I have now been described in print, in Dutch, without my having submitted a bio in any language. The venue for yesterday’s premiere of Finishing The Rose had very short notice that I was coming to the performance, and managed to sneak in a hastily written bio that they assembled themselves. In Dutch. I trust it says reasonably nice things.
Ian and Hanna did a fantastic job. We rehearsed over Skype, but in person we only had one night to prepare. The piece is theatrical, and those characters are very important to how the piece comes across, so we spent the night before the premiere doing blocking and character work.
I haven’t done staging in a while, and creating a whole plan, blocking it, and directing it for the performers in the space of an hour when you’re both jet lagged and on prescription cold medicine is a fun and exciting way to spend your vacation, let me tell you. They picked up the theatrical elements quickly and well, and the next day executed them flawlessly; including the jokes. So yes, my fellow Americans, you can get laughs out of a European new music audience. It’s okay to be funny.
Ian and Hanna are going to look for more opportunities to perform the piece, and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the consortium approaches it.
And to close, the most surprising thing I’ve learned since arriving in the Netherlands: there sure are a lot of automats here.