Welcome to Gaia! ::

I noticed... Look! reference material! mrgreen

Ah, yes... Contact. One of my favorites. Hee hee.

Well, I hope it's a wonderful experience for you.

I just got home from first rehearsal. God, I’m so tired. gonk

I got to rehearsal fifteen minutes early, and almost everybody was already there. Inez and Sayer were sitting together talking, and Kamidh was sitting by the door. He was all, “Oran! Whassup?” and handed me a little paperback of the script. “Not that you’ll be needing this, but...” he said, and laughed.

The director said, “Oran! Our little showstopper!” Everybody laughed, a kinda nervous giggle. I realized almost immediately that I was not only the youngest one in the room, but I really *looked* young next to everybody else. redface I just said, “Um, yeah, I’m here, I guess, so... hi?”

We did a check-in (for you non-theater types, that’s where you stand in a circle holding hands, and squeeze each other’s fingers in sequence, and while it’s going around the circle people say whatever happens to be on their mind at that moment.) Everybody was like, “Ugh, algebra tests” or “My car needs oil” or “My boyfriend dumped me five minutes ago” (Poor Lori)... and then it came to me, feeling all young and inexperienced and stupid, and I said, “Um... I’m really freaked out by all of you guys.” Everybody kinda went “Aw, Mark... we love you... blahblahblah etc” and Lori, who was still all sniffly and red-eyed from being dumped, gave me a hug and called me “cutie.” I felt kinda like the mascot. redface

When that was over, the chorus director stood up and said, “Hey guys, let’s warm up our voices. I don’t like scales. Does everybody know ‘Will I?’” I was surprised. Everybody said, “Yeah,” except for Sayer, who went, “I can’t remember how the melody goes, but I can play the chords on my guitar...” The director said “Oh, well don’t worry about it Sayer, you come in last anyway. You’ll pick it up.”

So we warmed up on “Will I,” which was amazing. Sayer picked it out on his guitar while we all sang. Everybody started out a little choked, but eventually we just kinda fell into it. I came in second, just like Mark does, and the chorus director (who hadn’t heard me sing yet) kinda raised her eyebrows at me. I think she was impressed.

After that, we did “Seasons of Love,” and Stephanie riffed a little of her solo. She already sounds really good. She really impresses me; she’s got these awesome braids and an attitude that reminds me a bit of Tracie Thoms.

With our voices all warmed up I think we were all really psyched to jump into the script, but our director said, “Let’s all sit and talk logistics, shall we, guys?” so we all kinda flopped down into chairs in a circle onstage, opened our scripts, and (onoes) started crossing out lines.

We’re not doing contact, but everybody whined loud enough to convince Ms. Tepley to leave in Maureen’s moon, Collins and Angel’s kiss heart (Makani said “If Angel doesn’t get kissed, I’m leaving”), a few choice curse words that would otherwise throw off entire lines, and “We’re OK”, “Christmas Bells”, “Halloween”, and “Goodbye Love”. (Can you believe she wanted to model our version after the movie at first?! I was horrified.)

After about 45 minutes of cuts, discussions, petitioning, and lots of scratching of pencils in margins, we settled on something between the Broadway show and the movie, and nobody walked off in a huff. sweatdrop We even figured out a way to work in Angel’s really haunting walk across the back of the stage during the funeral, complete with that awesome backlit white sheet.

Then we all talked about characters. We all talked about why our characters have their personalities, how we feel similar to them, and so on. It was really interesting listening to Inez talk about Mimi, as a latina and a former New Yorker. Sayer’s got Roger figured out beautifully; he’s not just an emokid. He’s got a reason to play his guitar, and he’s got a life ahead of him, however short; he’s just scared and depressed and feeling really sick. I just talked about being the youngest in my family and always being the observer, so I really relate to Mark’s obsession with documenting the lives of those he loves. I got a little mutter of approval for that.

Overall it was a pretty cool rehearsal. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get into the actual script and read lines at each other, but that’s gonna start on Wednesday. I guess I can wait that long. whee

Oh my goodness! Sounds amazing! WOOO!

I'm glad that you guys were able to keep the element of the show in there. I mean the movie is amazing, but the show is six million times better, and it would be copying the movie. And yeah... My rant is done.

Sounds very exciting. I like they way you explain everything, I feel like I'm there! blaugh

I don't know what she was thinking, either. I guess she thought the movie's structure would be more age appropriate or something.

