Almost Forgot!! Jawas in Don Giovanni!

How could I forget to post this most important thing about Don Giovanni???

At several points during the performance, a monk-like figure would silently walk across the balcony at the back of the stage. Then there were monks at the end too. Monks... in exactly the same outfits I wore as a monk when I supered in Romeo.



Of course my exact robe probably wasn't on stage, since I'm just 5 feet tall and I think these were all guys, but it was from the same set. And now I see that yes, we did look like Jawas. And so did they.

Opening Night Report

Hoo boy so much to tell, so little time. I'll just tell it in order as I remember things. Photos to follow in a future post.

Before the show, the costume woman came to the dressing room and said, "Liz walked out in the middle of the Cenerentola dress rehearsal." Shocked silence. We all thought, "But... I just saw her..." The she went on, "That's the third assistant to quit on me." Later we found out that we all thought that she meant our Violetta!

I had gotten Liz (the singer, not the costume person!) a gift to celebrate opening night - a very sparkly purple and pink stuffed animal octopus. I should have taken a picture of it. I also got her a cute sparkly sequin-covered pen that perfectly matched the octopus. She wasn't in her dressing room when I got there so I sort of jammed it in by the doorknob. She seemed to like it. Who wouldn't love a purple and pink shiny octopus?

Moving right along... places please for the top of the show! Here's where I must ask - What is the purpose of a final orchestra dress rehearsal if things are different on opening night? It was no big deal that instead of a vase, the bouquet of flowers was now in what appeared to be a crystal ice bucket. It had a handle. There was 1 real flower and the rest were fake. The director wanted fresh flowers but it probably wasn't in the budget. So as the show began they totally blacked out the backstage area. While we were standing there waiting everyone was very quietly goofing around and being silly. Then Michael did his opening thing onstage, came backstage and was immediately blinded. Then, there in the dark, he said, "Oh man, I don't have water." I had just put a new bottle of water down against the wall so I gave it to him. It had one of the rubber chickens attached... (I picked up a few more after I gave one to Cody) So then the clog guy from the previous post said, "That was nice of you." and I said, "Not really." I wouldn't want our lead tenor to crack on his high C because his throat was dry... besides, I had another full bottle down in the dressing room. But even if I didn't I would have given it to him, or anyone who needed it. Well, maybe.

Ok opening scene was fine. A little crowded as Rachel was trying to put glasses on the table in one direction and I was going the other way to put the plates from the chairs to the place settings, but we worked it out. Then we went off to prepare to serve the drinks. That's when I encountered another difference from the final dress - there were heavy blackout curtains along the wings. It was impossible to see where the openings were. So I got my tray of champagne flutes. New flutes - I'd never seen these before. Nice and... light... So I was holding the tray, trying to negotiate around this heavy curtain without sizzling my costume or skin on the thing of lights back there and without tripping on my skirt... and the curtain swung back and hit the tray. It was like slow motion. One, two glasses went over. I put the tray down on the stair prop where they rolled and knocked the other three over. Rachel was waiting to go after me and I said, "I'm not going!" Couldn't go out with a wet tray of nothing... then when they came back Kelly said that two of her glasses spilled, so Casey, the asst stage manager, got some paper towels, then they were standing there all staring at each other like, "What do we do?" So I said, "Here, give them to me!" And I went on stage from the most upstage wing, found the spill, got down on my hands and knees and crawled along drying the floor, all while "Libiamo" was going on around me. I was behind the table, and there's a long table cloth, so the audience probably didn't know I was there. I was trying not to laugh, and wanted to get off stage as quickly as possible, so when I got up I went straight back, which meant I had to split up a couple who had their arms around each other. I don't even know who it was - I was just intent on getting the heck outta there. Later a lot of people were like, "Wow, that was great the way you came out to clean that up! You're a great actor." I think they thought I came up with that idea on my own.

We run back onstage for the money-throwing scene. I lapsed into believing that it was real - I was truly concerned about this fight and horrified when he threw the money. I felt it happening to me and I just relaxed into it. Then there's a little scuffle/fight and they stumbled upstage near us, and then I was actually concerned so that was easy to portray.

