windelina | I just wanna bang on the drums all day

I've got a half day today before I take off, and that means there's stuff I should be doing here at work.
I'm not doing it.
Natch.

I'll get to it! Really!

So, I hustled off to the last kids performance last night. Which got started 20 minutes late cuz the light guy forgot about it and had to hurry over. No biggie, except that I was starting to get stressed about getting to the G&S callback on time. I did, actually. But it meant that I couldn't hang out at all or congratulate the kids after. Suckage.

First we read one big group scene with the men.

Then the director and music director convened. Then the men left and the women sang. One of Lisa's (the innocent young thang) songs.

Then 4 of us were asked to sing for the Baroness (the battleaxe). I was one of them. Since I'd been singing so much head voice, pretty stuff, my belty-chest voice wasn't really in place. So, I didn't do real well at this. But the director knows I do a lot of belting roles, so it makes sense that he had me sing for this. Even though the other three women were either older or larger than me. Interesting.

Then the other three are told they can go, but I should stay to sing for Julia (the lead, a sassy actress). The director makes it clear that he wants to see how this ACTRESS character is acting out the song. Three of the 10 women there did anything close to what I consider big enough.

Then we read a scene with the Baroness and Julia. (Interesting that he didn't have any of the Baroness singers stay to read for the Baroness.) He had me read for the Baroness and then for Julia.

Observation: most people who do Gilbert & Sullivan are singers, not actors. (Good heavens, there was some awful acting going on.)

Observation: some people who do Gilbert & Sullivan are snobs. See below.

At one point, I made a comment to another woman about doing "musical theatre". "Gilbert & Sullivan is not musical theatre," says she. I backpedaled a bit and tried to be generous while sticking to my guns.

But it IS musical theatre. When "Les Mis" is considered musical theatre, and "Kismet", and many other challenging scores - then you can't say that the difficulty of the music is the definition. You can be nit-picky and say it's "light opera", but let's be realistic people. It's theatre with music (yes, I consider opera musical theatre mostly too, if it's done right. Most times, it's just a concert with costumes.).

The most important thing, to me, is that I sang well. I felt confident in my upper voice, which I haven't in years. You have no idea how reassuring and comforting and exciting it is for me. I could be a "songbird" again, if I really wanted to. And it's nice to have that choice.

They'll be calling today and through the weekend about casting. I'm not thinking about that right now. Too many headaches there.

3 more hours, then it's off to BNAT BNAT BNAT!
I get to fly on a plane - twice! I get to see loads of movies and people I only see once a year! I get to have good food with good friends!