// February 4th, 2005 // 2 Comments » // tagged: Life
Whew. This is the first chance I’ve had to blog in two weeks. I’ve been covered up with web work (which is nice) – and then of course, it’s musical time again. For the past two years, I’ve worked with my church’s musical productions. It’s a pretty cool endeavor – as the church does ACTUAL Broadway musicals. We’ve done Sound of Music, Brigadoon, Meet Me in St. Louis, Hello Dolly!, Oklahoma, Crazy for You, Bye Bye Birdie, Fiddler on the Roof … and this year we’re doing Anything Goes. As it’s a church .. we do some serious rewriting of some of the more “off color” lines of dialogue and songs — but not too much. We do several big dance numbers – yes – even at a Baptist church!! We usually have about 50-60 people involved … and atleast two casts. An adult cast .. and a youth cast. The chorus sings with both casts. We do four performances — and they are always sold out. It’s a big thing at the church — and a lot of fun. And A LOT of hard work.
This year … it’s a bit more work than I originally signed up for. I was signed on as the assistant director this year … assisting a woman who has amazing talent in directing and choreography. She used to be a dancer on cruise ships — playing the lead in most of the shows she was involved in. Now she’s a music teacher in the local school system … and directs musicals at her school – and also at our church. We’ve worked together on the musical for the past three years.
A little over a week ago, her dad was put in the hospital – and she had to go to Cincinatti to be with him. Which meant I was going to have to direct the weekend rehearsals. Something that isn’t exactly my strong point. But hey … it can’t be that hard, can it?
Exhausting. That’s what it is. You have everybody coming at you — the whole entire time — asking you questions that sometimes don’t have anything to do with the scene you’re currently blocking. And you have those high-maintenance people who think that everything is about them … it just makes you want to scream! But we got through our big Saturday rehearsal … and got a lot accomplished.
Our directors’ dad just kept getting worse – so I ended up doing our weekday rehearsals. Those aren’t as bad … because you’re only dealing with the principal actors. The chorus doesn’t come on weeknights. Sigh. Thank goodness!
Then on Thursday, our director’s dad passed away. She is completely heartbroken … and it’s so hard to talk about something like that over the phone. You just want to go give her a big hug. She is in shock – having gone up there thinking he was just really sick, and would come out of it — to now — she’s having to deal with funeral plans and dealing with all the aftermath of a parent dying.
And yet … during all this … she’s still worrying about the show. That saying “the show must go on” — so true. Less than 2 hours after her father passed away, we were on the phone blocking scenes for the next few rehearsals that I’m going to have to lead.
I’m extremely stressed and think I’m coming down with a cold … but I think — at least I can do this for her. At least she knows the show is in fairly competent hands. I don’t want her to have to worry about this. She should be back by Thursday of next week … and then she can work her magic in the scenes we’ve worked on. You know … adding in those extra touches that really make a show … sing!
Sooo … back to getting my schedule together for tomorrow’s rehearsal. Maybe I’ll have another chance to blog in March — when the show is over ;)
Your Intellectual Type is Insightful Linguist. This means you are highly intelligent and have the natural fluency of a writer and the visual and spatial strengths of an artist. Those skills contribute to your creative and expressive mind. 