{"id":880,"date":"2012-09-08T22:34:45","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T02:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/?p=880"},"modified":"2015-09-10T19:31:32","modified_gmt":"2015-09-10T19:31:32","slug":"another-china-tale-first-two-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/?p=880","title":{"rendered":"Another China Tale &#8211; First Two Days"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">  <\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>From Don Frantz &#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Back to Beijing in the last days of summer to \u2018make a show\u2019 with a new team. I have a premonition that there is an adventure starting. I will have to share. You\u2019ll get a few messages that will confirm envy of <!--more-->my world travels is not always the most appropriate choice. I was anxious to get to work since we only have 65 days to create the show,     but my producer wanted to welcome me with a SURPRISE. We met at the office at 2pm and after introductions got in the car on an hour drive to Beijing\u2019s famous Summer Palace<br \/>\n. The national landmark was already closed\u2026but the back door opened.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-1.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-881\" title=\"SPalace 1\" src=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-2.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-882\" title=\"SPalace 2\" src=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was a grand affair with a tentative team waiting,     it seemed to me, for me to say brilliant things.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-3.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-883\" title=\"SPalace 3\" src=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-3-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Except for Wang Yu,   our producer, visionary, and another person who has decided to grab for the brass ring<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Of \u2018making a Chinese musical.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 I asked why.\u00a0 She said she doesn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-4.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-884\" title=\"SPalace 4\" src=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-4-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So the round table spun and we ate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-5.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-885 alignleft\" title=\"SPalace 5\" src=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-5-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>I was thrilled to share the event with friend Richard Bernstein. 32 years ago we were both walking and dining<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Beijing, he with Time Magazine and I with the Mark Wilson Magic Show, now sitting in the<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Emperor\u2019s chair.\u00a0 His story about us is still in my memories box in the attic.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-6.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-886\" title=\"SPalace 6\" src=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-6-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You gotta love composers wherever they come from.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-7.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-887\" title=\"SPalace 7\" src=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/SPalace-7-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is a happy little troupe standing on Emperor\u2019s Cici\u2019s Peking Opera stage at her summer retreat!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Retreat seemed a possible choice the next day.\u00a0 I was ready to work on day 64-to-go.\u00a0 My contract called for me to make revisions to the script from the March production and begin rehearsals in 2 weeks on Sept 10.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The script was not send to me in advance.\u00a0 The next day I slowly discovered that we were not doing the old show and that there was a 4 page story summary of an entirely new show.\u00a0 This was called a script by my chemistry major translator.\u00a0 No, that\u2019s a story, not a script. There was no writer, no lyricist, no designers and no one that \u2018made a musical\u2019 except for the composer, who said, \u2018we can make a miracle.\u2019<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> end443_() <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Don Frantz &#8230; Back to Beijing in the last days of summer to \u2018make a show\u2019 with a new team. I have a premonition that there is an adventure starting. I will have to share. You\u2019ll get a few messages that will confirm envy of<span class=\"entry-read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/?p=880\" class=\"cs-btn cs-btn-flat cs-btn-rounded cs-btn-xxs cs-btn-flat-accent\">Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-china-fun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6012,"href":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions\/6012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsquareproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}