Friday, March 09, 2007

Cabaret

I may or may not have previously mentioned that I am the vocal director for the Winchester High School production of Cabaret. Well, it went up last night. And hot damn. It was good!

It has been a long week. On Monday, I was in utter despair that this thing would pull together. We hadn't had a tech rehearsal yet - we didn't have a tech week at all, all tech issues were handled during the run-throughs on Tuesday and Wednesday - people didn't get their body mics until the dress rehearsal - people didn't have all of their costumes even at the dress rehearsal - the set wasn't competely constructed at the dress rehearsal - the band wasn't holding together all the time - the dancers couldn't hear the music - transitions were sloppy - I couldn't hear the chorus - we couldn't get through anything without stopping - I could go on. Even on Wednesday, the dress rehearsal, I was banging my head into the closest solid object I could find.

And voila, opening night last night went great. It was great! My mother came to the show tonight and couldn't say enough good things. Everyone loved it, and with good reason.

I think most of the credit for this has to go to the leads. Every single one is amazing - there are no weak links whatsoever, and everyone is perfect for their role. I keep trying to think of ways to make sure they know how great they are, and I keep being sure that I must be failing, and that they won't believe me. The entire cast has my gratitude. (Oh, and you won't believe how these kids can dance. There's a dance school in town they all go to, and it really shows. There is one dance in the first act that has me laughing hysterically every time I see it.)

SO, although this posting is late, if you're not busy tomorrow night, come to Winchester High School at 7:30 pm and see a quite excellent production of Cabaret.

Having quite literally worried myself sick this week, apparently for no good reason, I will now go to bed with some hot tea.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous5:53 PM

    Can't find your email -
    Hi from First Parish Arlington!

    I need a conducting sub. for my 8-9:15pm choir rehearsal this Thursday, as I am singing in the BSO Mahler 3 concert at that time, and my regular sub is sick.
    You've met several of the choir members (Andrew Leonard, tenor; Nancy McDowell and Diane Shriver, sopranos) as a result of the Sept. Shaker concerts, and might enjoy working with the group:

    Schedule:
    Tomorrow - Thursday, March 15
    8-8:30pm Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine (my husband Mike will coach the French)
    8:30-9:15pm Sing through/Introduce the first two movements of Vaughan Williams' "Dona nobis pacem" (they have been working on the final two movements for a couple of weeks)

    Let me know if this is possible for you, as it would be a big help to us!
    I usually pay a sub fee of $75, but we can negotiate.
    ;)
    Thanks!

    Red beans and ricely yours,
    Laura Stanfield Prichard
    laura@prichard.net
    Cell 508-423-1423
    Home 978-369-7329

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