Busy week!

Been running around like a crazy thing this week. Work's been busier than usual (some sorta bug is making the rounds in the office at one of our busier times of year), went to a Murder rehearsal for some preliminary costume fittings, and of course had Birdie rehearsals too.

Saturday I hit some thrift & antique stores and came home w/ a purse for me to use as Mae; a fur stole that has the entire critter (heads, feet and all); a perfect pearl-trimmed hat for the "star" in Murder; and a tie, 2 dresses, a top, and a skirt, also for Murder actors. So far I've got one of the men completely taken care of; the sheriff needs a pair of trousers and some official-looking insignia; two of the women are completely taken care of, one has half her costumes, and I still have all the rest to do. There are at least 2 for whom I'm going to have to sew something, but if one of them can find 3 different tops, she'll only need another skirt. I'm starting to feel a tiny bit of pressure, but I know that'll escalate as soon as it gets to be April, since the show opens April 27th. Complicating matters is the fact that I'll only be able to make the Sunday & Tuesday before opening, as I've got 3 Birdie rehearsals during Murder tech week. If in future I'm ever crazy (or amnesiac) enough to think I could do 2 shows that open on successive weekends, please remind me that back-to-back tech weeks are NOT a good idea, especially if you have a day job!

Last night I went to a CD release party for Wooing the Lorelei. Great material - both the music & the lyrics are very intelligently and wittily written; the music is not at all predictable and rewards repeat listenings. The songwriter had written these for a cabaret act, and they remind me a lot of Noel Coward, Cole Porter, or the Gershwins. Very sophisticated "stand around the piano in cocktail-party wear while sipping martinis" sort of music. In a fun packaging gimmick, the CD has been pressed to look like an LP; nice touch.

Spent too much time on e-bay this afternoon searching for 50s hats and cats-eye eyeglass frames. I ended up bidding on some glasses w/ clear frames, a crinoline, and a hatbox full of 13 hats! If I win all 3 bids, I'll be able to provide hats for all the ladies in both Birdie & Murder!

Tired

And when I'm too tired, I get irritable and prone to wallow in self-pity. Doesn't help that I noticed at work this morning that I'd lost one of the diamonds from my wedding band. Not a big one, but what looks at a glance like a schmutz on my ring is actually a hole. Makes me miss TW that much more.

Spent most of the day working on a quarterly bean-counting report. My mood wasn't helped by the fact that I spent a few hours on it Sunday, then learned yesterday that I'd been working on the wrong form. (They'd sent out the wrong one.) I wasn't surprised, though; I'd thought on Sunday that it was a whole lot less work than in the past. Royal pain in the tuckes, with some inadvertently (I hope!) unreasonable statistics requested. Wretched thing is due at noon tomorrow, but is gonna hafta go in with one section incomplete, since I ran out of time to get to it and will be busy with visitors tomorrow.

Another irritation: The company for whose Pirates I auditioned is already soliciting additional tenors for the chorus, while I have yet to hear whether they want me for the chorus. (I didn't get called back, so they're obviously not going to offer me a lead.) I've had a problem w/ this MD once before. I was one of 3 being considered for a role. One of the wannabes learned that night that she wasn't cast because she saw the MD at a concert. The wannabe who did get cast found out the following day that she was the lucky one when someone else in the cast congratulated her on getting the role! The MD called me at work the day after that, commenting that "I forgot we hadn't called everybody". You "forgot"?!?!? (OK, c'mon, take a deep breath; now let it out s-l-o-w-l-y.)

Beautiful day today, and most of the crocuses seem to have survived the cold blast over the weekend, but because I'm tired, these irritations still have me in a pissy mood. At least I don't have to be at rehearsal until about 8 tonight; can catch up on e-mail and my blog and still have time for a reasonably relaxed dinner.

"Duty-free" night

The rain that started falling last night had turned to sleet by late afternoon today, so instead of running errands and getting dinner out, I picked up some (wonderful-smelling!) Chinese food on the way home. I'm taking this execrable weather as a sign that I'm meant to do nothing, not one blessed thing, on my To Do list tonight. Instead, I plan to change into sweats or some such, put Singing in the Rain into the VCR, and curl up on the couch w/ my Chinese and a glass of wine. There'll be plenty of time tomorrow for all those To Do's...

Cow video

Yes, I said "cow video" and a very silly video at that: http://www.3dweb.no/galleri/stuestolbm/bilder/anim1.swf
I think it's the trumpets in the chorus that really had me laughing, but some of the puns were pretty good, too.

Voice lesson in which I sang not at all

Since I probably won't audition for anything else before fall, today's voice lesson was a planning session - long-term vocal projects (picking things to work certain techniques, vocal color, etc.), reviewing the types of things in my repertoire (3 categories - Broadway, G&S, and opera), and picking a few things to prep "for future reference". She told me something interesting: some teachers, especially when they get a young student, will tell them to audition for nothing for at least several months or even as much as a year! I guess that's so the student will have plenty of time to focus on correcting bad habits, learning new ones, developing technique or what-have-you. That's my guess, at any rate, based on the fact that this arose in the context of our observing that we haven't worked long & hard on any one thing in my lessons lately because I've been doing so many auditions this season (13 since August, and 3 in a single week back in January!).

Last audition of the season?

Auditioned for Pirates of Penzance tonight. Didn't do badly, but not as well as I'd like, either. And there was another mezzo who I'm betting also has her eye on Ruth and has a better voice than I do, and I know she's not my only competition for the role. So I don't expect a callback and, given my other theatrical commitments, I may not take chorus. TW was funny when I talked to him earlier today: "When will they start rehearsals? ... So you'd be rehearsing two shows?!? You're gonna kill yourself!"

On the other hand, much as I love Pirates, if I pass on it, that'll give me more time to work on those curtains for the cabin, which I haven't even started yet.

Lotsa knife fights this weekend

On stage, that is. Saw Wait Until Dark last night and a version of Carmen: The Tragedy of Don Jose today. Both had people trying to kill each other. Last night's fights were very realistic; all the moves looked very real, the violence read as authentic, and the falls looked and sounded as if the person falling would be getting up w/ bruises. (The guy who got knifed and fell down a partial flight of stairs probably does have bruises.) Today's weren't so much fights as stylized knifings - "kill him quick and keep the plot moving" sorta thing. But Don Jose did seem to be pretty quick to solve his differences that way; he killed 2 or 3 of Carmen's lovers before he killed her.

Lots of obsession this weekend too. Friday night it was Rene Gallimard's obsession with his Asian "butterfly" (M Butterfly), this afternoon it was Don Jose's jealous obsession w/ Carmen. In both cases, it ended badly.

"Winter visitors"

Been seeing a lot of slate-colored or dark-eyed juncos lately. I don't know where they've been hiding all winter, that I didn't notice them until a few weeks ago, but it's fun to watch 'em hopping around in the snow. And since they always seem to travel in groups, they make quite a striking picture, with their dark coloring against the snow. (Or sleet, a few weeks ago.)

Flying solo

Back in December I "certified" to teach a day-and-a-half specialty class at work. The last step in the process was teaching with the course manager observing from a corner. Yesterday and today was the first time I taught solo. I think it went well; last time I had a few folks who really struggled w/ the material. I made some notes to amend what I covered and how; this time all but one of them sailed through everything. The one non-sailor struggled but is nowhere close to failing; it's simply a matter of determining how much above the cut-off that person's final is. Felt good - knew my stuff, was able to answer the questions, and best of all, they did really well on the final exercise (7 of them definitely scored in the 90s; the 8th may just pull it off too).

I did have to put in some extra time to prep for the class and get the "finals" graded this afternoon and will need to spend a bit more time tying up administrative matters, but success is a good feeling.

Good voice lesson

Last week's lesson, the first in nearly a month, wasn't particularly productive because we'd had another sharp weather change that filled my lungs w/ crud. This week's, however, was much better. Due to a bit of confusion, I showed up at 4:30 when K wasn't expecting me until 6:30. After some discussion, I headed off to a leisurely dinner, then returned for a 6:30 lesson. I don't usually like to sing so soon after I've eaten, preferring to give the digestive juices plenty of time to settle, but the burger, fries and hot tea didn't seem to hurt me. I walked into my lesson without warming up at all, yet in the vocalises my voice didn't crack at all until I got up to a high C (not bad at all for a mezzo!), then proceeded to go down to a G below middle C. Over 2 octaves, cold - I was pleased! We then worked on an audition piece for Sunday (Pirates of Penzance coming up). Listening to the tape in the car on my way home, I actually liked a fair amount of what I'd done, which was very encouraging. Now if only I can do that well come Sunday...

Calendar juggling

Thank heaven my voice teacher is flexible. I had to reschedule next week's voice lesson once because I found out about a mandatory meeting that starts just when I'd be leaving work for my lesson. Then I learned I've got a rehearsal that night, starting less than an hour after the start of the rescheduled lesson time, so I had to go back and ask for a new lesson time. Let's hope this third time works out, or I think my brain might explode!

The next week is pretty crazy - adjudicated a show last night, Birdie rehearsal today, seeing a friend's show tonight and another tomorrow afternoon, rehearsal tomorrow night for the show I'm costuming. Monday night rehearsal, Tuesday voice lesson, Wednesday friend's show, Thursday dinner w/ a friend (not a theater-related calendar item!), adjudicating shows next Friday & Saturday nights, friends' show on Sunday (w/ another theater friend), and an audition that night. Maybe I can reschedule my headshot session during the day on Saturday; heaven knows, I can't squeeze it in any sooner!

April & May will be more of the same: in addition to the show I'm costuming and the one I'm in, I have one to adjudicate, five that various friends are doing, and 2 others I auditioned for and would like to see.

Here it is, barely March, and I've already seen more shows than I often see in an entire year! Now I completely understand why my Theater Mentor color-codes her calendar! However, I'll drop it all like a hot rock once TW comes home in early July, and will be much more restrained when the next season starts in the fall. After all, one he's safely home again, I won't need to keep my mind off his absence.

Crocuses!!!

