Stage Mom?

OK, forget my last blog. I hate showbiz!! I'll start with a little background. My kids go to a great school. It's an arts based International Bacclaureat school from grades K-12. They teach a global/world focused approach to the curriculum while intergrating all arts forms into the academics. So they'll learn a song/dance etc that teaches them math or science etc. and how knowing this math or science affects the world they and others live in.
As an art school they also produce some pretty amazing drama productions. This year they're doing Annie and both of my kids wanted to audition. Claire, so like her mother in some ways, rrrreally " got into" it. You see, they announced the season at the end of the school year last year so Claire bought the Annie DVD and watched it all summer. She memorized every song and most of the lines of every character in the movie. Nathan really didn't care if he was in or not. He just thought it would be cool to be an orphan. ( when asked what he wants to be when he grows up he says " a comedian, a dentist or a hobo!)
Well....long story short. Neither of them got in. Nathan didn't even really know they posted the cast. Claire was first to the bulletin board. My heart is breaking for her.
She's fine.
I'm devastated.
No, I'm not a stage mom going..." What?!!! My daughter's a star damn you! Can't you see? Are you blind?!! WE worked so hard for this?!!! We deserve this!!!" as she pushes her daughter closer to the director but not before straightening her daughters hair for the 100th time!
Naw, it's not that, I'm just so sorry for her. She worked so hard. She prepared as best she could. She has great experience, is quite lovely, so how do I explain it to her?
How do I say that the director may not have noticed her amongst the 100 other kids in the room? How do I say she just perhaps doesn't look like how he thinks an orphan should look? Man it's hard being a mom sometimes. I want her to learn that when she works really hard and does her best it pays off!!! Oh well, I guess time will tell. She seems really ok with it.
I on the other hand, caught myself giving dirty looks to the sweet little 11 year old that did get in!!! It should have been Claire dammit!!!!

On with the show this is it!!!

We had our first chorus rehearsal for our first show of Edmonton Opera's 2007/2008 season - Carmen! It never ceases to amaze me at how we get from where we are now to performing on the auditorium stage with a full orchestra in full costume in front of hundreds of people! I love the process of how this all gets put together and thought I'd share some of the finer points of " putting on the show we call opera"

First we have music rehearsals. We chorus get together about every 2 nights for the next couple of weeks with our chorus master Peter and learn the music. It involves learning the pronounciation of whatever language the opera is written in (French for Carmen). So we sit in that rehearsal hall with music stands and scores and work our way through the music until within a couple of weeks we're singin' in French and almost have it memorized.
Next it's music rehearsal with Maestro. Meastro is the conductor. He's responsible for how this whole show will sound. How we sound, the stars sound and the orchestra sounds. We work with he ( or she although I've never experienced a female maestro since I've started in opera 6 yrs ago) for a couple of rehearsals fine tuning our vocals.
Next we start the staging. The Director joins us in the rehearsal hall and we start telling the story. We have to have the opera memorized by now because we're moving around the rehearsal hall space perhaps dancing, lying on the ground while singing and can't be holding our scores now! He directs us in our staging and characterizations and we start working with the principles. " Principles" is the fancy opera word for leading ladies and men. Today audiences expect not only amazing music but also amazing acting. Gone are the days of standing in your viking hat singing really loudly! Today's opera stars are highly trained singers and actors with years of vocal and acting training from all around the world. It's quite thrilling to be sharing the stage and working along side them.
So we're about 3 weeks into the whole process and now we get to go to the actual performance stage for the next step in the process. This step is called the " piano tech #1". With the piano accompaniment we go through the paces on the main stage. This is an opportunity for the technical aspect of the show to be run as well. All the lighting and props and stage left and right entrances.
Next night is " piano tech #2 with costumes". The same run through but this time in costumes. This is important because how we move and get around could be quite different if your in high heels, longs skirt carrying a tree branch!!! ( I had to carry a tree branch and had a large dried up turkey bone hung from my waist in Macbeth) We run through our quick changes too. I had to change from a witch into a Lady of the Court in about 2 minutes in Macbeth.
Next night is orchestra dress!!!! Full orchestra run through in full costumes!!! This is fun!!!
One more dress rehearsal with the orchestra and this time we have an audience. We invite schools and the media to attend this rehearsal! We love the student audience. They're so enthusiastic! They boo the bad guy and cheer for the good guys!! Hopefully they're hooked on opera by the end of the night and we have future patrons of the opera!
Finally a night off and then Saturday night is opening night. So much fun and it all culminates in such an awesome night. The audience is still as the orchestra tunes, the lights dim and the curtain rises and the show begins.
While the story unfolds the audience has no idea that there are a bunch of people in costumes drinking diet coke playing cards in the green room. Over the backstage PA system we hear " Chorus men and ladies to stage left for your entrance in act 1 please" and we scurry to the wings, and enter singing our hearts out! It's so thrilling. When the curtain goes down at the end of the opera and rises for our bows you can't help but giggle and think.....a few hours ago I finished my nursing shift, had dinner with my kids and look at me now!! I'm a witch/peasant woman/lady of the court/geisha!!!

