For a little insight on what we do here at CSOPA as we head into Mainstage production month, Princess Fiona (Brittany Clough) will be sharing her views on the process. The blog will be updated after each rehearsal, starting on December 23rd and ending after final dress rehearsal on January 14th. Enjoy!
23 December 2013
Start of the craziness:
And by craziness I mean awesome wonderfulness… as well as craziness. We’ve only had three full days this Christmas break before Christmas Eve. Even in those three days, however, the growth of the scenes and characters is evident. Besides the last final pages of the script, we have now successfully run through each scene and song at least twice…. while some songs (aka. Morning Person) have been run over 100 times. Undeniably though, things are coming together. Yesterday, at the completion of rehearsal, we were lucky enough to hear the orchestra practicing and they sounded incredible! Props are coming in (including my gnarly harmonica headpiece, whoohoo!), costumes are being made and some practiced with (such as Lord Farquaad’s set of legs) and the script is becoming a show! Tonight, we celebrated Christmas with a secret santa party. We had pizza and sushi (for people who are picky vegans (aka me)), and exchanged gifts… theatre style. By theatre style, I mean we all acted out the person we had picked for secret santa. It’s definitely funny and interesting to see how other people view you, and what they think is a quality or action that defines you and will make others be able to guess your name. Needless to say, we all enjoyed delicious goodies and shared some laughs, and for some of us, some snorts. I honestly have all my friends asking me why I’m willing to give up my winter break to do rehearsals all day, and even my parents start to wonder why I give up sleep ins to go to CSOPA early at 8:30. For me, there are a couple of reasons:
1) The cast and instructors are probably the only people I could enjoy and not want to kill after spending 8 hours + daily.
2) If I wasn’t doing this, I’d probably just be sitting on my butt watching movies.
3) The reason I’m in CSOPA is because I love musical theatre and don’t people spend time on things that they love?
4) It keeps you physically fit and your energy level up because you’re not being lazy.
5) The amount of growth as a person, cast, and actor that occurs during this period is unbelievable.
There are definitely other reasons, and other people might feel differently but I love spending all my time at CSOPA. For now, however, there’s no question that our CSOPA cast will spend the next three days with a well deserved break to be with family and other loved ones, to wrap (and maybe go to Superstore 24 hour and buy) presents, and to clear our minds. So Merry Christmas to everybody and we’ll see you on the 27th when we go right into a month of amazing memories, sleepless nights, and dazzling performances.
–Brittany