Not to mention snowdrops, and even a clump of precocious daffodils! I had one lone brave, advance-wave crocus that popped up and bloomed about a month ago, when we were still in the throes of temperatures that never got up to the freezing mark. Then nothing but a few shoots until earlier this week. Our highs started passing the 50-degree mark around Tuesday, then into the 60s, so I'm not all that surprised that my crocuses have started popping up. Usually it's the purple ones that show first, but this year I've got at least half a dozen yellow ones and nothing else, aside from a snowdrop or two, and yesterday I noticed a house in the neighborhood had a clump of daffodils in full yellow glory. We've got a fairly shady lot so our bulbs tend to appear later than elsewhere in the neighborhood. The springlike temps have had everyone in a good mood after last weekend's snow, but the crocuses clinch it for me - they've always been my sign that winter is on its way out and spring is in the wings, just waiting for its cue to make a grand entrance.

Now I want to drive by this one house a few blocks away. It sits on a corner lot and every spring has a yard that's a sea of lavender crocuses. It does my spirits good to see it, even on the rainiest day.

My allergies hate spring (my lungs are already starting to fill with crud), especially once the trees start pollinating their fool heads off, but I absolutely thrive on those first signs of spring's arrival. Now I'm itching to run out and buy truckloads of soil for the vinca I ordered last month and to fill in the driveway so I can plant something there, too. I have no idea when I'm going to manage that, what with my own and other people's shows, but I'm definitely going to carve out some chunks of time to start digging into the garden, both literally & figuratively.

The importance of geography

For anyone who ever thought "geography - who cares? Why do I need to know how to read a map?":

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1827554.stm

One answer, obviously, is "to prevent hugely embarrassing international incidents"!

Miscellaneous

I had a headshot sitting scheduled for today, but after a long, tiring week and only 6 hours of sleep last night, decided I'd better reschedule. (I don't fancy distributing headshots that look like a portrait that should be up in my attic.) Then I checked my e-mail and learned that today's Birdie rehearsal was cancelled. This means I don't have to go anywhere until it's time to leave for the theater for my 6:30 call. Yee-ha! I'll have time for a NAP! I've already plowed thru my e-mail backlog, and look, I'm even updating this blog thingy.

In other news, we just got the Birdie rehearsal schedule for March. Looks like Saturdays & Sundays are reserved for choreography rehearsals. Since I'm not in any of the dance numbers, and we don't have any Friday rehearsals at all, I might be able to get out to the cabin again in a few weeks to see how much damage we had to the pipes. Depending on the weather, I may also look into getting a truckload of topsoil delivered and spread over the septic field. I ordered 50 vinca plants a month or so ago; once those come in, I'll plant 'em all over the place. That should help keep the dirt above the septic field from washing down the hill. Yes, the grass TW planted last fall already helps, but it's not as ornamental - no pretty purple flowers. I'm also thinking about planting lilies-of-the-valley, but I'm not buying a single pip until I can find someone or something to tell me how likely the deer are to eat them all up. I've thought about planting daffodils there, but of course I can't plant those until fall, which means I wouldn't see results until next spring.

Turns out dubheach will be in town for a sci-fi con the last weekend of March. It would be SO great if we can get together - we haven't laid eyes on each other in 6 years, when she was in town to see TW & me get married.

When TW called this morning, he told me he was able to get new glasses at the (American eyeglass franchise) at a local mall on the outskirts of Doha! Forget political hegemony; the US seems to be concentrating on commercial imperialism - fast food and chain restaurants everywhere, the top 2 colas duking it out for world domination, and even an eyeglass franchise trying to change the world's focus.

We've had a MOST welcome (at least to me) thaw the past few days, but of course we knew it wouldn't last. The weather forecast last night was threatening sleet or freezing rain starting sometime during the night tonight, to continue into tomorrow evening. This could very easily cancel our last Ruddigore performance tomorrow - horrors! I see the forecast has been updated since last night; now they're saying we'll get a "wintry mix" (i.e., think of every possible kind of frozen or freezing precipitation - that's what you'll get) that should change to rain by afternoon. However, even if things warm up enough that all we get is rain, that'll still cut into our attendance. People just don't like going out in the rain if they don't have to. However, if it's just rain, and it's warm enough that we don't have to worry about refreezing, at least the show can still go on, as can the post-strike cast party. And really, that's the most important thing, isn't it! ;)

Ah, the joys of running water!

After spending too much time trying in vain to get the water flowing out at the cabin, it was SO nice to get home to running water. Being able to brush teeth & wash hands (and dishes) more easily is good, but best is being able to stand under a nice, hot shower and wash the hairspray out of my hair and a few knots out of my muscles. (Slinging sleet is hard work!) I'm achier today than yesterday from wielding that maul, moving piles of sleet, schlepping things down the driveway from the car to the cabin, etc. I was very careful about my body mechanics so I didn't injure anything; it's just all those muscles that aren't used to working that hard. Worst seems to be my hands - they're used to controlling lightweight things like writing utensils and book pages, not 50-pound mauls. So even though I indulged in a nice, long, hot shower this morning, I may take another before bed to ease the muscles a little more.

So much for that idea...

So much for my nice, relaxing trip to the cabin! Got out there around 8:30 last night to find the (very steep) driveway at least 6" deep in sleet, with perhaps half an inch of powder on top. No way I was driving down there, so I parked up on the street. Not only was the driveway impassable, but the cover to the little "well" housing the water shut-off was under at least a foot of drifted sleet! After spending about 15 minutes chipping away at it with the water key (the handle for turning the water on & off), I decided to wait until this morning, when I'd have daylight and less cold. I did get the place warmed up in fairly short order, but wished I could do better than bottled water for washing (after first Ruddigore, then the sleet chipping, a nice, hot shower would have been lovely!).

After breakfast, I first tried to go down to the "basement" under the addition to look for a shovel but never got there. I got about halfway down the slope; at the point where it gets steeper, my feet slid out from under me and rather than risk injury by trying to get the rest of the way down, I decided it would be the better part of valor simply to borrow a shovel from the next-door neighbors. Pity there was no one with a camera to capture my crawling back up the hill - might have made some decent money selling the video to America's Funniest or some such show.

The neighbors loaned me both a shovel and a maul. The latter was heavy and I took it mostly to be polite, but was soon happy to have it, as it was just the thing to break up the drifted sleet - a few good whacks and I'd separate another chunk from the mass keeping me from accessing the water shut-off. After close to an hour's work, I finally managed to get at the cover and turn the water on. Nothing. Not a hiss, not a fizz, not a gurgle. I went back inside and called the Homeowners' association folks, who had someone out to check the situation within no more than 15 minutes or so. After half an hour spent confirming that the water hadn't been shut off at the street and fiddling with the shut-off, Art determined that a pipe running from the shut-off into the house was probably frozen. He lent me a hair dryer, even positioned it for me and told me to return it later, but over half an hour of that yielded no results. Sigh.

So after taking care of some other things (like hauling blinds and curtain rods in from the car), I came back home, having installed not one blind or curtain rod, and resigned to the fact that there's no point in going back out there until things have thawed out. And when I do, I'm afraid I may have to spend a night in a hotel while I wait for a plumber to come out and fix whatever pipe(s) have frozen.

Ah, the "joys" of second-home-ownership.

Halfway there

That's one Ruddigore weekend down, one to go. Friday's house was quite small, but appreciative and surprisingly vocal for a Friday night crowd. (They tend to be quiet - probably tired at the end of the work week.) Saturday's crowd was nearly twice as large, and also vocal. Both nights the crowds didn't just chuckle, they laughed appreciatively at all the jokes; they're welcome to come back any time.

Sunday's audience was the largest because that was the "student outreach" matinee - a paying adult could bring one or two students for free and they got a backstage tour (first time I've had an "audience" in the dressing room!) and a post-show Q&A with the directors & principals. They were another vocally appreciative audience, and even applauded a couple of bits of business, not just the Act II dance number where we expected applause. The Q&A was rather sparsely attended, probably because by then it was snowing heavily, but I'm sure the die-hards who stayed felt they'd more than gotten their money's worth.

I'll have to get pics of my costume - it's one of the prettiest ones I've worn, and the costumer confided to me that it's one of her favorites of those on stage. A friend who came Saturday night also commented on my pretty dress and fetching hat. The "dress" is actually several pieces - blouse, skirt, overskirt & sash, worn over a bustle and petticoat. That's a lot of pieces to assemble, in addition to the usual drill w/ hair & make-up. Yesterday was the first time I was actually completely ready before the overture started - Thursday & Friday I had only done hair & make-up, no costume yet, when they called "places", and Saturday I had just begun to don my costume when "places" was called. I had been rolling my hair to give it some body before putting it up under the hat, but given how much assembly the costume requires, I may forget about the rollers.

This week I've been doing some of the "finishing" I always enjoy: made a reticule for Dame Hannah, cut down & hemmed the length of tartan Mad Margaret wears in her first scene, bought & attached trim to Rose's overskirt, trimmed countless stray threads from various people's costumes, hemmed my skirt and finished my sleeves w/ lace "harvested" from one of the men's shirts. (He didn't want lace on his sleeves, mine needed finishing, there was just enough lace - it was meant to be.) Oh, and the usual lending - a cameo and a dress liner to Dame Hannah, hatpins to 4 of the ladies, my curling irons for general use.

Given how I'm always doing this kind of tweaking, and how I enjoy getting a costume "look" just so, I suppose it was inevitable that I'd costume a show myself. Not completely by myself, because the director is herself an experienced costumer and has some pretty definite ideas of what she wants, and the producer is an experienced costumer and has offered her services if I get stuck. But still - it'll be my name on the program for costume design! Shouldn't hurt my resume any, especially if audience members actually notice the costumes in a good way.

"No lymphoma found"!!!

Mom just called with the synopsis of today's visit with the oncologist. She passed all her tests and the results boil down to three glorious words:

"NO LYMPHOMA FOUND"!!!!!
She has to go back for monthly portacath maintenance and for quarterly check-ups w/ the oncologist, but the important thing is that the prayers and the chemo WORKED!!!

