On to another great post!  Thursday afternoon was my first voice lesson in about two and a half years.  I am pleased to say I am very ecstatic about the next coming months!  We began with a review (for me) about breathing, support, the diaphragm, the mask, and other technical terms that we quickly glossed over.  Then, we determined that I have an octave and a half range with the same above that in falsetto which totally surprised the both of us.  Then, it was time to get down to business… FUN TIMES!

I decided that “Younger Than Springtime” would be good to warm up on.  It would have been if the copy I had was complete.  We got to the last page an discovered that there is something missing.  So I dig and find the book with the song… only to discover that it was in a lower key!  But manageable… only slightly lower.  But I prefer the higher range.  I like to shoot for my POWer notes, but those would come later.

Next, I dug out “This is the Moment.”  Kathrine is unfamiliar with Jekyll and Hyde?!  Blasphemy!  Just don’t listen to the Hoff’s version.  Then, we went to “If I Can’t Love Her” from the stage version of Beauty and the Beast.  The big ballad which closes Act I.  The only suggestion she had for both pieces is to find the soft moments in both pieces.  They are both powerful songs but powerful is not always meant for volume..   Build up to the big moment!  Then you will have them eating out of your hand.  Sounds like homework.  But she said that with a slight polishing they are already prime for performance.  I wanted to do the Beast’s number previously; however, the gig I wanted to sing it for was limited to musicals of the past decade.  So, I sang “Under the Sea.”

It is a good thing I was introduced to Miss Saigon earlier in the week via youtube.  My new coach had me read (sight reading… YUCK!) two duets from the show with her.  Not the character driven pieces I had hoped for but those will come in time.  It has been advised that I check out both the Engineer and Thuy (although Vietnamese I am not but…).  Kathrine mentioned that we should sign up for one of the weekend gigs starting up again in the fall.  I am totally against that idea 😉  HAHAHAHA!  Just need to get some more cool character pieces in with the big dramatic ones.  Several I can think of easily…. maybe go dig an old fossil of 18 years ago.  Go in there and blow everyone’s minds.  Of course, provided that anyone would actually come and see me?!  I’m sure I could get at least 3 people there… and that is a crowd.

Who knows what the next few months will bring?  I just know that the next musical on a nearby stage is not my cup of tea.

I better stop with those two songs.  When I do perform, I don’t want to spoil it all for those three in the audience 😉  Two big, powerful ballads now for a few duets and at least three character pieces.

As I was pulling out my checkbook, my new coach sneered at the picture of the Script Ohio on my first check.  “Since it is money, I guess I can accept it.”  Oh, we’re going to get along REALLY well. At least she is not a BoSox fan… I hope.

maybe not for fightin’ but good times.  I wanted to go to church at 4 at one of our sister churches.  However, I had forgotten that the 4 o’clock mass is no longer in existence after the recent twining (or tripling since it involves three churches).  I wanted to attend the Weekender this to show my support of one of my former castmates: Andrew who was in Idol Night and School House Rock with me.  Tonight’s offering was a mixed bag of Broadway tunes performed by a group of young adults.  Pretty good for their age.  I must say that Andrew has improved much in the past 2 years… a very deep bass which is developing very nicely.  His rendition of “I Am I Don Quioxte” was one of my favorite numbers of the evening.  He also sang “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music. At first, I thought… oh great.  Not that I am not a big fan of the song (I think it is one of Sondheim’s masterpieces) but I have heard it so many times.  However, when was the last time I heard it sung by a guy?  Not often.

When the group of performers took the stage, I asked Megan…”Where’s Andrew?”  I did not recognize him at all!  Gone was the beard and longish hair I had become accustomed to.  He looked that different!

The rest of the performances were good as well.  A very strange arrangement of “Someone Like You” from Jekyll and Hyde.  A choral performance of “Bui Doi” from Miss Saigon (good but Mr. Whatever’s rendition was better… not biased here, Chris’s performance just brought chills both times) and a few songs from Songs from a New World, a show I am not very familiar with  And the Little Theatre was just packed… hopefully, the free will brought in a few dollars.

