"Seussical, The Musical"- rehearsals...!

I'm sitting here in a STUPOR, without anything to write, really, but thought it was time for a new post. I guess this will be a brief entry about "Seussical" rehearsals...

I'm EXHAUSTED!!!!! I guess I forget how TEDIOUS and TIRING the early rehearsals can be...it all gets "glossed over" near the end, when the curtain goes up, there's an excited audience, and there you are ON STAGE, with everyone watching your DAZZLING performance.

Hmmmm...NOT exactly there yet...at present, we're learning a TON of choreography, and I don't have much of the music memorized yet, which makes remembering the dance steps interesting. Hard to keep track of which steps go with which words when what I'm MOSTLY singing is things like "We're who's here, mlah bloo hmmm hmmm, yadda, yadda, something something...."....UGH! I WILL have time to work on memorizing stuff soon, I HOPE, but so far...not so much...

I DID realize this week that I TRULY can't dance. We learned the choreography for the "Mayzie" number on Monday (IF the definition of "learn" is "run through the dance steps ONCE, and everyone BUT Jeff 'gets it'"...). It's all really cool "salsa-y" moves, and I did TRY to get it, but, when we got the whole thing blocked, and did a "from the top", FAILED MISERABLY.

It DID have "shades" of a famous dance sequence in an old show. UNFORTUNATELY it was the one where Lucy tries to cut into the conga line at the Tropicana, and Ricky makes her stop dancing... (I suggested that we recreate that scene in our show, but the choreographer didn't seem to like my suggestion...).

I also heard something "pop" in my knee when we did the "all fall down" sequence in the cadet march last Friday. I've been limping ever since...THAT can't be good...! NOTE TO SELF...in future, if a choreographer says "then you'll all fall into each others laps onto the floor, and 'butt walk' toward stage right"...QUIT THE SHOW...BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE...!!!

I've also realized (wow...this is turing into QUITE the confessional/revelatory post!) that I need sleep...LOTS of it, and getting finished with rehearsal at 10:00, then driving 30 minutes back home, then needing another 30 or 40 minutes to "decompress" is NOT conducive to me being very rested (or NON-CRABBY) when I get up at 6:30 the next morning. Also, THREE HOUR REHEARSALS, FIVE NIGHTS A WEEK, is too much.

Okay...I'm going to stop now...I DO think this is going to be one of the BEST shows I've ever been in (even though I have NO solos at all), and I'm SURE that the "performance high" will push the "rehearsal hell" into that "amnesia place" that it tends to go whenever I finish a show, and it's REALLY fun to have three co-workers and one of my students in the show with me, and I've met some really, really cool new friends. DEFINITELY worth the effort, and, as the director said last night (and this is now my favorite new quote): "it's not brain surgery...it's musical theater..."!

Hope YOU are EXHAUSTING yourself with something that will turn out to be AMAZING in the end too...!!!!!!