Oh that silly meat-headed boy king!
Good heavens, what a week-and-a-half. This past week-end Thursday through Saturday were our performances of Damn Yankees!, and the week prior was a massive blur of undersleeping, undereating, and overexerting on everyone's parts. No wonder we all got sick.
Thursday night went rather well, all things considered, but I think belting out the songs when the guys forgot the lyrics blew out my voice, because I woke up Friday morning vaguely feverish with a sore throat and strained voice. So I took some Tylenol and kept quiet during the day. Friday was the Night of Illness or something, though. That week-and-a-half of long days and not enough sleep (I was always home by nine-thirty or so, but a couple folks usually stayed until ten or ten-thirty) was taking its toll on everyone, I guess. Our "Henry" was getting feverish, sore throats and coughs abounded, and poor Ryan was in terrible shape. Right before the scene with "Shoeless Joe," he grabbed my arm and said, "You have to cover my lines, I can't do it," then sped off to the bathroom. Carolyn and I just looked at each other with sad poor-Ryan faces. the kid's a trooper, though, and he was back onstage for the rest of the show after that, seasick though he was.
On Saturday I woke up early to go to an open house at Marietta, only to discover I was feverish again and now had absolutely no voice. I spent the day drinking water and tea and popping Ricolas and Cepacols as much as possible, but on the drive home the sore throat and laryngitis became accompanied by nasty phlegm-coughing, which terrifies me because I always think I'm going to suffocate. I didn't get back to the school until six-thirty (curtain's at seven, har), only to find out "Henry" was officially out for the count and home sick.
Now, you have to understand that working with the other baseball players was frustrating. About three of them aside from Ryan and myself knew their lines and solo lyrics really well and did a great job, but the rest of them didn't put forth as much effort. One knew his lines but apparently decided he didn't have enough, as he liked to literally shove in front of people, steal lines, ad lib and interject to the point that it actually threw off the other actors. Another consistently forgot most of lines and all his solo lyrics clear through Wednesday night (he remembered most of them on Thursday and did fine on Friday, though). And most of them, even those who knew their own lines, didn't know everyone else's well enough to cover when someone screwed up. They were good kids, just not always right on top of everything. So I made sure I knew the scenes well enough that I could cover if nobody else did, and I made sure I knew the lyrics especially well in the spots where the guys tended to forget.
By Saturday night there was no way I could cover lines, no way I could sing. ("Heart" ended up ridiculous - two people singing, one very obviously just moving her mouth to the words). Usually I would have covered "Henry"'s lines with him gone, but I couldn't. I was nervous, simply because none of the other guys have ever kept on top of the scenes or songs enough to cover everything. But we sat down and went through lines, reviewed lyrics, etc, and they pulled it together really well. The only times I had to make a sound were to whisper a precautionary cue or two and to try to get us back on beat when "The Game" got a little ahead of itself. Rachel, our music instructor, had been as worried as I was because she knows some of the guys hadn't pulled their weight throughout rehearsals, but they all did very well last night. So, yay for them.
And Rossprouts got in the squeegee line, so all is well.
Anyway, I'm still out for the count with fever, sore throat, laryngitis, and ye olde friend the phlegm-cough. I probably could go to school tomorrow, but it's wiser to stay home and rest more, so I won't be making it. I hate getting behind, though; so could any of my fellow AP12 kids send the Othello discussion questions my way once you get them? I'd like to have at least some done for Tuesday when I go back. So please?
Ah ha, see why I never update? I don't have anything interesting to say. "Arr, my lungs are full of phlegm! Chicken salad!" That's about it.
Thursday night went rather well, all things considered, but I think belting out the songs when the guys forgot the lyrics blew out my voice, because I woke up Friday morning vaguely feverish with a sore throat and strained voice. So I took some Tylenol and kept quiet during the day. Friday was the Night of Illness or something, though. That week-and-a-half of long days and not enough sleep (I was always home by nine-thirty or so, but a couple folks usually stayed until ten or ten-thirty) was taking its toll on everyone, I guess. Our "Henry" was getting feverish, sore throats and coughs abounded, and poor Ryan was in terrible shape. Right before the scene with "Shoeless Joe," he grabbed my arm and said, "You have to cover my lines, I can't do it," then sped off to the bathroom. Carolyn and I just looked at each other with sad poor-Ryan faces. the kid's a trooper, though, and he was back onstage for the rest of the show after that, seasick though he was.
On Saturday I woke up early to go to an open house at Marietta, only to discover I was feverish again and now had absolutely no voice. I spent the day drinking water and tea and popping Ricolas and Cepacols as much as possible, but on the drive home the sore throat and laryngitis became accompanied by nasty phlegm-coughing, which terrifies me because I always think I'm going to suffocate. I didn't get back to the school until six-thirty (curtain's at seven, har), only to find out "Henry" was officially out for the count and home sick.
Now, you have to understand that working with the other baseball players was frustrating. About three of them aside from Ryan and myself knew their lines and solo lyrics really well and did a great job, but the rest of them didn't put forth as much effort. One knew his lines but apparently decided he didn't have enough, as he liked to literally shove in front of people, steal lines, ad lib and interject to the point that it actually threw off the other actors. Another consistently forgot most of lines and all his solo lyrics clear through Wednesday night (he remembered most of them on Thursday and did fine on Friday, though). And most of them, even those who knew their own lines, didn't know everyone else's well enough to cover when someone screwed up. They were good kids, just not always right on top of everything. So I made sure I knew the scenes well enough that I could cover if nobody else did, and I made sure I knew the lyrics especially well in the spots where the guys tended to forget.
By Saturday night there was no way I could cover lines, no way I could sing. ("Heart" ended up ridiculous - two people singing, one very obviously just moving her mouth to the words). Usually I would have covered "Henry"'s lines with him gone, but I couldn't. I was nervous, simply because none of the other guys have ever kept on top of the scenes or songs enough to cover everything. But we sat down and went through lines, reviewed lyrics, etc, and they pulled it together really well. The only times I had to make a sound were to whisper a precautionary cue or two and to try to get us back on beat when "The Game" got a little ahead of itself. Rachel, our music instructor, had been as worried as I was because she knows some of the guys hadn't pulled their weight throughout rehearsals, but they all did very well last night. So, yay for them.
And Rossprouts got in the squeegee line, so all is well.
Anyway, I'm still out for the count with fever, sore throat, laryngitis, and ye olde friend the phlegm-cough. I probably could go to school tomorrow, but it's wiser to stay home and rest more, so I won't be making it. I hate getting behind, though; so could any of my fellow AP12 kids send the Othello discussion questions my way once you get them? I'd like to have at least some done for Tuesday when I go back. So please?
Ah ha, see why I never update? I don't have anything interesting to say. "Arr, my lungs are full of phlegm! Chicken salad!" That's about it.