Once again… great job Adam, Jason, McKenzie, Preston, Andrew, and Jessi.  Plus, Patti’s job as accompanist was no small feat.  Some of those songs had to be killers to play!

One more post from the evening later… stay tuned.  Different Bat Time, Same Bat Site.

Upon accepting the invitation of again accepting the position of Manny, I was warned of problems that might present themselves on the 9-10 hour trip in the minivan.  I am so happy that very few of these problems reared their ugly heads.  Thank goodness for planned parental necessities.  The three girls were equipped with their own bags of goodies for the long trip both to the East and back home again.  We also had a large bad of DVD’s to watch on the player in the car.  I also brought a few kid-friendly Disney movies and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (one of my favorite movies growing up; sad to say the transition to the stage did not go as well).

Basically, I only remember the occasional statements of “are we there yet” and the like.  The extremely long voyage across Pennsylvania had to be broken up to prevent melt-downs and I’m sure the adults enjoyed our happening upon Bellefonte.  In the dark, it seemed to be deserted but as we approached downtown there were cars, and several restaurants, many of which were some variation of a pizza shop.  Funny that it was close to State College, home of Penn State University.  We decided to stop at Mama Lucretia’s…. pizza, pasta, cheesesteak all of which were very tasty (unless that was the hunger talking).

I must comment on the eating habits of one of the kids.  “Goose” frequently made the comment that “Beeber” would have an order of paper with a side of plastic.  The eight-month old will find anything to put in his mouth to endulge in: napkins, plastic bibs, straw wrappers, anything: typical.  Just watch your plate; if he spies anything within reach, he will get it!  After eating, most of the time a great majority of it ends up on the floor around him.

Back in the car for the remainder of the long jaunt, the kids all took naps.  Taylhis also rested for a bit.  I did my best to stay awake to ensure that C was still alert and going.  Thank goodness we had some music going and comedy.  Listening to some Miss Saigon and Assassins seemed to make the time go a bit faster.  I also learned that one of the songs from Jekyll and Hyde was cut from the final show.  I saw the musical in Toledo a few years ago and saw that Bring on the Men was missing.  I thought perhaps touring companies might have cut the song, but it was taken out prior to the Broadway run.

Finally, after the less than an hour announcement turned into a bit longer, we arrived at our hotel around 1.30 AM.  Constuction, police cars everywhere, drawbridge, lots of obstacles…. AH travelling!! I LOVE IT!  Especially when I am not driving 😀

We organized a concert in January with our local theater group where we had a collection of totally awesome singers perform selections from popular musicals.  My husband has an excellent singing voice – I’m not biased or anything, I swear!  Plenty of other people have said so…  If you were to ask him about it though, he would say much differently – he has a bit of an ego problem, but it goes in the opposite direction than that of most singers and actors – he does not have nearly enough confidence.  So even though there were other songs in the concert, this one might be the only one we actually get to see because I don’t know how to post on youtube – that’s his job and he doesn’t deem the other songs worthy of posting!  And if you are a stage veteran or know someone who is, you have had to suffer thru awful recordings of stage performances.  It seems that no matter how beautiful a play or song sounded on the stage, it will never translate correctly when recorded and played again – SO GET OVER IT AND JUST POST THE REST OF THE CONCERT ALREADY!!!  🙂   My favorite song from this concert was actually Bui Doi from Miss Saigon, and I was PROMISED that I would get the link to that one soon, so stay tuned!  Don’t hold your breath though…  I was also promised a new altered picture from a show we directed last fall because someone ducked out of it at the last second, and a picture in the director’s hall of the basement of the theater should have the show’s director in it, right?  But that hasn’t happened yet, so hopefully this will be more of a priority, even though I’ve stated how much that picture means to me…

I feel sorry for all those friends and family members who couldn’t make it to this great event – you really missed a great showcase of talent, especially if you’re a fan of showtunes!  Maybe you’ll be able to make it next year if we do it again.  This is a clip of Chris singing the Les Mis classic, “Bring Him Home”: