data entry party in my pants
Our theatre, like many others nowadays, gives its ushers fancypants laser scanners to use on patrons' tickets. While many scanners make a subtle 'ting' or 'beep' sound with each scan, ours go 'PYEW!', sounding for all their worth like little phasers, waging war upon a sea of paper tickets.
One wonders if the ushers ever decide to sneak off and play epic games of pseudo-laser tag, ducking behind corners, somersaulting across corridors, and other such examples of military frolicking.
WHICH IS TO SAY. Not dead yet! I survived opening night- I successfully transitioned my dress from work to theatre with the cunning application of a sparkly necklace, perilously high heels, and eye makeup. The show went well and featured a VERY enthusiastic woman in the fourth row who offered up her own not-so-quiet commentary all night, showing her appreciation for Helena, her SCORN for Betram, and her general amusement at the comic characters. Best of all, however, came in the play's final moments. Our brilliant actor who plays the King of France has the final lines of the play. Just before he gives the epilogue (which might be my favorite of the metatheatrical epilogues, for its simplicity, brevity, and gentleness), he says the following:
Of that and all the progress, more or less,
Resolvedly more leisure shall express:
All yet seems well;
From row D, in affronted tones, our audience member remonstrated, 'IS well.'
MAGICAL.
*facepalm*
Oh, live theatre. *Kate Beaton eyes*
The afterparty was kind of a mixed bag- we all trooped up the street to a fancy bar at 10:30PM were everyone crowded in and had wine thrust upon us, shrimp on skewers, chocolates, mousses... It could have been great except for the fact that it was a) overcrowded by the combination of donors, staff, actors, etc, b) loud, c) the photographer running around taking constant pictures of the classy folks (hint, not the interns!), and d) we could only really stay an hour before we risked missing the last metro home BECAUSE IT WAS A BLOODY MONDAY NIGHT AND WE ALL HAD TO COME IN TO WORK THE NEXT DAY ON TIME OR FACE THE MOCKERY OF OUR PEERS.
So, yeah. It was fine! But it wasn't my favorite. AND THAT IS OKAY!
Tuesday was my first day with out after school program and the first night back with Choral Arts. CAS is in a tricky place- we're rehearsing to perform Beethoven's Ninth with the NSO, something we've done many times in the past (and there are only a handful of people in the choir who've never sung the piece before). This time, however, the NSO has a new conductor and he has essentially told us that this performance will be our tryout if we want to hold on to our place as the go-to choir for the symphony.
I mean, WHAT? I understand that he's new and wants to be sure that what the NSO does is reflective of him, but dude- you are NEW and therefore probably don't automatically need to go around severing long-standing ties, either. It's not that I don't think we're up to the challenge, as I do believe we're the best chorus in town, but being told that this is our one chance to please the new guy is something of a slap in the face to our OWN conductor, who is his own brand of legendary in the field. WHATEVS, NEW GUY. So we have one more rehearsal (LOLZ OF COURSE IT ONLY TAKES TWO REHEARSALS TO GET THIS PIECE READY I LOVE IT) and then we meet him and WE SHALL SEE HOW GOES THAT FIRST IMPRESSION.
Yesterday was an amusing collection of absurdities both pleasant and un-. I normally get to leave a little later than normal on Wednesdays, as I show up at the theatre instead of the admin offices (subtract twenty minutes of metro) and am supposed to arrive at 10AM (rather than 9:30AM). So at 9:20AM, sitting on the train and headed into the city, I turn on my phone and find a text waiting for me, informing me that I don't need to be there until 11. Which meant that I had an hour all to myself, hurrah! Smoke in the metro put me one stop away from my destination, which is only a difference of a few blocks in downtown DC, so I sat in a square and then in the Building Museum, drinking a latte and rereading Moab is My Washpot for the umpteenth time. Then I showed up at the theatre and discovered everything for the free noon concert had been set up and so I got to play a fun game called Match the Title to the Photograph, which involved wandering around the theatre, examining some pictures of scenes from Pakistan and Afghanistan that had been hung out of order. There was lots of 'Oo, look, a TEAPOT! Maybe this is the one called 'Tea house', but crap, there are TWO 'Tea house' ones taken in two different places OH PUCKEY EENIE MEENIE MINEY MO.' Luckily, it's all been sorted, but it certainly was an exciting half hour! After the performance (a dance ensemble), I got to take a leisurely lunch at Pret and then toddle off to the offices.
The day ended with a workshop for teachers who participate in one of our school programs. The workshops give them a chance to experience the games and exercises their students will be doing, as well as to exchange ideas or ask questions of each other or of us. This week, we were focusing on how we teach Shakespeare's text- reading and scansion and operative words, basics to most actors, but not to high school students or English teachers. The two teachers who were most apprehensive about this aspect of the program, however, both came in an hour late and missed ALL the setup. Needless to say, they never quite caught up and we stayed an HOUR LATE with the two of them, going through it all again. *HEADDESK* I wouldn't have minded so much if I weren't tired and cranky with the thought that this was their own damn fault- had they BEEN there on time and still had questions, no problem!
WHATEVS, LATE PEOPLE.
