George Mann

George Mann is the Musical Director for the FSLT 2005 production of Mame. He gave this interview on 14 June 2005.

(A list of George’s Directing and Acting Credits are at the bottom of this interview.)

FSLT: Tell us a little about your personal life.
MANN: In August, Sheila and I will have been married for 26 years.

FSLT: Any children?
MANN: Our only child is a slightly spoiled schnauzer named Crickett.

FSLT: What is your primary occupation?
MANN: I have been the Choir Master and Organist at Goddard United Methodist Church for the past 20 years. I have also taught Music Appreciation at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith for the past five years and I give private voice lessons as well.

FSLT: What degree do you hold?
MANN: I have a Masters Degree in Vocal Pedagogy which is a fancy way of saying teaching voice.

FSLT: From which university?
MANN: My undergraduate degree is from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, and my Masters is from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville Kentucky.

FSLT: How did you become involved with theatrical music?
MANN: Seventeen years ago, Patty Stiles was the Drama Teacher at Southside. She asked me to accompany her first musical production which was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I enjoyed that a lot and did her next show as well. It became an annual event for me to work her musicals. As Keyboards developed, I began to use synthesizers, which let me do a lot more in a show. When sequencing equipment came along, I could now do full orchestrations and I began doing whole shows for other people as well.

FSLT: What other groups have you worked with?
MANN: In addition to working with FSLT, I've done musical shows in Van Buren, Greenwood and in New Mexico. I'm now doing three or four shows a year, either live or using sequenced sound tracks.

FSLT: Here is a list of your credits at FSLT.

1992 Fort Smith Fights Aids as a singer and dancer
1993 Broadway, as Musical Director
1994 The Taffetas, accompanist
1996 Octette Bridge Club, as Robert Foster
1998 Smoke on the Mountain, as Musical Director and as Burl Sanders
1999 The Boyfriend, created performance tapes and vocal coach
2001 Cabaret, as Musical Director and as Emcee
2001 Monkey business, as Musical Director and as Brother Brooks
2002 Sanders Family Christmas,
2004 No No Nanette, as Musical Director
2005 Stage Door, provided recorded Accompaniment

FSLT: What are the specific duties of the Musical Director?
MANN: It's my job to make sure the cast always knows the music. I am responsible for teaching the music to the cast, chorus and Principals. I adjust or rearrange the musical score to fit the vocal range and needs of the cast. The Musical Director does not always provide the accompaniment, but I usually do that as a separate responsibility.

FSLT: The Director, Paula Sharum, told us that you were the one who suggested Mame. Why?
MANN: We were already contracted to Tams-Witmark to do Gypsy which we had to pull from the lineup. Paula and I were going through their catalog to find a replacement for it. I've always wanted to do Mame because I love the music. I first suggested it almost as a joke because it is one of those shows which, for space and technical requirements, almost disqualify themselves from the FSLT stage. Still, we began to brainstorm it and came to feel that we could do it justice.

FSLT Why does Mame appeal to you?
MANN: It has always been a favorite of mine. My background has always been sacred music and opera so I am sort of catching up when it comes to theatrical music. It is easier to do theatrical music and I have Mame memorized, so I feel that it will be easy to do musically.

FSLT: Do you have other favorite shows you would like to do in the future?
MANN. I really haven’t thought that far ahead. I would still like to see Gypsy done at some point. I also love ‘Big’ musicals like Titanic or Le Miz, but they’re really not possibilities for the FSLT stage.

FSLT: With all of your experience, have there been any disasters that you remember?
MANN: Oh sure, I’ve had a couple. As the Emcee in Cabaret, I was dancing with two girls in a number called “Two Ladies”. At the end of the number I slid to my knees as the choreography required. As I did so, I felt the seam of my pants split from the crotch to the belt. I had to dance one more number before I could get off stage, but I had two great pieces of luck. First, I had the great good fortune to be wearing black underwear, and second, the long tails of the tuxedo jacket hung down and covered the damage. Those two things let me make it off stage without totally embarrassing myself. The only real problem was that I felt a serious draft while I finished the first act. I spent the whole of intermission walking around in my shorts while Wilma McCauley sewed the seam back together, with appropriate reinforcement.

FSLT: What was the other episode?
MANN: During Sanders Family Christmas, I had to do some real dancing. I had never really danced onstage before but I thought I was doing pretty well. Near the end of the first act, an audience member sitting right in the front suffered an epileptic seizure. We took her to the green room and called the paramedics who tended to her. She actually recovered and went back to her seat to catch the second act. After it was all over, I thought to myself, ‘My dancing can’t be all that bad!’.

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