OMG TOMORROW
*CROSSPOSTED TO SCINTILLATOR*
So almost two years ago, fed up with the way my career was going, I decided to stop complaining (quite so much) about it and do something.
My reasoning: I have a hard time getting roles because I don’t have enough stage experience.
So I need more stage experience.
How do I get it without going back to opera school or doing a bunch of pay-to-sing programs that I can’t afford to do?
DING DING DING!
Write and star in my own operas.
So I wrote the librettos, recruited the composers, got my friend Jen to agree to be the one musician who plays in them, and got started.
For a little while nothing happened. One of the composers dropped out and I had to write a different libretto and get another composer involved (Ben). I kept thinking “We’ll do the show in December…no, maybe February…no, maybe May…”. Somehow or other we set the date. Somehow or other we found a theatre that wasn’t totally ruinous to rent for three shows. I asked Virginia Reh, who directed me in I Puritani, if she could recommend a student to direct us, and to my surprise (and delight) she offered to do it herself. She also found us a fantastic lighting designer/stage manager who has also ended up being our tech person. Jen painted some amazing backdrops and made a puppet theatre. We both made/sourced costumes, and I not only learned how to use puppets (for the opera about Tammy Faye) but made little outfits for each puppet character.
The date got closer and closer. I started to worry about things. No one would come. I wouldn’t get it memorized in time. The theatre would burn down. I would screw up in some small but vital way that would ruin everything.
It would just suck and no one would like it.
Well, I don’t know about the last one, but in spite of everything the show is opening tomorrow at 8, and I think it’s going to be really good.
I still have some posters and postcards left, so I’m going to go put them up in the Beaches for a bit today, finish the programmes, teach a bit, send reminder emails etc. But mostly just relax.
Can’t believe it’s tomorrow.
