About the show...

So I haven't written much about the show itself.

I am in the track commonly known as the "Ursula" (oor-soo-la) track. What this means in english? Props-mover in costume.

Yes, that is basically all I do. I appear as a postulant (almost nun) in the opening, the wedding, and the finale. And I appear as the "new postulant" in act 2 (which means I go on stage for all of 30 seconds in a pink-ish costume, before walking off-stage). Otherwise, I am Ursula. You never hear my name uttered, and I have one line "Frau Shrader?" as I offer her a plate of something, though it's always empty, so I'm not sure what I offer, and the other 10 or so times I appear on stage, I am just moving props around. I bring on and off a "poof" as we call it, a few times. I bring on and off the bed in the storm scene. I bring on and off some wine, I help open a door... the list goes on. My favorite props moving part is at the begining of the wedding scene- I have a little dance with the veil, the rings, and the flowers. i also run on stage then off again as a member of the 3rd place prize-winning trio of singers at the festival. I intend to make a video clip of my "blink and you'll miss me" moments of this show. My entire stage time shouldn't be a video of longer than 5 minutes or so.

It's pretty easy, actually, it's really just remembering all of the little things here and there.

I've been working on learning the Louisa track. Then I'll move on to Liesl. But I've been trying to learn the Liesl-only stuff, but she has a lot of random little scenes here and there, so I need to get the blocking for those.

I'm hoping to get to go in soon. I'm nervous because Dal, the director, is leaving Asia the day we open, so he'll be completely gone and unable to give me blocking. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of the Liesl scenes while learning nun stuff, which is why I don't really know what's going on.

I'm hoping to videotape a dress rehearsal so that I can have a full performance video- with costumes- so that I can learn the blocking (albiet backwards) for both roles.

Speaking of nun-stuff, I'm finally getting around to learning the harmonies. I was sick for so long, I couldn't get anything out during rehearsals. Now I can get everything out, but it's not so pretty above a middle C. Which is good, I only go above that in one or two measures of all of my nun stuff. But it would be great to get it all.

My voice teacher from Singers Forum sent me some warm-up files, I should start using those to get my voice back into shape.

There are rumors flying about who will be covering Brigitta. Vivian would actually make a near-perfect cover, if CJ (Marta) is unable to learn it. So if V went on for Brigitta, I would have to go on for her. But none of this has been DONE, it's just rumor and speculation.

Also, some other rumors are flying about the show. For example, our schedule is only a definite for the next two cities (Chongqing and Wuhan). After that, lord only knows. But there is a two week break somewhere much later down the line. One rumor is that we will be sent home (back to the states) and then come back to another country, such as INDIA, which would rock!

But we shall see!

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After rehearsal, a large group of us attempted to go to dinner in an expat area, a tex-mex restaurant. A group went ahead of us, and 5 were left.

We spent 40 minutes trying to hail a cab, it was ridiculous. We ended up being spread out, one on each corner of a HUGE intersection, trying to hail a cab. and when one finally came, it wouldn't take all 5 of us. So the guys got out, and the girls went. Somehow, the guys actually beat us there, and their fare was cheaper! Um, UNfair!

The restaurant was very kitchy, all fake tex-mex stuff, but let me tell you, the food was AMAZING. it was exactly what we needed, I can't even tell you. We were RAVENOUS by the time we got there.

American food should typically be avoided here in China. If you think the fast food in America is poor quality, you haven't seen it here. We've tried them all, McDonalds is by far the best, but we have only resorted to going there twice so far, and hope to not have to do it again. It's actually the onlyone that is close to American standards, but the portions are all much smaller.

The large group had gotten there 45 minutes before us, so they waited around, but we were so far behind that they ended up leaving, which is fine. That left 5. After eating them out of house and home, it was time to go.

We tried to hail a cab again, and one stopped. We handed him our room key with the hotel address, and he had no clue. He was clearly one of the non-reading cab drivers the moms warned us about. He kept trying to read the "insert card this way" on the back of the card, despite how many times we pointed to the address on the front of the card. Finally, he drove away.

Yes, the moms mentioned that you should always hand your card upside down. if it's a reading driver, he'll turn it the right way. if it's a non-reading driver, he won't. and it's probably not as safe to be in a car with a non-reading driver, but who knows?

But a group of expats and chinese walked up behind us, and the lady tried to steal our next cab, but luckily their "ringleader" was like, "no it's their cab." again, we handed the room key to the driver who had no clue. the ringleader guy was awesome and said "let me" and he spoke to the guy in chinese and told him where to go, and we got there safely and quickly.

so this explains a LOT about chinese drivers.

then we came back and played catchphrase for about 3 hours. everyone (almost, not, me of course) was drinking, and it was just fun. LOUD, but fun!

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I have to admit, I'm not really missing home yet. I think it's because it's all so new right now, and we are being kept generally very busy. But i'm sure in a few weeks, when the novelty of being in China wears off, and the show isn't in full-time rehearsals anymore, and whatnot, I'm sure that is when I'll really feel it. It's very weird to me. But I did go away to summer camps often, and this kind of feels like college in a way, so it's very familiar and whatnot. I think that is the real problem. But I know the homesickness will come!

I do miss everyone, though, but I'm sure I will be overtaken by homesickness in the near future, when I realize I'm not coming home for quite a while.

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I need to take some time to get more videos online. I have a Youtube site, you should go there and watch some Chinese Opera videos. Also, visit my photobucket. I need to do some updating there as well. And if you have facebook, you can see lots of photos of me there that other people have posted.