Oh, sleet!

Woke up at 5:30 this morning (when the alarm was set for 7) to learn the good news - no work today! Bad news - sleet! I could hear it patting against the windows and skylights at 5:30 and when I went out to shovel about 3 hours later, it made for some pretty tough going. That stuff is heavy! Not to mention hard to shovel; it clumps, you have to chip at it to get it to let go, it weighs a ton, and while it's melting at the moment, it's gonna refreeze later this evening. Send lots and lots of warm thoughts our way, please - we really can't afford to lose another night of rehearsal! If we lose tonight, that gives us only one night to get thru the entire show w/ orchestra, practice the evil/dead make-up for nearly half the cast, and get the blocking adjustments into our muscular memory. Not enough! Not that we'll be horrible if we don't get to rehearse tonight (we'll be well-rested, if nothing else), but losing two key rehearsals right before Opening Night is a Bad Thing!

You'd think I'd be well rested today, but you'd be wrong. Not only was I unable to get to sleep until after midnight last night (that late-afternoon migraine nap wreaked havoc w/ my sleep patterns), but after waking up early and going back to bed, I heard my cellphone beep just as I was getting back to sleep. Turned out somebody's boss was text-messaging them to come in late. I let "Mike" know he'd texted the wrong number, then went back to bed again. Ten minutes later, TW called. By the time we finished talking, I was wide awake, and headache-y, so I threw in the sleep towel, made some coffee (which took care of the headache, thank heaven), and wondered whether the carrier would be able to deliver the paper before noon.

Cabin, here I come!

Ooh, ah, can't wait! I've actually managed to keep my calendar clear so that after this Sunday's matinee, I can head on out to the cabin! I'm taking Tuesday off so I can spend all day Monday out there, hanging "cellular shades" and curtain rods, checking on the state of the plumbing (it shouldn't have frozen, but I'll feel much better once I've checked), and treating myself to a massage. Should I have any free time, I'll spend it reading (my Birdie script will be among my reading materials), maybe watching a movie or two, and generally enjoying the peace and quiet.

I'll probably take TW's car to give it a good run, which means I'll need to get the wipers fixed (right now they scrape horribly!), then start loading it with all the things to go out there - curtain rods, blinds, the bathroom rugs TW & I bought right before he left, a few supplies & decorative items. Better not think about it or I'll get too antsy, though it's not too early to book my massage...

Night off during Tech Week!

Having a night off during Tech Week is a wonderful thing, but the reason we have tonight off isn't so nice. We're getting a storm that dropped an inch or two of snow before switching over to sleet, or freezing rain, or some other version of ice. Worse, the low pressure system that brought this "lovely" storm also sent me home from work early w/ a killer migraine. Not the worst I've had, not by a long shot, but bad enough that I took a 2nd imitrex when I got home and still had some lingering pain and nausea after a 3-hour nap.

Now that I'm feeling almost human, I plan to spend the next couple of hours hemming my costume skirt, going over my notes from the past 2 nights to remind myself of the blocking adjustments, do a "run sheet" (notes to self about cues, entrances, any tricky blocking, props I need to have, etc.), and relish the fact that it's within my power to be in bed w/ the lights out by 10 p.m. during Tech Week! This is particularly important because tomorrow's rehearsal will probably run even later than last night's (we ran until 11). We haven't had a run on the set yet, so I'm sure the director's a bit nervous about that; I certainly would be! However, we did have 2 very productive nights; got through all the 160-odd tech cues at last night's cue-to-cue and fixed nearly all the spacing issues.

It remains to be seen whether I'll have to go in to work tomorrow, but I still get to sleep in until 7. I had already planned to go in late and go to the theater from there. This is the first time in a few years that I've actually gone in to work during Tech Week instead of taking the whole week off. After not getting to bed until 1 this morning and then getting up at 7, I'm reminded why taking off during Tech Week is such a great idea, and not only because I have so much time to do costume repairs, run errands, and get my make-up kit in order! However, with another show running in May and perhaps a 3rd in June, on top of wanting to take 3 weeks off when TW gets back from deployment, I really do need to hoard my leave for the time being. Hence, I'm only taking off this Thursday & Friday, and next Tuesday so I can make a quick run out to the cabin to check on the place.

Barely time to catch my breath

Whew! Between Ruddigore & Birdie, I had 4 rehearsal nights last week. Saturday was the start of Tech Week for Ruddigore, and a very busy day indeed. Post office to mail another box to TW (socks, munchies, phone cards); then the fabric store for the makings of a burlap bag for Dame Hannah's kidnapping and a "hump" for Old Adam/Gideon Crawle; theater for the Sitzprobe (I took my sewing machine so I could work when I didn't have to sing); 1.25-hour drive to Birdie rehearsal; 5:30 Mass; quick jumbo slice of plain pizza before taking in Much Ado About Nothing. All-female cast, and most of them were very good. Interesting concept (the director apparently had so very many talented women audition that he decided to go w/ the all-female cast); the director set it during WWII and added a 4-piece combo to play for the feast, at which there was dancing, and inserted music elsewhere.

So now Ruddigore is in Tech. We got our first look at the set last night; only worked some Act I things, but the director seemed pretty happy w/ what we accomplished, and we were dismissed by 10:10 - early for Tech Week! Tonight is cue-to-cue; nobody's favorite, but a necessary evil. No telling whether we'll manage rehearsal tomorrow night; the weather reports have been full of a "winter storm watch" since Thursday and this morning they started talking about ice, sleet and freezing rain along w/ the snow. I don't mind snow, but that icy stuff is bad news! I'm sure our director is praying for snow only; so am I.

This is when the magic starts to happen for me: the set is coming together ("watch out for the paint on that flat!" "coming thru with the Genie!"), the costumes are being hemmed & fitted, the accessories decided on ("hmm, what should I do w/ my hair under this hat?"), prowling the set to see how the real thing is going to affect entrances, exits and placement. I just love it!

The pit piano we're using for rehearsal until Wednesday was hideously tinny and out of tune last night; I don't know how our accompanist stood it. Can't wait till we get to work with the orchestra; our accompanist is wonderful but that piano is an instrument of torture!

Updates

I e-mailed the company doing Merry Widow to thank them for considering me but that I'd be unable to do the show after all. Sigh.

Also e-mailed the producer & director of the show I'll be costuming (am I crazy? if not, I think I soon will be!) about a costuming meeting so I can start thinking about what we'll need for that.

Finished a skirt for a fellow Ruddigore castmember. Our costumer had distributed a few "kits" at an earlier rehearsal. I finally got to mine this afternoon and knocked it out in only a coupla hours. Good thing I've gathered skirts onto waistbands before, though, as the directions left out a vital instruction - how to line up the waistband to the skirt base.

Went out this afternoon and bought a space heater for the kitchen so that I could stand to sew there. The back end of the kitchen is always cold in the winter because the seal on the french doors is no longer all that tight. With the arctic cold front we've been dealing with (today's high might have topped the freezing mark, but I'm not sure), the kitchen has been averaging around 60 degrees, and it's just too hard to sew when you're fingers are half numb. I also have all those curtains I want to sew for the cabin (2 foyer doors & sidelights, the bedroom door, and six bedroom windows) before TW gets home, so warm fingers are important! Bought the heater at one of those bedding/housewares chains and also bought the curtain rods and such while I was at it.

So now I'm ready - next time I go to the cabin, I have "cellular shades" and curtain rods to put up out there, and should have at least the sheers (foyer & bedroom doors) ready as well. With luck, I might even have a lined curtain or two finished by then, but I'm not holding my breath. After all, I've never done lined curtains before, so at least the first one or two will go particularly slowly while I figure out the measurements, layout and such.

Had a nice night at the theater last night - went to see a friend in "Anton in Show Business". Some heavy stuff, but mostly quite funny, and the 3 principal characters (of which my friend was one) worked so well together it would have been hard to single one out for special notice. This one was very much an ensemble show and, at least from my seat in the audience, the ensemble worked beautifully together. Bravi, tutti!

Mom had a bone marrow sample drawn last week, gets another CAT and PET scans this week, then goes to the oncologist for the results of everything on the 16th. Keep praying that the chemo did the trick!

Waiting...

After the euphoria of learning I'd been called back for Widow subsided, I realized I had a problem. Because Widow closes just 2 weeks before Birdie opens, I'd have great chunks of time when I'd be unavailable for Birdie rehearsals. Part of me wants to do everything - think kid in a candy store with a fatter-than-usual allowance. On the other hand, I can only imagine how frazzled I'd get if I'm in rehearsal for two shows at once, especially since I've agreed to design costumes for yet a third show. And as if that weren't enough, things at work are about to get busier, or so we're told, which could mean much longer days.

I e-mailed the Birdie director Friday night, offering him the chance to say that no, I can't have my cake and eat it too (i.e., do both Widow and Birdie) but haven't heard back from him yet. However, the more I think about it, the more I think that, in the interest of preserving what little sanity remains to me, I'd better tell the Widow company that, while I very much appreciate being called back and would dearly love to do the show with them, I'd better not. (That will certainly improve the odds for the other 4 women called back for the 3 "wife" roles; they should be happy with my decision.)

Another callback!

Got home from work this afternoon to find a message on the machine telling me I'm called back for a role in The Merry Widow! Huzzah! They didn't say which role, but I'm guessing it's one of the Pontevedrian wives. Those are speaking roles; IIRC, all their singing is done in the full ensembles. Which is just fine; Lehar's choral writing is lush enough to keep me happy. And if they let me waltz, I'll be in heaven!

Another possibility is that they're considering me for one of the folk dancers. I doubt they'd want me for one of the can-can dancers unless they're desperate - I've never been able to do the splits or a cartwheel, although I can turn in place for at least 8 counts. That'd make a great visual - one brightly-garbed dancer turning and turning while others cartwheel past her.

I've already done the show once and got to dance 3 times; I was in the curtain-raiser at the top of the show, and was a folkdancer (type-casting!) and Jou-Jou, one of the can-can dancers. Heaviest rehearsal schedule I've ever had because of all the choreography rehearsal required - I was absolutely ate it up with a spoon and begged for more!

