community
California Dreamin’
THE GOLDEN STATE AND THE SAN DIEGO GAY MEN’S CHORUS
by bill biss
There is nothing finer than our California lifestyle. The San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus takes this belief to a whole other musical level with their spring fling of a show called, California Dreamin’ at the Balboa Theatre. Here, Artistic Director RC Haus rides the waves of inspiration and hard work for an inside look at the development, dedication and joy of being a crucial part of the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus.
Will you share an overview of what your position entails? The artistic director is the individual who is responsible for putting the concept together of what our concerts will be. To pick the theme, choose the music and to train the guys to sing it well… it’s the whole artistic vision of our shows. Most people think a choir just does a concert, but we always say, “It’s more than a concert. It’s a show.” Everything from the dance to the skits to the costumes kind of originates with the artistic director to make it happen… it’s a lot of fun. I was imagining that all the members of the chorus would have an input. We do have an artistic task force that can either
come up with ideas but generally, they wait for me to say, “Okay, this is going to be California Dreamin’ and this is what I’m seeing and here’s what I want to do. Now go.” Then, they’ll start e-mailing me back with ideas for songs. I take a collective look at them. That sparks more creativity,
12 RAGE monthly | APRIL 2016 RAGE monthly
so we definitely have a team.
When we have rc haus
to implement them, we have a production team of seven individuals who make it hap- pen. I’ll sit down with choreography
or costume and let them know what I’m seeing and
listen to their ideas and then, go for it. The artistic director generates it and then makes that final call and then a lot of people help getting it there. How many chorus members are there at the moment? Active members are around 200 and 160 of those
are singing members. The other 40 members are “operations” members who help us with everything we do. With that many members who are actually singing, it must be very rewarding when everyone focuses and it all comes together for each concert. It’s incredible! One of the things that I think is
so beautiful about the choral experience is that you’re coming together with a love and passion, yet everybody has to do their part to do it well. It’s hard work. You have to memorize all the lyrics and dances but for each performance, we all stand on stage and you hear this wall of sound surround you.
You can’t reproduce this experience of 160 other gay men who love this music and who have com- mitted a part of their lives to making this impact. It’s really profound for me. It’s like a family as I’m with these guys at least once a week, normally, two to three times a week. It’s really awesome in that regard. You mentioned memorizing the lyrics. (Laughter) How much time does the chorus have to memorize the lyrics? Oh gosh, there are a lot of songs for California
Dreamin.’Typically, our rehearsal time is three months. We meet every Monday and there are lyric sheets and rehearsal tracks they can listen to. It is a lot of lyrics. You think it would be easy but they also have to learn their notes and the timing… No. It’s not easy. They don’t have prompters down at the bottom. No. They memorize twenty songs and pull it off excellently. California Dreamin’ is set to be musi- cally well-done, fun and moving for the audience.
The San Diego Gay Men’s Chorusperformances of California Dreamin’take place onSaturday and Sunday, April 23 and 24 at Balboa Theatre downtown. For tickets and more information, go
tosdgmc.org.
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