The Colonus Family

Monday June 13 2011

"You sang your face off tonight!" Jevetta said to Sam.

"When Jearlyn let out that piercing cry during the mourning scene, it hit me, right here," said her brother JD, thumping his heart. "I had tears running down my face."

"You were on tonight, Preacher!"

"You were working it tonight, Carolyn!"

Even after 20 years, or in some cases 30 years, the Gospel at Colonus performers are impressed with and moved by each other. Every night, I am floored with aural awe. And I am a relative 'newbie', having been sound engineer with the show for only 16 years. : )

And it's no wonder they are awed by each other. The Colonus cast and designers and crew are talented enough to have, over their years and individual careers, worked with: Prince, Sam Cooke, Ben Harper, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, Stevie Wonder, George Clinton, Donald Fagan, Kim Carnes, Carol King, Elvis Costello, Keith Richards, Laurie Anderson, Bobby Womack, Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Marc Anthony, Frank Zappa, Paul Simon, Miles Davis, Natalie Merchant, Natalie Cole, Justin Timberlake, Eryka Badu, New Kids on the Block, The Manhattans, Garrison Keillor, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, David Letterman, Conan O'Brian, Spike Lee.

I like to say that the big names listed here are talented and lucky enough to have worked with our company. The Steele Family from Minneapolis, who sings in the Gospel at Colonus, has sung with Prince a couple of times. They say he's brilliant. No offense to Prince, but I think the Steeles are pretty brilliant and he is lucky to sing with them.

We are such a varied group of people from around the country (and world) - Argentina, Pennsylvania, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Indiana, Minnesota, Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina - and Idaho. The musicians and singers and actors all have extraordinary talent spilling out of their fingertips. Some of them are Grammy winners. Some should be. There are American Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards, a Dramalogue and a Helen Hayes Award, an Obie Award in the bios. A couple of them are teachers. One hosts a radio show. One is a preacher. One is stage manager for the Lion King on Broadway. (Me - I'm just a horse person!)

Maybe it's once every year, or two - or maybe it's five years between shows - but we all drop what we are doing to get together to put on the show one more time. Theatre really is magical, when the lighting and sound technology blends with the artistry of diverse actors and musicians and singers to create a piece that never fails to touch people, every time it's performed.

I am so proud to say that I am a part of this Colonus family. I am always awed and humbled to be working for them. I love this job. I love these people, I love this family.

And so ends another epic Gospel at Colonus adventure, at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Now we go our separate ways, each heading back to our normal lives of stage, studio, classroom... or a saddle. : )

One Hot Gospel

Thursday June 9 2011

98*F and 98% of heat and humidity slapped me upside the head as soon as I stepped out of the Charleston, SC airport. Mortifiyingly hot. Staggeringly unbearable (for the Ice Princess). I am sure now that the word "sultry" originated in Charleston.

But most of the time here was spent in the dark theatre, prepping, setting up and teching for The Gospel at Colonus. Actually there wasn't much 'tech' at all (meaning rehearsing with full lights and sound and stopping and reworking pieces when necessary) - it was all setting up. Usually a show gets a couple of days of tech before a couple of previews before Opening. At a Festival where things are on a tight schedule, you get but a couple of days of 'tech' before Opening. This time we spent every single minute setting up, and we didn't have but one run-through the afternoon before Opening night. One and a half days of setting up is cutting it very tight for a show to open, especially when you have the usual sound tech problems of, say, your 14 wireless mics not working, and your help liason in Germany stopping returning phone calls for help, and the next set of microphones delivered not compatible with the receivers, and one of the three 'transistor cards' on the mixing board not working, and the guitar and bass amp cases being delivered - without the amps inside, and on and on, and everything behind schedule...


But as always, Ron the sound designer pulled a couple of rabbits out of his hat, and by 7:30 PM of Opening Night, everything was working (almost) seamlessly, the performers were brilliant, and the show a rollicking success.

After all these years, the songs still knock my socks off and the voices never fail to move me.


Even if the weather is stultifying, I am so lucky and grateful to be together with the talented Gospel cast and crew once again.

A couple of videos from rehearsal:

that's a couple of the Blind Boys of Alabama


That's the Missionary Baptist Choir, and (among others) the Steeles and Soul Stirrers

Gone Gospel

Sunday June 5 2011

It's a long way from Owyhee.

