CAROLINE REHEARSES AND TURKEYS GOBBLE

Rehearsals for CAROLINE OR CHANGE are going well. I am having Brain Bumps. I am having difficulty with the lyrics which are more sung dialogue than lyrics. Made me wish for Rogers and Hart, Lerner & Lowe, Gershwn ,,,Berlin...and on..
But this piece is extraordinary and worth the difficulty I am wading through.
The other performers are superb and gorgeous vocalists.
I think David Schweizer the Director cast this piece beautifully and has a wonderful vision and handle on it.
Carole Schweid is playing Grandma Gellman to a turn. Full of all the Jewish nooks and crannies. My ear alerts to her knowledge of the culture and expressive acumen. She is a terrific musician and excellent performer. We knew each other through the New York Broadway years and I was so pleased to see her and at last be able to work with her. She and John Ramsey as Grandpa Gellman do grand justice to the roles.
Her involvement in A CHORUS LINE is of course a high point and, needless to say, it meant a lot to all of us in the theatre at that time and resonates even today. She must be rightfully proud.
I am very taken with the outstanding voices of the black performers in the company.
Libya Pugh, April Nixon, Renn Woods, Ta'rea Campbell , Danielle Lee Graves, Kelly McCreary, Milton Craig Nealy, and the Ultra Amazing E. Faye Butler as Caroline. Their vocal sounds are so full, rich and grounded in soul.
Tesori wrote music for those characters that express the culture and the texture of the plight they were suffering both personally and socially and these performers are blossoming in their melodies.
It is fascinating to listen to.
The two young boys alternating the role of NOAH as also amazing. Both Bradley Bowers and Matthew Demetrides already had the songs down and were way ahead of all of us on day one. They are both fun to work with and have terrific voices.
The girl playing Rose, my daughter, Trisha Rapier, has a terrific voice and was also already very familiar with the score. She is a hoot and fun and I have a great time working with her.
Joe Hickey as Stuart plays the Clarinet like budding Benny Goodman. He is a perfect foil for the stumbling and unsure father and husband.
I have done many shows of very important cultural and social commentary..EVITA , SWEENEY TODD and CABARET among them, but this piece has profound and deep meaning for our present political atmosphere.
Civil rights for minorities is a very important and poignant issue.
This piece cries with passion for these rights and what denial of them creates within the many strata of social structure.
Black & White, South and North, Jews and Gentiles and the palpable struggle of the poor to manage daily with their meager portions in life.
I am so curious to see how the Baltimore audiences will respond to the many levels within this show. With such a large Black population here I hope it soars into the psyche of the community and is a big hit. It can be a wonderful sounding board for all those in need of a voice against the many wrong doings of the political and social power structure that elevate some and denies others.
My character Gandpa Stopnick is a political activist and most loud, vocal and insitant about the injustices he sees. It is a role I am very proud to inhabit.
With President Obama about to take the highest office in the land in January there is much to celebrate. But the road that took him to the White House (Ironic a Black Man in the White House)...had the Bumps and Bruises that Caroline and many in her realm have endured.
We should all be proud that with this election we have overcome a prejudice, but we have other prejudices that must be explored and put away and sealed in a place that kills those hateful human tendencies forever.
I hope we see this happen in my lifetime. Meantime we have CAROLINE OR CHANGE to shake her fist and raise her voice for us all.
Have a great THANKSGIVING and a Giddy Gobble..
I spent my day off making a Stuffing that took 3 hours to prepare..Someday I will share the recipe.
It is my own concoction and better that it sits a while to meld the many flavors.
MMMM

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BALTIMORE

Baltimore is lovely. Been here since Saturday last and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I have been staying with pals here in their terrific townhouse with their sweet but initially vicious Dog. Now she is licking me awake full tilt tongue!
I have been in rehearsals for CAROLINE OR CHANGE at the Baltimore Center Stage and although the music is difficult to learn the piece is ultimately worth the effort.
Timely too, as it deals with political events and social upheaval in Nov 1963 during segregation and the Kennedy assassination.
So relevant with Obama's election.
I am upset about the Prop 8 situation in LA and how it has divided us at a time when we all should feel euphoric and united.
All the News networks are doing their damnedest to diffuse the glory of OUR victory.
I am pleased that there are protests and pushback to overturn this horrendous decision. Denying ANY minority Civil Rights is UN AMERICAN..shamefully so ..especially after such a concerted effort to get the Vote for Obama.
It is time we stopped being respectful of those who DO NOT RESPECT US or ultimately their Constitution.

