commas and ampersands

Goodness. I haven't posted a real summary of the weekend yet. I was too busy getting over the cold that I caught from Colin that he caught from Jakob.

It was a busy weekend (surprise, surprise), but a really good way to officially kick off the Christmas season. Thursday night, we went to Rocky Mountain College's Christmas concert (you know, with the whole "small world" thing with the director, who was the director at my church in California last year), and Friday and Saturday, Colin, Mom, and Dad sang in Ambrose's production of Messiah. Saturday afternoon, we went to a baby shower for Scott, Heather, and Martin; Sunday, we went to church in the morning, and then had two rehearsals in the afternoon before heading off to the airport. And somewhere in there (mostly after midnight), we still managed to find time to finish watching the first season of Arrested Development, which we'd started at Canadian Thanksgiving but not finished.

And, of course, there was the time with Kat, Aaron, and the kids, but that's already been well-photographed and posted about. :)

( A review of sorts of AUC's production of 'Messiah' )



Sunday, there was a rehearsal after church for Colin's cantata, which I'm going to sing in, despite only having one rehearsal with them. I've had the music longer than anyone else in the choir (I helped pick it), and I've been working on it on my own, so it'll be fine. After that, there was another rehearsal for the Christmas show at Foothills Alliance, which was my only chance to hear any of that show, since it'll close a few days before I get into town.


By Sunday afternoon, we were both well on our way to catching colds. Jakob, who was coming down with something, was all over Colin on Thursday, and then I think I got it from Colin by about Saturday. I stayed home Monday and slept, and that was helpful--it seems to be running its course really quickly.

And now, we're well into the home stretch of the pre-Christmas rush. I have five written assignments and two presentations to do in the next week, but fortunately, the presentations each correspond with a written assignment, so really, it's only five assignments. Also, a) some of them are already partially done and I just need to finish them up, and b) they're not all full-length papers. I don't think I have anything that will end up being longer than about 8 pages, which isn't bad at all.

Emmanuel Church's Christmas concerts are on the 13th and 14th, so we have our dress rehearsal next Wednesday. Colin has more in the way of rehearsals than I do (although I need to be in on some Borkman rehearsals in the next week, as well). He's finished with Messiah, obviously, but Foothills Lutheran's cantata only has a few rehearsals left, he's heading into tech for Foothills Alliance's show, and he has to finish the design for Steel Mags, which apparently is kind of a train-wreck of a show, in some ways.

I was going to try and keep this entry from being too epic, so I'll post pictures later, as well as a story about Amazon.com. In the meantime, my homework and my pillow are both calling me. The sooner I get to one, the sooner I can get to the other.

I can remember being in kids' choir when I was in elementary school, being the brat who would poke other kids when they weren't doing things right.

(This morning, in church, the little kids sang a song, and there were a few of those kids, and it was just cute and fun to watch them.)

When I was in grade six, my friend Erin and I wrote a list of things in the choir that we thought needed to be changed. Stricter dress code, selected (talented) kids doing choreography, people who could sing on key doing the harmonies, more complicated choreography that looked more exciting than just hand actions.

Mom (who was the director) wasn't too impressed with us, I don't think, and there was definitely an aspect of snobbishness there, but looking back on that nearly 15 years later, I realize that was the beginning of the aspect of producing that we spend a lot of time on: developing a personal aesthetic. A big part of producing is knowing what you're passionate about; what visuals and stories attract you; what makes you tick; what you want to invest your time, money, and professional reputation in; and so on. It's developing the "Blink" effect (from Malcom Gladwell's book "Blink"): being so secure in your expertise that you can make a split-second decision and trust your gut.

When I was 12 years old, I was starting to develop the aesthetic that has continued to form throughout my theatrical training. I value well-produced theatre and professionalism at any level (independent of budget or training), among other things, and those parts of my personal aesthetic were what I was starting to develop when I was disturbed by the amateurism in the kids' choir.

Context, of course, is an issue there, and there's a time and a place for demanding professionalism--and maybe second-graders aren't the people to expect it from. Still, the seeds for what I'm doing with the rest of my life were planted there.