2500 miles. From 55* F to 95*F. From the boonies to the big city. From light to dark. Northwest to Deep South. From riding in the great outdoors to sitting in a small cramped space. From the rhythm of hoofbeats in the desert to the rhythm of voices in the theatre.

It's time for the Gospel at Colonus! This week I shed my riding skin and morph into a sound engineer for the black gospel musical version of Sophocles' tragedy, Oedipus at Colonus, in Charleston, South Carolina for the Spoleto Festival.

We last resurrected the show in August of 2010 in St Paul, Minnesota, and Edinburgh, Scotland (see my archives if you want a fix, or in the search box bottom right, type "Gospel at Colonus") - and here we are in sultry Charleston, gearing up for another revival.

The Spoleto Festival USA is "one of the world's major performing arts festivals," founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. The annual 17-day event showcases both estalished and emerging artists in more than 120 performances of opera, dance, theatre, classical music, and jazz.

I can't sing for beans, but I can listen well and I get to mix the sound for some terrific singers: the Steele family from Minneapolis, the Soul Stirrers from Chicago, the (5-time Grammy winning) Blind Boys of Alabama, and the Royal Missionary Baptist Church choir from Charleston, and a host of other talented singers and actors and actresses, all together on stage in this show that started in 1975. I joined the show as sound mixer in 1995 in Seattle and have been with it, over the years, in far-flung places like Sao Paulo, Moscow, Athens, Minneapolis, St Paul, Tuscon, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Harlem, Scotland. (Me? Did I really get to do that?!)

Tech and rehearsals start Monday morning; first show is Wednesday night; last show is Sunday. Wednesday night after opening there is a party in our honor. "Please bring festive cocktail attire." I don't know what 'festive cocktail attire' is, but I'm quite sure I don't have it. I wonder if my leopard spotted riding tights might do?

Five Stars

Monday August 23 2010

"That black shape that you thought you saw whirling through the Edinburgh night sky at the weekend was probably the roof of the [Edinburgh] Playhouse, blown off by the glorious eruption that is The Gospel at Colonus and by the stomping, cheering response from 3,000 theatregoers who could scarcely believe their eyes and ears."

So begins the London Times review of our show in Edinburgh.

Of course you can let great reviews go to your head, and then the negative reviews nag and eat away at you. It's what you feel inside what matters. It's a terrific show and I'm still humbled to be a part of it. (And we'll just take this 5 out of 5 stars review and enjoy it.)

It's half an hour after our show lifted the roof off the Playhouse for the 4th and last time in the Edinburgh International Festival... and already the walls of Colonus are coming down. In another hour or so, the stage will be nearly empty of all evidence that we were there, and another show will take over the theatre.

Colonus fades away again, and life goes on for everybody again - drifting back home or elsewhere to act, sing, teach... or jump back in the horses.

I'm on to horse stuff tomorrow - Seren Arabians in England. Back to fresh air, dirt between my toes, real stars in the sky, and the sweet smell of horses.

Love

Sunday August 22 2010

We are in love.

With our Scottish in-house Edinburgh Playhouse crew. We want to take them home with us.

Opening night of The Gospel at Colonus on Saturday was a smash hit. 3056 seats sold out. The performance was awesome. The performers on fire and contagious. The crowd was great.

We had two shows today; tomorrow is our last one here.

"Until the next time," JD said.

We never know when it is really our last show - the last time this crazy, diverse family will get together... but the show has been going for 28 years in various incarnations (with 3 original cast members still in the show) - and Lord willing it will continue for another 28 years, give or take.

There are rumors of Australia, London, maybe a few other places in the works. Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, we'll try to pack our lovely Scottish theatre friends back home with us. They've been the best.

Creation

Thursday August 19 2010

A busy schedule in the world's biggest music festival means fast turnovers in a theatre such as the 3056 seat Edinburgh Playhouse. One show ends on a Tuesday night, is struck on Wednesday until everything is gone and an empty stage is left, and load in for the next show - the Gospel at Colonus - starts Thursday at 9 AM.

Throughout the 14-hour day, an empty stage grows into an ancient Roman amphitheatre. The pre-built wall designed by Alison is pieced together and raised,










the risers are built, the floors are painted, and the wall touched up with accents.

The lights are hung and focus begins according to the lighting designer Jason's plot.


The costumes are unpacked by Jesse.


