Work and Play

Tuesday, 15 Nov

Sunday-Monday
This weekend was relaxing, productive, and all about getting to know friends better!  Late night girl chats and renewing spiritual time with some of the cast made for a good start to a busy week!

Tuesday, 15 Nov
Costumes and sword fighting!
Today I was transformed into some of my favorite characters!  Or at least partially – some will be custom made for me 🙂  Consequently, I found out some of my much-anticipated casting for the other 2 shows!  It’s subject to change (and I also have alot of smaller ensemble roles), but the ones I’m most excited for are:
Mary Poppins (woohoo!!), Mrs. Potts, u/s Aurora, u/s Belle, u/s Cruella (she’s in 2 of our shows) 🙂

After that excitement came my first foray into sword play!  Steel sabers are a Disney pirate’s choice of weapon.  There’s alot to learn, and every new challenge reminds me how wimpy I am physically – but between sword work and puppetry, I’m going to have a really toned right arm by the end of the contract 😉

The rest of my day was vocal work, including understudy coaching.  My track is pretty full, but it’s a good challenge for me.  In case you (like me) don’t know what that involves, it means I have my own part, which I will normally perform (for this show, it’s my pirate part, puppet work for my Fate character, and ensemble singing offstage).  I’m also u/s’ing 2 girls (Cruella and Evil Queen), which I thought meant that I just learn the songs/scenes those characters are in – but instead, it means that I learn everything that both of those girls do in the show.  So, if I go in for Cruella, I will not do any of my normal parts (even if it’s in a number I’m usually in), but will perform all of her roles instead.  There’s alot of carry over, but there’s some extra choreography, a couple of vocal songs, and a different puppet for one of my scenes.  It’s tricky keeping straight who says/sings which part!  Understudying the choreography is the hardest part for me, though, since you don’t get to use the actual props/practice spacing and such with the other dancers…  Fortunately, we’re only a week into rehearsing this show and I’ve become good friends with one of our swings (she learns every dance part) 😉