Then we were done. No chorus or supers in Act 3.

In the dressing room I learned that most of the chorus was leaving, either to go back to the dorms to drink, or out for a drink. Seemed like very few were hanging around for the reception, although some indicated that they were going out for a drink and coming back. I was a bit surprised that no one wanted to stay to watch and support the principals for the rest of the production. Kelly and I went upstairs and sat on the floor near the balcony railing. One of my coworkers is a volunteer usher and he was there. He came over and said, "Were you up there?" Uh, yeah? He didn't recognize me when I was on stage, how funny is that? "Were you singing?" Uh, nope. So I leaned on the balcony and lost myself in the story. My heart was breaking for Violetta when she read the letter and lost it and cried, "Where are you? I've waited and waited and now it's too late!" and the tears started to well in my eyes. I got more and more weepy as Violetta became more desperate, then Alfredo comes, joyful reunion, more tears, then the "I'm better, I'm worse, I'm cured, I'm dead," is so beautiful and moving. I'm just like my mother, beautiful opera makes me cry.

There were no other mishaps, at least not from my perspective. Everyone sounded great. Liz was amazing. Micheal was too, but she stole the show, by far. Andy, who plays Alfredo's father, was great too. Everyone was.

So after making sure my mascara hadn't turned me into a raccoon face, I went downstairs to wait for the reception to begin. There I met Jen Aylmer, who you might recognize here. My first impression was that she's short! And... that was her first impression of me too. "You're short!" she exclaimed. "I guess I appear tall in emails," I replied, "It's the long hair!" she said. It was funny. She wants to meet Alex, her youngest fan. When I told him he said he didn't want to meet her. We'll see...

The reception was your typical post-opera reception, sans alcohol. There was hummus, veggies, fruit and cookies, and a fountain of cranberry juice-ish punch. And of course the same set of older patrons I had to shove through to meet John O. The performers descended upon the food like vultures. I'm including myself in that group. All we had backstage for the past 3 hours was chocolate. Sounds nice in theory but real food was suddenly very attractive.

Our next performance is Sunday at 2. Hopefully someone will hold that snarky curtain aside so I can get on stage before I spill it all. I mean, someone WILL hold it. After all, now that my secret fantasy to crawl around on my hands and knees in front of a paying audience has finally been fulfilled, I want more, heh heh heh.

Final Dress Fiascos

The title of the post is probably misleading but I couldn't resist. For the most part, the final dress went well, as far as I could see. So here's the fun stuff, including the fiascos.

The lead tenor dude wasn't there – I think he was singing somewhere else – so his cover did the role. He was pretty nervous, and seemed a little tight at first, but eventually relaxed into it and opened up to a fuller, rounder sound. So before the performance started, when we were all backstage waiting to go on, I was sticking the real flower into the bouquet of fake ones that I take out and place on the table. I told him I'd place the vase on the table with the flower toward the front and he got sort of brusquely – "Make sure it's facing front. FRONT. Ok? Got it? It has to be facing the FRONT." Yeah, uh, I know… But THEN he turned to the two choristers next to me and said with a smile, "Have a great time out there tonight!" Well if you've been reading my blog for any length of time you know that this type of behavior up with I will not put. So I tapped him on the arm and said laughingly, "Hey! How come you're all nice and smiley to them, but you were all demanding and non-smiley with me? THAT'S not right." He paused for about a second, then he immediately apologized and smiled, and he was really nice the rest of the evening. On the spur of the moment I gave him the tiny rubber chicken I had been planting on the poker table for Act 2 Scene 2. He kept asking me, "Is this for luck?" and I wouldn't say. I would pause and then say, "Ok, sure. It's for luck. Yeah." or, "If you want it to be." He did keep it in his pocket for the entire performance.

Onstage serving the drinks it was a bit crowded. Everyone is in big poofy dresses and making grand flamboyant gestures. Rachel and I almost bumped into each other – what a disaster of spilled ginger-ale THAT would have been! Then I go sort of crushed in the crowd so I exited on the wrong side and had to scoot back around, no big deal.