Gotta run, rehearsal again in two hours heart

Word has spread about the show, and the fact that I’m Mark, so I guess my new nickname around school is “Cohen” now. sweatdrop

Friday’s rehearsal was dull, but important. We did a lot of scheduling, and decided that if we don’t rehearse on weekends, we’re never going to be ready in time for June 2nd (our opening night). We did a lot of calendar scratching, made a lot of phone calls to check on other people’s plans for certain weekends, and laid out a very stringent rehearsal schedule, MWF 6-9 PM, and Saturdays 1-6 PM. I offered my new huge basement for rehearsals on the saturdays when we can’t get into the auditorium (we share the auditorium with debate club on the weekends). My oldest sister says she’ll cook Italian for everybody on those Saturday nights. whee

So yesterday the debate club invasion began, and we ended up at my place. The painist, Vadjislau, was already there with his keyboard, visiting my sister, so he agreed to stick around and play for us in the basement. Everybody met my sisters and brother (I have four siblings) and then we all got some water and went downstairs. Our basement is pretty damn big, and everybody brought folding chairs, so it was kinda like some sort of drama club secret service down there. We just sat chilling around this huge table my brother found in the crawlspace. The director couldn’t make it, so we ran the afternoon ourselves. We talked about the script, our families, the reason we’re in the play, and how hot everybody in the movie are. Everybody had an opinion. When I started going on about Anthony, Sayer went, “Dude, we already knew Anthony was your favorite. Seriously, look at you, you practically are him.” redface

Eventually we settled into the script, and we came to Boheme. Suddenly somebody went, “Hey, can we stand on this table?” The question prompted Makani to climb onto it (being the risky guy that he is), and it held steady without even a creak. So he jumped off of it, like Angel does in Today 4 U, and it didn’t even shake. I kinda went, “Since when do we have an industrial-strength dancing table in our basement?” and a bunch more people crawled onto it and started stomping around. I guess the noise attracted my brother and sister, cuz the twins appeared at the top of the stairs and watched us jump around on this giant table for a minute. They thought it was hilarious.

Then we settled down, warmed up our voices, and did “Seasons of Love.” It sounded kinda weird in the basement, but I thought we did pretty well without the choir director there to keep us in time. Vadjislau said the acoustics suck down there, but it’s a basement, what do you expect?

After we’d gone over some lines and discussed boring stuff like volume, voice blending, inflection, and little things like posture and vowels, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon just getting to know each other outside of the play. I talked with Sayer for a while, he’s pretty awesome. He says he’s been studying guitar since he was ten, and he loves it. He has a penpal in Portugal who might turn into a girlfriend, he says, and he’s looking forward to meeting her in person when she comes out here in the fall. He showed me a picture of her that he keeps in his guitar case. She’s cute, and seems like a sweet girl. Then he asked if I had a girlfriend. redface I’d never told anyone straight out that I’m gay, except for my family, so telling him was kind of awkward. When I did, he laughed and said, “Ah, I feel stupid, sorry. No wonder you like Anthony so much!” redface

Then we all switched people to chat with. Inez told me all about herself. She’s Dominican, the oldest of four girls, and she wants to be the next Mariah Carey, “Without the breakdown.” She tells me that she really feels for Mimi, because she was born in the Dominican Republic, moved to NYC when she was four, and then to Seattle when she was thirteen. She’s Latina, and very serious about her heritage. I really admire that, and I said so. She blushed and looked at me funny. Then she started asking me about myself, and as we talked, I got the weird feeling that she was hitting on me. She kept giggling. sweatdrop

Then I got to talk to Makani, who is so awesome it hurts. He’s 3/4 hawaiian and 1/4 hispanic, gay, a hip-hop dancer, and a drummer. He’s got a great sense of humor. When he asked the girlfriend question and I told him I was gay, He giggled and said, “Aw, babe, that’s perfect, we can start our very own girl’s club.” xd He told me that he recently broke up with his boyfriend and he doesn’t want to find another one for a while, so his “new purpose in life” is to get me a boyfriend. sweatdrop I swear, this guy practically IS Angel.

Eventually somebody looked at the clock, and it was six all of a sudden. My sister had made like, ten pizzas, so we all chilled in the basement, eating and talking until about 7:30, and then everybody went home. Kamidh was like, “Man, that was awesome. We should let the debate team keep the auditorium and just come here every weekend.”

Today I slept, and did homework. Hopefully all these rehearsals won’t kill me. I’m already getting tired, and we’ve got 2 ½ months to go. sweatdrop

Oh, I love hearing about this! I'm so happy you have the chance to be in this show. I mean, I hear that most people who do this show stay very close. Okay, well, I didn't hear, I assume, but hey. I hope it works out for you like it did with everyone in the OBC.

I'm taking a break between classes to tell you how PSYCHED I am.

Last night at rehearsal we talked publicity and took a few pictures. The first mock-up for the ad poster will be handed out tonight. I can't wait heart

and don't worry, I'll post it here, too.