I hope to know more soon - the message promised they'd either e-mail me or call later tonight to tell me when to show up on Sunday.

Another audition under my belt.

Today's audition was for the company doing a Condensed Mikado overlapping with Merry Widow. I thought I sang pretty well, especially given that I'd been having a lot of crud problems when I first started singing this morning, but I hit a first with this audition: when I finished, the director (or maybe the MD; they didn't introduce themselves) asked me to sing it again but louder. He said "the acting was fine" but I seemed to be holding back; he wanted me to give him both barrels! I had sorta dialed it down, both for dramatic reasons and because it was a low-ceilinged room w/ cinderblock walls, but I did as I was told. The director even gave me an occasional "gimme all ya got" gesture as I was singing. Felt funny, but fortunately the singing still felt good.

The dance part of the audition went pretty well, too, though one movement gave me trouble because it depended on the use of a muscle I'd pulled during yesterday's rehearsal. The muscle hadn't bothered me at all today until we got to that point in the combination. Now it hurts to try to raise my right leg, which is gonna be problematic stepping into and out of trousers and climbing stairs.

I was there quite a bit longer than I'd expected. I was in the first batch of 10; each of us sang our bit, then they herded us off to church's social hall to learn the dance combination. After spending about half an hour on that, the directors, accompanist and board president came in to watch us dance. The choreographer had us split into 2 groups and each group got to do the combination twice. All told, it probably took at least an hour and a half from the time the first person sang to the time they released us after the dance piece. I think that's the first time I've auditioned for this company that I didn't just sing my bit and leave. The fact that they're including dance gives me hope for how much dance will be in Merry Widow. (Now to hope that they cast me....)

This week in theater

It's been a busy week: I was going to audition for Birdie Sunday night but the neighborhood streets were so slick that I decided it wasn't worth the risk and instead asked if I could audition at callbacks. Monday night was voice lesson and Ruddigore rehearsal.

Tuesday I auditioned for Thoroughly Modern Millie. The only thing really open to me is Mrs. Meers; the other mezzo role, Muzzy van Hossmere (sp?), is specifically described as African-American, and the ensemble has to tap. After doing things like folk-dancing barefoot on a concrete slab back when I was young and ignorant of such matters, my knees won't put up w/ the punishment of tap, so ensemble's out. As I'd expected based on my merely adequate singing that night, I didn't get called back, so I expect to get a "thanks but no thanks" in another week or so. Which is OK now that I'm doing Birdie.

My Birdie audition Wednesday night was kinda funny; I'm not at all sure how well my singing went (I got cut off at both auditions, using the same piece), but I thought I read well. The director apparently agreed, as he had me and another auditionee stay for callbacks, and ended up giving me the only part he had me read for. Mae is going to be fun to do, but I'm a little disappointed that the role calls for no dancing and only a few ensemble songs. Ah well, working on her accent will be good exercise; the director wants her played as a "quintessential New York Jewish mother". At callbacks I read it with what I thought was rather a cartoony accent, but I got compliments on it from two people - one a self-identified NY Jew; the other, one of the women also up for the part.

We're working Ruddigore choreography fixes today, which will be fun. It'd be more fun if I had more dancing than just a tiny piece of the one number, though. Unlike a lot of singers I've shared a stage with (especially most of the guys), I actually look forward to the dancing. The more dancing there is in a show, the better I like it! (Which is another reason I really want to do Merry Widow!) Yet in Ruddigore and Birdie, I end up doing little or none.

Tonight I'm off to adjudicate A Moon for the Misbegotten. A friend recommended an Irish pub near the theater; after checking out the menu online, I decided to make an evening of it.

Tomorrow I'll audition for Condensed Mikado and Merry Widow. I do hope the company will be willing to let me play with them despite my as-yet-unknown Birdie rehearsal schedule. I'd be delighted to do either show: Mikado would mean a lead (which would be exciting!), Widow would only be chorus but presumably I'd get to dance. Either way, I'd be very pleased.

Someone might need to arrange an intervention...

OK, so I was just cast in Bye Bye, Birdie, which runs the 1st 3 weekends in May. Because Mae Peterson is a relatively small (but choice!) part in terms of stage time, I'm hoping that'll mean a light rehearsal schedule, so I'm still going to audition on Sunday for the company doing Condensed Mikado and Merry Widow (I do so love Lehar's music!), which run in March and April, in hopes that I can get the 2 rehearsal skeds to mesh. The company, of course, may have other ideas about that.

As if that weren't enough, I finally agreed last night to design costumes for a show being produced & directed by a couple of theater friends. Both of them have done lots of costuming; I only agreed because they can be my safety net. They tell me the show's set in the 50s or 60s and has a cast of 13, so this should be comparatively easy; not like trying to costume a viennese operetta, with a cast of thousands, from scratch. I'm nervous, but also looking forward to this.

Just call me "Mae Peterson"

The Bye Bye, Birdie director called this afternoon (only about 15 hours after they sent us all home after callbacks last night - that was fast!) - they want me to play Mae Peterson, mother of Conrad Birdie's manager. More later; I gotta get some sleep...

Snow!

After an eerily mild January, it finally turned seasonably cold a few days ago, and this afternoon it started to snow! The forecast is for only an inch or so, so no snow day tomorrow, but I'm just glad January is finally behaving like January.

The Midwest has had it worse. Kansas City got several inches of snow, and my sister in Tulsa reports 4 inches of ice! After being out of school all week, the kids were getting so cabin-feverish that they drew some lines with food coloring, pulled out the pool noodles and a wheel off a toy, and played hockey in the back yard.

I get a new costume!

In the course of discussing whether I could lend one of my foundation garments to one of the other Ruddigore choristers, I learned I'll need it myself because I'm getting a new costume, made just for me! This is happy news because usually I get a costume from the company's stock, adjusted to fit (or sometimes not). I always need alterations for any costume the least bit fitted, and because standard sewing construction doesn't usually leave as much seam allowance as I'd need, I'm used to either providing some of my own costume pieces or resigning myself to something that doesn't really fit very well. Getting something that will actually be made to my measure is very good news indeed!

Enough, already!

Managed all of about 3 hours at work today before the migraine got so bad I couldn't concentrate (but before the nausea started). This is the 3rd in 4 days, but today was worse because Monday's migraine took my last Imitrex (the refill didn't arrive until this afternoon). So to help the mega-motrin along, I downed 20 oz. of Mt. Dew and two 20-oz cups of coffee. Even with all the milk I put in my coffee (alright, all the coffee I put in my milk), that's still a LOT of caffeine in the space of a few hours. So I wasn't sure if my stomach was upset because of the caffeine or the migraine. It did eventually back off, but not until late afternoon. So much for everything I wanted to get done at work. Or at home, for that matter.

OD'ing on theater stuff?

I'm heading into a theater-intense period. Saw my first of 3 Saturdays' worth of shows the other night (and won a great raffle prize - a headshot package), 2 voice lessons this week to prep for 3 auditions (and, if I'm lucky, one callback) next week, and will be adjudicating my first show this coming Saturday. This is on top of Ruddigore rehearsals, of course. Oh, and I keep looking around at the unfolded laundry and a dishwasher in need of emptying, wondering when that'll happen. I had hoped to get a lot of that done Monday, but a migraine rather put paid to that scheme - I did manage to finish the Christmas cards at long last (now that it's past even Orthodox Christmas!), but that was all.

Between performing in Ruddigore, adjudicating my assigned shows and seeing friends in their shows, my schedule is packed solid through the end of February and March is filling up fast. Yes, I did have every intention of using "theater therapy" to keep me from feeling sorry for myself while TW is deployed, but I also need to be sure I leave myself time to sleep. Might have to start scheduling that, too...

A goodie from my e-mail

And if anyone knows who came up with this gem, please let me know so I can credit it properly.

HAD THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR HAPPENED TODAY

"Order the signal, Hardy."

"Aye, aye sir."

"Hold on, that's not what I dictated to the signal officer. What's the meaning of this?"

"Sorry, sir?"

" 'England expects every person to do their duty, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious persuasion or disability.' What gobbledygook is this?!"

"Admiralty policy, I'm afraid, sir. We're an equal opportunities employer now. We had the devil's own job getting 'England' past the censors, lest it be considered racist."

"Gadzooks, Hardy. Hand me my pipe and tobacco."

"Sorry, sir. All naval vessels have been designated smoke-free working environments."

"In that case, break open the rum ration. Let us splice the main brace to steel the men before battle."

"The rum ration has been abolished, Admiral. It's part of the Government's policy on binge drinking."

"Good heavens, Hardy. I suppose we'd better get on with it. Full speed ahead."

"I think you'll find that there's a 4-knot speed limit in this stretch of water."

"Damn it man! We are on the eve of the greatest sea battle in history. We must advance with all dispatch. Report from the crow's nest, please."

"That won't be possible, sir."

"What?!"

"Health and Safety have closed the crow's nest, sir. No harness. And they said that rope ladder doesn't meet regulations. They won't let anyone up there until a proper scaffolding can be erected."

"Then get me the ship's carpenter without delay, Hardy."

"He's busy knocking up a wheelchair access to the fo'c'sle, Admiral."

"Wheelchair access? I've never heard anything so absurd."

"Health and Safety again, sir. We have to provide a barrier-free environment for the differently abled."

" 'Differently abled'? I've only one arm and one eye and I refuse even to hear mention of the word. I didn't rise to the rank of admiral by playing the disability card."

"Actually, sir, you did. The Royal Navy is under-represented in the areas of visual impairment and limb deficiency."

"Whatever next? Give me full sail. The salt spray beckons."

"A couple of problems there too, sir. Health and Safety won't let the crew up the rigging without crash helmets. And they don't want anyone breathing in too much salt - haven't you seen the adverts?"

"I've never heard such infamy. Break out the cannon and tell the men to stand by to engage the enemy."

"The men are a bit worried about shooting at anyone, Admiral."

"What? This is mutiny!"