No News is Good News

It was 6 years ago today the Twin Towers went down. I remember it well. It was the month I decided to stop getting the newspaper and watching the news everyday.
You see I was glued to the tv those days in September. The first time I watched those planes fly into the buildings I recoiled in horror. By the time CNN and their competition had the theme song all worked out, I had seen the image about 300 times and was quite " yawn" about the whole image. I had watched the planes fly into the buildings and I watched the people leap to their deaths so many times that I wasn't affected by the image! I started thinking about what was happening to me. I really looked at the newspaper I was recieving everyday and noticed nothing but bad news!
Claire was in kindergarten then and eager to read. Did I want her looking at a newspaper in her thirst for the printed word?? NO WAY!!! Nothing but horrible images, horrible stories of our world gone bad.
I believe everything you read and see affects your day to day life. I can't imagine starting my day with the news or the newspaper. Or going to bed right after watching the news. Why? So I can feel angry, sad, depressed, anxious a soon as I start my day or right before I fall asleep? No Way!
I may not be right up to speed on what's happening in the world today but I know enough to have an intellegent conversation at a dinner party.
I was in the States last year for a week. Five years after 9/11. I was so shocked at the media there. I was in the airport in Chicago waiting for a connecting flight. There were tv's everywhere broadcasting a plane that had to evacuate due to some percieved " threat". That was comforting.
I arrived at my hotel in Dallas and armed with my cozy pj's, and a chocolate bar I hunkered down for some good tv. Nothing but news. Every channel had news and they were talking about what " terror alert" the country was on. Orange, yellow.......
red and yellow and pink and green....
purple and orange and blue.....
I can see a terrorist,
see a terrorist,
see a terrorist threat too.
I was ready to get dressed and sleep with my running shoes on..in case I had to ....uh.....run somewhere in the middle of the night? ...geesh! What does knowing that the country's on a red alert do but freak everyone out!! There's nothing the common folk can do except worry!!! Thankfully I found a Friends rerun, ate my chocolate bar and broke a tooth. Great! I forgot to check my health coverage before I left. Now I couldn't sleep. It wasn't...." was that a plane flying low?" It was " was that my tooth aching?".
So I don't get the newspaper anymore and my kids aren't exposed to all the negativity out there. I remember being in Claire's class last year. They had a current events board up with newspaper clippings kids had brought in. All of the clippings were of soldiers killed in Iraq, global warming, hurricanes, tsunami's....there was not one clipping of a hero, a good deed, or a funny story. Sad.
Does the public really want to hear all this negativity? Do we just blindly buy the newspapers and watch news shows really thinking that this is all that is newsworthy? Not me. I try to watch a comedy before I go to sleep and while we drive to school in the morning the kids and I listen to music.
My cholesterol is low, my blood pressure is low and I'm generally in a good positive mood.

Back to School Blues

We got the blues man.....
It's back to school for my kids this week.
Don't get me wrong, I like this time of year. Kind of a " new beginnings" feeling does permeate the air and everyone's excited to see friends, see who the new kids are, see who's in their class, who isn't, who their teacher is.....
BUT....
It's also back to....
- making lunches- ugh! Just one more task at the end of a busy day.
- getting up early in the moring- ugh! My kids are finally at an age where they don't get up by internal alarm clock at 7....this summer we've been rising no earlier than 9 every monrning!
- homework- ugh! I have to agree with my daugher on this one. Her wise words " we've been working for 6 hours each day, we need a break! Especially on weekends. Weekends are for everyone to enjoy their leisure time!" I'm not looking forward to motivating that wise young lady to do her homework!
- playdates- ugh!Endless playdates and birthday parties $$$$$. The new craze of late is- get this- ( I'm talking 11 yr olds) renting a hotel for the night....one with a pool or the topper was West Edmonton Mall Fantasy Land Hotel with a theme room , wave pool etc. God!! Whatever happened to birthday parties at your house with a few games, hotdogs and a little goody bag!!!???? Or a bunch of kids renting a movie, ordering pizza and having a slumber party????
Awe, it's not all that bad. My kids are happy, smart, friendly, popular kids. They like school. Let's face it. When it's back to school time........

I MISS THEM!!!!!!