Tuesday, February 17, 2009

NCL JADE CAST A HIT IN NASHVILLE

The cast of the NCL Jade has been in rehearsals in our Nashville studios for the past 3 weeks. They are an awesome cast made up of truly outstanding and experienced performers. We had a chance to see them in their final run-throughs of "Smokey Joe's Cafe", "Shout", and "As the World Goes Round" this past Friday. They are really tight and very entertaining! No doubt they will be a hit with the guests on board the JADE. They have one more show to learn this week and then they'll be ready to go. Here are some photos taken during the "Smokey Joe's Cafe" and "As The World Goes Round" runs. Great job, cast!

NEXT GENERATION

I try not to get too personal in this blog, but I have to share a few moments from a great week for my youngest daughter, Eliza. She is a 17 year-old high school senior at Martin Luther King Magnet School in Nashville. Eliza has always been such a wonderful blessing to her mom and me, and we're already dreading the day when she leaves us for whatever big adventures await beyond high school. Her mom and I were both studio singers for a very long time, and I am happy to say Eliza has somehow managed to inherit an enormous amount of vocal talent from her mom! This week, Eliza and her friends Margie Quinn, Brooke Huffman and Ellen Thomas were asked to perform at Nashville's world famous Blue Bird Cafe as part of an evening of music written and performed by legendary writer/singer Thom Schuyler. The Blue Bird is perhaps the most famous venue in Music City for songwriters and artist/writers who love the up-close intimacy afforded by the Blue Bird. In addition to the Blue Bird show, they did 2 other shows with Thom and his band this week, concluding Friday night with an informal appearance at a local Christian youth coffee house. Thom and the girls were awesome! Their harmonies were beautiful, and the audience totally appreciated Thom's creative lyrics and melodies. Way to go girls! 

Thom Schuyler and the girls perform at the Vine Street coffee house this past Friday night.

Ellen, Brooke, Eliza, and Margie have been singing together since they were kids.

Thom has written a ton of hits like "Sixteenth Avenue", "Love Will Turn You Around", "I Fell in Love Again Last Night", "Love out Loud", and "You Can't Stop Love". And he's a great performer, to boot!

February, 15, 2009

ICE ICE BABY

A couple of weeks ago, the south experienced a devastating ice storm. Most of Arkansas and Kentucky and parts of Tennessee were disaster areas as a result of trees that snapped and broke power lines across the state. Some homes are still without power. Most of the ice storms we have here start out as a beautiful crystal coating of rain turned into ice as it falls on the trees and roads. The beauty soon turns to deadly danger as unsuspecting motorists venture out on the "black ice". For a brief while, though, it is a dazzling sight.

Here are some shots I took at the bottom of my driveway that morning. Check out the deer standing in the woods. He was part of a herd of about 10 deer that were coming out of the woods to find food. We have to be careful on our street in the winter - startled deer frequently run out in front of cars without warning. 

I almost missed seeing this deer in the woods by our driveway. He paused, stared, then meandered across the road in front of me. 

This is a tree in our front yard. The trees in Arkansas and Kentucky had three times this much ice.

Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009

"YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART"

Last night, GMC produced the Greater Nashville American Heart Association "Heart Gala" for the fifth time. The Heart Gala is one of Nashville's most successful and popular fundraising events with proceeds going toward finding a cure for heart disease. Each year, the gala's silent auction, dinner and live auction raise substantial funds for the association's research efforts. Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Center was the home of the Heart Gala again this year. For info on the work of the Heart association, go to their website at...

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1200167&division=GSA044

The event's theme was "All You Need is Love", and featured 1960's inspired decor and music by "1964 - The Tribute". "1964" is a Beatles tribute band, and they were fantastic! Brandon Thomas, one of our producers, oversaw the event and our production and scenic teams did a great job of supporting the effort. Holly Whaley directed the creative aspects of production on behalf of the Heart Gala, and Alyson Tudor coordinated the overall event as the staff event manager for the AHA. Jim Sheridan did a great job of stage managing the show, and Jonathan Yeaworth handled AV coordination for the event. Johnny Jones handled audio, and Chris Lyle, Jacob Driver, and Cris Arsenault managed the scenic install. It was a great team effort and the evening was a big hit with attendees! Thanks to Allison Huber and the Schermerhorn staff for all their help throughout the planning and execution of the event!