"It's not that, sir. It's just that they're afraid of being charged with murder if they actually kill anyone. There's a couple of legal aid lawyers on board, watching everyone like hawks."

"Then how are we to sink the Frenchies and the Spanish?"

"Actually, sir, we're not."

"We're not?!"

"No, sir. The Frenchies and the Spanish are our European partners now. According to the Common Fisheries Policy, we shouldn't even be in this stretch of water. We could get hit with a claim for compensation."

"But you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil."

"I wouldn't let the ship's diversity co-coordinator hear you saying that, sir. You'll be up on disciplinary."

"You must consider every man an enemy who speaks ill of your King."

"Not any more, sir. We must be inclusive in this multicultural age. Now, put on your Kevlar vest; it's the rules."

"Don't tell me - Health and Safety. Whatever happened to rum, sodomy and the lash?"

"As I explained, sir, rum is off the menu. And there's a ban on corporal punishment."

"What about sodomy?"

"I believe it's to be encouraged, sir."

"In that case... kiss me, Hardy."

I survived my Carmen audition.

I arrived just before the woman I'd done Pinafore with started singing. As soon as she opened her mouth, I was tempted to slink away with my tail between my legs, but figured I'd gotten that far, might as well go through with it. So I sat there and enjoyed her singing, thinking "these are real opera singers!"

It helped my confidence that when the next woman arrived, the director had us do a "movement exercise". Fun little game, that: He took a music stand, pulled the tray up as far as it would go, told us this was an incredibly gorgeous man, and the 3 of us were to vie for his attention. While the MD played the Carmen Habanera, the director had us positioned around the stand, initially in place, while he called out changes: "now the man is looking at A; now Maureen has his attention; now he's looking at B; now he's just looking down the hall..." I had fun, of course - I always enjoy moving to music - and it helped me relax before I had to sing.

The MD decided he wanted to hear my Christmas carol, "Il est ne", first, so that's what I did. Thank God for adrenaline! I'd been having trouble with this song at home. Maybe my throat was still recovering from the funeral earlier, but even though the highest note was only an E, my voice didn't want to cooperate. But with the music, it was easy, especially with the dancing tempo the MD gave me.

Next up was Margaret's aria from Ruddigore. I stumbled over a coupla words in one place but was able to get back on track. Not my best, but I don't think I did badly, especially as this was the first time I'd auditioned using both verses.

But there's no way they're going to cast me, even if I didn't have a show that eats up much of my February availability. Listening to B, and knowing that "Lady Jane" was also auditioning, I was very much aware of just how out of my league I was. The directors were very polite about it, though - they all said how much they liked Margaret's aria, but I don't recall any comment about my voice. Which is probably just as well, under the circumstances. I figure they'd only cast me if they needed a "gypsy dancer", and they can probably get all the dancers they need from the choreographer's Spanish dance company.

Still, I'm glad I did it. Gave me a reality check - at my age, I'll never make even chorus in an opera by a straight opera company. And it was interesting to see that A and B did much, much longer pieces than I've ever heard at any other audition - 2, 3 or more verses of each of their two arias! (And theirs really were arias.)

And TW just called a little bit ago to ask me how it went. What a sweetie!

Weird

Observation: going to a funeral the same day I have an audition is probably not a great idea, but I can hardly ask either party to rearrange their schedule to suit me, now can I? A friend buried her mother this morning. My daughter would have been 20 a few weeks ago; for some reason her anniversaries were harder this year, so attending this funeral just brought all that back. And for some reason this time I find myself fearing that TW won't come back from his deployment. I didn't have this problem the last 2 times; no idea why this time is different.

But I'll look smashing tonight! Found a rich red knit skirt with a matching mock-turtleneck top. Add a striking gold necklace TW brought back from Kuwait, "Gulf gold" earrings, and an embroidered shawl on my hips, and I'll look elegant but definitely ready to do Carmen!

Starting to get nervous now that it's time to start getting ready - wish me luck!

Well, s**t!

I just learned, less than 24 hours before my audition tomorrow for that "concept Carmen", that the company wants people to sing one piece in French or Spanish in addition to a contrasting piece in English or Italian! =:0 This may be standard practice for opera auditions; I have no clue, having heretofore only done operettas and musicals. So now I find myself rummaging through every scrap of music I have in the house, hoping to find something familiar in French that contrasts with what I had planned to sing tomorrow night. Thank goodness I already know French and am comfortable singing in it (thanks in no small part to a very solid French education 'way back in high school), but to go in with a piece I've never worked on? Yikes!

And I know at least 2 mezzos will be auditioning who can sing rings around me; one was Buttercup when I was in the chorus of Pinafore a few years ago, the other sang Jane (the role I was also called back for) in the Patience I just did in November. I doubt either of them has the dance resume I do, but I'm inclined to think they're going to be more interested in casting a singer than a dancer. Not to mention someone who can actually make most of their February rehearsals.

Right now I'm debating whether to make a panicked call to my voice teacher to see if she can squeeze me in for an emergency lesson tomorrow. I was already starting to get a bit nervous about this; I didn't need any more pressure!

Random observations

Saw an odd thing on the way home from work yesterday: not one, not two, but three identical Rolls Royces traveling down the road. Somehow, I doubt that convoy was communicating on CB radios.

Learned from one of the folks from my church choir that our pianist's mother died yesterday. I packed up the rest of the vat of soup I'd made the day before to take over there, but wanted to get sthg to go with it, as well as sthg else for my own dinner. Because I had rehearsal today, I figured I'd better get to the grocery store early so I actually set my alarm. (Which I almost never do on Saturdays.) Well, I set the wrong one - the one that goes off at 5:30 to wake me up for work, not the "Sunday alarm" that doesn't go off until 7. I didn't think anything of my grogginess, and figured it was so dark just because the weather's been gloomy. It wasn't until I noticed the clock read 6:30 that I realized my mistake. I'm definitely off my game - I've never made this kind of alarm clock mistake before! Sleeping too late, yes; but getting up too early?!?

Gorgeous spring day today - sunny, breezy, highs in the 70s. Only thing is, this is supposed to be winter. Either they're right about global warming, or we're gonna pay for this in another month with a 2' blizzard and 3 days without power.

Spent a fair bit of time today sorting out my theatrical schedule: 2 shows I'm supposed to adjudicate, 3 that friends are in, one I want to see before I audition for another company's production of it, the Duquesne Tamburitzans, and of course the show I'm performing in next month. After figuring out how to get all these overlapping runs to mesh, I realized that tonight is my last Saturday night at home until at least March 10th!

TW just called again. So far he's managed to call every day, and twice today! The 8-hour time difference makes things a little weird. Tonight I was talking about going nowhere but to church tomorrow. His initial reaction was, "But tomorrow's Monday!" Because for him it's Sunday, while it's still Saturday night here. I might hafta send him one of those watches with 2 faces so he can set one to my time zone and one to his. Come to think of it, maybe I should look for one w/ a 24-hour digital display so he doesn't call me at 1 in the morning...

And I just learned that a total stranger has a link to my blog! Until about an hour ago, the only link I was aware of was from one of the two friends who pushed me to start blogging. Then blueblanket posted a comment to something I posted earlier this week. This is cool - people are actually reading this stuff! :D

He's landed safe & sound

TW just called to say he's landed safely and is now in temporary quarters. He stayed on the phone just long enough to let me know he was in and was about to crash and to ask me to call his family & mine to let them know he'd arrived safely. No local contact info yet; he expects to get that tomorrow (which is already today there).

More auditions and a scorecard update

And they're coming thick and fast, too - just learned this afternoon of one a week from tomorrow! Lots of reasons I want to try for it, even if I'm knocked out of consideration because it opens a mere week after Ruddigore closes:

• It's a concept production based on Bizet's Carmen; this may be as close as I'll ever get to doing that opera.
• The tenor who played Grosvenor in my recent "Patience" is singing Don Jose. (How do I get diacritics, BTW?) Lovely voice and intelligent performer; it'd be a pleasure and an education to do another show with him.
• The choreographer is with the local semi-pro Spanish dance company. If there's dancing, I wanna play!
• This group does a lot of innovative, concept productions which usually get good reviews. I'd learn a lot if I could get a chance to work with them.

After that one, I get about 10 days to cram in another voice lesson or two, then comes the pack o' auditions:
- Bye Bye, Birdie the 21st (3 possible roles)
- Thoroughly Modern Millie the 23rd (1 possible role)
- Sweeney Todd the 24th (1 long shot; I might not go for this one, especially as Birdie callbacks are that night - I can dream!)
- Condensed Mikado (1 or 2 roles) and Merry Widow (3 possible roles) the 28th
Oh, and I've got rehearsals that week, too - whole lotta singin' goin' on that week!

2006-07 season scorecard as of Dec 10th:
- 6 auditions
- 3 callbacks (including one for a lead I hadn't considered)
- 2 chorus roles
We'll see how this looks come the end of the month...

They coulda written...

The company I auditioned for over 3 weeks ago has yet to send me so much as a form e-mail saying "thanks, but no thanks". That's the first time I never got so much as a "get lost" after an audition, even when I've been one among as many as 150 auditioning. Yeah, I know, auditions were right before the holidays and all, but it's been 3 1/2 weeks, and I didn't think there were all that many folks who auditioned. Hmmph!

And so begins my grass widowhood

"He's flown away for 179 days to a land where the palm trees grow." (It only scans if you read the number as "one seven nine".)

I drove TW to the airport tonight, the first leg of a nearly 2-day journey to begin his 6-month deployment. We've done this before, when he was still a reservist and was activated after 9/11, but for some reason it's harder this time. Maybe because this time I know exactly how loud the silence in an empty house can get when I'm used to sharing the house with him. Because the last few days have been kinda tough for me, TW asked a friend to come to the airport with us so I'd have company to distract me on the ride home, bless his heart. It worked a treat, too - our friend kept up a steady stream of chatter on safe topics and distracted me so well that I turned too soon as we were getting close to home! :D

And for those of you wondering about the term "grass widow", here's one definition.

Happy New Year!

