The Piano Diaries

The first weekend of Mulan performances is over and I'm exhausted by my piano drama. As you will recall, after the last show, it was reported to me that my trusty steed, the Yamaha piano at the theater would be going away. The Village Theater personnel ripped it from my loins and put it up for auction to be replaced by a digital piano.

At the beginning of rehearsals for Mulan, I arrived one day to see "my" piano gone and in its place, practically a toy piano. It doesn't quite have a full keyboard, it's smaller than me and has a plug-in pedal. I swear I could knock it over heaven forbid I play with too much gusto. I feel very exposed.

I'm a teamplayer. I'm flexible. I've really tried hard to make a go of this dumb thing. Fast forward to tech week. Pam is kind enough to appease me by bringing her clavinova (a much better digital piano with REAL pedals). I hear it took many of her offspring to load it into her car, she had to drive very slowly down the streets of Danville listening to incessant honking for her to speed up and then wait all day for my husband to get there to help move it into the theater. But Pam is good to me and does it anyway.

I sit down to play it, and the pedal is broken. The sustaining pedal doesn't clear so everything is mushy. I feel terrible and fearful to tell Pam that all her efforts have been in vain. Now I have two digital pianos in front of each other and I have to play the dippy one. And you know how superstitious I am about how my piano area must remain as it is from the beginning of tech week throughout the performances.

What a mess! I won't even mention what a difficult time I've had hearing the dumb digital piano. I have to wear earphones because the piano is hooked into the monitors on stage which turn off my piano speakers. In case you didn't know, you use your ears more than you think when you play the piano.