Alright. I should probably do some real work now. I actually have a big stack of data entry to get through and I'm leaving to shadow my first in-class workshop in, oh, half an hour, so mayhap I should get on that.
One wonders if the ushers ever decide to sneak off and play epic games of pseudo-laser tag, ducking behind corners, somersaulting across corridors, and other such examples of military frolicking.
WHICH IS TO SAY. Not dead yet! I survived opening night- I successfully transitioned my dress from work to theatre with the cunning application of a sparkly necklace, perilously high heels, and eye makeup. The show went well and featured a VERY enthusiastic woman in the fourth row who offered up her own not-so-quiet commentary all night, showing her appreciation for Helena, her SCORN for Betram, and her general amusement at the comic characters. Best of all, however, came in the play's final moments. Our brilliant actor who plays the King of France has the final lines of the play. Just before he gives the epilogue (which might be my favorite of the metatheatrical epilogues, for its simplicity, brevity, and gentleness), he says the following:
Of that and all the progress, more or less,
Resolvedly more leisure shall express:
All yet seems well;
From row D, in affronted tones, our audience member remonstrated, 'IS well.'
MAGICAL.
*facepalm*
Oh, live theatre. *Kate Beaton eyes*
The afterparty was kind of a mixed bag- we all trooped up the street to a fancy bar at 10:30PM were everyone crowded in and had wine thrust upon us, shrimp on skewers, chocolates, mousses... It could have been great except for the fact that it was a) overcrowded by the combination of donors, staff, actors, etc, b) loud, c) the photographer running around taking constant pictures of the classy folks (hint, not the interns!), and d) we could only really stay an hour before we risked missing the last metro home BECAUSE IT WAS A BLOODY MONDAY NIGHT AND WE ALL HAD TO COME IN TO WORK THE NEXT DAY ON TIME OR FACE THE MOCKERY OF OUR PEERS.
So, yeah. It was fine! But it wasn't my favorite. AND THAT IS OKAY!
Tuesday was my first day with out after school program and the first night back with Choral Arts. CAS is in a tricky place- we're rehearsing to perform Beethoven's Ninth with the NSO, something we've done many times in the past (and there are only a handful of people in the choir who've never sung the piece before). This time, however, the NSO has a new conductor and he has essentially told us that this performance will be our tryout if we want to hold on to our place as the go-to choir for the symphony.
I mean, WHAT? I understand that he's new and wants to be sure that what the NSO does is reflective of him, but dude- you are NEW and therefore probably don't automatically need to go around severing long-standing ties, either. It's not that I don't think we're up to the challenge, as I do believe we're the best chorus in town, but being told that this is our one chance to please the new guy is something of a slap in the face to our OWN conductor, who is his own brand of legendary in the field. WHATEVS, NEW GUY. So we have one more rehearsal (LOLZ OF COURSE IT ONLY TAKES TWO REHEARSALS TO GET THIS PIECE READY I LOVE IT) and then we meet him and WE SHALL SEE HOW GOES THAT FIRST IMPRESSION.
Yesterday was an amusing collection of absurdities both pleasant and un-. I normally get to leave a little later than normal on Wednesdays, as I show up at the theatre instead of the admin offices (subtract twenty minutes of metro) and am supposed to arrive at 10AM (rather than 9:30AM). So at 9:20AM, sitting on the train and headed into the city, I turn on my phone and find a text waiting for me, informing me that I don't need to be there until 11. Which meant that I had an hour all to myself, hurrah! Smoke in the metro put me one stop away from my destination, which is only a difference of a few blocks in downtown DC, so I sat in a square and then in the Building Museum, drinking a latte and rereading Moab is My Washpot for the umpteenth time. Then I showed up at the theatre and discovered everything for the free noon concert had been set up and so I got to play a fun game called Match the Title to the Photograph, which involved wandering around the theatre, examining some pictures of scenes from Pakistan and Afghanistan that had been hung out of order. There was lots of 'Oo, look, a TEAPOT! Maybe this is the one called 'Tea house', but crap, there are TWO 'Tea house' ones taken in two different places OH PUCKEY EENIE MEENIE MINEY MO.' Luckily, it's all been sorted, but it certainly was an exciting half hour! After the performance (a dance ensemble), I got to take a leisurely lunch at Pret and then toddle off to the offices.
The day ended with a workshop for teachers who participate in one of our school programs. The workshops give them a chance to experience the games and exercises their students will be doing, as well as to exchange ideas or ask questions of each other or of us. This week, we were focusing on how we teach Shakespeare's text- reading and scansion and operative words, basics to most actors, but not to high school students or English teachers. The two teachers who were most apprehensive about this aspect of the program, however, both came in an hour late and missed ALL the setup. Needless to say, they never quite caught up and we stayed an HOUR LATE with the two of them, going through it all again. *HEADDESK* I wouldn't have minded so much if I weren't tired and cranky with the thought that this was their own damn fault- had they BEEN there on time and still had questions, no problem!
WHATEVS, LATE PEOPLE.
Alright. I should probably do some real work now. I actually have a big stack of data entry to get through and I'm leaving to shadow my first in-class workshop in, oh, half an hour, so mayhap I should get on that.