Vocal Aid 2008 - sing, dance and clap your hands.

This weekend, Mike and I are taking part in the annual Stagecoach "Vocal Aid" concert, proceeds going to children's charities.

This will be our third Vocal Aid, so we're used to the general process now - two months of learning songs in class, then a couple of rehearsals with the Stage 3's (the next age group down), then a couple of rehearsals with all the kids (down to the 6-year-olds), then rehearsals at the MCC during production week.

Rehearsals can be boring because they take so long - there's lots of sitting/standing around while decisions are being made, problems fixed and so on, and you have to repeat the same thing again and again to iron out the wrinkles. It can be quite fun if you decide to just enjoy the experience and chat with a friend while you're waiting :-) Just in case, I pack a book, but that doesn't help when we're stuck on stage.

Tonight was the dress rehearsal, where we ran all the songs in the correct order, all the way through, without stopping for feedback from the director in between songs. As always in dress rehearsal, it was surprising to see how fast the show actually went by. The opposite generally happens when you're rehearsing a play and people don't really know their lines or cues or blocking and so they are slow, but when it's all singing and dancing, if the cast is unsure then the backing tracks just keep playing regardless and things CAN'T slow down *grin*

This year the concert will be a bit different from previous years. So far it has been a singing concert with a little bit of dancing sometimes thrown in, but this time there is a lot more dancing, and there are even numbers that are dances with little or no singing. There are broomsticks. There are rollerblades. It's quite a show. (The director bawled us out for being so fascinated with the dancers that we forget to look at her and miss our pickups)

My favourite numbers in the show are the two that our class (the Further Stages) will be doing by ourselves. We won't have the choir backing us because while we're on stage, behind the closed curtain there will be a few hundred children scrambling into position on the risers. I like our songs the best because the first one is by my favourite musical writer, Stephen Sondheim, and is from what is currently my favourite musical, Sweeney Todd (just so we're clear on this, the stage version not the film, ok?). And I like the second song because it is one of my favourite musical theatre numbers EVER, and it's just basically an excuse for gratuitous entertainment since, even in the context of its musical, it does not advance the plot and does not contain character development. It's a song-and-dance number with twenty people and twenty hats, we don't usually drop any in rehearsal but maybe we should start taking bets...

I'm looking forward to the performances tomorrow and on Sunday. Tomorrow will be a bit crazy because Michael and I have a wedding to go to so as soon as the curtain closes on the second Act, we will be dashing off the stage, leaping over small children, scrambling into our fancy togs, and dashing off to the reception. Sunday will be more relaxed, which is nice, but nothing can beat the nervous tension of a first performance. I was swapping performance symptoms with another classmate while we were waiting in the wings this evening, our hats clutched in hand, and I think I envy another classmate who was standing nearby and said that we were being gross (haha) and that she never had such problems.

I had better go get some beauty sleep - the photos were already taken during the dress rehearsal and the DVD will only be filmed on Sunday, but still one wants to look one's best for one's public.

Comments

[Sandro Vella]

The blog post "Vocal Aid 2008 - sing, dance and clap your hands" is featured on Maltamedia: The Maltese Blogosphere

- Nominate blog post of the month -

[Sandro Vella]

X'kunjomok Maltagirl?

Sandro

[MaltaGirl]

Issa ngħidlek.

[Sandro Vella]

Dear Maltagirl and Michael,

I'd like to remind you that at 8:00 pm this Friday the 13th of June 2008 at San Remo's the meal organized for bloggers, their families and friends shall be held.

Details about the menu, location and a lot of other details can be found on my web-site: www.sandrovella.org .

Please check your booking and your order. If you want to change your order, please contact me.

Feel free to bring any family or friends but please let me know about it beforehand. You can call me on 79460527 or send me an e-mail at info@sandrovella.org.

Thank you for booking. I am sure that we will have a great time and am looking forward to seeing you there.

Kind regards,

Sandro Vella

[Shanna Doughty]

So what are the songs? By the sea maybe? how did it go by the way? Are you getting a DVD so that we can watch when we get back?

[MaltaGirl]

We did The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd, and Steam Heat from The Pajama Game was our big song-and-dance number. Unfortunately we messed up the Ballad both nights - I don't know how but we suddenly ended up completely off the beat, maybe from people not watching the director! I forgot to order a DVD (sigh) but maybe I can borrow one off a friend. I'm curious to see how Steam Heat turned out!