There's a tv monitor in the green room so we can see what's going on onstage. So a bunch of us were hanging out, taking pictures and watching the monitor, when suddenly: silence. Violetta was supposed to be onstage. Silence grew awkward as people started saying under their breath, "C'mon, c'mon! Ohmigod!" and then someone said, "Kirstin! GO!" She's the cover for the role. She was like, "But... wouldn't they page me? I don't..." and meanwhile a couple people were pushing her toward the hallway. I was like, OMG, something must've happened to Liz, and I ran to her dressing room and knocked on the door. No answer. I came back and heard someone say, "There she goes." And a moment later she entered the scene. Whew.

One scene change they couldn't get a scrim or something to drop from the ceiling, so they had us clear the backstage area while they brought a cherry picker on stage. Yes, that's right, a cherry picker. I was standing there when someone moved the prop table over to make way for this contraption. That's all I saw before the stage manager asked us to skedaddle.

So for the poker and fight scene, the director decided to have the servants run on stage along with the guests. Rachel ended up one row over in the wings due to the bed that was there for the next act, a bed that if anyone touched it it collapsed off its precarious table they balanced it on. Nice. So Kelly runs, I'm supposed to be after her, then Rachel, then Ken. But since Rachel couldn't see us, she ran out sort of at the same time and we had a physics problem in that two people cannot occupy the same space at the same time. So I let her go in front of me, no big deal, but then I wasn't sure exactly where to stop. It all worked out since we can't really be seen all the way upstage behind the chorus. Then the singing was so beautiful that I was getting weepy, so I was standing there trying not to cry. After all, my mascara wasn't waterproof!

Back in the dressing room a few people had problems or complaints about the costumes. Mine had many loose threads in the hem that caught on my shoes at I walked, and somehow a pin had been sewn into the hem. Most people had a good attitude about it. After all, it's pretty impressive that the small costume department can throw together fancy costumes for three operas in a short period of time. One reason we have a dress rehearsal is to identify the problems and fix them before opening night. But a couple of people were a little impatient about their particular problems. I was actually a little taken aback by their behavior when informing the costume person about the issues. All I needed was a scissor to snip a few loose strings, not a big deal at all.

Then I was done. I called my voice teacher who was in the audience, made my way through the bowels of the theater and went into the house to I watch the final act.

I'd never seen the entire act in order. It was great. Violetta is dying for the entire act. She'd have an attack, regain strength, pass out, get a little better... "Is she dead yet? Not yet... Is she dead yet? Not yet..." Finally she collapses into Alfredo's arms and he lays her gently on the floor. Everyone around me was sniffing and blowing their noses. Oh and of course during one quiet bit a woman nearby was unwrapping a hard candy or something in a very crinkly wrapper, very very slowly, then she slowly I think folded it up... WHY WHY WHY???????

Then the curtain call was fun to watch too, except Elizabeth wasn't feeling well (after all, she just played a dying woman for the previous 3 hours) and she looked a little peaked up there. I never would have known - her performance was wonderful. She throws herself into the part completely and is often crying and emotional when she exits the stage, because Violetta is. It boggles my mind that she can sing while almost crying like that, but she does, and it's beautiful.

Anyone local out there reading this should come see her perform. And bring tissues.

The Ridiculous Costume

A professional photographer comes to the show to take pictures, and he also does professional head shots for what they say is a reasonable price. Not that I would know.

Turns out he was there today and snagged a couple of shots of the costume that stopped the show with a fit of giggles:



These photos were taken by photographer Jeff Reeder. Look, not only does he have that professional web page, he also keeps a blog. Check it out!

Piano Dress!

The question burning in everyone's mind - to wig or not to wig? And the magic 8 ball says, NO!
Hooray! When I got there I asked the wig people. One of them looked at me and said (nicely), "You can wear it in a braid if you can contain it." So needless to say she ended up putting it up (containing it?) into a huge wide bun.



I'm 2nd from the right in this picture. I marshaled the supers together for a picture, and then Kirstin, one of the overly-pretty platinum blonds in the chorus, was walking by so I grabbed her and pulled her in. (Yes, I know what platinum blond looks like. She's wearing a wig.) She's really sweet. I think you can see in the picture that Ken and Rachel (left and 2nd from left) are really shy, Kelly (next to me) is kind of shy, and me, I'll grab anyone and hug them in close for a picture.

