Spring here
Today it is sunny if chilly, and I am enjoying seeing the nicer weather coming in. Yesterday for Mother's Day my girls got me two new bird feeders, and I can't wait to hang them up in the elm tree outside my office window. They even got me squirrel baffles to hang overtop, and I look forward to seeing those thieving little rodents go sliding off and grasping for nothing in midair rather than raiding my birdies food all summer as they are wont to do! :)
Summer is coming up fast. I can't believe the kids have only about a month of school left, then Dove will be an 8th grader - her last year at Immaculata!!! Where did the time go? I can still remember dropping my chubby cheeked kindergartener off her first week there, and looking nervously in the rear view mirror to make sure she got into school okay. Sigh! This week I will be going on a field trip to St. Clement's Island with Robin's class, and I hope we will have good weather and a fun time while there.
Dove got some nice news last night at play practice. She was cast as Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing. It is a small part, but bigger than when she was playing Peter in Romeo and Juliet last year, and she was excited to get to be one of only 4 girls in the show. Shakespeare typically has way more males than females, and Dove figured she'd be in boy parts for many more years before getting to play a girl. Well, this year, she may get to do both! Due to a scheduling conflict with one of the boys for opening weekend of the show, Dove's director Mick approached her last night and asked her if she would also be willing to understudy the part of Verges, the comedic male sidekick to Officer Dogberry, and play both Ursula AND Verges on opening weekend. She was very happy to do so as it almost doubles her part.
This morning we relooked at the script, and that double casting is going to make for some VERY challenging quick changes in acts 3 and 4 for her. At one point she has only two lines between going offstage as Ursula and coming back as Verges! I think her hopes of wearing a lovely Shakespearian gown just went out the window. They will likely put her in a blouse and big skirt, I think, for Ursula, so that she can wear trousers underneath for Verges, and just throw on a cape or hat to complete the girl to boy transformation when needed on opening weekend. It will be a good challenge for her if they can work out all the quick changes, I think.
Robin is hoping to go to auditions soon for Suessical. Same theatre, different group and directors for this show, which goes up in August. Again, it is mostly high schoolers and Robin is nervous about getting in because we've heard they are very tough about singing ability. Robin has a decent voice, but we've heard some terrific singers in that group. I think she would be delighted to be just an anonymous Whoville citizen in the chorus, if she gets in at all. We'll see. She is having trouble finding an audition song - a number of the songs she sings well are not in the right key for her on the downloadable karaoke versions, and we have no sheet music. She may just do Mabel's prayer from Fame since we already have the CD for that if we can't find anything else.
I had a number of fun get togethers with friends this month - my dear pal Tom took me out for dinner, and my cousin Rabbit took me out for lunch for my birthday. I'm planning to go see Hair this month as well as a one man Dickens show. And the girls and I will be going to Great Wolk Lodge with the Girl Scouts (hoping it will be fun - already I see difficulties looming with the room assignments, but we'll work through it!).
Have been really enjoying Sunday night tv this season too. The girls and I watch Call the Midwife every Sunday on PBS at 8 pm, then they go to bed and the COL and I watch Game of Thrones. Overall I like the show, though previously I've found it to waste time on very HBO-like gratuitous sex scenes, and this season I am not enjoying the prolonged Theon torture scenes that could WAY stand to be trimmed down and / or suggested rather than shown. But some of the casting is SO good - Tywin Lannister, Brienne of Tarth, the Queen of Thorns, Varys, Jaime Lannister, Tyrion - all giving terrific performances, that I am willing to excuse some of the poor writing. It is an unenviable task trying to whittle those monster novels into a ten hour series. Really looking forward to seeing what they do with the Red Wedding in just a few more episodes.
Off now to get some housework done and enjoy the sunshine a bit outdoors today!
Summer is coming up fast. I can't believe the kids have only about a month of school left, then Dove will be an 8th grader - her last year at Immaculata!!! Where did the time go? I can still remember dropping my chubby cheeked kindergartener off her first week there, and looking nervously in the rear view mirror to make sure she got into school okay. Sigh! This week I will be going on a field trip to St. Clement's Island with Robin's class, and I hope we will have good weather and a fun time while there.
Dove got some nice news last night at play practice. She was cast as Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing. It is a small part, but bigger than when she was playing Peter in Romeo and Juliet last year, and she was excited to get to be one of only 4 girls in the show. Shakespeare typically has way more males than females, and Dove figured she'd be in boy parts for many more years before getting to play a girl. Well, this year, she may get to do both! Due to a scheduling conflict with one of the boys for opening weekend of the show, Dove's director Mick approached her last night and asked her if she would also be willing to understudy the part of Verges, the comedic male sidekick to Officer Dogberry, and play both Ursula AND Verges on opening weekend. She was very happy to do so as it almost doubles her part.
This morning we relooked at the script, and that double casting is going to make for some VERY challenging quick changes in acts 3 and 4 for her. At one point she has only two lines between going offstage as Ursula and coming back as Verges! I think her hopes of wearing a lovely Shakespearian gown just went out the window. They will likely put her in a blouse and big skirt, I think, for Ursula, so that she can wear trousers underneath for Verges, and just throw on a cape or hat to complete the girl to boy transformation when needed on opening weekend. It will be a good challenge for her if they can work out all the quick changes, I think.
Robin is hoping to go to auditions soon for Suessical. Same theatre, different group and directors for this show, which goes up in August. Again, it is mostly high schoolers and Robin is nervous about getting in because we've heard they are very tough about singing ability. Robin has a decent voice, but we've heard some terrific singers in that group. I think she would be delighted to be just an anonymous Whoville citizen in the chorus, if she gets in at all. We'll see. She is having trouble finding an audition song - a number of the songs she sings well are not in the right key for her on the downloadable karaoke versions, and we have no sheet music. She may just do Mabel's prayer from Fame since we already have the CD for that if we can't find anything else.
I had a number of fun get togethers with friends this month - my dear pal Tom took me out for dinner, and my cousin Rabbit took me out for lunch for my birthday. I'm planning to go see Hair this month as well as a one man Dickens show. And the girls and I will be going to Great Wolk Lodge with the Girl Scouts (hoping it will be fun - already I see difficulties looming with the room assignments, but we'll work through it!).
Have been really enjoying Sunday night tv this season too. The girls and I watch Call the Midwife every Sunday on PBS at 8 pm, then they go to bed and the COL and I watch Game of Thrones. Overall I like the show, though previously I've found it to waste time on very HBO-like gratuitous sex scenes, and this season I am not enjoying the prolonged Theon torture scenes that could WAY stand to be trimmed down and / or suggested rather than shown. But some of the casting is SO good - Tywin Lannister, Brienne of Tarth, the Queen of Thorns, Varys, Jaime Lannister, Tyrion - all giving terrific performances, that I am willing to excuse some of the poor writing. It is an unenviable task trying to whittle those monster novels into a ten hour series. Really looking forward to seeing what they do with the Red Wedding in just a few more episodes.
Off now to get some housework done and enjoy the sunshine a bit outdoors today!