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Pits: Definitely not the Pits

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A gem from Urinetown, my first show with Clark Musical Theater

A gem from Urinetown, my first show with Clark Musical Theater

In my last post, I briefly mentioned that I this semester I would be working with Clark Musical Theater in the spring production of Legally Blonde. This is going to be my third production with CMT, and my first production with CMT without Jeremy, which is really sad. But! I’m really excited to work on the show. I know absolutely nothing about the musical itself, but I’ve seen the movie Legally Blonde approximately a bajillion times, so I have a really good grip on the basic concept.

This is my first semester working as the pit liason, which means I deal with all the organizational hubbub having to do with scheduling rehearsals, hunting down musicians and their respective instruments (if they don’t already have them), and working closely with the music director to make sure we’re always on the same page. This is my first time doing something like this, so I’m a little bit nervous, but I’m also really excited. I went to my first production meeting on Thursday, and it made me feel very important. There are a whole lot of hands that are involved in putting on a musical, and it feels really great to be a part of it.

Okay. It sounds super cheesy. I know. But if you think about it, if one person slacks on their job, like the light designer, or the choreographer, or me, or anyone else, it visibly detracts from the quality of the show. It feels nice to be a part of a group effort.

After my production meeting on Thursday, I got really excited to get to work on organizing the pit. The orchestra for Legally Blonde is really…interesting. It calls for a lot of strange instruments, including a bass trombone, a bicycle bell, a mandolin, and all sorts of other crazy stuff, in addition to all the regular, not crazy instruments. The trick is to maximize the number of instruments with as few people as absolutely possible. That can mean that you could end up playing just one instrument, like you would normally do, OR you could end up playing four or five. It happens.

For example, the bass part includes music for an acoustic bass, a fretless electric bass, electric bass, and a five string acoustic bass. It’s basically crazy town.

So right now things seem a little insane, but hopefully once we get settled in and start making music, things will seem a little bit more normal. Being in a pit orchestra is great; I love meeting all the people involved in the show, and nothing really works you musically quite like music from a musical (the only time I’ve ever encountered a key signature with six sharps or a song with a meter of 12/8 was in a musical, and it was weirdly awesome). Auditions for the show are this week, and by the weekend, we’ll have a cast! Things are coming together fast, and it’s going to be a really, really great show.


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