You can't see it in the picture but we also had this white lacy thing sort of stuck on the top of the buns. That's the hair bun, by the way.

I just want to warn you, don't stare at those checked dresses too long or your eyes will go all wonky.

There is much to tell about the rehearsal. Like, how we had ginger ale in the glasses, and Elizabeth (Violetta) chugged a glass down as she does as part of the action and it spilled all down the front of her dress. Then there's supposed to be something called a "click-track" which is prerecorded music that's supposed to be coming from another room, but although they tried like 5 times, the music never started, and then it started about 5 minutes later just as Violetta and Alfredo were about to kiss. They had been arguing since yesterday that it'd be better if the orchestra played it, and today's rehearsal proved they were right. I, of course, have no idea if they prevailed. I guess I'll find out... Ok, so later, there's a scene where a messenger comes in to give Violetta a letter. Remember, this is the first time we're all seeing everyone's costumes. Kelly and I had climbed up to the top of the stairs and were watching from this ledge on the side of the house (remember, the house is the word for the part of the theater where the audience sits). So out comes John dressed in his messenger costume - long straight hair wig, a straw hat, baggy pants that ended below the knee and... wooden clogs. Traviata is a tragic opera, very tragic story. Everyone -cast, crew, the spattering of visitors in the audience - burst out laughing and kept it up for about 5 minutes. The director was like, "Maybe we need to rethink your costume... try it again without the shoes..." It was hilarious.

After Ken and I moved the table on, one of the interns was there holding my tray of glasses, and as I took it from her, she didn't let go. I was tugging it because my cue had come and gone. Then the drinks were sliding and she was trying to straighten them. Finally I said, "Just let go!!!" and ran on stage to serve them. I swear I spend most of my time onstage trying not to laugh at whatever was going on moments before I enter.

Final dress, with a real orchestra: Tuesday.

Whatever you do... DON'T LOOK DOWN!

Surprise surprise - no parking fiasco today! Another surprise, although I would have known had I looked carefully at the schedule - no chorus today, just principals, smaller parts, covers and supers. Michael wasn't there so his cover did the part. I forget his name - Cody maybe? He was pretty good. They ran through the entire thing so I got to see parts I hadn't heard before. Everyone is awesome!

When the supers were done we went to the costume shop to get our dresses fixed. Someone had previously put these huge hacked-up hems in them so they had them taken out. Then there was far too much material so they had to cut the bottom. I went first. I had to climb up on this pretty high table. Like, I got on a chair and still had to put a knee onto the table to get up - I couldn't just step up. The costume woman, who was in a surprisingly good mood, (another surprise!) sat at the edge of the table with her hands on it: "Come forward. More. More. Keep coming. Forward. A little more..." Until my feet were touching her hands. I mean, right at the very very edge of this rather tall table. For some reason I was reminded of being at the doctor's or dentist's office where they tell you to do stuff and you just trust them. Then she said, "Whatever you do, DON'T LOOK DOWN!" and went to work snipping, snipping. I had my new strappy character shoes on and all my weight was in my heels. I imagine I was even lurching backwards a bit. Then she said, "I'm going to hold your ankles. Turn SLOWLY to the left." Inch, inch, inch... around I went. Snip, snip, snip. Then the ankle hold again while I turned my back to her. Then of course I was leaning forward with all my weight in my toes. She finished up and I couldn't get off that table fast enough. Then it was Rachel's turn. I took her picture up there. Is that dress not the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen? Oh wait by gorgeous of course I mean HIDEOUS! It makes everyone's eyes go all wiggly. I cropped the picture and tried to fuzz out the lights because they were so bright, hence the weirdness around her head. Wow I just used the word 'hence' in my blog. The hands working on the hem belong to a sitting-down person. I was tempted not to include that info because then the table would seem even bigger, and therefore my adventure even more adventurous, but then I realized that none of my intelligent readers would believe that such a high table would exist.

