Chaos Attraction

Poker Face

2018-01-12, 10:14 p.m.

Rehearsal, 1/10:

We did a giant rehearsal of the Genesis opening dance number (or at least, I assume that's what it is). Basically, the same improv dance thing I did on Monday except with more people. About half the room hadn't been doing it earlier and were all "um, what the hell are we doing?"

The people in the "starring" roles of creation (i.e. God-lady, first man, first woman, I forget what they're technically being called) doing their numbers.

While I like this improv dance a lot, I am finding it really hard to tell when I'm supposed to do what. Supposedly every 8 counts or so we're changing what we do, but the music doesn't exactly sound like it's 8 counts. More like 5 counts and then a long drawn out non-sound. When the teacher isn't calling out what to do, I honestly have no idea when to switch.
He finally said that we should be doing that every time the music dies down temporarily, on the breaks. Well, that helps. I really hope we can get this down, or I do at least, before the performance. That is still confusing.

After that, we briefly did rehearsal for the quotes section of Yonder. Everyone who was doing quotes (ten of us) had to have two quotes and he mixed us up into groups of five and told us to pick quotes and mix up what order we said them in.

I had picked out quotes ahead of time, but realized upon listening to everyone else's quotes (example: "Hell hath no fury like a drag queen scorned"), that I needed to go...more lively.
So I am going with the following:

(a) "But the problem is that when I go around and speak on campuses, I still don't get young men standing up and saying, "How can I combine career and family?" -Gloria Steinem. I think I am going to attempt a bit of a dude voice on the last part of that quote.

(b) "No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor." -Betty Friedan.

Much to my delight, we are going to have these interpreted in sign language (squee!!!), so now presumably everyone gets to see what "orgasm" is in sign language now. SO EXCITED. Sam made a vague reference to having these things acted out, which now makes me even more excited on that last one.
So now I only have two lines to memorize for this thing. Hah.


Rehearsal, 1/11:

Tonight's rehearsal was a bit dull for me. Apparently the Navajo creation story and the murder of Fred Martinez Jr. are being combined into the same thing.
Mostly I spent a lot of time watching the creation story, then we run up and form a grave over poor Fred while he gets murdered on stage (twice, ouch), then we sit around on the stage and maybe say a few lines while the whole thing is explained. Not as fun as the dance from yesterday, though telling this story makes sense with the gender theme here and all.

After that we were to rehearse an original song about being united and whatnot. It's all right, if a little bit too slow for my usual tastes. Of course I'm basically chorus on that. Weirdly enough, I picked it up fast at the time but at the time I'm writing this I can't remember it a bit. Oh well, I'm sure that'll change.

And after that we did more discussing of how to handle the quotes. Sam has said that he wanted quotes to basically pop up here and there like on Laugh In-- what this is translating into, I guess, is that quotes are going to be snuck into the sections of songs and things like that. This seems a little weird, but whatever. I'm told that the Betty Friedan orgasm quote will probably work in the "Do Right Woman" song (I think I heard this during the auditions but I don't recall it now), but I don't know if my other one is going to fit into anyone's piece and that might be an issue. We shall figure that out tomorrow.

At the beginning of the night Sam was talking about going late so that we could all have Friday off--and then one of the dance people said she wanted to have rehearsal with everyone tomorrow, so we have rehearsal anyway. I'm a little confused on that one since I thought she was just doing her own dance numbers with her own little team. But again, whatever.

Anyway, that night was a bit slow for my tastes. I ended up reading a book on my phone after a while.


Rehearsal, 1/12:

Well, this one was a lot more fun. After another brief rehearsal of the whole Genesis numbers (fun improv bit to creation bits to sitting around to burying the dead guy, etc.) and that song from yesterday, the rest of the rehearsal I had to go to was a fun giant dance number to This Is Me from The Greatest Showman. So far I am really liking it, it’s fun and uptempo (eventually). Though we are apparently going to have to sing through parts of it, which makes me nervous because I tend to not have a whole lotta breath while dancing for uh, stuff like smiling, much less singing. I guess we’ll see.


In other news: I haven't heard from the ex yet about the email I sent on Sunday. But....originally he mentioned that he was going to be in an awards show this weekend. A show he was in got nominated for an award and they’re doing a number from it. This is apparently at the same theater I am going to next weekend to see folks from the RenFaire, so... yeah, I decided I was curious enough to see what he's doing these days.

I should probably clarify here that the theater this is at is about an hour from my house and a half hour from Mom's, so I told her about this in order to ask if I could crash at her house that night instead of schlepping back for an hour to mine in who the hell knows what crazy winter rain/fog/whatever might be going on by the time I leave. (This week I've already been in hail and fog.) She said okay, but .... she wanted to go.

I know, right? Oy. I attempted to politely dissuade her (“you sure about this? It’s like a three hour long award show”), but she was not dissuaded. I literally can't get into her house without her cooperation and since this thing is running late (well, I dunno, if he's in the first act, can I sneak out at intermission if I'm otherwise bored?).... yeah, that's happening. I’m bringing my mommy as a date. My mommy who has always been An Issue when it came to my dating to the point where I realized I just needed to give it up altogether than try to juggle everyone who was mad at me. So...yeah. *cringe*

This led to the fun ethical dilemma of uh, do I tell him about this, especially since I haven't heard from him this week (for all I know he's rehearsing or something). Especially given the Mom thing.

I'll be honest with you: I pretty much just want to sneak in, not be seen, watch and then that's it! I feel really weird about going, but I'm curious and who knows when he gets into another show because he seems to be on hold about the last one he auditioned for. However, I don't know what the odds are of getting spotted in the crowd. This is not probably the sort of show where everyone performing is backstage the whole time and they have no idea who's out there. The balcony (and only the balcony) was sold out, so I assume those in the show just go up there to watch when they are done. Or might be in the lobby or bathroom line at intermission or something. So...might happen. Or not. Or I run into friends or family of his that might recognize me from the 90s that came to watch or something.

Sadly, my new hair does not make me unrecognizable like I'm one of the spies in The Americans, much to my total disappointment. Did I mention that when I was in SF the last time someone I know from here recognized me in like 2 seconds? Darn it!

Upon discussing this with a few folks, who said to tell him (one said uh, it's gonna be even weirder if you're spotted and you didn't say anything, so good point), I finally dropped that e-mail this morning, saying yes, I'm going but so is my mom, uh....yeah. I'm gonna be occupied and I assume you are too, just mentioning it, break a leg! Or whatever! He did eventually write back saying, “Great! Look forward to seeing you there!”

I think I am going to be crazy this weekend. Whee? As Lloyd Dobler once said, you must chill. I’m gonna go listen to “Bad Romance” and “Poker Face” for a while.


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