star wars in concert, san diego
Last Friday I went to Star Wars in Concert when it was here in San Diego. I'd already been once, when it was in Anaheim, but it was such fun that I was happy to do it again. I went as part of the 501st/Rebel Legion group, taking pictures in costume with concert attendees. I wore my ANH Leia costume, which seemed to go over pretty well:
The concert was at the Sports Arena so of course traffic was godawful getting there, and getting into the parking lot-- but we didn't have to pay $20 for parking, so hey, there was that. I met up with Lesley and Rachel and got taken to our dressing room...which was a men's bathroom. Stay classy, San Diego! (I'm pretty sure when this photo was taken, I was posting to Facebook about being cast in Children of Eden.)
I mean, it wasn't the *worst* place I've ever had to change into a costume-- it was pretty clean, and it had lights and mirrors-- but it was still a men's bathroom. And it smelled like it. And the only place to put R2-D2 was in the handicapped stall, which was actually pretty funny.
Anyway, Leia's an easy costume to get into, and since I'd just had my hair colored, I didn't even have to colorspray my hair to have it match my cinnamon buns, so yay for that. Wonder-Wrangler Rachel helped me pin my hair on, and once I put my makeup on and remembered to switch my flip-flops for white boots, I was ready to go out and take pictures with the attendees, which was basically what we were there to do.
I was mostly with R2-D2 (whose buider/driver/handler Victor took all the photos I'm posting) and Matt the Jedi; Lawrence joined us as ROTJ Luke a bit late, since he'd been stuck in awful traffic.
Just like in Anaheim, it was craaaaaazy crowded! We were absolutely mobbed for pictures. We tried to call people up in a vaguely orderly fashion, which sort of worked.
We took pictures with soooo many people! Kids, grownups, families, teenagers-- and my dentist and her daughter! I was taking a picture with a little girl and looked at the camera her mom was holding and realized, hey, that's my dentist! I blurted out "Doctor Christina!?" and she shrieked "Oh my GOSH!" (she has a really high-pitched voice) and we hugged and then her daughter took a picture of us. So I guess it's good that she and her whole office already know that we costume. Every time we come in for a cleaning, they ask us what new stuff we've made and what's coming up. (Best dentist ever. We love them times a million.) That makes me two for two on random meetings at SWIC-- my BFF from high school, Lindsay, in Anaheim, and my dentist in San Diego.
We were out there from 5:30 to 7 pm for preshow, and then we got to go watch the concert! We had seats on the very side (along with jawajames and Whitney!), so we were basically looking down into the orchestra. These were AWESOME seats! At the Anaheim show, I'd found myself getting caught up in watching the big video screen and completely forgetting that I was listening to a live (amazing) orchestra, not listening to the soundtrack. This time, it was easy to ignore the screen and concentrate on the music and the players.
The concert was really, really fun. I still don't think I'd pay the kind of money they're charging for a ticket, but for the low, low price of a couple hours of my time and a few hundred smiles for the camera, it was well worth it. The orchestra is just so good. This time around, I particularly appreciated their version of the Cantina band song. Watching the percussion section was really cool.
A few of us went back out in costume for intermission and post-show-- they were filming audience reactions for future commercials for SWIC and wanted some characters in the background interacting with the crowd.
Of course, all the crowd wanted was to take pictures, so it was hard to do much other than stand around. We did our best to talk to the kids, get down on their level, and have them give us high-fives. The crew guys kept coming over and asking us to move around more and interact with the patrons, and we were like "We're trying, we swear!" Vader had to move because he was "too big and black to be in the background," which had us laughing for awhile.
After the show was over, a bunch of us went over to TGI Friday's for some food, where we had pretty much the worst service ever. It took 2 1/2 hours from when the 15 of us sat down till we finally paid. But I was glad to get to hang out more with everyone-- I hadn't seen Rachel in awhile, and it was nice to get to know Lesley, Jess, and Donna better. Overall, a really fun experience, and I was really glad I went.
The concert was at the Sports Arena so of course traffic was godawful getting there, and getting into the parking lot-- but we didn't have to pay $20 for parking, so hey, there was that. I met up with Lesley and Rachel and got taken to our dressing room...which was a men's bathroom. Stay classy, San Diego! (I'm pretty sure when this photo was taken, I was posting to Facebook about being cast in Children of Eden.)
I mean, it wasn't the *worst* place I've ever had to change into a costume-- it was pretty clean, and it had lights and mirrors-- but it was still a men's bathroom. And it smelled like it. And the only place to put R2-D2 was in the handicapped stall, which was actually pretty funny.
Anyway, Leia's an easy costume to get into, and since I'd just had my hair colored, I didn't even have to colorspray my hair to have it match my cinnamon buns, so yay for that. Wonder-Wrangler Rachel helped me pin my hair on, and once I put my makeup on and remembered to switch my flip-flops for white boots, I was ready to go out and take pictures with the attendees, which was basically what we were there to do.
I was mostly with R2-D2 (whose buider/driver/handler Victor took all the photos I'm posting) and Matt the Jedi; Lawrence joined us as ROTJ Luke a bit late, since he'd been stuck in awful traffic.
Just like in Anaheim, it was craaaaaazy crowded! We were absolutely mobbed for pictures. We tried to call people up in a vaguely orderly fashion, which sort of worked.
We took pictures with soooo many people! Kids, grownups, families, teenagers-- and my dentist and her daughter! I was taking a picture with a little girl and looked at the camera her mom was holding and realized, hey, that's my dentist! I blurted out "Doctor Christina!?" and she shrieked "Oh my GOSH!" (she has a really high-pitched voice) and we hugged and then her daughter took a picture of us. So I guess it's good that she and her whole office already know that we costume. Every time we come in for a cleaning, they ask us what new stuff we've made and what's coming up. (Best dentist ever. We love them times a million.) That makes me two for two on random meetings at SWIC-- my BFF from high school, Lindsay, in Anaheim, and my dentist in San Diego.
We were out there from 5:30 to 7 pm for preshow, and then we got to go watch the concert! We had seats on the very side (along with jawajames and Whitney!), so we were basically looking down into the orchestra. These were AWESOME seats! At the Anaheim show, I'd found myself getting caught up in watching the big video screen and completely forgetting that I was listening to a live (amazing) orchestra, not listening to the soundtrack. This time, it was easy to ignore the screen and concentrate on the music and the players.
The concert was really, really fun. I still don't think I'd pay the kind of money they're charging for a ticket, but for the low, low price of a couple hours of my time and a few hundred smiles for the camera, it was well worth it. The orchestra is just so good. This time around, I particularly appreciated their version of the Cantina band song. Watching the percussion section was really cool.
A few of us went back out in costume for intermission and post-show-- they were filming audience reactions for future commercials for SWIC and wanted some characters in the background interacting with the crowd.
Of course, all the crowd wanted was to take pictures, so it was hard to do much other than stand around. We did our best to talk to the kids, get down on their level, and have them give us high-fives. The crew guys kept coming over and asking us to move around more and interact with the patrons, and we were like "We're trying, we swear!" Vader had to move because he was "too big and black to be in the background," which had us laughing for awhile.
After the show was over, a bunch of us went over to TGI Friday's for some food, where we had pretty much the worst service ever. It took 2 1/2 hours from when the 15 of us sat down till we finally paid. But I was glad to get to hang out more with everyone-- I hadn't seen Rachel in awhile, and it was nice to get to know Lesley, Jess, and Donna better. Overall, a really fun experience, and I was really glad I went.