Actors' Equity Approves Indoor Productions at 3 New England Theatres

[unclevictor]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 12:17pm

https://www.playbill.com/article/actors-equity-approves-indoor-productions-at-3-new-england-theatres

Hmmmm, interesting.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 3:19pm

I’m so confused. The Weathervane just had their production of “Heathers” That they streamed and that was done with a full cast and no distancing or anything at all. I couldn’t tell but it sounded like they had at least some people in the audience.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 3:39pm

Understudies and crew maybe?

[unclevictor]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 4:13pm

“The Weathervane’s productions will be modified slightly, with the orchestra not having any wind or brass instruments in the band to avoid the spread of airborne particles”

It’s great that they’re trying to put on a show but eliminating musicians (jobs) is not right. It’s just not right.

Did they also eliminate hair people, wardrobe people, props people, sound, etc?

Is the cast quarantining together?

So many questions

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 4:25pm

They’re doing Little Shop, which doesn’t have ant horns in the orchestration.

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 6:11pm

Alex Kulak2 said: "They’re doing Little Shop, which doesn’t have ant horns in the orchestration."

The revival does, but I don't know if they're doing that version. Unless you actually meant there are no ant horns in the orchestration, in which case, that's true.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 6:21pm

Alex Kulak2 said: "They’re doing Little Shop, which doesn’t have ant horns in the orchestration."

MTI licenses both the original version and the Broadway version.

The Broadway version lists the following standard orchestration:

Keyboard 1/Conductor

Drums

Electric Bass

Guitar

Keyboard 2

Percussion

Reed 1 & Reed 2

Trumpet & Trumpet 2

If they had originally applied to license the Broadway version I would assume that MTI was willing to let them change over to the original which does indeed not include any wind instruments.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 6:40pm

The broadway version has double the number of musicians. I don’t know why they’d do that when the smaller combo is available (and better, imho).

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 6:40pm

The broadway version has double the number of musicians. I don’t know why they’d do that when the smaller combo is available (and better, imho).

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 7:25pm

Alex Kulak2 said: "The broadway version has double the number of musicians. I don’t know why they’d do that when the smaller combo is available (and better, imho)."

I agree with you, but it's not really fair (or true) to say there are no horns in the orchestration, when obviously there is a version that includes them. Plenty of theatres do the Broadway version; there are more harmonies, a bigger band, and some people just like to do "new" versions of shows.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 7:53pm

DooWahDiddy said: "I agree with you, but it's not really fair (or true) to say there are no horns in the orchestration, when obviously there is a version that includes them. Plenty of theatres do the Broadway version; there are more harmonies, a bigger band, and some people just like to do "new" versions of shows."

Not to mention that as a theatre that typically works in rotating rep, it would make sense to use the larger orchestrations as they would probably have had those musicians on contract for at least some of the other shows in their season (at least when they began planning the season before our current situation arose)

[MollyJeanneMusic]

Posted: 8/26/20 at 9:11pm

AEA AGMA SM said: "DooWahDiddy said: "I agree with you, but it's not really fair (or true) to say there are no horns in the orchestration, when obviously there is a version that includes them. Plenty of theatres do the Broadway version; there are more harmonies, a bigger band, and some people just like to do "new" versions of shows."

Not to mention that as a theatre that typically works in rotating rep, it would make sense to use the larger orchestrations as they would probably have had those musicianson contract for at least some of the othershows in their season (at least when they began planning the season before our current situation arose)"

Also, for school productions who have lots of interested horn players they're not going to turn down, but they've already picked the show (even though I've never understood how Little Shop became a popular HS musical) and they need a version for a full band.  (This may or may not be from personal experience.)

Back to the topic at hand, everyone's going nuts in the articles about Audrey and Seymour's, um, lack of intimate contact, but I'm more interested in how they'll handle certain other elements, including the plant swallowing Mushnik, Audrey, and Seymour and Orin slapping Audrey.  Those seem like they would be harder to dramatize in other ways, and they're crucial to the plot.

[SomeOtherMe]

Posted: 9/10/20 at 3:21pm

Opening night of "Little Shop of Horrors" at Weathervane was last night. Did anyone go?

[ACL2006]

Posted: 9/12/20 at 7:28pm

New Jersey theaters [indoors] can operate are limited capacity beginning Oct. 1. Haven't heard of any actually planning on any shows though.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 9/12/20 at 8:57pm

I work with a few NJ theatre companies. There's a lot of talk right now about the risks of actually opening a show in October even with permission from the state. I will not be surprised to hear announcements of in-person productions soon from non-Equity houses.

[ASOOS04]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 3:16pm

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/theater/weathervane-little-shop-of-horrors.html

 

This sounds like it was promising!