And it's getting off to a weird start. Yesterday TW and I passed a house w/ a yard blanketed with snowdrops because the weather's been so mild (highs in the 50s and 60s) for most of December. I'm sure other people are seeing their crocuses and other spring bulbs starting to come up, thinking it's February or March. Saddam is dead and we have a new war in Africa, but my newest niece is as healthy as anyone could wish and Mom looked and was feeling much better at Christmas than she did in October.

TW and I watched The Wizard of Oz this afternoon, then finished off the pot roast. Like most such things, it was better after sitting in the fridge for a day or two. No other big plans before he leaves; he goes back to the eye doc tomorrow to find out whether he does indeed have glaucoma (this has me much more worried than his imminent deployment!), but otherwise we'll probably just enjoy the last of our quiet time together before we leave for the airport tomorrow night.

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, but I do have a few things I'd like to achieve in 2007. Theatrically, I want to continue to make progress vocally, get another principal role (I'm really wishing for Ruth in Pirates of Penzance, but that's long odds), and maybe get back into Middle Eastern dance if I can schedule a class around rehearsals. I'm also slated to train up for my first season as an adjudicator for a local community theater awards organization. That'll mean seeing several shows a season. Tix will be free, but it will probably mean driving all over the place to see this or that company's production. At work I want to climb the ladder a rung or two, maybe by becoming the local go-to person for something or picking up certain responsibilities. And I have lots of plans for the cabin: make curtains for the new bedroom, install the blinds we ordered, hunt down non-ceramic bathroom accessories (much harder than I'd expected), finish getting the furniture back in place, bring over the last couple of rugs, and see if I can't manage to persuade more friends to come visit there.

More domestic goddess-hood

Fixed one last mince pie for TW (I still think it tastes nasty but it does make the kitchen smell good) last night, and tonight it was my maiden attempt at pot roast. TW had had some very good pot roast at an "Irish pub" while we were spending Christmas w/ my family so I promised him that when we got home, I'd hunt through the cookbooks for a good recipe for the pot roast in the freezer. Found a likely-looking recipe, used merlot for the liquid (might try a cabernet sauvignon next time), results weren't bad.

TW gave me kitchen Christmas presents - a very nice replacement rolling pin, the 75th-anniversary edition of the Joy of Cooking (my 1970s edition will go out to the cabin), and this measuring/chopping thing. I've already inaugurated two of them; the pot roast recipe came from my new Joy of Cooking and I used the chopper on the onions, carrots & celery. In general I was quite pleased with it - the fact that you don't have to dump the chopped stuff into something else to measure it is a huge plus - but it didn't like the outer few layers of my onions. That's OK; it was still a time-saver. The biggest "chunk" setting cut the carrots into nice, "polite" bites; I can see I'll be using it a lot when I make soup.

Before we left town for Christmas I made some mini-Bundt cakes for neighbor Christmas presents. I managed only one delivery before we left; made the second this evening and will probably make the last delivery tomorrow. When I made the mini-Bundts, I also made a full-size one, half of which went to the neighbor who takes in our papers and mail when we're out of town. I hope he liked chocolate-chip cake.

I also promised TW an apple cake; that'll happen tomorrow or Sunday. That's a great one, especially when I get the proportions so that I have just barely enough batter to hold the apple bits together. The house will smell soooooooo good! I'll get to use another funny kitchen gadget for that one - the one that peels, cores, and spiral-slices the apples all at one time. Messy and kind of a pain to clean up, but fun to use. And the thinner apple bits mean I can pack them into cakes and pies more densely - more apple is very definitely better!

TW wants turkey in gravy for dinner before he leaves, and I'll also fix a pot of veggie-beef soup. A lot of this is therapy, I guess; making some of TW's favorites before he heads off to 6 months of chow-hall food. Both of us are eating well for now, though I may well get lazy in the kitchen once I no longer have someone to cook for. :)

More bad news

TW got back from a last-minute eye appointment w/ the news that the eye doctor thinks he may have glaucoma in one eye! He has to go back Tuesday to find out for sure whether he has glaucoma or just an unusual optic nerve. It won't keep him from deploying, though; if it turns out that TW does indeed have glaucoma, the doc will just give him a 6-month supply of drops for the eye.

Not much longer

TW is deploying again. Leaves Tuesday for another 6 months. We've done this before - he was recalled to active duty after 9/11, while he was still in the Reserves - but that time he was able to get leave about three months into his first 6-month tour, and then came home for 3 weeks to get new orders before going out for another 5 months. This time he won't get any time off - he'll get on that plane Tuesday night and I won't see him again until July. Until now I've been doing a really good job of not thinking about it, but now that his departure is almost upon us, that's no longer possible. I'm gonna hafta keep myself very busy the next 6 months so I don't sit home missing him and feeling sorry for myself.

Care to be a laird or a lady?

Found this on someone else's blog: http://www.lochaberhighlandestates.com/?gclid=CJ2pwq6itYkCFRMWFQodtVIxWA I can think of at least 2 ladies of my acquaintance to whom I'll be pointing this out...

Christmas is gonna be late this year.

At least it will be for anyone expecting something in the mail from TW or me. The computer ate our Christmas card list, so while I'm waiting for the plumber to call back, I'm just starting to rebuild it. Can't find last year's hardcopy, but TW kept the envelopes from last year's cards, so that will be a big help with the names he wants on the list. (Smart man!) With any luck, I'll get the list rebuilt today, but I don't expect we'll have time to buy cards (we don't have nearly as many left from last year as he thought), let alone address them and all, until we get to my parents' for Christmas. Maybe we'll do Christmas cards New Year's Eve. Oh, wait, he wants to swap the guest room and the "library" (with my computer desk and 5 bookshelves) the day after we get back home; we may need all weekend to do that.

Presents for the nieces and nephews are going into our luggage, so those will be on time, but the few that need to be mailed (including one going to England) are already late. Fortunately, those are all going to adults, who'll forgive me. I hope. ;)

The timing could have been better...

Friends coming for dinner today so TW & I spent yesterday cleaning, decluttering, etc. We were down to just the kitchen and back bathroom to do when the kitchen faucet broke. Just great - no water from the kitchen sink until we get a plumber in! At least it held off until after we'd finished last night's dinner dishes, but while we wait for said plumber, doing dishes in the bathroom is gonna get old. Ah well, at least we do have water and the bathrooms are still fully functional.

Not like the time a roommate and I were having a cast party for a local production of Merry Widow. There we were, with a houseful of thirsty singers, when someone from the water company came knocking on the door to warn us that they were going to have to turn off the main to do some emergency repairs. They did give us time to fill some buckets w/ water, but still...

That went well, I think.

Another audition last night, for a local production of Urinetown. The first of two advertised nights of auditions, the first audition number available was 20. Wonder if they had invited auditions ahead of the advertised dates?

The routine was that you got up, sang your piece, let the MD decide whether he wanted to hear you vocalize a bit, then read a bit you brought with you (thank you, o Theater Mentor mine - they liked that piece you sent me!). After my turn, the director asked me if I could do a "trick voice". Huh? I replied with a silly voice, but that apparently wasn't what he was looking for. He asked another person the same question; she was similarly clueless. (I dunno - Donald Duck? Betty Boop?) The dance sequence was one of the longest I've ever had to do for an audition, but I had fun. I always do.

A few people were asked to return tonight. Although they seemed to like my audition, I wasn't asked back, presumably because being committed to a show that closes only 2 weeks before this one opens means I'd be unavailable for far too many rehearsals. It wasn't a waste of my time, though. A new group of directors got to hear me sing and see me move; with any luck, they'll remember liking what they saw the next time I audition for them.

A weekend in the country

Just got back from the cabin. They had a little bit of snow out there this week, just enough that there were a few thin patches in the shadier spots. Bitter cold when we got in, too - 21 degrees outside, and only 39 degrees inside! As we were bringing things in from the car, TW asked why I still had my coat on, hood up, and scarf over my face: "Because I'm freezing!" (Asthma just hates it when the temps get below freezing, so I'm forced to take precautions.)

We had all kinds of things for the cabin - new sheets for the additional bed, a free-standing TP holder (I was surprised at how difficult it was to find one that wasn't top-heavy and which secured the roll from both ends), a few more warm shirts for TW. We also took our Christmas videos - Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol. It was lovely to sit and snuggle on the couch while we watched these old favorites, though I was surprised to learn the Grinch came out in 1966! I hadn't thought it was as old as that.

Cold though it was, it was also sunny and clear. Even now, when all the deciduous trees are bare, it's lovely to look out the windows at trees. We can see all our neighbors now (few of the lots are more than 1 1/4 acres), but the trees mask them. This morning TW looked out the window of our new bedroom to see three deer snacking nearby. There are fewer birds and squirrels at this time of year, but there are still a few. Sure beats listening to traffic!

And it's so nice to have all the work finished and the construction debris cleaned up so we can start decorating. Right now we have absolutely nothing on the windows in the addition, so first order of business is to get blinds or shades. We've picked a curtain fabric that will look wonderful with the wall paint. Now to figure out how much I need to buy, and how much lining fabric, to make curtains for all six bedroom windows.

We've already bought towel bars for the rehabbed bathroom and will install them next trip (need to buy the right size drill bit first). I think I may also run up some light curtains to cover the shelves and the cubbyhole where we stash the ShopVac. Oriental rugs now grace the foyer and new bedroom, the console table I've had for ages is now in the foyer, as is the 3-gallon crock we picked up a while ago for an umbrella stand.

We need a storage cabinet, towel bars and such for the new bathroom, though we have a small rack that will do. I'm also keeping my eye out for a new bedspread for the new bedroom that will look good but not cost the earth. We also need to bring out another area rug for that bedroom; the wood floor is lovely but chilly under bare feet. Both bathrooms also need some sort of rug, though we can make do with towels until we find what we want. Eventually we'll get some picture rail hooks and clear line to hang pictures in the new bedroom too, but it already looks homey with the bed in it and the rugs down.

Yes, it's a lovely place and we feel blessed to have it. My folks feel the same way - every time I mention it to Mom, she says that "I'm so glad you have that place." What can I do but agree?

