My first full day of freedom! There is always that feeling of being let out of jail the day after a show finishes. I did wake up this morning with every melody from HMS Pinafore zooming around my brain altogether, like a great symphony of Gilbert and Sullivan ! It was a bit all consuming so I had to put the TV on to help flick the show 'off switch'.
The final venue was cleared this morning, so I had a visit from the set van bringing me some large wooden backdrops, which are now residing in my barn on a slow journey to complete rot down! The final timbers of the ship may end up heating my house next winter - a jolly fine resting place for them I say!
The after show party was a great hit. It was in a local hotel, and after the usual thanks and flowers the younger and stronger element of the crew got down to the serious business of beer, which they managed to sustain until around 7am this morning. Thank the Lord that I no longer have to join that particular party, and sparkle til dawn - actually from what I understand there was a bit of snoozy respite between pints !
Singing in a show, whether chorus or principal is such a bonding thing. I mentioned in an earlier post that to work successfully, complete trust has to build amongst the team. I love the fact that many of my past pupils who shared so many shows over the last 20 years, still feel that bond when they meet up, and thus have an affection for one another, which has grown from those close up and personal moments. That does not mean that they are bosom friends, or may have even chosen each other as mates in another life, but it says, that warts and all, we were in something together, which in small but important ways, changed all our lives. I feel just the same. My life is just as entwined - or maybe entangled with theirs.
I hope the newer members of that family feel they are just as important part of that history, and are equally as important. A thread of song from the first youngsters who were thrown together in around 1980, up to those of all ages who are still being musically jettisoned into each other's performing orbit in 2010.
Some of those past shows are ;
The Mikado
Iolanthe
Dido and Aeneas
The Marriage of Figaro
Let's Make an Opera
The Gondoliers
Albert Herring
The Pirates of Penzance
The Rape of Lucretia
Trial by Jury
and on and on and on............
I have tried to cover all styles and genre in my teaching and production, well all those styles suitable for young voices!
Any particular favourites in the list ?