The sound equipment is set up by Ron the designer and Pete the house sound guy - on stage (wireless microphone receivers, monitors, speakers, band gear, amps, cables) and in the house where I'll be mixing (mixing boards).


And in a rehearsal space, the actors are working through the show,

honing the art that will bring magic to life to the ancient Roman theatre.

Flowering of the Human Spirit

Thursday August 19 2010

Created in 1947 after the chaos of World War II, the Edinburgh International Festival was created with the mission of providing 'a platform for the flowering of the human spirit' - to transforming lives with the power of the arts. It was the first of its kind and is one of the largest art festivals in the world.

And even larger than that is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that has grown up around it - for artists who weren't and aren't invited to participate in the EIF.


For three weeks, the city of Edinburgh is alive and deluged with arts - theatre, dance, operas, music, musicals, street performers, on stages, in homes, in the streets.

Together they form the biggest arts festival in the world, and that's why I'm here - The Gospel at Colonus has come to the EIF as one of the main acts! We're doing 4 shows at the Edinburgh Playhouse - the largest theatre in Scotland, with 3000 seats.

More to come...

Inspiring

Monday August 9 2010

Prince. Sam Cooke. Ben Harper. Peter Gabriel. Lou Reed. Stevie Wonder. George Clinton. Donald Fagan. Kim Carnes. Carol King. Elvis Costello. Keith Richards. Laurie Anderson. Bobby Womack. The Blind Boys of Alabama (5 Grammy awards). The Legendary Soul Stirrers (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989). Steely Dan. Boz Scaggs. Marc Anthony. The Steele Family. Frank Zappa. Paul Simon. Miles Davis. Natalie Merchant. Natalie Cole. Justin Timberlake. Eryka Badu. New Kids on the Block. The Manhattans.

Garrison Keillor. Meryl Streep. Lily Tomlin. Morgan Freeman. Tom Hanks. Harrison Ford. David Letterman. Conan O'Brian. Spike Lee.

Can you guess what all these names have in common? They've all, at one time and place or another, worked with my 'Gospel Family' - the actors, actresses, singers, and crew in my Gospel at Colonus show. And that's just to toss a few fancy names out there. (Oh - wait - the Soul Stirrers and the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Steeles are in my show!)

Just goes to show the astonishing, awe-inspiring talent of the incredible performers I get to work with as sound engineer. The Steeles have sung backup several times for Prince. No offense to Prince or anything, but I told them Prince should be singing backup for them. The two brothers and sisters in my show here in St Paul - Fred, JD, Jevetta (an Oscar nominee), Jearlyn - sing one song that gives me goosebumps. Every performance. They're simply stunning. And the Blind Boys of Alabama - well, 'nuff said there.

I never get tired of this show. Never. I'm never not stunned by the singing and the music, never go without goosebumps or losing my breath. I'm never not staggered by the talent oozing out of fingertips and vocal cords, filling my ears, shaking my bones.

Late last night (after our afternoon show) we went to a Minneapolis night club with good live music. Fred joined the band and ripped out a song. Bob got on stage and tore up the keyboards. (Even the stage band was awed.) What can it be like, to be so good at something with your voice and your fingers, to be able to sing or play with someone, anyone, anywhere?

Me, I can't sing, not even in the shower; I can't really play anything (in public anyway) - I just ride horses. : )

It's wonderful to be part of this family.

Noodling

Thursday August 5 2010

Two days of "10 out of 12's" in the theatre - 10 out of 12 hours in a day of teching lights and sound, and rehearsing with actors and singers on stage.

And on breaks, and during pauses on stage while lights work out some programming, or Lee the director works on staging with the actors... the musicians Noodle.

They are like kids with ADD, they can't sit still. They always have to be creating music - either in their head or out loud.

Leroy the drummer starts tapping out a rhythm on his drum set. Bob the composer starts dinking around on the piano. Sam's fingers start noodling out a melody on the guitar. Ben joins in with his bass. Toes are tapping all across the stage, fingers snapping. A few of the singers jump in humming a little melody. With harmony.

And the stage is jamming with new unearthly music created on the fly.

It's glorious.

Changing Channels

Monday August 2 2010

The magic starts with an empty stage.

Chances are, you've been to the theatre at least once to see a play or musical. You walk into a classic old or a modern new theatre, sit down, watch the curtain come up on the actors on stage, see a good performance, clap at the end, and go home.