It's beginning to look a bit like Christmas.

Yeah, I know, that's not exactly how the words go, but my version is closer to the truth. Finally did my first Christmas "decorating" - got the Christmas Tree dishes out last night, and tonight I put away the regular dishes and put the Christmas Tree dishes in the cabinets.

I also did a bit of baking - one mincemeat and one pumpkin pie. The mincemeat is strictly for TW: he loves the stuff, I can't stand it. Unfortunately, we had a casualty; my grandmother's rolling pin tried to escape its bath, rolled off the counter and landed handle first, breaking said handle clean off. Not only did it have sentimental value because it was my grandmother's, but it was a really good rolling pin - rolled very smoothly and had a good, even weight. TW wants to try to fix it, but given the splinters where the handle broke off, I'm not optimistic. I told him he can get me a replacement for Christmas. It's a good thing I didn't have any big plans to do any more baking that involves rolling out dough. I tried doing a pie crust without a rolling pin last year, when TW & I spent Thanksgiving w/ my folks. I just squished and patted the dough into place; let's just say it was a good thing it was covered by the pie filling.

Fixing a hole where the ...

Poor TW! He was repairing our living room floor tonight - two of the original floorboards had cracked in one spot and finally broke completely over the weekend. He pulled out the broken bits (I came home from work to find a hole in the living room floor!), took a couple of scrap floorboards left from the new floor out at the cabin and trimmed them to size, then started trying to put the new boards in. Two problems with that: they're tongue-and-groove, so you can't just drop 'em in, and the new boards are slightly thicker than the 80-year-old originals, with a slightly different alignment of tongue and groove. TW finally tented the two replacement boards and managed to get them in side by side. However, in pushing them into place he didn't move his hand out of the way quite fast enough and pinched a lengthy section along the heel of his thumb. Yeowch!! He hollered big time, and no wonder - those boards removed a 3-inch-long and quarter-inch-wide chunk out of the base of his thumb! =:o It was his dominant hand, of course, so I had to be the one to put the ointment and bandage on it.

But he fixed the broken floorboards, so we no longer have to worry about putting a foot through into the basement.

Good day? Bad day?

Not sure about yesterday. Started off uncomfortable, waking up w/ a headache and then going out into the cold (in the 20s). Then yesterday afternoon I learned they don't want me to be acting supervisor any more. Part of me was feeling "I screwed up, I failed, nobody loves me, guess I'll go eat worms". Mostly I'm relieved, but I couldn't help but wonder how this would affect my year-end performance eval, so I asked about that this morning. Both my immediate supervisor and her boss said they appreciated that I had volunteered for a job nobody else wanted ("You stepped up when everybody else jumped back 6 feet" was how my first boss put it), so I guess that's not bad.

Only Wednesday and already it's been a long week - I've put in at least 30 hours so far. We had 2 key people out sick today, and between that and people trying to burn their use-or-lose leave before the end of the year, I don't see the workload easing until I get back from Christmas. (Two more weeks - if I can just get through 2 more weeks...)

Auditions

Just one audition this month; a local theater (with a small space) is having auditions for "Urinetown" this weekend. They open just 2 weeks after my current show closes so they'll probably look at my rehearsal conflicts and say "You're kidding, right?" but what the heck - nothing ventured, nothing gained.

At my lesson yesterday, my teacher thanked me for keeping her posted on my auditions. Thinking about that on my way home, I decided that maybe it's part of my learning. Figuring out how I think I did, then organizing my reaction enough to describe it to someone who wasn't there forces me to do a little analysis of how I did. Why did I think it went well or poorly? How did it feel - solid, shaky, too soon after dinner...? What kind of reaction did I get? I've had 'em laughing at an over-the-top piece, and when I auditioned w/ "I Hate Men" with company #1 last month, one dad of 2 auditioners in the front row commented when I finished that "We love you!" One of many reasons I'll probably audition for that company again. ;)

The results are in.

... and I will not be doing Into the Woods with either company #1 or #2. Ah well, so it goes. #2's "thanks but no thanks" e-mail was more personal than just a mass "so sorry, can't use you, please try again", and #1's was probably the nicest "thanks but no thanks" I've gotten to date.

So the scorecard now reads: 5 auditions, 3 callbacks, 2 chorus positions; not bad. Unfortunately, this means I only have one show to look forward to at the moment, so now I'm itching for the local companies to start posting their January audition dates so I can start filling up my calendar.

Prepping the driveway for spring

Incredible weather today! Probably got close to 70 degrees and sunny (hard to believe it'll be December tomorrow!), so when I got home I decided to plant the crocus bulbs I meant to plant a month or more ago. All 60 (24 "giant" crocuses and 40 regular ones, assorted colors) went into the dirt down the center of the driveway, so it should look nicely and colorful come March.

The mazus reptans I planted in the driveway this spring is hanging in there, barely. At least one of the 4 plants has spread, but not one of them still looks green in the center. I'll see how they get through winter, but for now I'm thinking I won't be planting any more. I'll probably just move some vinca or pachysandra there; heaven knows, I've got plenty of vinca in various beds around the house and in the back yard.

Scorecard so far

Since August I've auditioned for 5 shows:

• Urinetown: blew my audition song when the accompanist started before I was quite ready and I let myself get flustered. Not cast.
• Patience: called back for a lead when all I'd requested was chorus - very encouraging! Ended up in the chorus.
• Ruddigore: called back for a named chorus part despite having auditioned when I had a cold; ended up in the chorus.
• Into the Woods #1: called back for a trio of moms, still waiting to hear. (At this point, I'm assuming they've contacted all the leads and are starting on the "thanks but no thanks" calls or e-mails.)
• Into the Woods #2: not called back; haven't heard anything yet, so I'm assuming I'm not cast.

That's 5 auditions and 3 callbacks - pretty darn good. Obviously I'd be happier if I'd been cast, or been offered something other than chorus, but it's encouraging.

G, I love it!

Moogie "assigned" me a letter - 10 things I love that begin w/ G. So here goes, in no particular order:

1. Great news on Mom's latest scans!
2. the great Guy I'm married to
3. my Girlfriends
4. Grass between bare toes
5. Green stuff instead of concrete out at the cabin
6. Gardening - I'm a haphazard gardener at best, mostly just going on spring & fall planting binges, but I still love to see things grow.
7. the Group I sing with at church
8. Gettin' down to music - any excuse to dance!
9. a Generous spirit - seems that's a common trait of all my favorite people
10. Getting a letter instead of junk mail, bills and the like

Thoughts on auditions

I've now finished all my November auditioning. I'm in the chorus of the 1st show I auditioned for this month and am waiting to hear from 2 companies about their respective productions of Into The Woods. Company #2 is having their callbacks Monday night; if I haven't heard anything from them by tomorrow night, I guess I'll assume I'm not cast. Which is OK, because there are lots of other May & June shows to audition for.

I don't envy the directors of either company. From what I saw on Sunday night and the latter half of Monday night, company #1 could easily cast the show 3 or 4 times over in some roles. Company #2 could do an entire under-20 cast, or do one cast each with Broadway- and classical-style voices, or .... Before I left company #2's auditions Tuesday night, I wished the director a happy Thanksgiving, wished her luck with the casting and told her I didn't envy her the process.

Very interesting to see what kinds of auditioners two different companies got for the same show. #1 got a wide range of ages, from children who looked as young as 6 or 7, through teens and 20s, straight through to a few who might have been in their 60s or even 70. I was interested to note that the youngest auditioners sang their pieces a capella and the few who forgot their words didn't get flustered or upset, just started over, or la-la-la'ed until they got back on track. One of the youngest auditioners looked young enough that I wondered if she'd be able to read some of the bigger words in the monologue everyone had to read, but I guess she'd heard it often enough from others by the time her turn came around that she didn't seem to have any trouble.

Perhaps because so very many people turned out, they took auditioners in groups of 10: each would sing his or her audition piece till all 10 in the group had sung, then each of the 10 would read the monologue, then all 10 would get up on the "stage" (platform about 4" above the floor) to do the movement combination. In one or two cases when someone auditioned a capella, the MD would ask them to sing Happy Birthday w/ accompaniment, and in nearly all cases the MD asked for a scale starting at F. After each group finished these 3 events, the 2 directors would put their heads together and ask a few to stay on. That was when the directors would have different combinations of people read the same scene or two.

By contrast, most of the auditioners for company #2, at least the night I auditioned, seemed to be high school or college age. As I was filling out my paperwork, I heard them tell one hopeful that there were no children in this show. (#1 is apparently creating things for a chorus and children to do, while #2 is doing it with the casting pretty much as written.) One young man (middle school age?) did audition, but he's already had a few major roles with the company, so perhaps they're letting him try for Jack.

These auditions went much more quickly - they heard 45 or 50 people in a little over 2 hours, so that we were all dismissed by about 9:15. But then, these were run differently: the MD let most people get through only the first chunk of their audition piece (in a few cases, he warned the singer that he'd be starting somewhere in the middle because the first section didn't show off enough range). He then asked for a scale, then a top, bottom, and middle note, not necessarily in that order. After all of us had sung for the MD, we were herded onto the stage (yes, all of us at once!) to learn the movement combo. This one was closer to choreography than what company #1 asked for, but still not terribly complicated. After the choreographer had us all go through it a few times, she then had half of us do it, then told off 8 names at a time so she could watch us do it "for real". And that was it - no one read; presumably that will happen at callbacks.

It was interesting to see what kinds of songs the younger auditioners picked. One girl picked a song much too low for her voice; the MD had her do a couple of different scales and lectured her gently on choosing a piece better suited to her voice. (He can be dictatorial but is generous with advice and nurturing young talent.) I think a lot of them just pick something they like and know well. Company #2 got a much higher percentage of male auditioners, too (most of them in that under-20 group), at least the night I was there, and I've already mentioned the difference in the ages of the auditioners. And while both companies wanted to see how well we moved, only #2, which has presented some impressive production numbers in previous musicals, has enlisted a choreographer in addition to the stage & music directors.

