21st Century Oliver!

Last night was the best show yet. The crowd was so responsive! The ensemble goes out to do a pre-show and work the crowd. After doing three shows, we are finding our cadence together; not the orchestrated, choreographed measures (and they are done well), but the small places that we can fill with the personalities of the characters we have been ripening over the past eight weeks.

During the intermission, Dodger, Fagan, Jake, one of the Tarts, and I (the town Prude) did a techno Oliver! downstairs in the dressing room. Dodger provided the keyboard (with his creative own little mouth); Fagan did the chorus of "Please sir, Please sir, Please sir I want some more"; Jake repeated "He needs me"; Tart sang "No Bill! No Bill!" and I added "Some more, some more" in rhythm to Fagan so that it perfectly coincided with an echo just after his last words.

I am going to attempt to record it tonight. Perhaps a few techies can assist me getting a link up so the rest of you can enjoy our varied talents.

For now, a three-day reprieve. We are going to go do some trails of Kolob (the link takes you to some beautifully captured images), feast at the hands of hired help (a restaurant), and come home to a sleep that replace all that that has been lost this past week.

Without A Hitch, But A Needed Stitch

Sorry for the lack of writing. I have been busy with the show. Opening night was terrific. Well, expect for one small thing.

For those of you not familiar with Oliver!, go rent it, and then come back and read. Now, the rest of you, over here: During the group dance for "Consider Yourself" one of my two petticoats began to slip down. To keep it from falling to the floor, I grabbed the skirts in both hands at the thighs and took a small step right. My back is to the audience in this 45 seconds of the chorus, and a side step to the right and left are part of the dance, so I knew that once I had secured the skirt, I could get right into step. However, my dance partner thought my step right was his cue to step left. When he realized no one else was doing the sidestep, he looked at me confused. Through smiling teeth, I tried to communicate that my skirt was falling. Didn't need to make the thought stick because what felt like an eternity of wondering if my undergarments were going to be shown the world and tripped over by me, the cue came for the side-steps, and away we went swept up by the magic of the Artful Dodger.

I did; however, let the costume crew know that the skirt needed to be taken in a bit, and that in the mean time I needed a safety pin.