Thursday, September 15, 2011

Time to Spank the Baby

The other night I dreamt that I was at rehearsal and the whole cast had a baby in their arms.  A sweet, chubby legged baby!  Dreaming of babies is a symbol of new beginnings.  We have carried and labored for weeks and now our baby is just about ready!

We had rehearsal every night this week.  The last two nights were dress rehearsals.  I was a good girl and kept my joking around to a minimal.  (So many good one-liners that were lost...)  I love dress rehearsals, especially for this show because it's set in my favorite time period!  The 40's!!!  I love to wear my hair pinned up in victory rolls and the red lipstick.  The whole look is so clean, put together and feminine! 

The costume people xeroxed a bunch of different hairstyles for us to choose from.  Apparently I have quite the knack for these hairstyles and styled almost all of the female casts hair.  It's so fun!  I'm going to let the "powers that be" know that if they ever need/want anyone to help with hair and makeup for a show to let me know.  I'd love to do more of that.  Because I'm doing so many heads of hair, I've taken to getting ready at home so that all I have to do to get myself ready is get dressed.

The first dress rehearsal I felt was the best.  We all did really well!  Last night was good but there were some issues.  I think it was a across the board a slightly off night.  For me it started from the very beginning.  For whatever reason I had no balance.  It was like I was walking in heels for the first time.  I was wobbly through the first two dances.  Musically I was off a few times too.  I would sing the wrong part or not have the right timing.  Poop.  I had two favorite faux pas though.

The first was in a scene where we sing/chant "Peron!"  There are three different times when we do this. The entrance is not cued by music so it's a little tricky.  I hit every entrance but we are only supposed to chant "Peron" eight times.  Once I did nine....  It was a lovely solo.  Loud.  Clear.  Wrong.

The other may not have been my fault exactly but...I could have avoided it.  At the back of the stage are double doors that are opened for a few grand entrances (mostly made by Eva and Juan.)  If one exits stage left but then needs to enter stage right (or vise verse) one needs to run through the back stage area.  These doors open to the back stage.  So in one really quick exit and entrance that I need to make I dash across and right as I do I realize that the back stage doors were wide open!  I don't know what is going on on stage but the audience may have been a tad distracted by a mad woman running across the back of the scene.  Actually, I was running through and right as I'm in the middle of the doorway opening I felt the light hit me and thought Crap and stopped like I had hit a wall.  Just as quickly I took off on my run again.  So the audience saw a woman run, stop with a grim expression on her face and then run again.  Ha! There is a large screen in this back stage area, that I should've gone around.  It would've made my transition a little longer but it would have solved this whole problem.  That door should not have been open at that time but I needed to have been aware of whether it was or not and dodged behind the screen.

Other than that...I think everything went smoothly! 

I am tired and sore but I love, love, love it.  I love everything that goes on back stage and enjoy being involved in making sure every one's props are where they should be and that the children know their cue to enter and "Oh my, the person who is supposed to take that chair off stage is not here yet so someone else needs to grab it."  I love that stuff!  It's fun to be a moving, functioning cog that is making the Machine work.  A good show is not just in our showmanship or our voices it's in the little things, the details.  Big hugs to the technical people who add the icing to the cake!

Yea, to the costume people!  The lights and sound crew!  The set design!  The orchestra!!  Yea to all of us!  We are going to rock the kasbah at opening tomorrow night!

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