Our scenic department built a cool set reminiscent of the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. "1964" looked right at home in front of the set. Here are some shots from the evening!

This is a shot of "1964" and our go-go dancers performing on stage during the dance portion of the evening. The band and dancers were great! We loved all that Beatles music!

Brandon, Holly, and the Schermerhorn staff spent several hours designing lighting looks for the show.

The program included a moving "thank you" from parents of a young child who had been helped by the association's work.

Here's Laura Turner Hall just before the doors opened.

 The set was inspired by the set created for the Ed Sullivan show more than 40 years ago. It looked great with the Center's lighting effects.

If you closed your eyes and listened, you would have sworn the Beatles had "come together" for one last show!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Oh, Canada!

Bert Hensley and I have spent the past week working on a show in Niagara Falls, Canada. Our client, Orion Performance Group, works with NAPA Auto Parts on the development of sales and marketing strategies and programs in the US and Canada. UAP (NAPA's Canadian division) held their annual sales "Summit" at the Sheraton on the Falls. My hotel room directly overlooked the US side of Niagara Falls. Needless to say, it was a really impressive sight! Here are a few shots of the falls, as well as some scenes from the general sessions. We developed a concept of creating a set of "building blocks" to help NAPA drive home its messaging of building "One Team, One Goal". The show was tremendously successful. One of the highlights was a series of performances by three former Cirque du Soliel artists during the awards dinner. Acts included hoops, peg balancing, and silks. They were a hit with the audience and amazingly talented. 

One of our meeting rooms was directly above the Hard Rock cafe. I got some cool shots of the sign from a unique perspective.

Here is the General Session stage. Simple, but very message oriented. The building blocks were scattered around the stage at the opening of the session, then were moved into place by each speaker as the meeting progressed. The final set up was a series of 9 3'x3' blocks stacked to reveal the theme for that session.

This is the closing banquet set up just before doors opened to guests. The entertainment was from Cirque Sublime... and it was. 

Sunday, January 25, 2009

LONDON AUDITIONS

Ok, I apologize for falling so far behind in my postings to this blog, but I sort of got caught up in work and just couldn't find the time to stay on top of the daily postings. Bert Hensley and I are on our way home from a show today and are in Detroit on a long layover between flights, so this seemed like a good time to catch up. Rather than telling you a lot about what we've been doing, I'll let the photos tell the story. 

For starters...Here are some photos I took at our London auditions a couple of weeks ago. We had a great turnout! About 300 dancers and 200 singers. The talent level was quite high, and it was good to see some new folks who want to come join us at sea. We also had some time to go check out the sites of London one afternoon. Dave, Mindy, Brandon, Steve, Bruce, Jeff, Jennifer, and I went to conduct the auditions. Robert Hertenstein (from NCL) was also on hand to help.  Thanks to all of you who came to show us your stuff!

There were about a hundred dancers waiting for us outside London's "Pineapple Studios" when we arrived the first morning.

More than 200 singers gave it their best shot over the 2 days of auditions.

Singers anxiously awaited their turn to impress the audition team.

Mindy shares a little info on ship life with a group of dancers who made it to callbacks.

Bruce Stegmann, our choreographer, did an amazing job of teaching the combination to 300+ eager young dancers. Bruce is great with young dancers!

Mindy McLemore, our cruise ship project manager, shares the good news/bad news with a group of dancers awaiting the announcement of "callbacks". 

David Patton explains the audition process to the first group of singer callbacks. Also at the table were Brandon Thomas, Stephen Kummer, and Robert Hertenstein.

Leaping lizards!

Brandon and I went on a tour of Westminster Abbey the first afternoon we were there. It is an amazing place - you need to go if you're ever in London.

Look familiar?

This was the gate where the Queen's guard is domiciled. 

Brandon Thomas and Mindy McLemore on a shopping expedition on our first afternoon there.

This is a shot of Big Ben taken from Trafalgar Square (you know, where "Feed the Birds" was set in the movie "Mary Poppins". It is one of the main intersections in London, and is also home to the National Gallery of Art. 

Alright, that's it for now. I'll post some photos from our show in Niagara Falls next!