Yesterday.

I guess it deserves a post, since nearly the entire day was a rehearsal for "Annie" but it was kinda overwhelming and I really don't even know where to start. This might be longer than my usual posts, so ENIL, feel free to NOT read it. ;)

I didn't get much sleep Friday night, and I had to get up at 7:30 *whines* to get ready on time. I started off tired, and that's really bad for an all-day rehearsal. You're really tired at the end even if you started off energetic. I spent the nearly whole rehearsal half-asleep (never good if you're supposed to be remembering your lines) and about to collapse. I had some caffeine, but that only hyped me up to a normal level of consciousness for about 30 minutes.

We started off rehearsing Act 1, Scene 6, which takes a lot of energy; lots of dancing and moving heavy props. And I promise you, whatever you imagined for "heavy props" is nowhere near accurate. They are MUCH heavier than that. To find out what they are.... well, you'll just have to come to the show. And for those who don't see the show, if I decide to be nice (read: if I remember) I'll tell you about them after the show. Sorry, can't tell beforehand.

So we ran through the whole play and started working on costumes. It was really fantastic. I've never been on a stage as nice as NRCA's stage.... with a huge backstage and 5 ins... wow. The lights, sets and props are really cool. And the "loft"!!! Their costume storage is above the dressing rooms in this, well... loft. There's a set of (wobbly) metal stairs leading up to the most awesome collection of costumes... it was sooooo exciting. And you could look over the edge and see a great view of backstage.

I was kinda disappointed with the dressing rooms though. For such a nice stage, the dressing rooms are really small. It's going to be hard to get anything done with more than about 10 girls in there. They're designed pretty bad too.... the door opens in such a way as to give an open view to anyone walking by to the whole dressing room... and everyone inside. O.O If the door opened to the right instead, all passers-by would see is a wall. *sigh* So as it is, someone leaving has to stand at the door patiently waiting for all the frantic "Wait!!!!!"'s to stop. That's not going to happen during production.... people will be flying in an out with no consideration for privacy.... urgh. I'm considering offering to rehinge the door myself.

All in all, I guess it went okay.... not for this close to production though. I'm pretty freaked out right now. I'm still confused about the blocking and choreography for some scenes... and that's NOT good. We should be able to run through the whole thing with close to no glitches and we're still finalizing blocking. We have 3 more rehearsals..... Ahhhh!!!!!!!!! And we're only getting one dress rehearsal..... you really need a dress rehearsal for the real dress rehearsal. And we're not going to have a "Hell Week" (the affectionate name given to the week before production where there is usually a rehearsal every day.) We don't have much time to work, and we have a lot of work to do. Hopefully, even if it goes bad, we'll still be able to laugh about it afterwards, though. And now, since I can't think of anything else to say, here are a few (bad) pictures.

Watching from the Choir risers set up downstage.

Kara and Sarah in (partial) costume.

Boylan sister's costumes. (I'm not a Boylan sister, I just stood in (wearing the fun dress!) because the 3rd Boylan sister wasn't there.)

I'm going to try to have more fun next Saturday (starting with getting some sleep beforehand!) and take some more pics.

~Lizzie