Costumes, Murder, Shouting Above the Din, and more --aka, Rehearsal

Last night's rehearsal was organized chaos--at least that's how I like to think of it.

We were in the choir room at HDHS, which is totally decked out in Wizard of Oz gear (which I love!). Sally, our accompanist, lead us through "Facade" once, until Ken arrived to take us through our paces. That number is really coming along and the soloists are coming into their voices. Ken doesn't have to stop and tell us to project (well, as much!).

During the rehearsal one of the costume ladies began taking our measurements. Mindy and I went to be measured together, and it was rather involved. Height, shoe size, waist, bust, hips, arm span, arms bent, arms straight, back, neck to hips, etc. were all taken and measured. My friend Jaylene is working on the costumes and has just begun sewing them. I don't even want to think about how many we'll each have. I would imagine I'll have three, minimum--one for "Facade" and "Murder, Murder!", one for "Bring on the Men" and "Girls of the Night" and then one for the engagement party/wedding. Whew. And we'll need shoes for those...and jewelry, probably. I do not envy our costume and prop folks!

We ran "Murder, Murder!" and assigned solo/small group parts. I ended up being in a few of the small groups, which makes me happy. This is a very tricky number so I didn't think I'd be asked to sing anything out of the ordinary. I am now working like mad to get the words memorized! We were being rather loud during the assignment of parts, so Ken had to doing a lot of yelling to get it all straight. I'm still not sure if we have it all, but if not we'll sort it out on Sat. morning.

We also worked on "Facade (reprise 1)" which takes place before the Engagement Party, and "Confrontation." This is when the actor playing Jekyll/Hyde has to sing bothJekyll and Hyde simultaneously, back and forth. It's really awesome. The chorus sings (off stage, I think) on vowels to add to the eerie effect. It will sound really great when it's all together.

The only pieces left then are "Girls of the Night" and "Facade (reprise 2)", which takes place right after Confrontation and before Letting Go/the Wedding.

It is less thana month until opening night. Yikes! One month from now we will be onstage for our second show!
If you want tickets, or more info, go here. Note that it is labeled "PG-13", and it should be. This isn't Annie. Not only are the themes a bit deep, but eight people die during the course of the show, and we use guns (well, prop guns, but still. They're loud.). So be warned--I don't want anyone traumatized here. :)

The excitement builds. :) Next rehearsal: Saturday at 9 a.m.