A Queen Has Been Crowned!

Congratulations to one of my fellow chorus girls from last summer: Sara Trader! Sara was just crowned Queen of Queens in her school pageant and will be competing this summer in the OVAC Queen of Queens pageant. As a former school Queen (Mount de Chantal, 2004), I wish her all the best and am quite sure she'll have a simply marvelous time! Of course, I'll miss her charm and wit and flirtatious ways in this summer's musical since she'll be far too occupied with her Queen-ly duties to join us on the stage.

Yay Sara!

Fountain

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/fountain.png

A Chorus Girl? Again?

You might remember from this post that last summer, I had a lesson in humility when I was cast in the chorus of Cinderella when I desperately wanted to be, well, Cinderella. Along the way, I learned a few other lessons about the art of being onstage and even got to have a knock-down, drag-out, hair-pulling fight with one of the other chorus girls, when we weren't flirting with every boy in sight. Our characters were our own, developed with the help of our director and our few lines in the opening number. From there on, we had so much creative freedom to develop who we wanted to be because there was so little in the script to dictate who we were. It was an adventure that I enjoyed very much and one I'm prepared to enjoy again if I am fortunate enough to be cast in this summer's production of Bye, Bye, Birdie.

It's the first musical back in the historic Strand Theatre, and Ryan Ferrebee will once again be at the helm. It's an exciting summer ahead, and I hope to see many of the same faces with whom I worked last year and, of course, new faces as well. What I hope to avoid is any casting drama a la my embarrassing meltdown last year, which is why I have prepared myself for the chorus. Even in the ensemble, there is opportunity for artistic growth and skill set expansion. There is singing and dancing and acting throughout because it is a musical, after all. If I am cast anywhere but there, I will certainly celebrate, but my enjoyment of the summer will not depend on where I am cast but rather only that I am cast at all. (Then again, I may not be cast at all and that will be a whole other kettle of fish which I'd rather not explore at this particular moment.)

I'll keep you posted on developments in this regard. Auditions aren't until the end of May, and before then, I've got a trip to Ireland to enjoy and a boatload of work to accomplish. I may as well put off the worrying, maybe completely!

A Little Bit Country

During much of my childhood, my mother sang in a country band called Streamline. My brother and I were brought up on a diet of country music sung by mom and her sisters and constantly on the radio. While I didn't watch last night's Academy of Country Music Awards, I did read a short recap and learned that this happened:

It made me smile. I hope it does you, too.

I Knew You Were Coming So I Baked a Cake!

Last night, I threw my very first grown-up dinner party. My roommate and I had four guests over, and everyone had a marvelous time.

The menu:

Green Peppers & Grape Tomatoes

sauteed in olive oil with cumin & celery salt

Baked Garlic Parmesan Chicken (for the meat-eaters)

Bowtie Pasta (for me)

Carrot Cake (from scratch!)

Brownies (from scratch!)

(My roommate made these, and they were amazing!)

Iced Tea

Water

Dinner conversation followed a winding path, as dinner conversation is wont to do. We covered topics from the Viennese Winter Ball menu to hula hoop construction, symphony concerts to the Disney College Program. Post-dinner, we relocated to the living room. The following excitement ensued:

*One of our guests tuned my roommate's autoharp. They proceeded to play an autoharp-recorder duet of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." There is videographic evidence of this. I have been forbidden to share it.

*Another of our guests is a hula hoop fitness instructor. She gave a short lesson in hula hooping, and then attempts were made with a fair bit of success.

*My feather fans made a brief appearance. My skill is limited, but they're just so fluffy and gorgeous, I couldn't leave them in the box with company over. One of these days, I'll actually learn to use them (and have the confidence to strut about unabashedly with them).

*And finally, there was an hour-long swing dance lesson, covering the basics of 6-count East Coast Swing. With that, much success as well.

On the whole, the evening was a smashing success, and I look forward to future dinner parties. Hopefully, with the weather turning warm, we'll be able to have gatherings out on the balcony. And by balcony, I mean rooftop deck-type thing. It's bigger than our kitchen. It might be bigger than the living room. In any case, it's a marvelous place for a party so we shall simply have to have one.

Also, I was singing this song in my head while I baked the carrot cake:

Vicarious Living! (and lots of exclamation points...)

Okay, I won't deny it. My life is super incredibly blessed. One of those blessings is getting to see all of the cool and incredible things that my friends/acquaintances/peripheral connections are doing and experiencing all over the world.

A confession: I am mildly addicted to Facebook. I can go a few days without it and did recently, but usually, one of the first things I do in the morning is check the news feed. Not because anything life-changing is going to be posted but because I like that feeling of connection, even when it's so loose.

Recent developments (in no particular order):

• A local playwright has been invited to present his musical at the Midtown International Theatre Festival in Manhattan! He has a kickstarter page to help get the project funded. First thing this morning: $10 funded. Right now, just over an hour after I first saw the project: $670 funded. It's a fantastic way to support a person or a project. On the plus side of making a pledge, if the project isn't fully funded, you're not charged. I don't know this playwright really at all. We've met a couple of times. I haven't read or seen this show. So why did I make a pledge to his project? I saw him onstage in a local production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He was Rosencrantz or Guildenstern, and his performance stunned me. (So did the actor opposite him. They were quite a pair.) He's a remarkably talented actor and so I support his pursuit of the arts in whatever avenue he chooses. Right now, that's this musical. (You can learn more about his musical and the kickstarter project here.) Incidentally, as I was writing this, the funding total went up to $680.

• A guy I met my freshman year of college just finished working on a Cirque du Soleil show in Macau!

• One of my youth orchestra families is taking a vacation to Paris next week!

• A family I know in Crestview, FL, upcycles found materials into art. See their work here and here and probably a couple of other places, too. They're frequently posting about where you can find their work in person, and they even have an etsy store.

• One of my dearest friends got married last month, another is now engaged, and I can't even begin to count the number of Facebook friends who are posting ultrasound or baby bump or "My, look how my baby's growing!" pictures.

• My mom, who, after much prayerful consideration, quit her job of three years back in January, was just hired as the Director of Development for a local hospital.

• Another theatre director friend was hired as the Executive Director of a local theatre and will be moving back once he finished grad school. Among his duties: direct this summer's production of Bye, Bye, Birdie. Also, he's going to be my opera buddy.

• A dance friend invited me to take a private lesson with a national instructor this Friday.

• (Disclaimer: This is not about a friend but rather about an exciting thing happening in downtown.) Barnes & Noble is opening a bookshop a block and a half from where I live! This is both good (easy access to books, hooray!) and bad (my bank account will likely take a hit). Focusing on the good!

• A gal from my church is going on a two-week mission trip to Brazil this summer!

Just look at all that happy! And that's only a small fraction of the happy that infuses my news feed every day!

As my mother would say, life is good!

Broadway Melody of 1940

Netflix brought me this today:



*sigh*