So, I learned today how far I can lean in one direction without falling over. Can't wait to see if I'm sore tomorrow in leg muscles I didn't know I had.

Photo: Rachel getting her dress snipped.



I asked the costume woman if we were going to wear bonnets and she said, "Oh, have you been called to the wig shop yet?" Uh.... how is anyone going to be able to put a wig over this head of hair???

Looks like there might be some more opera adventure in my future - but this one better not involve snipping!

Anticipating an Adventure

Rehearsal starts an hour from now. I'm already wondering what my parking adventure will be.

We have a costume fitting today. I have to wear my new fabulous shoes and climb up onto a Very Tall Table so the costume kids and their dragon-master can pin and sew me into my dress.

I will, of course, post a full report of the evening at some point tomorrow or Monday.

Splashes, Shoes and a Rubber Chicken

Sunday

While I realize that I promised to write about Sunday's rehearsal, the truth is, I was sort of ill, took very few notes and don't remember much. Let's see, I drove down a questionable alleyway to find my way to that one-way street mentioned in the first rehearsal. I even remembered how to get back to the car afterwards.

Ok here are my notes as scribbled in my notebook:

water in glasses
dancers
principals come in last, sit together, hug the director
sing octave lower to protect voice
cell phone or electronic game sound
Director: "You know why Verdi wrote it like that? The orchestra stops... To shut up the Italian audience."
and
"It's not sloppy drunk but it's feeling good."

So let's see... during the musical rehearsal there was some sort of cell phone or electronic game noise playing. Everyone scrambled to check their phones, except, of course, the owner of the offending device. Eventually the stage manager looked in his bag, and yup, it was his. Oops.

The glasses we brought out on trays had water in them. Blah blah blah not very interesting. I already posted the interesting part, when Ellen picked the wax out of Michael's ear. Yes, it was that kind of day. And now, three days later, I'm still waiting for the Imodium to wear off.

Oh! Here's one nice thing! Meanie girl actually smiled and said hello, and has been friendly even. It's as if she read the blog and recognized herself. I highly doubt it.

Tuesday

Yes, yet another parking fiasco. I didn't have to be there until 7:30 so I figured I'd have no problem finding a spot on Prospect Street near the rehearsal building. And in fact, there were no cars parked on Prospect Street for the 1st quarter mile.... because all the spots were blocked by friggin' saw-horses! There were "no parking" bags (yes, bags) on the meters. I was like a mile down the road before I spied an empty spot another quarter of a mile away. While I am a very big fan of walking, and do like a brisk walk after dinner, I don't relish the idea of leaving rehearsal at 10:00PM to walk a mile in the dark to my car. Alone.

So once again I drayed around until I found a spot on another street slightly closer than the spot I would have gotten on Prospect. Turns out that a Transformers Movie was being filmed there, during the day, which meant that the spots had to be blocked all day and all night. Or maybe someone forgot to unbag the meters.

So I did eventually make it to the rehearsal with time to spare.

I had been sort of ignoring it before, but the director has a sort of hissy fit when people talk when they're not supposed to. I suppose he has a point but he'll be calmly giving direction to someone and then suddenly he'll snap and shout, "SHUT UP!" It's shockingly effective. Individually everyone seems ok but when the chorus gets together they are very much like a bunch of kids.

EXCITING SUPER NEWS TO REPORT!! We've been put into the opening scene! (rah, rah rah.) Half the chorus enters and we come in behind and stand in the back. I'm carrying a vase of flowers, Kelly has plates and forks, Ken has two bottles and Rachel has a tray of glasses. The chorus does this slow motion move for a count of 8 and then when they break out and move at speed we step forward and set the table as fast as we can. Then we run off in time for Kelly to go back on to give Violetta her two flutes of champagne. Next we take our trays of drinks out. As I stepped out with my tray, one of the glasses wobbled... and over it went with a splash. Did I mention that they were full of water? Oscar-worthy actor that I am, I ignored it and went on to serve the drinks. Kelly later said that she heard the splash and was thankful that it didn't come from her tray. The asst stage manager ran out to wipe up the floor and said that if it happens during a performance one of us would come out with a towel to clean it up. Great. Nothing quite like the potential for humiliation in front of a paying audience to give me a steady hand.

