About the show part 2

I had a request to discuss more aspects of the production, so here goes!

The biggest question I remember getting when I told people we were doing SOM in China is "DO you have to learn Chinese?"

NO!

Thank goodness :)

If you go to my youtube and click on the video that is titled "Jens moments", you'll see that at the begining, the mom managed to very quickly catch the Chinese subtitling boards. Basically, we have electronic boards on both sides of the stage that broadcast the words in Chinese. You'll see it in the video as orange. They aren't huge, maybe 3ftx3ft.

I don't know if these boards belong to the production or if each house will offer something different to their audiences. Dal, the director, had mentioned that on the previous tour, lines were oddly translated in different cities, so I'm not sure how that works. I'll know this coming week!

Another major difference between this tour and the last asia tour, if I understand the comments directly, is that we have our own traveling orchestra of crazy Ukranians (and I say "crazy" as a term of endearment, they are awesome people and great fun!), but i believe the previous tour may have employed local musicians in each city. i'm not sure.

a comment was made that on the previous tour, there were 30 musicians, but you never knew what you were going to get, but this tour, we have 16 and we can know that the music will always be there. so i'm thinking they did not have their own orchestra last time.

as for ticket sales, i had mentioned this in a previous post, they do things very differently over here. we actually have absolutely nothing to do with box office. we sell the show to the presenter/sponsor who pays for the production upfront, and the onus is on them to sell tickets. so i have no idea how ticket sales are going.

i understand that some future presenters and possible presenters may have come to the show this week, but i'm not sure.

i can, however, tell you about our current audiences.

i can't see the balcony due to light positioning, so i'm not sure how sold the balcony is, but those are the significantly cheaper seats, so i have to imagine that the balcony is selling quite well.

the main seating area has been quite full too. opening night and the second night were the fullest. both nights were presenter nights where apparently he bought out most or all of the house. the second night was when we did something special afterwards.

the presenter had a contest where local kids could audition to perform "do re mi" with maria at the show. apparently hundreds of kids auditioned, and randy handpicked the final 7 winners. and omg were they just adorable! the youngest was teeny and sweet. they were all wearing way too much sparkly make-up, but their costumes were great, and they came out singing and dancing. they did a shorter version of "do re me" and i think some of it was in chinese too, because maria stopped singing where she normally would. the older kids spoke great english! they were so much fun! i taught them how to say "break a leg". so that was a busy night.

almost every performance the kids, captain, and maria have been getting flowers. our room is just covered.

i'm not getting flowers, but vivian is getting enough for the both of us.

the audiences are strange here. they are quiet during much of the performance, but there is definitely more talking than you'd find at an american theatre, even if you were in a house full of children.

they always clap along to do-re-mi, always off beat, so kudos to the kids for being able to stay with the orchestra and not going with the audience.

i dont think they understand the elsa bit. but tiffan does an incredible job, and we all know in an english speaking audience, she would be adored. she is just so funny.

i also think many may not understand the nazi part. our interpreters backstage asked me about it the other day. they thought they were saying "hi" and didn't get the salute. so i explained that they were actually saying a german word "heil" and that the salute was done by the nazis, and basically that doing it now is not a good thing, so not to do it backstage. i think they understood a bit about the nazis, but i dont know how much they learn of the world here in china.

but the audiences are enjoying it, and i believe a new permanent aspect of the production will be the cast singing do-re-mi during bows, as it is part of the bow music.

the crew backstage is awesome! i've made friends with most everyone, and they are really cool. and they are good at what they do. it's great.

i am told we will be starting understudy rehearsals a week from tomorrow, which is good. i do hope to go on some day, but it's one of these things- if i don't know the tracks, i'll have to go on. if i do know them, i won't have to go on. but i'd much rather know them for that "just in case" scenario.

i have to say the hardest part of the tour is my position within the cast. i am an adult who understudies kids who are adults. but i am not treated as one of the kids. the other two kid swings, whom i absolutely adore, always get to do the things that the other kids in the cast do, including vivian and maddy. but i am not invited. it feels weird that i am expected to be a kid but am not treated like one, even though i am an equal to the two i understudy. i dont get to go to the press things with everyone, or on the show related field trips (i'm not counting the school field trips for the real kids)... it's weird. i'm debating talking to radar (company manager) to ask him what i should be doing for future events, and explain the difficult position i feel i am in.

for example, last night at the presenter party, all of the kids, including maddy and vivian, and the two swing kids, got pandas from the presenter. but i didn't. and yet i am one of the kids too, as much as the four of them are. so i do feel left out quite a bit. it's weird. and last night, someone kept saying, "there's one panda left." i couldn't help but think that maybe it was mine, but no one actually said "it's for jen" and i didn't want to be presumptuous. so i think i need to have a conversation with radar to clarify my position.

if i know i should never expect to be included, that's one thing, as is knowing that i should always be included, that's one thing. but to never know if i should feel included or not? that's hard. so i think i just want to clarify that. take out some of the awkwardness i feel all the time. and radar is very cool. so it will be an easy conversation.

we are also in the process of nominating and electing cast representatives. one male and one female who represent the cast should their be an issue that the cast has. for some reason, most of the women seem to think it should be me. the representative is like an AEA deputy, but without having to follow the rules of AEA since we are non-jurisdictional.

one of the issues we have, for example... are these split city weeks and per diem. the current presenter pays for our per diem through tuesday, and then we get per diem from the next presenter tuesday or wednesday. but cast members feel that we should get our per diem for the week upfront, which i agree with. some of the adults believe that troika shold pony up the per diem for the week and pay themselves back when they get the money from the next presenter.

there is also an issue of currency exchange in regards to per diem, but i'm not entirely sure what that means.

please everyone, let me know if you have any more questions or anything else you want to know!