Diverse Ramblings

The secret lives of Henry and Alice

A new theatre production company recently came into being here on the rock - TnT Theatre Productions.

It's a new venture by Alan Montanaro and Denise Mulholland, and last Sunday we went to watch the first show under its auspices - The Secret Lives of Henry and Alice, a two-hander comedy by David Tristam, directed by Polly March.

Having seen both Alan and Denise perform before, once with each other in another two-hander, we had high expectations and weren't disappointed.

The play is about a couple who have been married for years and years, and whose relationship mostly consists of Henry making a mess in the house, and Alice cleaning it up. They both have rich fantasy lives, which makes things very interesting, especially when the fantasy starts to impinge on reality.

There isn't a whole lot of plot, except towards the end, but in each each scene you learn a bit more about each character, and then about their history, and about their feelings towards each other, and did I mention that the whole thing is also hilariously funny?

Actually I think that plotless plays are the hardest to perform because everything hinges on the character development instead, and there's not a lot of action going on to distract the audience from the actual acting. No pressure, hey!

All of Henry's fantasies involve only women, and all of Alice's only men, so each actor gets to play all the characters in the other person's fantasies, making for upwards of two dozen characters between them. Plus, multiple accents. Sheesh.

Alan wears variations on a suit in every scene except the memorable seaside scene, and all his characters would plausibly be dressed in that manner, but Denise likewise wears her housewife's clothes throughout, even when playing a glamourous socialite and a no less glamourous foreign spy. It says a lot about her performance skills that I only realised afterwards that she was wearing her housewife's cardigan - you get so caught up in the acting that you couldn't care less what the clothes look like.

I thought that Alan did a great job too - maybe it's because I'm a woman, but I think it's harder for men to play multiple characters and make them recognisably different to each other, perhaps because male characters (as in real life) are in general less demonstrative than the females, which means the actor has to work harder.

The play is chock full of one-liners, many of them just tossed out there for you to get or not get, as you please, so there is no shortage of amusement. There is also a lot of commentary about marriage and relationships as Alice and Henry discuss theirs - a few times, Mike and I nudged each other and exchanged knowing grins, and I imagine that people with more than our nineteen months of marital experience will find even more to appreciate.

I highly recommend this play both in terms of being entertaining, and in terms of being impressive to watch as Alan and Denise go through so many characters, accents, and lightning-fast costume changes. Be warned that tickets are selling fast, and I have just received word that the run will not be extended, so this week-end is your last chance to watch.

So make your reservation quickly by e-mailing the St. James box office, or phone the St. James reception on 2122-3200 and tell the nice people there that you'd like to watch The Secret Lives of Henry and Alice.

With distinction!

Got my musical theatre results... I did loads better that I had even dared to hope for! Distinctions in both the group (Grade 7) and the individual (Grade 8) exams! I am thrilled to bits and extremely chuffed.

Lord knows I have experienced plenty of failures when it comes to sitting exams, but when you work really hard for something, and you get a fantastic result, it's a feeling like no other.

So, I am well pleased that all the study and practice and nerves and aggravation paid off, and I just have to be careful not to think about this in public, because if I do then my big stupid grin resurfaces, and I get funny looks from passers-by.

I got a copy of the detailed notes that the examiner made on each part of the exam (five songs, a dance, an improvisation, and a short discussion). Regarding performance, the only negative thing she said (twice!) was that I need to support my voice more, especially when reaching for the high notes. As Michael commented on this, "Well, we knew that already!". Lol.

She complimented my timing (also twice, haha) which is down to my sense of rhythm.

Honestly, I only have two natural talents, everything else I had to sweat for. Ever since I was a toddler, I have had (1) great rhythm and (2) a knack for writing. Unfortunately, writing is not a performance art, so I am capitalising on my rhythm as much as possible, and in this case it paid off!

For my dance, she said that my fusion of tap and hip-hop worked, which is a relief *grin* since I am totally making this up as I go along. The improv went very well too, and I aced the discussion (all the hours I spent with Wikipedia, memorising statistics about Tony nominations, opening dates and lengths of performance runs paid off too).

