April 6, 2012
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OPENING NIGHT!!!!WHO'S DOWN?
The Daily News1 Opening Night.
2 That's baseball. One of my students told me that the odds on the Giants winning the world series were 6-1.
3 Someone must see something I don't, but they did make a lot of improvements.
4 I don't know what the odds are on the A's, but they should be pretty interesting. It's going to be a fun season, that's for sure.
5 Everything counts, as of tonight.
6 Spring has officially sprung.
7 And baseball makes everything right, at least in my eyes. I'm going to get me the best hot dogs, peanuts, and cold beverages money can buy, and enjoy opening night in the warmth of my living room
8 Go Giants AND A's.
9 Moving on, Part the First: Yesterday was an amazing day. The Grease cast did a "flash" yesterday in the quad. I'm not sure what they did, because I tried to ignore it when they planned it, but they showed up at lunch, arranged with ASB to use their sound system, and did We Go Together, with full choreo, and with no warning to anybody.
10 At one point in the song, they all kneeled down and alienated one girl, who was then asked to prom, at least I think that was the plan!
11 I was at a lunch send-off to a teacher who is going to have a baby and won't be back this year, so I totally missed it.
12 My last period of the day, a girl who was in it came in and said, "Did you see it?" She reported that it was outrageously cool, and that everybody was completely on target, and that the entire cast had nailed it! Thank goodness.
13 I was actually a bit worried, because they had been pretty shaky on that particular song for a while, but really got it just the day before.
14 If they had forgotten steps, or gotten out of sync with the music, the entire thing could have not worked, and in fact, could have made them look really bad.
15 Didn't happen. Not with this cast. They punched it through and blew the entire school out of the water!
16 When I got to rehearsal yesterday, they were so hyped it was beyond words. Everybody was singing, dancing, and having a blast! Goofiness and laughter were everywhere.
17 Plus this was the first rehearsal with a live band, so they were doubly excited.
18 I noticed that my cough seemed to have diminished, and notes I couldn't hit in the last two weeks suddenly happened easily.
19 When they began the rehearsal, they took the place by storm. David and I kept looking at each other in utter disbelief. Every single scene looked awesome! Every single singer was spot on. The band added a depth that brought it all live and loud.
20 I kept silently singing my song so that my voice would be warmed up. I don't come in until late in Act 2, and was still worried and nervous about my song. But my voice kept hitting all the notes that it couldn't two days ago.
21 When I was finally out there, I threw in a huge swag, because the voice was clearly back. I had watched a video of Taylor Swift doing Teen Angel the day before, and watched some of his ideas. He played Teen Angel in a Broadway revival I think in 2008.
22 I did well, rising to the massive intensity that the students had created the entire day. Everybody focused, and the rest of the rehearsal went magnificently.
23 The show isn't nearly as raunchy when everybody gets into character. It becomes closer to a sort of How To Succeed style, with goofy faces, funky dances, and ridiculous exits.
24 I had talked to Kelly (Frenchy) and told her I was going to move around and add more to the blocking. I had never really been blocked, so the other day I stood there hanging on to the microphone for dear life, hoping that my voice would make it through.
25 Yesterday I decided to block myself, and to give Kelly a few mini-directions. She responded perfectly, and the number did fine.
26 I still cracked, but just on one word, and I corrected it swiftly and kept going.
27 I wasn't really worried, because it was the first time in about a month that my voice had returned, and it felt great.
28 The rehearsal whistled and hummed. It was far and away our best so far, and we are pretty close to show-ready. We have no costumes or sets, but all of that is being taken care of. We open on April 27, so there is still a lot of grunt work to do, but the show proper is just about ready. I'm guessing that if we had to open next weekend we would be able to.
29 The miracle seems to be happening.
30 And it we now have a week off from school; grades are done, and it looks to me like it is full speed ahead.
31 Can't wait!
32 I don't know if I wrote about this yesterday, but the day before yesterday I opened the door to my classroom to get to a meeting, and this young guitarist was sitting there, strumming four chords.
33 I walked past him, but recognized the four chords as C, Am, F, and G.
34 Those chords are the heart of 50's rock. They are in songs like Teenager in Love, Silhouettes, and even We Go Together. They traveled through a billion rock songs over the ages, and there is even a song in Grease dedicated to those chords.
35 It's called Those Magic Changes, and anyone who has ever played rock would understand the salute to those arrangments.
36 In Grease, it's a G7, but it is often a G as well. Not a perfect coincidence, but certainly one of those little coincidences that seems to dance through my life. I walked down the steps of our building singing the song. What's that playing on the radio? I was young again. Those chords are the true fountain of youth.
37 Those magic changes indeed.
38 That's about it for today, won't be back until a week from Monday, so enjoy baseball, Easter, and this entire change of seasons.
39 Happy springtime everybody!
40 Peace.
~H~
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