The story of my latest adventure abroad begins with an unforeseen Facebook message last December from a stranger named Katie Palmer. she claimed to have gotten my name from and old acquaintance of mine at NYU, a percussionist and former peer whom I'd played a few musical theater shows with. Apparently Katie and her company, Theater In Asylum, were taking their latest production to Prague, and they need a guitarist.
For about two minutes I was over the moon, and then I read the dates. They would be departing Friday, May 23rd and staying in Prague for the Fringe Festival for another week and a half. If I had one set of commitment in 2014, it was that first weekend. My one and only sister had, after all, booked her wedding for that time nearly a year before. I called home to my father, somewhat deflated, to report the new that almost was. He offered little consolation. I knew what I had to do.
Later over the holidays, I let slip to my sister and her fiancee, Zoe and Alex, that I'd turned down my latest opportunity to travel for them. Alex even responded; perhaps facetiously, I should go to Prague and skip the wedding, but at that point the deal was done, or so I thought. In mid-January I got another message from Katie.
It seemed my peer had spoken quite highly of me because the company came back calling for an audition with the thought that they might be able to work something out. It seemed the performances didn't begin till Tuesday, May 27, and it could be possible for me to join the company later.
When I got this second chance I didn't tell anybody. I was nervous I'd jinx it, but I got to practicing. I was determined to nail the audition. It was a Flamenco-inspired production about a supposed romance between famed Spanish poet Federico García Lorca and painter Salvador Dalí, so I prepared Capricho Árabe, a great classical guitar piece by the late 19th century Spanish nationalist composer Francisco Tárrega, which I'd originally purchased the music for and studied in Italy.
I felt an immediate connection without he company, represented by Katie, co-artistic director Paul Bedard, and music director Randall Benchiak. While they wouldn't say one way or another, I came out of the audition feeling I'd got it. Paul in particular was enamored with the piece I'd prepared, and he expressed an interest in incorporation it into the show. A few days later they told me I'd got it for certain, and they'd work around the wedding.
Needless to say, I was overjoyed. My trips abroad have been some of the happiest times of my life, and here I had an opportunity to combine it with work. Not only was I going to perform music in Europe, but I was able to fly out of the destination of my choice. I immediately saw the chance to visit some of the wine producers whom I work with at Moore Brothers, and my mom decided to join me for this latter part of the trip through Germany and culminating in Amsterdam.
While we worked briefly together on a fundraiser performance in New York in March, I did not start meeting in earnest with Theater In Asylum until Monday, May 19 for four days of 10-hour rehearsals the week before leaving. While that may sound like a lot, and it certainly was wearing over time, the process was not at all stressful. In fact, it was a joy to work with the young company re-developing this piece, which they'd previously performed in a few iterations, and I felt my skill set as both a classically trained guitarist and composer/improviser with lots of theater experience, was uniquely suited to the role.
In the show I play an ageless Spanish demi-god who contently watches and musically interjects in Dalí and Lorca's fated narrative. As Paul and I discussed my character, the on-stage guitarist had seen this story play out many times before over the centuries through other vessels, and it was my job, along "the dancer"–my fellow demigod, who is only recently ageless and still figuring out her new role in the world–to push the narrative along, both backwards and forwards to different time in Dalí and Lorca's lives.
While the show ha been performed several times before, the script was revised an cut to create a more cohesive narrative that also fit the strict technical requirements of the festival. We had a fixed amount of time in the theater, with shows booked immediately before and after us; although apparently the festival liked us so much as to book us prime time in the same space each night, which was not true of most shows. This new production gave me a chance to discover my part within the show and not be bound to what Randall had done with it before.
It looked to be a great week spent with a bunch of people I enjoyed collaborating with, and I looked forward to the opportunity to work with them on future projects.
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