satisfied with what I did.
Then of course, there is Fidgety Part Two. I junked several of the songs I wrote for it after we did a readthrough this past summer, and Matt and I are rewriting quite a bit. The new songs I have sketched out are much better, less generic and more playful and fun.
I’m in the early stages of discussing an adaptation of a novel with a playwright friend. Don’t want to say too much about it for fear of jinxing it, but I feel hopeful. This will be a honking big musical, big cast, epic story, the whole bit.
I’m playing for dance classes at the University of Minnesota and Minnesota Dance Theatre, and it is going better at the start of the year than I feared it would. I am remaining pretty free in my improvisation and lots of good ideas pop up to the surface. My current obsession is pedal tones. I’ll play for the Royal Winnipeg’s company class when they hit town in October. That will be fun.
RWB: still from Romeo and Juliet
Does this sound like enough? There’s more, but I will leave it at that for now.
