The School Clothes Concert

There was a concert.

It was the absolute most informal of occasions.  The orchestra was dressed in their everyday clothes.  The audience all came at less than two hours notice, about the same notice the performers had.  The instrument cases were scattered around the house of the auditorium, restricting the places where the audience could actually sit.  Not that it was really an issue.  At most, about a quarter of the house was filled.  The house lights weren't even turned off.

But the concert was really good.  Some amazing pieces.  Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.  Elgar's Enigma Variation Nimrod.  Glinka's Russlan and Ludmilla.  Marquez's ever-uplifting Danzon No. 2.  Brilliant music.  Although maybe not completely rehearsed, still a very good performance by a very good orchestra.

I was in it.  That concert was known as PMEA District Orchestra 2014.

The Polar Vortex has been brutal.  The concert originally scheduled for the following day (today) had to be cancelled due to weather.  Just another casualty in this long, cold, winter.

I still really enjoyed the experience.  Not just the fact that I got to play with a really good orchestra.  The fact that I got to participate in such a concert.

I feel it served as a reminder the the audience that we all were still just high schoolers.  We didn't transform into different people when we went up on stage, as sometimes you see when you get the normal formal concert.

Also, it served to remind all of us that the concert is not the important part.  It's the playing of the music.  The only reason we would have done a concert was for the climax of the learning experience.  Although, we didn't get the climax, we still got the learning experience.

And the audience not being packed to see such beautiful music?  The Joshua Bell experiment all over again.  We may not be at his level, but people just couldn't pack the house at less than two hours notice.  But to be honest, it didn't matter.  We got the learning experience.  I got to play with a orchestra.  Who could ask for anything more?

-NM

Senior Year of Musical

Well, so far so good!

The show is going to be phenomenal if we can keep this up.  In less than a week's time we have almost finished staging the entire first act (total of nine songs completed), and have sung through the entire thing.  People are already starting to get the feel of the show, we sound good.  Everyone loves this show already, it's just so much fun to do.  Already those special funny moments are starting to pop up here and there, and the energy is really high!

Chaos may be on the horizon.  Especially with the unfortunate necessity that "When the Foeman..." is going to be staged without the lead policeman (with the guilt resting entirely on me here).  And the fact that Act One isn't going to be looked at in earnest for a long time.  And the fact that people are going to have to accept the fact that they will have to study the music outside of rehearsal.  I'm not terribly worried though.

Today in rehearsal was quite possibly the experience that I have been waiting for.

Even though it was a music rehearsal today, it was my songs that we were working on, "When the Foeman..." and "When a felon...".  I sat up front, did my thing (which I made sure I had prepared coming into rehearsal), and the rest of the cast sang their part of the songs.  It was a little splash of reality when that portion was finished and we went back to the Act One Finale where I was just a part of the ensemble.

Some people just don't understand that the moment like this has been in the waiting.  I got tastes of it all through middle school, between Drake and Lumière, but I haven't had anything like this since then.  A song I can almost call my own.  So many people I know have, and I've watched then do it.  For me, I feel like it's always been just out of reach.  I finally caught it today.  And it was a great feeling.

-NM

3 Things You May Not Have Known About Wicked

Wicked is a great show.  I've seen it three times now, and every time I see it I realize more about it than I did the previous time I saw it.

However, I don't like it for the same reasons most people like it.  Sure, it does have great songs, and funny dialogue, and the plot line is extraordinary.  However, it's the second layer that makes it so good. The things that you don't notice the third time around.  As someone told my mom, "I've seen it five times, and I'm just now starting to get it."

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, PLEASE STOP HERE, AND READ THIS AFTER YOU HAVE. CONTAINS SPOILERS.

And now, what you maybe didn't notice.  In order of importance

1. Goodness and Wickedness are not nouns in the same sense that we think of them as in our everyday lives.  In the land of Oz, Good and Wicked are Divine Forces.  A lot of things in the story are done for "Good", not "good".  However, the writers are making the point that Good is not always good, and that Wicked isn't always wicked.  The title Wicked Witch of the West is appropriate, because Elphaba's actions don't appease Good, but that doesn't mean she is wicked by any means.
2. People complain that the happy ending was cheesy, and added to make the audience a little happier.  This is a lie (maybe it's just looking at things a different way, but it's definitely not true).  The ending is foreshadowed on not one, but two occasions.  The first is in the very opening scene, during the final chorus of "No One Mourns the Wicked", Elphaba's shadow can be seen behind the clock (more on that later).  The second is during "I'm not that girl", when it is raining, Elphaba is getting wet, and she doesn't melt.  No one can argue that there weren't clues to the ending.  Frankly, L. Frank Baum's idea to make her melt is a lot cheesier.
3. This one I'm still figuring out, but the whole show is part of the Time Dragon Clock, referred to by name twice.  The proscenium has the dragon on top, the entire scenery is made of of gears with a clock in the background, and the entire floor is shaped like one giant cog.  The dragon moves three times: before the opening scene, the revealing of the monkeys and the Wizard's wickedness, and when Dorothy's house is in the air.  Arguably, these happen to be the three biggest turning points in the show.  The meaning, I'm still figuring out.  Any help?

And that's just three.  Even listening to the music, you can figure out the first one.  Any analysis of the second two unfortunately requires seeing the show.

I guarantee you, if you didn't realize these things already, you will never look at Wicked the same way again.

-NM

Updated 4/3/14

I think I've figured out number 3.  It came when KP made known to me that the clock goes up to XIII.  The Time Dragon Clock represents fate.  The whole show is controlled by the wheels and gears of fate and time.  It makes sense, but if you can think of anything else, please comment.

-NM

Bugsy Malone Jr. & Biggest Mistake Ever

Bugsy Malone Jr.

My involvement in this show has been between one third and one fourth of what it was for Little Mermaid.  I haven't felt very involved in this show at all.  In fact, I missed almost all of Tech Week, and opening night.  GZ was the choreographer, and she did a good job with it.  I just wasn't a whole lot of help.

The matinee show went well.  It was certainly not the same show that I had seen that previous Monday. This show had a lot more energy, and it seems that the cast had begun to embrace the silliness that the show needs.  There were a few screw ups, (most notably in KM and GS's scene), but the cast handled them well.

Between the shows was a fun time with piano playing and socializing, as well as getting ready for the next show.  The high schoolers all made 60 second speeches.  I don't remember what I said, and I'm pretty sure it made no sense at all.

The second show went well.  At least as good as the first.  And it finally got the standing ovation that KR deemed so important to the show's success.  KR and MC were crying after the show because it was their last middle school show.  The other 8th graders realized that they would now be moving on to bigger and better things.

After the show was the cast party, which I must say was my least favorite of all time.  It was loud, and the beginning was a lot of dancing, and I can't dance.  Eventually, the karaoke started, and that helped things a lot.  I sang Americain Pie.  Then I made my worst mistake ever.

-NM

Biggest Mistake Ever

I left without saying goodbye.

-NM