Diverse Ramblings

Not quite a triple threat, but working on it.

Every other year, Stagecoach students here in Malta get to sit for exams in Musical Theatre - and this is one of those years!

I've never done this before, having been in Stagecoach just over a year, but I've been through a similar program in public speaking, all the way up to A-Level standard. Now though, instead of reading from a book, reciting a poem and giving a speech, I will be singing songs, reciting a monologue and dancing. Ta dah!

Can you tell that I'm excited about it? Any excuse to perform...

The individual exams as described above are optional, students only do them if they want to, but our entire class is also doing a 'group exam', which means we perform together and are judged as a group, and everyone gets the same grade awarded to the whole group. For this, we're participating in a musical at the end of term along with two other classes. Fun, fun, fun... Come and watch if you like, we'll have an audience just like a normal end-of-term show, and the examiner will just sit in with the audience.

So in our weekly lessons we're preparing for the musical, learning the songs in Singing, the choreography in Dance, and improvising group scenes in Drama (you haven't lived until you've seen an adult class be Munchkins).

For the individuals, however, we have to do the work by ourselves although our teachers offer advice when we ask for it.

First step, choosing the pieces to perform - which is a problem if, like me, you're new to musical theatre and don't really know very many musicals at all. So here's the system I worked out:

1. Go to MusicalTheatreAudition and use their searchable database to get suggestions based on age and vocal range.

2. Take the resulting list, and go to YouTube.com to watch clips of lots of songs you've never heard of before. Browse YouTube for clips in a similar vein. (If your home connection can't really cope with heavy downloading, the internet cafe in Strait Street works for me; use the computers in the front room, with webcams, because the others don't all have headphones or the right software.)

3. Listen to Internet radio stations that play nothing but songs from musicals.

4. Buy cheap DVDs of musical films from Play.com (but make sure that they aren't non-musical versions of the same story!)

5. Use a combination of AllofMp3.com and emusic.com to find and download mp3s of your shortlisted songs. While you're there, also listen to random songs from Broadway compilation albums.

6. Make your final choices.

7. Go to MusicNotes.com to download the score for your accompanist.

8. Go back to YouTube, AllofMp3 and emusic to find as many different variations of your final choices as possible, to see different interpretations.

9. Go looking for soundproof rooms to practice in, heheheh...

I've already decided on my 'uptempo' song, a vaudeville-type piece that partly spoken and partly sung, and lots of fun. I'm still working on a shortlist for a ballad, so far my shortlist has, um, one song on it, lol.

For my dance, heheh, I'm breaking out the tap shoes! The exam will be in a carpeted room but I can bring in and lay down boards for my dance. Now I have to pick a style - vaudeville, or jazz tap? Hmmm, decision, decisions, decisions.

Then all I need is a monologue from a play or musical... hmmm... I'm thinking some melodrama might be in order... muahahahahaha...

So, any suggestions? (besides "don't quit your day job")

Go on, say it: Audacity

I first met Jean Marc Agius last summer when I went backstage after watching The Merry Wives of Windsor in San Anton Gardens. That night he saw that I had taken copious notes with a view to blogging about the play... but I never did write it up. Since then I have also seen him in The Goat, and tonight he reminded me that I owe him a write-up or three...

So, hot off the presses, here's a little something about tonight's performance of Audacity at St. James Cavalier, written by Simon Mawdsley, produced by the MADC and directed by Coryse Borg.

I am in a bit of a quandry when it comes to reviews of plays, especially when it involves people I know and like, because (1) a review doesn't mean much unless it addresses both the good and the bad, and (2) I don't like writing bad things about people, unless I don't like them...

But, well, here goes, *grin*

I thought that the play dragged quite a bit in places, and this was partly because at times some of the actors lacked stage presence. However I say only 'partly' because the script itself is very meandering and there are extended scenes with just two or three people on the stage having long, rambling conversations. The way the set was laid out allowed for a fair amount of moving around to break up these sequences, which helped, and the whole stage was actually covered, although sometimes it seemed like all the focus was on one small area off in the corner which felt physically distant from us (quite a feat in a theatre-in-the-round like this one).

The scenes with more physical action in them were naturally more dynamic, and the guys did a fantastic job in one scene in particular that required a lot of physical interaction (to the point of choreography) as well as verbal. There was some fun physical comedy too, well done for that!

Given that the play doesn't have much of a plot, the point of it becomes the characters themselves, which lays a lot of responsibility on the actors...

I thought that Malcolm Galea, Jean Marc Agius and Julia Calvert all portrayed their characters very strongly - all three had good accents, and very good physicality, they knew what they were doing with their bodies. Jean Marc, for instance, played "the nerd" from his head down to his toes - I noticed that he maintained his body language at all times, for instance keeping his feet parallel and tucked under when sitting down, and this makes it very easy to believe his character. Michael Zammit Maempel and Greta Agius were a bit inconsistant in their accents, and both also seemed to have trouble getting into the physical side of their characters. Having said that, they both had some brilliant moments though - Michael was great in the closing scene with Julia Calvert and showed the physical confidence his character needed, and I enjoyed the way Greta brought just the right touch of 'whine' into her character's voice on the appropriate phrases.