But you're missing the best part - the week of pure magic and creativity and conjuring and talent that brings the show all together.

The stage is a blank page when the signs go up on the billboards, and the posters plaster the pillars around town.


But in a day, the stage has been transformed into an old Roman theatre ruin... and around it lights are rigged and focused, the last hammers pound the last pieces of set into place; the sound gear is placed and patched together and cables laid; the lighting designer focuses the lights and the sound designer starts piecing together the puzzle of the microphones, cables, and mixing board: IPCs, parametrics, third otaves, matrices, banks, layers, subs, channels, VCAs... all the ingredients that will enhance the glorious sound that will emanate from the golden vocal chords of The Steeles, the Twin Cities' choir Triad:4Christ, the Soul Stirrers, and the Blind Boys of Alabama, and actors and actresses from around the country.

In my alter life, I'm a theatrical sound engineer. This week, the magic is transforming the stage at the Ordway Theatre in St Paul, Minnesota, into an old Roman theatre, for The Gospel at Colonus.

This fancy new digital soundboard, which I've never seen before is overwhelming and I don't understand but a smidgeon of it (I'm a horse person!!) - but somehow my fingers and ears will remember how to mix the show by Opening Night (Thursday).


We start rehearsals tomorrow. The sound be will fine-tuned and the lights fine-focused and the performances of the actors and singers fine-honed.


For these couple of weeks, there's no fresh Owyhee air, no sand between my toes, no manes to bury my nose in, no soft horse lips to smooch, or muscled necks to hug, but it's another spellbinding world I'm thrilled to have another foot in.

Irons in the Fire

Sunday July 11 2010

"Have you lost your mind? Crewing!!" Barbara White (39 Tevis starts, 29 Tevis finishes) said to me, when I told her I was going to crew Tevis this year.


I probably have lost my mind. Although Nance has offered me her horse Quinn to ride again (!!), I figured after shooting and reporting on Tevis one year, and riding it last year, this year it was time I crewed it, to get the full spectrum. (One of the main draws is, we crew get to eat at In N Out Burger in Auburn as we are moving rigs and racing to crewing spots!!!)

I am afraid Barbara is right: I expect that during and after crewing Tevis, I will wish I had ridden it! However, I am committed to crewing for Nance and the Yosts (we rode with 3 Yosts last year), and whoever else I can step in to help, by dousing them with a cool bucket of water when they come into Robinson Flat and Forest Hill (after I douse myself of course). Besides, I have to admit, I'm pretty darn proud of my 100% one-for-one Tevis record - the whole thing was an unrepeatable magical first experience - and I want to hold onto that for a while. : )




After Tevis, I'll be home in Owyhee a few days, then it's off to St Paul Minnesota for my alternate life as a sound mixer for The Gospel at Colonus - a black gospel version of Sophocles' tragedy, Oedipus at Colonus, featuring the 4-time Grammy-winning Blind Boys of Alabama, Chicago's Legendary Soul Stirrers, Minneapolis' Steele Family (you might recognize the voice of Jearlyn, who's often a guest on the Prairie Home Companion), and many other extraordinarily talented singers and actors and actresses. We have a week-run of the show at the Ordway Theatre. (You can see my June 2008 archives for the last show we did in Athens).

You can get a glimpse of the Athens show (a promo for Ordway theatre) here on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij6t_ofrZFA .

Then it's home in Owyhee a few days before heading off to Edinburgh Scotland (!) for a 3-day run of The Gospel at Colonus at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Here's a promo for the EIF on youtube (also clips from the Athens show):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO8ncyNZCMM&feature=related .


Afterwards, I'm staying on in Europe for a couple of weeks, visiting Seren Arabians in England, and covering an endurance ride in Belgium and at Florac, France - the pre-ride for next year's European Endurance Championship.


Then I'm back home a few days before taking off for the World Equestrian Games - covering the World Endurance Championship in Kentucky. And I'm looking as much forward to that as I am to riding in the Shawnee National Forest with Genie Stewart-Spears, before the WEG!

I get back to Owyhee the night of Day 1 of the September Owyhee Canyonlands... and I hope to saddle up Jose and ride 50 miles starting on Day 2!

Of course The Raven will be accompanying me on my travels, as well as doing some reporting on his Forevermore The Raven blog.

Stay tuned for some fun adventures - and look for me at Tevis - I'll be the one wearing my silver Tevis buckle : )