Her name was Mathilde Pincus and she’d been given that award in 1976 for her services to theater as a copyist and music supervisor; I was one of her lowermost drudges. Sometimes her sister, Harriet, and their ancient mother, Ida, came along to help out.
2 comments:
I’m genuinely curious about more people’s and more “expert’s” opinions on whether the more current system, which seems to hurry people towards a Broadway opening is better or worse than the more drawn out, older tryout system. Even in my short timeline of seeing Broadway shows (about 10 years give or take, though the early years I definitely was not so very critical), I feel like some of the quality or thoughtfulness of content has been lost for the push of getting to such a famous stage and often putting a celebrity on that stage with you (or using them to get you there). I do not know when the switch from old to new system was either and that might vary based on who you ask and how deep their entrenchment and history with the system goes. I also find this job of copyist fascinating as it really had never crossed my mind this would be a necessary position. Sometimes I really do forget how new technology is and how lucky we are to have its tools at our fingertips.
I have worked on a number of new works, and I can testify to just how painful the process can be. Tech is hard; tech for a month or more is harder. It is even worse when you have to go home to a hotel, not your own bed. From what I have been told, Broadway theatres actively want to premier new works (that are certain to be successful, of course). A show that has already premiered regionally has less of a draw. There are, however, companies such as New York Stage and Film that provide a space for development of new works that are on a path to Broadway. These sorts of situations make it so that the kind of changes described by the author of the article can occur without incurring major cost. There is not really a low-cost solution for full technical rehearsal of a show, though--tech costs money. Even FELD, with all its money and resources, has to rent a venue (and equipment, and hire local crew) to tech their shows.
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