There was some stammering here and there, but less frequently as the play went on, so perhaps more opening night nerves than anything else. There were some physical problems with misbehaving props but admirably covered up, although you can't really get away with anything at such close quarters.

I thought the costumes were extremely well done, and the lights and music worked well, although some of the sound effects sounded unrealistic. The set of the dingy flat was great, with muddy paintings hanging askew on the wall below the peeling paint, and there was the same attention to detail in the props, down to the logos on the carrier bags.

Overall, it was a reasonable performance, especially given that it was opening night, and I'm sure that it will get better as the run continues - but I'm left with the impression that the production was hampered by the script.

Notte Shoulder-to-shoulder

The Times ran an article today about the Notte Magica (held on the 6th of January 07) as compared to Notte Bianca (14th of October 06).

I went to both, albeit briefly, and I wasn't impressed; Republic Street was the same as usual but with (a) people jammed shoulder to shoulder and (b) half of the shops shut. If I want to buy something from a shop in Valletta, I'll go during the week after work or on a Saturday and not have to take three minutes just to cross from one side of the street to the other. Also, the restaurants CANNOT COPE with that volume of people. For Notte Bianca I was eating with friends in St. James and we had a reservation - lucky because the corridors were lined with people waiting for a table and the waiters had to use a notebook to keep track. For Notte Magica, Michael and I saw that the restaurants were very crowded and when we went to one that is a bit off the beaten track, we were told that we'd have to wait an hour for a table for two (so we left Valletta).

What was nice about Notte Bianca was that there were LOADS of events, and lots of things going on in the streets, such as a roving group of għannejja complete with guitars, and the artists working outside VeeBeeGee. From what I could tell, there was a lot less at Notte Magica, and the good turnout was partly because the evening of the 6th was very mild, there was no rain and it wasn't that cold.

I think that, rather than occasional huge events, what we need is for Valletta to become more like what the Waterfront has become.

I know that every evening, there are restaurants open at the Waterfront, there is a bookshop, there is a toyshop, and I can go any day for a pleasant evening. If every Saturday night was a Notte Magica in Valletta (although somewhat scaled down) then I would know that I could go any Saturday and enjoy the atmosphere, have a meal and catch a show - without running into another 50,000 people clogging the streets, because they would be spread out over different Saturdays.

It's difficult to make a living in the arts here in Malta, but we have plenty of talented performers - surely a regular programme would work out well all round? For example every Saturday night there would be rock music at location A, a dance performance at location B, a play at location C, classical music at location D, and the schedules will be available to the public a month or two in advance. Restaurants would be open as usual, shops would stay open if they wished, and places like the Upper Barrakka Gardens and museums could stay open till midnight.

Anyway, we'll see...

Good on ya, mate.

This afternoon I decided to celebrate my heritage by watching a film at St. James Cavalier as part of their Australian Film Week. My mother was born on one continent but has citizenships in two others, one of which is Australia.

The 3pm film today was Short Cuts - The Short Film Festival which was ten short films varying in length from four and a half to twenty-two minutes.

Gonna Make You Sweat

This semester in Stagecoach, Miss Emma is having us choreograph our own solo dances. First we each had to choose "a piece of music that makes you want to move"; after asking around about music, I decided to go for a suggestion made by Little Sis, Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) by C+C Music Factory.

Don't arsk ME what moves I am going to do, because I haven't a clue. Last lesson Miss Emma turned us loose for ten minutes to work on our songs individually, and I found it much harder than dancing around my bedroom, heh. Next week I'm taking my mp3 player so maybe with the sound cranked up loud in my headphones I will forget about the rest of the class and bust some moves...

*tries to imagine self busting moves*

*gives up*

I'm not too worried though because Miss Emma's approach is that the rest of the class gives each of us feedback, and suggestions too, and that makes it easy to solve problems of "What shall I do in this bit?" and "When I do this bit, do I look as silly as I feel?".

Michael's chosen song is also a retro 1990's track, and in all we have quite a selection in the class, everything from Native American chanting to Nickelback to The Planets Suite to big band.

Gonna be an interesting term...

Not the audio editing program

This evening I met a friend for coffee and she suggested we go to Inspirations at St. James - no objections from me, I haven't been in a while because I sort of overdosed on St. James/Inspirations due to rehearsing there for five nights a week during September, October and November... *grin*

Well we went and had a seat and then I saw a familiar face and greeted him, and I was about to say "Break a leg for your upcoming performance" but he was looking at me funny so I didn't continue.

Then after I turned away I realised, mortified, that we had never actually met... it's just that after having seen him in a few plays up close and personal in St. James' theatre-in-the-round, his face really IS familiar.

sigh

Oh well, Reesa says that people do this to her all the time, so I don't feel that stupid any more, heheh. It's to be expected really, when you're sitting there surrounded by the casts of not one but TWO productions...

Speaking of which, I am very much looking forward to MADC's Audacity, which will be at St. James for the last weekend of January and the first two weekends of February, tickets Lm5 except for opening night, which is Lm3.50 (bought ours tonight!).

