"PIG WARS" POST-MORTEM...

The Great Intergalactic Puppet Show (G.I.P.S.) production of “Pig Wars” is now history. It was a brief performance—6-1/2 minutes, according to the videotape. Small but appreciative crowds—but larger, I heard, than for the rest of the events in Bay City’s “Party for the Park,” because we marketed and they didn’t.

Post-mortem (one should always do post-mortems on performances, even if it’s a puppet show): The stage needs to be higher; you could see the puppeteers’ heads from the audience seats on the risers. The stage also needs its “wings” opened up more (and therefore braces to keep it from falling over) so the crew have more room to move in. The curtain should be closer to the front of the stage (hiding the crew better). And more than one “dress rehearsal” would have been good—though the amateurishness of the show was part of its charm, I think. On the “we did right” front, the sound was about perfect, with two mikes on boom stands behind the puppet stage, and the script was good—the audience laughed at all the right lines (as well as at some of the inadvertent slapstick antics of the “sock stars”). I think a sequel would go over okay.

The Arts Center’s big camera interfaces with a Macintosh computer, not a PC (our PC doesn’t have a Firewire port); the Arts Center does have a Mac (an old one), with Apple’s super-stripped-down video program, iMovie, and I spent most of my Monday shift at the Arts Center working with it. iMovie is a lot more limited than Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker (I hadn’t thought that was possible); if there were a way to archive the footage and transfer it to a PC, I would.

If I can learn to use iMovie, I’ve got another opportunity I can take advantage of. The Arts Center has videotapes of open mikes going back years—and I’ve performed at a lot of those. I could archive to the computer all of my open mike performances, nearly all of which are solo, and have that “here’s what Joe playing to a crowd is like” film I’ve wanted for a long time. (I think performance videos could be added to the Arts Center’s Website, too. I’ll have to try that.)

I auditioned for another play—a minor role, they said, but it’s a play with only four actors. Takes place in Ireland, so they wanted an Irish accent, which I am able to do, sort of; it’s not really Irish (you can understand the words), but most folks would probably call it Irish—it’s just a more intense version of how I have to sing some of the faster bluegrass songs. They wanted me to deliver a monologue, as well as read a scene from the play—so I gave them the Robert Service poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” which is easy to do with an Irish accent.

Roland and I got to practice a couple of hours Sunday. He’s got a decent-sized Fender acoustic amp that can handle both his guitar and mine, plus a vocal mike; it’ll do for what we need. He knows a lot of Gordon Lightfoot and other early folksingers, and I don’t—I’ll need to learn them. We concentrated on his stuff this time around, at my insistence; next time—this week, I hope—we’ll include some of mine. I think we will need to use my Tascam to record us. I didn’t see that Roland has anything better.

It has shaped up to be a very busy couple of weeks. This week, I have two days at the Arts Center, three at the 2nd Street Public Market (where I’m angling for the job of the director, who’s leaving), two meetings to cover for the paper (both will turn into news stories), music Wednesday and Friday, and the Dairy Parade to march in for TAPA on Saturday. (They’re going to have me wear a sash saying “Beauty Queen of Leenane”—their new play. How could I resist an opportunity like that?) Next week, I teach “beach art” classes all week, plus have a meeting Monday night and the Thirsty Lion gig Tuesday night. I keep hoping if I get busy enough, someone will offer me a job. I think it’s supposed to work that way. Isn’t it?

Joe