So, hooray and hoorah, and I think that my neighbours are also thrilled that they don't have to listen to me practice the same six numbers over and over every evening, so everyone is happy.

Summer, she is here.

In Malta we have a very short Spring, and a very short Autumn. Spring lasts a few weeks, and Autumn even less. Some years it feels like we skip the intermediate seasons altogether, and just jump straight from Winter to Summer to Winter.

Seems like our Maltese spring ended last weekend and became summer. Temperatures are up in the low thirties (Celcius!) and the signs of summer have been popping up all week.

One of the sure-fire signs happened to me just today - wanting to shower just to cool down (as opposed to the usual aim of 'get clean'). Tough on the water consumption, but not so bad for the electricity since hot water is now undesirable.

Another sign of summer - the fireworks going off all evening are so loud that I have trouble hearing the TV. *sigh*. At least the cats don't seem too bothered by the noise, they seem to have taken it in their stride and they only look round if it was a really loud bang.

The humidity isn't too bad yet, which is something to be thankful for, but I wonder what August holds if things are this bad and it's only May! Time to break out the sunscreen for everyday use and get the lightweight clothes out of storage, along with the mosquito repellent machines and the fan.

June, here we come!

And... breathe.

Well, that was a busy few months!

It feels like my 'year' is over. I had three big projects, and now they are all over and I've no plans for summer. Well, no projects, anyway.

Panto took up all of October to December, and I needed a month afterwards to recuperate. The next three months were spent on the coursework and study for my Home Economics A-Level, which took me up to the end of April, and since then I concentrated on my exam for Grade 8 in Musical Theatre which was this week.

The school I go to uses the Trinity Guildhall syllabus, and brings an examiner out every two years. Last time, I sat for my first exam and did a Grade 5, so this time it should have been a Grade 7 but I decided to just go for the 8. Yeah.

Took six hours on the computer to get hold of backing tracks (because most of what I wanted wasn't available) but I eventually got sorted. May I highly recommend karaoke-version.com for backing tracks - they're good quality, there's a wide range, you can preview a clip, and they're available in five keys (original, and up to two semitones above and below). Also, you can pay using Paypal if you prefer, and you get to download the tracks immediately. Awesome! I got my sheet music off musicnotes.com as usual, not all transposable but some are, which is also cool.

My final programme looked like this:

Magic to Do (from Pippin)
Mr. Bojangles (from Dancin')
One (from A Chorus Line)
Puttin' On the Ritz (from Blue Skies)
You Won't Succeed on Broadway (from Spamalot)

And finally, a dance to Happy Feet (High Heels Remix)

Don't ask me how, but I wound up with one song from 1929, three from the 1970's, and one from 2005. If that isn't diversity, I don't know what is. I threw in some props and a pair of tap shoes, learned how to juggle scarves from the Internet, and generally had a great time.

I wanted to do the dance to one of my favourite songs ever, which is Happy Feet (another 1930's song) but while looking for a recording to dance to, I found the High Heels Mix which was too awesome not to use. I choreographed a tap dance to it, and threw in a stomp/popping routine in the middle. My hip-hop moves are awful, but I figured I'd give it a try.

Preparing for the exam wasn't all fun, of chorus course and I spent three weeks stressing out over it, but after the exam I walked around for three days with a big stupid grin plastered all over my face because I managed to pull it off. Example of said grin --> :-D

The exam session went well though, even though my mouth was so dry that it felt like a corner of the Sahara desert had taken up residence for the evening. I made a few mistakes, and my tapdance board slid on the tiled floor during a couple of energetic moves - but I kept my composure (and my balance), I recovered, and I didn't drop any of the juggling scarves *whew*.

Now I'm just waiting to hear what grade I got. I don't know what's more nerve-wracking, sitting an exam or waiting to hear how you did. I'm jumping every time an SMS or a call comes in to my mobile. Come July, it will be more of the same as thousands of teenagers (and a few adults) wait for the O-Level and A-Level results to come out.

Anyway, have completed my projects, now it's time to relax. I can read (non-academic) books again! Watch (non-musical) DVDs! Solder! Clean the bathroom! (*groan*).

I'm laying plans for what to do next, but right now, just enjoying having free time again. I'll choose another project when I get bored again, but it's likely to be some time before that happens.

Cupcakes, mmm.

Thursday was a public holiday and, for me, the start of a long weekend.

Having recovered from the upset stomach (see previous post) I decided some cupcakes were in order.

I am actually capable of making cupcakes from scratch, but I like to keep Betty Crocker on standby, just in case. So I decided to use a Chocolate Fudge cake mix that had been teasing me every time I opened the pantry.

I made up the mix as per directions, but I also added a couple of ingredients based on tips I have picked up through my baking experiments in the last few months. I mixed a teaspoon of instant coffee with a little hot water and added it to the mix (because coffee really brings out the chocolate flavour) and also added a couple of capfuls of vanilla extract (because I lurve vanilla).

For the frosting, I used a great recipe I found last year - cream one and a half cups of icing sugar (I used Tate & Lyle) with half a cup of butter (Kerrygold unsalted) and then add a quarter of a cup of cream (Scottish Pride double cream) and a pinch of salt. Mmmm.

The frosting recipe also calls for a teaspoon of vanilla extract, but I held off on that until I had divided the frosting in two. One batch I flavoured with vanilla and coloured blue, and the other I flavoured with lemon extract and coloured a deeper yellow than the mix already was. Both the extracts I used were from Marks and Spencer, as that is the only place I have found so far in Malta that sells extract as opposed to essence.

A sprinkling of hundreds and thousands, and there you have it.

I have a long and varied history of culinary disasters to my name, but these turned out pretty well asides from that I undercooked one of the trays of cupcakes.

When you bite into one, first the frosting flavour hits you (vanilla or lemon), then you get the actual buttercream taste (although it's overpowered in the lemon), and after that the coffee and chocolate come out to play.

Tomorrow for breakfast I am planning on having Arabica coffee with some of the leftover double cream, and a cupcake, and I have been looking forward to it all evening. Now there's an incentive to get out of bed!

Got pie?

Pi Day 2009 caught me by surprise, and I faced with the challenge of throwing together some sort of pie after the shops were closed (because not having pie on pi day would seriously harm my geek cred).

After some googling, I decided that, even though I had three apples available, apple pie was out. Chocolate pie looked promising though, especially after I unearthed a packet of Angel Delight from the back of the pantry.

I decided to go for mini pies so that I could use cupcake liners (which I conveniently had left over from last year's cupcake spree). For the base, I put a Pan di Stelle biscuit in the bottom of each liner, then filled it up with Angel Delight that had been in the fridge for a bit.

One packet of AD made six mini pies, and I stuck them back in the fridge (muffin tray and all) to set some more.

Unfortunately, the AD was expired and I got sick just from eating the bowl scrapings, so I never actually got to eat one of the mini pies. I did decorate one with mini Smarties before throwing it out though, just to show that they looked cool.

McCafe in Valletta?

This week I noticed that the McDonald's in Valletta is closed for renovations.

What I am really hoping is that it will re-open with a McCafé section like the ones in Gozo and Luqa, so I can lounge around with coffee, muffin/cookie and laptop - that is my definition of bliss.

So far, the closest I have found to that in Valletta is Café Jubilee, but it's not really designed for lounging and they don't have chocolate muffins or really big cookies.

We'll see next week when the McDonald's re-opens...

Note to self: resurrect blog

*blows dust off interface*

Well, actually I have been blogging all along, just not here.

I spent the end of 2008 blogging about my Panto experiences here, took January off to recover from Panto, and then spent February blogging about my Home Economics A-Level coursework here.

Now my coursework is handed in (yay) and I'm back to Diverse Ramblings. I've still got some loose ends to tie up on both of those blogs, but right now I can't really be bothered, heh.

After spending almost every evening from October to the beginning of January either rehearsing Panto or performing Panto, spending time at home was great after the run ended. In February instead I spent my evenings working on my coursework, trying to get the hang of soldering and sewing (and doing neither particularly well).

Now, life is more or less back to normal.

As usual, I have a few projects going on... I'm studying for my Home Economics exam, which is at the end of April, and preparing for musical theatre exams which are in May. For the home economics, I am studying nutrition and child development, and for musical theatre I'm learning lines and honing my tap-dancing, so I think I have some good all-round education going on *grin*

From my coursework, I got involved in the field of soft circuits, which is very cool. I decided to continue experimenting even though the coursework is over, and this week I received some stuff that I ordered off the net, so I'm looking forward to dabbing in that. I want to make some simple soft circuits for Easter presents, but in the long run I hope to do more complicated things with my Lilypad Arduino.

I got the Lilypad working on Windows last Sunday, but the Windows desktop machine is in another room to my workbench and equipment. So I'm trying to get the Lilypad running on my Linux laptop, but got stuck because I'm not yet used to doing command-line stuff. Apparently all that I'm lacking now is two drivers for the serial-USB interface, and then I'll be fine.

The rest of this morning is going to be rather mundane by comparison... I'm off to pick up a soft circuits book that is currently awaiting me at the post office in the next village, and then my primary goal for this weekend is to get the bathroom sparkling clean, which is probably the household task I hate the most.

Panto, here I come!

I've been awfully quiet lately, and that's because... I'm going to be in the Panto this year! That's right folks, this year's MADC Panto will feature yours truly as the third villager from the left.

Having rehearsals six days a week while still holding down a full-time job doesn't leave me with much free time, hence a lack of posts. But I am still blogging - I'm keeping a blog of my experiences as a member of the Panto chorus at http://pantodiary.blogspot.com

Besides writing about myself, I'm also posting interviews with members of the cast and crew, which is proving to be very interesting because I get to hear all these little stories from different people about their own experiences in the theatre.

The MADC Panto is the one that has been taking place at the Manoel Theatre for the last thirty years, but this year the Manoel yet again raised the fee for renting the Manoel, and the total was just too high. So we're moving into the MFCC tent in Ta' Qali instead. Another group is going to use the Manoel instead, and they'll be putting on their own Panto for the first time. Ours is called Sinbad The Tailor, smile when you say it!

It's sad that we won't be in the historic atmosphere of the Manoel, but there's good points too - for example, not having to use the Manoel's cramped and draughty dressing rooms! At the MFCC, parking is no problem (unlike Valletta), and since there's no priceless history around, we get to do really cool things with pyrotechnics, muahahahaha...

Anyway, that's where I'm going to be this Christmas.

There's still tickets available, get yours from http://www.pantomalta.com and in the meantime, enjoy December. Christmas is coming!

On the road again.

Guess what? I'm driving again!

It's been over a year since I got my license, but exactly a year since I last drove - a year since our van was hit from behind by an out-of-control SUV. We got the van repaired, but it was never the same again and Mike didn't want me driving it.

I recently decided that I was ready to get my own wheels, so we started looking around for an old banger suitable for a first-time driver. That same week, the van finally gave up the ghost too...

So we're now the proud owners of a Maruti 800 - small, cute, and easy to handle. It looks a lot like this one:

Image by meg and rahul, used by permission.

Yesterday Mike took us to Ta' Qali and I drove it for the first time in the big parking lot, round and round. Mike had me doing maneuvers that felt very daring - driving at a fair speed in fourth gear, then decelerating quite fast and downshifting from fourth to second - while turning a corner! AND I did this while avoiding the other learner drivers, hahaha.

Then we went out on the Ta' Qali roads and I did several circuits, getting the hang of the car.

And finally, I drove us to Paceville, where we completely inappropriately watched Death Race.

I drove some more today, because I am determined to get to the point of soloing quite soon (never soloed before). It's not that I particularly like driving, because I don't, but I want to be able to get myself around instead of being dependent on unreliable buses and the patience of family and friends.

The Government wants to solve problems related to private vehicle use - environment-destroying pollution and traffic congestion - by discouraging people from using old cars. The best solution is to have reliable public transport. But since our current public transport depends on whether or not the driver feels like doing his route, no-one is going to willingly give up the reliability of their own vehicle.

So, if you see a Maruti being driven by a clearly inexperienced driver, it might be me - please keep your distance and forgive me if I don't release my white-knuckled grip long enough to wave.