Audacity is a dark comedy written by Simon Mawdsley and directed by Coryse Borg (yay!)... in it, a desperate and bitter Philip (Michael Zammit Maempel) recruits fellow salesmen Dave (Malcolm Galea) and John (Jean Marc Aguis) to help him hold up a department store, but then the inquisitive wives Gemma (Julia Calvert) and Gillian (Greta Agius) figure out that something is going on...

Not one, not two, not three, but FOUR tubs.

I've been ill for the last two weeks, with a cold that became a throat infection that became a chest infection... *groan*

On Thursday my doctor brought out the big guns after I went to his surgery and begged for help, so hopefully I will be OK in a couple more days.

In the meantime, I will mention that if you have a sore throat and you go to a singing lesson, don't actually sing, OK? No matter how much fun the songs are. Cos then your throat will progressively deteriorate over the hour, and you will eventually feel like you ripped the skin off it. And when that happens and you HAVE to stop singing, for pity's sake DON'T then join in on the chorus, even if you constitute 33.3% of that night's bass section, and they clearly need help.

Just don't.

But it hasn't been all bad... Michael came to visit me and, wonderful man that he is, he came bearing gifts...

'Scuse me, I'm off to find a spoon.

w00t!

It took me about half an hour but I finally found a monitor that is acceptable - the sides of the display curve inwards like those funky containers of low-fat salad dressing or drinking chocolate, but hey, the text is legible and I can live with this.

I have my Berry back! YAY!!!

*pats the tower*

Now I can get on with various temporarily-postponed projects and stop carting my files around from borrowed computer to borrowed computer. Aaaaaah...

The Computer Killer Strikes Again (dah dah dah DUM)

So, after Dad checked out my poor computer and went and bought me a Pentium IV motherboard plus CPU and memory, he rebuilt the computer for me. He offered to let me do it, but I remember the last time I built my own PC (several years ago) and really I'd rather stick to Meccano; you don't bark your knuckles nearly as much, and the pieces are virtually indestructible...

I took my rebuilt tower upstairs, plugged in everything and switched it on.

And...

*kaboom*, there went the new motherboard.

*sigh*

Dad did a postmortem, and ended up taking the PC to the computer shop, where the tech guys decided that I must have jiggled the board when unplugging the monitor. I told Dad to go ahead and buy a second motherboard, which the techies installed, and tonight he brought my beloved Berry* home... but told me to plug in an old Pentium I PC before trying to use mine again.

I lugged the Pentium I upstairs, plugged everything in (I really, really hate plugging stuff into the backs of computers) and switched it on.

And...

*kaboom*

Well, not really, I just THOUGHT it was kaboom because the monitor didn't register the PC, it just kept flashing its annoying grey grid, just like it did with the last two motherboards I blew...

The Pentium I still worked when Dad plugged it into his test bed, so the final diagnosis is that something is wrong with my monitor, and it's possible that the monitor blew the motherboards, not me as such.

Yay. Maybe I'm not a computer killer after all.

Since it was now safe to use Berry, Dad offered me the pick of one of the five old monitors that we have lying around, saying that "a couple of them work reasonably well".

I wondered if I should play eenie-meenie-minie-mo, but Little Sis said "Just pick the biggest one that looks like it won't fall to pieces when you pick it up". Oooof, that thing was heavy.

I plugged Berry into everything including the 'new' monitor, and...

no *kaboom*!!!

It booted!

Hooray!

Well, then there was the little issue of the display and why was I seeing three images of my desktop... turns out the big monitor is not one of the couple that work reasonably well.

I have had enough.

I refuse to plug in another plug tonight.

Tomorrow I will pick another monitor and try it out, but for tonight I'm happy to be sitting in the kitchen blogging on Mum's computer.

Goodnight my friends, and remember, if you have a computer problem... don't call me.

------

* We have to name our computers in this household, because of the internal network. When I bought my PC five years ago, translucent plastic was all the rage, so my tower/monitor/keyboard/speakers/mouse were all made of or featured translucent white and blue plastic. I thought the computer's monitor reminded me of a blueberry so I named him^ Berry.

^ Dad insists that all computer names be male, as he has never had anything but trouble with female-named computers.

Computer Killer

Yesterday was not a good day for me and computers.

My computer kept crashing while booting, and when I tried to use Mum's to check my email, my webmail crashed the browser which crashed her computer and then I couldn't even get it to boot in safe mode...

Having effectively killed two computers, I carefully avoided further contact with all things electronic until Dad got home.

Of course, Mum's computer booted quite happily in his presence, don't you hate it when that happens?

Mine wasn't so easy - the motherboard has died.

Dad will pick up a new one for me tomorrow, and in the meantime I'm borrowing some time on Little Sis's machine. He offered to lend me one for the interim (it's not like we don't have plenty of computers in this household) but I decided it wasn't really worth it for two days.

Actually I'm rather having fun on my sister's computer - it's brand new as compared to my five-years-old clunker, and it's appreciably faster. Unfortunately she'd probably notice if I swapped it with mine, so I'll just enjoy this while it lasts.