So looking back on previous post, I was such a negative
bitch! That is over.
So I spent the summer in Ohio (like the Last 5 Years song) and I'm still not sure how it's effected me. I'll just start at the beginning.
So My Fair Lady was my first professional theatre show (my first ever professional show was Die Fledermaus in St. Augustine) doing costumes, hair, and performing. In summerstock you only have two weeks to produce a show. Coming from not having done a show in over 6 months, and before that having well over 6 weeks to produce a show, I naturally panicked and worked myself crazy!
Next I did costumes and supervised hair and makeup for Miracle Worker, which is a great show and gave me a decent amount of time to really get my barrings for how summerstock worked. It was a really hard show though because the director and Weathervane Playhouse's Managing Artistic Director, Matthew Trombetta died in a car accident after strike for My Fair Lady, which was only one week into rehearsal for Miracle Worker. It was especially stressful because he literally created what Weathervane has now become and was special to everyone there. But we pushed through and moved on to Producers.
Producers was an interesting experience. I started off doing costumes and 2 days before tech rehearsal I was put into the show because an actor dropped out. This meant learning music, choreography, lines, literally 2 days before tech. It was nice that they had enough faith in my skill and talent to put me in with so little time, but it was an incredibly daunting task. Looking back on it I'm really grateful for that opportunity because it assures me I can still function under stress and frustration (as i was frustrated at the time over the entire situation).
After Producers came Alice in Wonderland...which I have my opinions on but in my new motivation to stay with the positive I'll simply say it was an "interesting" production. It was definitely a highlight for me as it was my first Professional Hair and Make-up design credit (the previous shows I basically was given a picture and was told to make it happen). I think the over all looks turned out gorgeous, but wish I had a budget and supplies to really achieve the abstract and fantastical looks I had envisioned (think Cirque de Soliel). I also had an interesting experience I hope to never have again. I was TweedleDee and the tweedles have a 6 minute song about The Walrus and The Carpenter. towards the end of the run I found myself getting bored while performing the songs, and if the performer is bored, the audience is definitely going to be bored. So I jazzed it up and took the ending note (which originally was in unison but I decided to do a lower harmony) up an octave from the original unison note and riff. Well Chasdan Mike who was Dum liked it and we decided to play with the end again on the last night. Lesson 1: actually rehearse musical changes. L2: practice harmonic riffs before hand. L3: notify the sound designer before you go from singing bass to a soprano F (which is what I did when Chasdan took my octave note, which resulted in me overpowering the speakers). Lessons learned.
Finally the end of the season: The Ohio Premiere of Hairspray! it was great. Shook and shimmied the best that I could while belting Tenor 1 tessitura. Around this time I found myself getting extremely on edge with people. I mean you live and work with people for 2 months straight, tension is bound to rise and spill over but Thankfully I was able to restrain from cursing anyone out. But these tensions and negative feelings really made me look at myself and how people may perceive me and how I feel I should act and Positivity just seems like the way to go. We'll see how it goes.
I have three weeks until Kentucky so I'm using them to hopefully overhaul my lifestyle and prepare mentally and physically and financially for what I feel like is going to be 9 months of what I just went through (with hopefully more rehearsal time). If you made it through this congrats. It's mainly for my memory bank but I appreciate your effort!