Before I left for #2's auditions, TW asked me how many of the folks would be there who'd also auditioned for #1. I told him I wouldn't know until I got there. I did see a few familiar faces, but not all that many; I guess the 2 companies are just far enough apart that there isn't that much overlap in their audition pools.

The biggest thing to be thankful for!

Mom got her detailed scan results on Tuesday. Everything is getting better, chemo is definitely working, but the biggest and best news is that the tumor is a little less than half the size it was when they first discovered it back in September!!! So instead of taking November off and doing 3 weeks of radiation in December, Mom will be doing another 3 rounds of chemo (round 4 was last week). She's pleased because she's been tolerating the chemo pretty well, and relieved because the radiation carried a risk of liver and kidney damage. Yes, we have a lot to be thankful for!

Burning the candle at both ends

So last night I went to callbacks, which were held on the heels of regular auditions. They didn't start having us read until 9:15 or 9:30 and didn't get to me (there were lots of us!) until 10 or 10:30, and I didn't sing until 11 p.m. And what was first? The highest lick, of course - Jack's mother, which tops out at a G. Not in my comfort zone, and I was fighting congestion (colds just hang on forever), and hadn't sung since I'd warmed up 2 1/2 hours earlier. I just hope those top notes weren't too screechy. I didn't notice any hands clapped over ears, and no one fled the theater, but maybe they were just being polite. ;) So I got to sing some exposed high (for me) notes when I was tired and no longer warmed up, then didn't get home until 11:30. I'm tired!!! Callbacks continue tomorrow night, and they've already warned us it could be "a coupla weeks" before they get back to all of us. Given the flocks of people who auditioned, I can see where it will take a long time to send all those e-mails or make all those calls.

One more audition tonight. I'm sincerely hoping that I'll be able to leave as soon as I've sung my piece so I can come home and get a little sleep before we hit the road at 0500 tomorrow. zzzzzz

audition, callback, audition...

Busy, busy, busy! Auditioned for Into the Woods w/ company #1 last night, was one of 14 asked to stay to read after everyone had sung & done the movement combo (dbl grapevine in each direction, 2 jazz squares, then skip - mindless & fun). The best part was that the accompanist would get bored easily between singers and would start playing - showtunes, Beatles, that sorta thing - and people would start humming or singing along. First time I ever came across a sing-along at an audition! Anyway, they called me back, so it's off to their little (like 20'x40' - very intimate space!) theater again tonight to sing & read some more. Tomorrow I audition for company #2's Into the Woods, but first I'll need to pack, as TW and I leave early Wednesday morning (maybe 5 am) to spend Thanksgiving at his mother's. Can't wait to get there and just sit for a bit - no alarms, no deadlines. Heck, since her kitchen is tiny and we're in a hotel (I"m allergic to the dog), I don't even have to cook.

That's one wait over.

Got an e-mail offering me a position in the chorus for Ruddigore. Sigh. Part of me is rather chuffed that I made it to callbacks at all, if only for a tiny role, given that I auditioned w/ a cold, but still.

On my way out of callbacks last night, I was asking a friend whether he was called back for Old Adam, to which he replied that was about the only thing he wasn't called back for. I started teasing him about being called back for, oh, the lead soprano. He chuckled and said the role he really wants is the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in the Gondoliers (he's a bass-baritone). I jumped on that, said that sounded good, and could I play the Duke? So that's the plan - if I ever hold a G&S sing-in, I'll program Gondoliers (which I would anyway) so he can sing the Duchess and I can sing the Duke. Maybe I should ask him to regrow his mustache for the occasion; it was such a lovely one. :D

Waiting

Mom had CAT and PET scans yesterday, but won't have any results until Friday at the earliest. She's not worrying about the wait - not like September, when we were waiting and waiting for her biopsy results - but I'm impatient for her sake and want to know now how much effect the chemo has had on her tumor.

In other waiting news, I'm also waiting to learn how I did at Ruddigore callbacks tonight. Did I get the named chorus role I was called back for (along with 6 others)?

And I'm setting myself up for yet more waiting: two different companies are doing Into The Woods come spring and I plan to audition for both - one company on Saturday, the other on Tuesday.

Perhaps the cynics were right.

Here we are, one week to the day after the mid-term elections, and I notice the gas prices are already starting to inch back up - paid 2 or 3 cents/gallon more yesterday than a week ago. Wonder how long it'll be before we're back to paying around $3/gallon again?

November audition #1

My first of a slew of November auditions (G&S's Ruddigore) was Thursday night, so naturally I woke up w/ a sore throat Wednesday; sure sign that I was getting a cold. By Thursday night, despite zinc lozenges, orange juice, hot tea, etc., I had to go with the lower of the two audition pieces I'd prepared. I didn't hate how my voice felt, but I wasn't terribly pleased, either. However, I must have read fairly well because I did get invited to callbacks on Tuesday. Not for either of the roles I wanted, but for one of the two named choristers. Zorah & Ruth are both tiny parts; Zorah, a soprano role, sings one or two solo lines and ends up w/ the tenor. Ruth sings only w/ the rest of the chorus and has only one or two spoken lines; a very tiny part. The director is considering giving some of Zorah's singing to Ruth, depending on who's cast and their ranges. Zorah being a soprano role, her stuff sits a little high for me, but maybe at my voice lesson tomorrow we can figure something out.

I've been called back for small roles for this company before (Bridesmaid in Trial by Jury, Hebe in HMS Pinafore) but wasn't cast. Part of me is resigned, part of me is hoping the third time will be the charm.

That's that; on to the next....

The set is struck, the costumes turned back in, everyone gone home. I'm home today recovering from 5 performances in 4 days. This being my first time back on stage in nearly a year and a half, I'd forgotten how tired I get after a show. And how hungry! We had a potluck between the matinee & evening performances Saturday and I'm still marveling at how much I ate! Not as much as a teenage boy, but still more than I usually would.

It's always a let-down when a show closes, but with most companies you at least get a second weekend to do the show, with the intervening week to rest up a little. Not like this schedule - the Tech Week crescendo to Opening Night, 5 shows in 4 days, then boom - nothing! The first day after is hardest - no more contact w/ the rest of the cast after the enforced intimacy of sharing a crowded dressing room or backstage area.

Anyway, today I'm just sitting around, not doing much more than catching up a little around the house - laundry and such. Not even a voice lesson, since my teacher's heat went out, so we'll reschedule once her studio is warm again. Then I'll have one more lesson before my audition on Thursday. I'll ask to be considered for both the mezzo leads, but I can think of 4 or 5 other mezzos off the top of my head who've done leads for the company who could easily knock me out of contention. Given that I'm still solidifying my vocal technique, I'll be pleased if I just get a callback out of this audition. I'll probably accept chorus, if only because I want to get back on this company's radar before I audition for their "Pirates of Penzance" come spring. I really want to play Ruth!

One down, four to go

Wednesday's dress didn't go too badly. Good thing I have my own gloves, as the costumers didn't have anything to replace the pair of men's gloves they'd laid out for me, which were too big and had a broken wrist closure. I did have one big costume problem, though - in our second entrance I slipped on an overlong costume drape so that my feet slid right and the rest of me fell left. Thump! At least I managed to be more graceful getting up again than I was in hitting the deck. There were some weird balance things going on in the orchestra - musical cues I was expecting but not hearing - and some odd tempi, but nothing serious. Our costumes continue to develop; the ladies' closing costumes now have fetching little hats. Lovely little things, but figuring out how to secure them presented some difficulties at first. Not to mention figuring out which way they're supposed to face, where they're supposed to sit on your head - top, right, left...?

Last night was Opening Night. We had a much bigger audience than I'd expected (though I don't know the actual numbers) and they were very receptive and vocal - laughed at everything, applauded everything, and generally seemed as enthusiastic as we could possibly wish. I just hope they haven't spoiled us for subsequent audiences. ;) I think things went well - everyone in good voice, orchestra sounded good (though there was one place where we had trouble hearing a cue), good pacing. And no falls, though apparently the gazing ball got knocked off its stand at one point, and my Bunthorne badge, bearing the portrait of the poet the ladies are all mooning over, fell off during the Act I finale entrance and had not reappeared by the time I left last night. And I just realized this morning that the finger cymbals I use in that finale never made it back to me, either. I'll have to hunt up both those props as soon as I get to the theater tonight.

Costume annoyances: No one checked to make sure that those of us given men's gloves had gloves that fit. We were all supposed to get bags w/ our wreaths & blindfolds; I got a wreath, but had to ask for a blindfold. (But since I like the fabric & it goes w/ my dress, I'm keeping my mouth shut.) My dress still fastens w/ safety pins, not hooks or a zipper, the overdress is still in progress and is likewise attached w/ safety pins, and we got ribbons/streamers added at intermission last night, attached on the shoulder with - you guessed it - safety pins. If safety pins were banned from this show, most of these costumes would fall apart! And I dearly wish someone would HEM Lady Jane's dress, or at least trim it where it's fraying! The satin is lovely but it needs to be hemmed or something to keep it from fraying. That said, though, both sets of ladies' costumes do look lovely, and the men's uniforms turned out very well. The poets' costumes are great; the only ones I haven't seen are the officers' "aesthetic" costumes, because at that point I've been in the dressing room, changing into my 2nd costume and putting up my hair. It wouldn't be costume-appropriate to leave it down, not to mention that putting up my hair gives me more to pin the hat to.

This is a compressed schedule - performances Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday matinee & evening, Sunday matinee, then strike, then cast party. Whew! I'll be spending Monday getting over the worst of my theatrical withdrawal symptoms. Good thing I have an audition coming up on Thursday, and auditions the 2 or 3 weekends after that.

Aww...

This year's award for cutest trick-or-treater to show up at our door has to go to the woman who showed up with her baby daughter in a snuggli. The baby, being particularly round-faced and chubby-cheeked, was already adorable, but mom had made construction-paper headbands w/ bunny ears for each of them. Baby's set was white with colored accents, while mom's had the same colors reversed. Clever and sweet.