Almost immediately the NEWS was overloaded with Sarah Palin and her unending repulsive necessity for publicity and tenacious reluctance to LET go of the SPOTLIGHT and MICROPHONE.
GO HOME SARAH DEAR.
The War for the balance of power is still being waged with few remaining Senate races. All the hateful mean spirited maneuvers the Republicans are now INFAMOUS for are in play.
And the News Commentators are continually favoring Republicans and McCain...STILL after that fool lost.
"The country is still Center Right" is all one hears..trying to EMBED that LIE into common wisdom. WE JUST VOTED AGAINST THAT ..WE WANT CHANGE...WE WANT MORE FAVORABLE social services which were underfunded and denied us by this stringently stingy current administration. And it is OUR TAX MONEY they use against us.
Our tax dollars have funded unnecessary Wars and Other country's needs and left us a country full of confused, under educated people in ill health physically and psychologically
No wonder we voted so overwhelmingly against the crap we have been made to accept under Bush.
And I am so over hearing how Obama's choices for his Cabinet are NOT CHANGE. Some may have worked for Clinton but they are CHANGE from Bush and they are NOW under OBAMA not Clinton. His governing will include them but I feel it will be more of his decisions we will eventually enjoy.
The News people are trying to DEFINE what he has to do and how he has to do it to govern. They say he barely eked in to the Presidency. But we all feel it is a Landslide..I man WE THE PEOPLE.
We will have to endure a few more weeks of Bush's Nonsense and then start the Clean Up and see what we all can accomplish given some HELP from a willing government instead of hindrance from a reluctant one.
Enough Already!
Tried to see the new 007 film...We tried separate complexes last evening ..ALL SOLD OUT..ALL.
Bond is still one of my favorite characters and I am a rabid fan of the films.
If you are in the Baltimore area this Dec through mid January try and see CAROLINE, OR CHANGE at Center Stage. The Leading woman is OUTSTANDING E. Fay Butler...a cream filled voice from heaven.
We Voted for Change..so come on and see our CHANGE
Meantime

Don't let the News and the Financial Slump and the Republican Machine get you down.

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THAT ONE WON

NEW MELLENIUM

OH OBAMA

PRESIDENT OBAMA
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN
HOORAY

Welcome to the doorway to the NEW MILLENNIUM!!
We the People have be Denied that for 8 years of the Bush repression and the Cheney/Rove manipulation.
We now HAVE the HOPE and BROTHERHOOD that were also thrown down the well of fear and divisiveness.
The light has SHONE and OBAMA had flicked the switch ON.
Now we have to keep that burning.
The deception and devious lies and false representations of FACTS of the past 8 years must now be OBLITERATED. We must as a people TELL TRUTHS and FACE FACTS and use appropriate words.
Reasoned thought and articulate speech from learned minds are the leadership we have needed and wanted. Now we have the chance to pump that back into our democracy.
Compromises are one thing..but LIES and GREED and collaboration for selfish and obviously personal reasons are another.
Our Country WEPT last night when Obama was declared the President Elect..Tears of JOY and RELIEF and HOPE!
How Obama People Elect (H--O--P--E) was a lesson to all, but also a stern validation of how truth and honesty and clear vision with a "we" instead of a divisive "I" can appeal to all of us.
We will look at our fellow citizens as just that FELLOW CITIZENS not the "other" to be feared and on guard against.
We want to roll our sleeves and go to work and make our economy full of industry, good paying with benefit, type jobs that are organic to our sense of country and our inevitable, intrinsic, creative, progressive innate genes.
WELCOME to a fresh view of

HOW
OUR
PEOPLE
EVOLVE

(H--O---P--E)

A NEW MILLENNIUM
A NEW HEART
A NEW DAY
A NEW WORLD
BRAVO OBAMA

and BRAVO AMERICA!!!

May all those McCain & Palin followers who Boo-ed and spewed Hate at those Republican Rallies realize they are not apart of our country but a part of it. All
their fears and hateful prejudices were fired up by McCain and more so by Palin and the machine that McCain fostered. He never stifled the hate that boiled at rallies. Even at his concession speech last night hate was vocal. Although he tried to defuse it last night it was rife and palpable every time he mentioned Obama. It was already woven into the fabric he and Palin and their machine so intricately threaded with lies and smug and to my view very evil intent.
These people who very publicly showed how ill educated and ill bred and ill informed minds can so easily be turned into a mass of hysterical myopic drones.
"He (Obama) hates white people"..." He associates with terrorists.."..."He will take away my guns.." All instigated views aggravated and revved and the ultimate::
"KILL HIM"
These were all public pronouncements, all allowed to fester and bubble all through those McCain Palin rallies.
What a LEGACY McCain has left behind..What a smog of evil they have left for us to dissipate.
It is a shame that we have to see this sort of thing in our politics.
It has become a gamed game.
We should give back to the League Of Women's Voters the DEBATES.
Really let the candidates TALK to us and each other..A REAL DEBATE..And When A lie is Spewed ..IT MUST BE ADDRESSED WITH FACTS AND TRUTH not with insinuation and veiled implications..
All this should now start to dissolve into a more OPEN and CLEAR and REASONED discourse.
Obama has inherited one of the worst Americas from Bush. But we all can help and now that a decent intelligent and smart man is in our White House WE THE PEOPLE will have a Voice and have progress, support and Finally:::::::

H

O

P

E

XXX
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