I'm elated & exhausted (not quite sure which one has the greater impact at this moment). It was a very positive experience .... BUT, there was some time beforehand, that I wasn't so sure about the whole ordeal. AND IT IS an ordeal, I assure you. It starts out early in April ... with our director reminding everyone what the theme will be. Ideas are bandied about with humor & excitement. People start talking about what they would like to contribute to the entertainment above & beyond the chorus parts of the show. AND I, unknowingly, have gotten elected costume chairperson. End of April arrived, the ideas are morphing into actual scripts and the side acts are throwing music out to each other. AND I .... have agreed to 2 quartets (which comes to a total of 6 new songs to learn) and ... the costume decisions are in it's early stages. By mid May ... some tweaking is going on and rehearsals outside of regular chorus Tuesdays are getting scheduled. In what seems like days, we are auditioning for the director and ... dagnabit .... we are (both) ok'd for the show. PLUS ... I'm getting some valuable (but habit changing) advise on the use of my voice. (my muscle memory feels like it's paralized .... just thinking about it) AND a costume decision has to be made for the quartets of course! By this time, members are still missing rehearsals here & there and I am wondering "what have I gotten myself into?" (AKA ... what are "they" thinking?) But, things are moving along .... JUNE arrives ... and an outline of the acts is penciled and it's dawning on me that we are on stage the ENITIRE time, and we will need to remember to move here, go there, step back, walk forward, up stage, down stage, use this mic, move to the side of that one .... OMG, who is going to lead me around with a leash so I get to where I'm supposed to be??!!! Rehearsals are amping up and I'm meeting with someone, somewhere, about something at least 3 days a week (or 4). By now, I have mailed out or answered at least 100 emails about costuming, and participated in 3 of the 6 singouts. I'm collecting for some of the new costuming, contacting people about old pieces yet to be paid for, and learning (a LOT) about individual personalities within the chorus (!) And laughing (also a LOT) 
during the quartet rehearsals! The Captain pulled out the recording equipment at the end of June & we are "trying" to learn from our mistakes. (argh) Costuming on ALL levels has been finalized and the "costume Nazi" is being taken seriously. I have, during my non-existant free time .... replaced the buttons on 14 chorus shirts and applied aurora stones to 26! I have ordered and "blinged-up" 6 garrison caps and the same number of flight jumpsuits, and hemmed or altered 5 other costumes. Bythe final Tuesday rehearsal ... I have sworn off any more last minute fixes in lieu of extra rehearsal time (and some sleep). I found that figuring out where to be, when during the production, is not as difficult as it sounded 2 months ago and I'm even getting a little excited. JUMP TO Friday, July 8th .... dress rehearsal. The lighting crew arrives late and having some trouble getting into gear. The sound guy is a perfectionist ... which is a little scary, since 2 hours into the rehearsal ... we have yet to "dress". But his pickiness proves to be worth the anxiety in the long run. 4.5 hours later and without a full run-thru of the show ... we opt to GO HOME AND GET SOME SLEEP! This worries me a bit at the time, but I do it (myself) by visualizing before I am able to drift off to sleep that night. 11:40pm .... the mantra .... you are getting sleeeeeeepy. LESS than 12 hours later, I am AGAIN at the theatre for starts & stops. I can feel some butterflies- but I'm not nerve wracked. hmmmm. This is a good thing. (no Inderal dose). 
Minutes into the first act, I spot my family in the audience so I play toward them at times. The show runs near perfect and we end it going into the audience. I loved seeing their faces. But this hug .... was as big in my heart as it looks in the picture. I felt it to my toes.1 performance down- 1 to go. (details due soon to a blog near you)
No comments:
Post a Comment