29 Dec 2012:
Our rehearsal for CSOPA’s mainstage production of Annie began this morning with a wonderful warm- up, we did a ten minute run to get our heart rates up, and then we completed our warm-up with an ab workout. I love these warm-ups because they have allowed me to become infinitely more fit, and they have given me the chance to keep up my fitness in the absence of a PE class.
After our warm-up, we continued our day by working through the singing and dancing in a few scenes, the instructors were very helpful as usual, giving us notes and helping us polish our performance. We also spent the time that we were not needed upstairs practicing our lines and blocking downstairs with our friends.
Blocking is a theatre term which refers to the precise movement and positioning of actors on a stage in order to facilitate the performance of a play, ballet, film or opera. The term derives from the practice of 19th century theatre directors who worked out the staging of a scene on a miniature stage using blocks to represent each of the actors.
The last part of our day was taken up by our second sitzprobe of the year (the first being yesterday).
Sitzprobe (German) is a term used in musical theatre to describe a seated rehearsal—the literal translation of Sitzprobe—where the singers sing with the orchestra, focusing attention on integrating the two groups. It is often the first rehearsal where the orchestra and singers rehearse together.
We worked through all of the songs in act two of Annie with the orchestra, figuring out the timing and tempos of the songs. It went fairly smoothly and we were done on time.
Closing our day, we worked together to tidy up our rehearsal space and then we gathered together in the green room as the director, Andrew Smith, informed us of tomorrow’s schedule and of any major notes he had for us from the day.
Green room is a room in a theatre or studio in which performers can relax when they are not performing.
Right before we all left, we sang happy birthday to Avianna Clempson, the girl playing Annie, and ate birthday cupcakes in the green room.
All in all, it was a very good day at the theatre.
—Kate