We also got fitted for costumes. I should have taken a picture of the delightful black and white checkered floor length, long-sleeved, high-lace-collared dress I get to wear. It was a little too long so they have to take out the horrible choppy hem someone put in it and redo it while I'm wearing the shoes. Patty, the head costume person, was just as surly and frightening as she was last year. The interns are just as young and all have normal names! Meaning, there's not an Ashely, Brittney, Taylor or any other soap opera name among them. I guess classic names really have made a comeback. Of course I don't remember any of their names. So anyway my dress fits just fine otherwise, thanks to my post-pregnancy, um, figure, (I will continue to "blame" pregnancy for my new, larger shape for as long as I can, meaning, for the rest of my life) but for the Kelly and Rachel and their fat-free dancer-bodies some adjustments have to be made to account for the extra material in the chest area. Ahem.

We made it back to rehearsal in time to move the table on for the poker scene. I had been debating about whether or not to bring a fake spider or other small plastic insect to stick on the table, but decided that I didn't want to risk really fooling anyone - those toy bugs are frighteningly realistic. So instead I took a tiny Lego man and sat him down behind the bag of poker chips. At the end of the scene when we brought the table off he had moved to behind the ashtray and under some money. I calmly palmed him as I arranged the stuff on the table and no one said a word. So today I brought home from work a tiny rubber chicken I had there, and I do mean tiny - like less than an inch long - to put there on Saturday.

Today I went to a nearby Capezio outlet to get character shoes. This store!!! I can't believe I didn't know about it before!!! Very cool shoes meant for dancers but perfect for fancy events, all leather, mind you, for under $30! Sale shoes were $5 a pair!!! $5! For high-heeled leather strappy shoes and sandals! And the dance clothes are like workout clothes, also super cheap and adorable. $5 racks of what look like super-comfy yoga pants, racks of sport bras in all sizes and colors... if I didn't have Alex with me I would have spend a few more $$ than I did on my new shoes.

Next rehearsal: Saturday night.
Goals:

1. Don't trip in the shoes
2. Don't spill anything
3. Talk to the principals
4. Plant the tiny rubber chicken on the poker table

My Alternate Blog Life

Rehearsals for La Traviata start next week. The super captain send an email saying that once again the opera company is looking for guest bloggers so I whipped up an entry and emailed it to the woman in charge. It hasn't shown up on the blog yet but I think it will. Last year's social dynamics thing went a little too far, publicity-wise, so I decided to tone it down a bit and submit more user-friendly entries. This one was inspired by a comment I left on one of Joyce DiDonato's recent blog entries. It sort of reads like a high school essay. Don't worry, my entries here will not be affected, I promise.

June 9, 2008

A Super Summer - What to Wear?

I'm very excited to be a part of my <>'s summer season. This year I'll be a supernumerary, or, "super," in La Traviata. The supers perform the non-speaking, non-singing roles in operas. I haven't had the first rehearsal yet so I don't know exactly what part I'll be playing, but I've already had to submit a form with all my measurements for the costume department.

It amazes me that someone can look at this list of measurements and sew together a costume to fit. Last year as a monk my costume seemed simple – a monk's robe – but each person is a different height, with different length arms, so the costume department had to make many last minute adjustments so we all looked exactly the same. Then they label the costumes so you don't grab the wrong one when it's time to get dressed.

The costume department does more than make all the costumes from scratch. During the production one costume person was in the dressing room before the show helping anyone who needed assistance. Several costume people were backstage checking each person prior to going on stage. They were busy for most of the performance, fixing hems, repairing tears and doing whatever else needed to be done to ensure that we all looked perfect. I'm not sure but I think each lead in the production had a dedicated costume person who helped them change between scenes. In spite of all this crazy activity just before and during the show, they always had a friendly smile and were always ready to help.

I'm looking forward to finding out what kind of costume I'll be wearing this year!


*******
Is that ending dorky enough? Wow, it's true, I really am a geek. Well, that doesn't surprise me. It also doesn't surprise me that no matter what I do, I can't get this section to go flush to the left like the top section.