Aesthetic also plays a big part in my directing, obviously. I'm constantly telling my casts to trust my vision and trust my aesthetic (or, if not telling them outright, working to earn their trust), because I see the big picture (figuratively) and I've seen the big picture since long before they came on board with the project, and also, I literally see the whole picture--because they're onstage and I'm not.

Having said that, though, this weekend's Christmas concert challenged my aesthetic.

I'm not speaking as a choir director nit-picking the music itself here, because a) I'm not a choir director, and b) that's definitely a place where I don't have an objective view, hearing only the people around me and not the entire mix. As a producer-slash-theatre director, though, there were elements of the program that I watched with a much, much more critical eye than most people either involved or in the audience. There were many little nit-picky details, like the timing of the light cues, that I would have changed; there were bigger things about the process, like the dress rehearsal process itself, that I would have done differently.

There were places where I was grasping to change people's attitudes. Heather and I have been working hard for several years to begin to expect a higher degree of professionalism from the people involved in the drama ministry at Foothills, and we're finally beginning to see those changes. People are starting to expect and give certain things, and it's cool to see. This week's dress rehearsal felt like going five steps backwards from that, and I just wanted to sit people down and give them the lecture about dress rehearsals that I've given to many a high school student.

There were things that I would have done differently about the program itself--changes I would have made in the way the concert was structured.

It was a good concert. The choir sang well (although last night, we were a little disastrous on some of our words... it's amazing what leaves your head at the most inopportune times), and it was well-received (although people's praise never seems to really be dependent on how good it actually was. That's just a random observation, but I've learned not to take my most heartfelt criticism from the audience, because there's a certain point where hearing mindless comments that people enjoyed it just doesn't give me any constructive criticism and really isn't what I need to hear... but I digress. That's a conversation for another day).

I'm not trying to discount the entire thing, or to say that it was poorly done. There were just a fair number of things that I would have changed--and that's my aesthetic. It's what I've developed in my years as a theatre artist, and what I'm continuing to develop as a producer. And, trusting the director, I'm sure that some of it was deliberate. I think that some of it, though, wasn't. Maybe I'm just being the kid poking the child beside me. I felt like doing that more than once this weekend (do people really need to be told not to whisper their comments to their neighbor while they're onstage? Is at least that level of professionalism--and not only that, but respect for whatever else is going on while we were waiting for the next song--too much to ask? I should have started poking), but at least I'm poking with an educated finger and honed instincts. Okay, that metaphor isn't really working any more, is it?

It went well, although I'm still not entirely sure that I should have stayed here this weekend just so that I could sing in it. I'm not sure if I gained more by being here or if I would have appreciated it more if I'd been in Calgary to see Colin's cantata this morning and Foothills' show tonight. I'm not sure. But I'm still glad I was here for it.

Now I'm tired. My feet hurt, because two 2-hour concerts (in heels) back-to-back is not friendly to my feet. I need a foot massage, but by the time I see Colin on Wednesday and can try to convince him that the greatest thing in the world would be for him to rub my feet, they won't hurt anymore, so it won't matter.

Ah, that's better. Much better day than yesterday or Monday, I have to say.

This afternoon, I drove down to Laguna Hills to have lunch with Joan and Dale, my aunt and uncle (my mom's sister and her husband), and Don and Milly, longtime family friends. Don and Milly live there; Joan and Dale were in the area for my cousin's graduation from Marine boot camp this weekend. It was supposed to be a "simple lunch", but it was ham and roast beef, mashed potatoes, a really yummy broccoli casserole, jello salad, rolls, chocolate cake, and pie (and an offer of a sandwich when I left), all served in the formal dining room on the good china. :)

( Family and so on... )

Tomorrow, I'm finished class at 12, and I work at 8, so I'm coming home in between to do laundry and pack. I probably should have been doing laundry tonight since I got home from choir, but I didn't, so it'll all have to happen tomorrow afternoon. And then, I work until midnight, and leave at 4 for the airport. Fun, fun times.

Ahhhhh.....

The concert is over. Breathe a big sigh of relief.

Not that it was bad or that I wasn't looking forward to it, because I totally was, and it went really well, but because this means that the biggest time commitments are finished now. Colin has two more choir concerts (that he's just singing in, not directing or planning)--one this Saturday and one next Saturday--and I've got two more drama team meetings and the showcase on June 5, but compared to the last few weeks/months, that's practically nothing.