Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Another Peek: The Ladies in "A Little Princess"
"A Little Princess" includes many roles for the young girls who play Sara Crewe's classmates. If you walked into music rehearsal a few days ago, however, you might easily mistake these young ladies as professional adult actors.
Given away only by the occasional tell-tale exchange of stickers, these ladies keep their excitement quietly to themselves and are focused in a way that most teachers can only wish their students might be.
When asked if there were any guidelines set down for rehearsal, we learned that Musical Director Joel Fram is "a compelling presence; he expects his associates to be as quick on the uptake as he is, and because he is charismatic and extraordinarily talented, he tends to get the results he wants."
These actors are definitely doing all they can to keep up with Fram- some of the girls tape-record the rehearsal, and all of them take notes to make sure they don’t disappoint the revered music director. The next time they run a number, they are doing their best to get the notes or the phrasing just the way Fram asked for.
Of course there is the incredible pride in working on a world premiere. Cast member Linsday Faye remarked "we're all tremendously excited because the material is so good. It's one thing to work on a new show you feel iffy about, one that has structural problems or musical problems...but this show is just so absurdly good. It's ridiculous, really. We love it."
I'm kind of admiring her vocabulary myself! Perfect for a young lady at an exclusive private school like the one in "A Little Princess."
Given away only by the occasional tell-tale exchange of stickers, these ladies keep their excitement quietly to themselves and are focused in a way that most teachers can only wish their students might be.
When asked if there were any guidelines set down for rehearsal, we learned that Musical Director Joel Fram is "a compelling presence; he expects his associates to be as quick on the uptake as he is, and because he is charismatic and extraordinarily talented, he tends to get the results he wants."
These actors are definitely doing all they can to keep up with Fram- some of the girls tape-record the rehearsal, and all of them take notes to make sure they don’t disappoint the revered music director. The next time they run a number, they are doing their best to get the notes or the phrasing just the way Fram asked for.
Of course there is the incredible pride in working on a world premiere. Cast member Linsday Faye remarked "we're all tremendously excited because the material is so good. It's one thing to work on a new show you feel iffy about, one that has structural problems or musical problems...but this show is just so absurdly good. It's ridiculous, really. We love it."
I'm kind of admiring her vocabulary myself! Perfect for a young lady at an exclusive private school like the one in "A Little Princess."
