Strike

Yesterday I went to one of the most frustrating strikes I have ever been to in my strike history! As usual a good amount of people showed up. Some were working hard and the rest hardly working! My sisters, three of our girlfriends from the cast and one of the guys did most of the work. It wasn't too bad until we started putting in the pit.
At the theater we were renting part of the stage can be lifted off to make an actual pit. The pieces are very large and very heavy. They usually try and get some of the fathers there to help them put the pieces back in. We didn't have any there so we did it. By we I mean who I listed above plus our stage manager, conductor, director and tech head. That's it really... most of the time it was just us. The rest of the people sat in the hallway were the pieces were lined up and talked. We had to take the pieces lift them up onto a dolly that was placed in the center of the piece and roll it down the hall and onto the stage were we lifted it to roll the dolly out from underneath and gave it to our stage manager and director who lowered them into place. The others would sometimes help put the pieces on the dolly then they sat back down and basically left the really hard work to us.
One time we didn't get the dolly in the center and it was almost on one of our girl friend's foot. We were yelling down the hallway "Help! Help us! It's almost on Susie Q's foot! Help!" Finally after a good three minutes of yelling "Help" one of the guys finally noticed us and ran down to help.
When our producer got there she thanked us (those of us who were actually working) and then went out into the hallway. She asked them all what they were doing and they said "Oh we're talking, we're just taking a break." She came back in and asked my mother how long the break had been going, raised her eyebrows at my mother and that was it. She could never say anything bad about anyone. BTW: To take a break you had to have been doing something to take a break from!
I would like to tell all of you that you should never go to a strike if you're not going to do anything. Seriously if you think that you might end up doing more socializing than working than don't go. You'll only make yourself look bad and who wants that?

A few not so quick comments

As awesome as our shows were I have some behavior I did not like, as always. Please don't think that I hate my theater group and that they are a bunch of spoiled brats and divas. It's just easy to let out your anger to readers because, hopefully, they don't know the people in your tirade.
Any who, as I may have mentioned before my Mom, Wonder Woman, was working very hard on costumes for the show and she has been doing a lot of sewing and repair on costumes. She has been working so hard and we have not had one costume problem on stage. I couldn't believe how rude people were to her. One of the guy's pants were split right down the middle one night so he duck taped them together. He came to my mother the next day asking her to fix them 5 minutes before the cast picture! Are you kidding me?!
Another girl brought in a dress of her grandmother's which she insisted on wearing. Our producer, who was also a big part of costumes, asked her if she would mind wearing something else because the dress was very pretty but it made her look like an adult rather than a teen. She insisted on the dress. Then when the dress began to rip she can to my mother for repairs constantly . On the last day of the show she looked around the dressing room and and frantically demanded "Wonder Woman (she didn't call her that but that's what I call m amam in my posts) where's my dress?" Are you kidding me chick? With out Wonder Woman you would be going out on that stage with your dress falling to pieces! If one more person had come to my mother and been rude to her I swear to almighty God that I would have lost it. All I heard was "Wonder Woman did you fix this yet?" "Wonder Woman is that done yet?" "Could you do this?" "Could you pin that?" Do you know how many "Thank you's" I heard? NOT ENOUGH!
There were two guys in the show (twins actually) who, to be honest, were in the show because we need men. They are not very talented and I would not recommend acting or singing as a career path for either of them. They thought that they were just fabulous. They were the cherry on top of this musical sundae. They were 1) rude to Wonder Woman 2) Bowed more than once which was just stupid and our director said not to. They played many roles in the show and they bowed once for being one specific part and they again for the guys bow. Finally 3) just plain conceited. I don't know what their problem was but they just thought that show would just have to stop if they weren't there. They showed up late for scenes, pushed people aside backstage and were rude.
I feel better now.
Thank you for listening to my tirade. I hope that I didn't bore you and if I did I wouldn't blame you if you stopped reading. But sometimes there are things that you can't let go of until you say them out loud.

The Performances

I'm not sure that there are words to describe how fabulous our shows went. Anyone in the area who didn't see the show, their lives will never be complete. Our director was told over and over how people thought that this was our best show yet and it was the most talented group of kids.
 My sisters were fabulous and I couldn't be prouder of them. According to our producer we were referred to as "the gorgeous blond girls." It was an amazing experience and I can't believe it's over. On our closing night, it was a matinee and the energy was awesome. We all just got an extra zing and that performance was definitely our greatest. There is nothing better than having the energy of a million people inside yourself for a show. I love the adrenaline rush that just happens with some shows. It's absolutely amazing!

