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Sitzprobe!

DEC 1, 2012

One of the most thrilling days in the entire process of building a new show is the sitzprobe. This is when the actors and full orchestra come together for the first time to sing and play through the show. Throughout the rehearsal process, the actors will rehearse with live accompaniment, but generally it is only piano or perhaps some percussion. The sitzprobe is the first time the actors get to hear the full orchestrations of the score. Words do not suffice to describe the sensation of hearing the music come to life for the first time. It is truly an amazing experience.

We were especially excited for this production’s sitzprobe since a lot of the orchestrations are brand new. It was amazing to hear this classic score transformed and imbued with new life. And we got to sit in the room with the famous original composer Stephen Schwartz and the Tony Award-winning orchestrator Larry Hochman as they discussed little tweaks and additions to the orchestrations with the musicians and our music director, Charlie Alterman, and music supervisor, Nadia DiGiallonardo. It was seriously so cool to experience this. I must confess I was unable to control my musical theater geek grin.

We are now just a week away from our first preview performance and will subsequently move into the most stressful part of tech. We will be in the theater for long hours every day doing whatever needs to be done to get this show up and running. It is a lot of hard work, but one thing is certain; we are working on something very special. We are all very excited and can’t wait to share this wonderful show with our audiences!

And with that my time as the November guest blogger for BroadwayWorld must sadly come to a close. Thank you so much for reading my posts! And if you have not yet gotten your Pippin fill, I will be continuing to blog for the American Repertory Theater throughout the run of the show. You can like the American Repertory Theater on Facebook, follow them on twitter (@americanrep), and follow me on twitter (@MaryTynTyn) for continued updates about Pippin, photos, and my blog! Thanks so much, everyone!