Tech Week

Ladies and Gents it has arrived...Tech Week! As you can expect it's been a little hectic with a couple of director outbursts and lights blinding you and what not. We do have an amazing pit though! They sounded amazing after only having played through the entire score two times! My mind was honestly blown.
I must vent to you my readers for a quick moment and then I am off to help our crew paint some of our set, which is also turning out very well. Last night at rehearsal we ran through some of the numbers in costume. One of our leads was complaining about her costume. She continued to tell many of the cast members that "They need to take this in. It's too big." 1) That is how our costumer wants the dress to be. If they want to take it in than they will that is not her decision. It fits her fine it's just not skin tight like she wants it too be. 2) There is no "they". There is Wonder Woman (my mom) and our choreographer sewing all of this stuff. We don't have a big team that we just dump things on. She needs to be less of a diva and just suck it up. They have bigger things to worry about than your dress being as tight as you want it.
Please do try and remember in your own show experience that somebody is working their butt off to make your costume look good and the fact of the matter is, sometimes you just have to suck it up cupcake.

Costumes

These past two rehearsals we have been in the process of costuming the cast. it has been an experience to put it simply. I can honestly say that I tried on a few dresses that I almost couldn't get out of. In the end we did find a few costumes that fit and we're going to give the options to our director. Both of my sister's got costumes as well. (My sisters if you don't remember are Lovely and Ursula. these names are from previous posts).
There are a few things though. My mother, who I personally think of as Wonder Woman, has kindly volunteered much of her time to helping with the show and a large part of her time has been spent on costumes. She spent hours with another mother and our producer in hot, stuffy, theaters finding costumes for us to rent. They took anything that they thought might work.
After fitting most of the leads they moved onto fitting ensemble, which is mostly girls. Our director really likes our costumes to look authentic to the time period of the show. Not like some movie versions that make everyone look cute, not historically accurate. If a character would have dressed in something ugly or ridiculous that is how our director wants you to dress. It has turned out very well in past years and our costumes have always looked great.
One dress was honestly, not great looking on the hanger. It was brown and it looked like a very messed up patch-work quilt. Every time they would send for a girl they all went in praying that they wouldn't wear the dress. However, one girl went in, tired it on and it looked cute! It just took the right girl for the dress. the ugly dress went through a Cinderella transformation on this girl. It just goes to show you that you can't judge a dress by how it looks on the hanger.
Some girls, I am getting this first hand from Wonder Woman, who is a reliable source, where less than helpful. They were openly unhappy trying on certain dresses and some didn't find a costume. However when asked to bring in a shirt or a scarf many girls looked at my mom and our producer like "Really? I thought costumes were your job." Take some initiative people! For God's sake go out and buy a pair of socks or the sweater, borrow one from a friend! It is not the difficult!
You don't need to be the prettiest girl on stage. This isn't your wedding dress it's a COSTUME! If you're cooperative and a good sport about things than the dress that you think is ugly that you have to wear might not be so bad anymore. Seriously just give it a chance!

1st Week of Rehearsal

Rehearsals for my summer show have officially begun. Am I excited? Absolutely! It has been so great to be reunited with the cast members from previous years.

Unfortunately I have had a recent injury that has made it difficult to dance. Yikes! Don't worry, I should be all healed up in time for the show. 

I've tended to be negative in my entries and I would like to start this post by taking the time to praise some of the good behavior I see around me. My theatre group isn't full of idiots who have the manners of neanderthals, you know.

As we all know, in life we can't sit back and take the time to let things happen to us. We have to put ourselves out there for people to notice. One lovely girl (I'll call her Lovely), unfortunately, tends to do exactly the opposite. She is a little shy and doesn't usually assert herself. but this week I am proud to say that she stood up and went for it!
For one of the scenes there was going to be a small group of girls who would be cheerleaders of sorts. When our choreographer asked if anyone would like to do it, Lovely slowly raised her hand and was chosen to be in this highlighted group! Hooray! You can't always sit back and wait for your talents to be discovered you have to remind people or go out for things for people to know.

But I digress. I was talking to another girl who happens to have a lead in the show. She confided in me that "I usually don't get into character until tech week or even the show." Well, I didn't really say anything but, you don't want to wait that long to get into character!
How you do in rehearsals is how you will perform. If you aren't getting into the character until the performance it will feel odd and different. It might throw you off! Don't take that risk. get into character as soon as you know who you are. When you are on stage you can't be you playing so-and-so. You have to be so-and-so.  

Also, I want to point out that when a director calls places, you go to your place with little to no conversation and when the director says something you don't have to call our you every thought and opinion. Just because you think your idea is great does not give you the right to slow down rehearsal and interrupt your director. My theatre group does it all the time! We loose valuable time that could be spent running a scene on working on a dance.

Today we were learning a new dance and my sister (I'll call her Ursula) was stuck next to a girl that kept insisting that whatever Ursula did was wrong. Now I know that sometimes Ursula probably was wrong but the other girl didn't need to be a snot and point it out. If Ursula was doing it wrong she new. More to the point, the other girl was wrong just as much as Ursula. Well, if you do happen to be in a rehearsal and a person is doing the dance wrong or something else wrong you don't have to be rude and tell her "You're wrong!" or "That's Wrong!" all the time. It comes off as snotty even if you meant it in the nicest way possible. How you say something affects how a person reacts. Anyway it's not your job to correct everything and everybody. If a person is doing something wrong the director or choreographer or whoever, will correct them. That's their job not yours.

I hope to keep you posted, Ta-Ta for now :)