Home stretch

Well, I'm now in the home stretch, literally. Thanksgiving was great. The Carls were alot of fun, as always. Did alot of fun things while I was there. The break was great. I come back fully caught up on sleep, study, and homework. It's gotten colder than I'm used to. It's rarely this cold during the day in League City, but I'll adjust soon, I hope.
This is the last full-out week of class before 'dead week' and then finals. I have one more paper to turn in, but this one I'm actually looking forward to working on. It's for my "Music Through Time" class, and I have to pick a major work of classical music and write a 5 pg. paper on how it is unique and what important role it played in the history of music. Seems fun.
Marla graduates college in about a week, which is cool. What's weird is that in just 4 weeks she's getting married! Whoa! That's strange. I got my tux measurements yesterday (they're in the mail, Mom and Dad) and I'm really close to beind done with all of the music arrangements (they'll be in the mail by Friday, Dani.)
Choir and orchestra have their concert(s) tomorrow and Wednesday, so after those, and this paper, all that's left is an English final and my jury. I like all the music I'm doing for jury, and it's all sounding good at this point. The English final will probably be pretty tough, but if I give it all my study time, as I plan to do, I'll come out well.
Then I get to go home. Hooray! I'm ready to see everyone from church, if they're in town. And I'll get to see some of my music teachers, and Mrs. Coney's new grandbaby. It should be a good trip.

Is it Thanksgiving yet?

Well, we finished the show on a good note. Friday night, when they videoed, we showed Malibu that we're real actors, by not missing a beat of the show during a city-wide blackout that lasted about 90 seconds. After about the first 20 seconds of darkness, as the show continued, the stage was lit faintly by the flashlights of the ushers.
Then yesterday we gave two performances. Both good, but the final one was outstanding. Good thing too, the wife of the man who wrote "Music Man" was in the audience, along with the wife of John Raitt, one of our biggest patrons, and one of the most legendary stage actors of all time.
The Carls (the relatives in Bakersfield) came to the afternoon show. I didn't get to visit with them, but I'll see them all this week over the break.
Now, I'm just catching up on all the things I've been missing out on the last few weeks. Hanging out with people in my dorm again, practicing cello for sessions longer than 30 minutes at a time again, working on my papers, and sleeping as much as my body wants to.
I did laundry this afternoon, and I'm proud to finally say that all the clothes except what I'm wearing are clean and put away or hung up for the first time this semester.

important people

Tonight we had the pick up rehearsal for "Music Man" which resumes tomorrow. They announced tonight that Rose Wilson is coming to the show Saturday night. Meredith Wilson is the man who wrote the show, and she is his widow. In fact, the song "Lida Rose" that the quartet sings, was written about her.
Anna White, who choreographed the original show on Broadway and the movie, is coming Saturday afternoon, I believe. She's quite old so it's still up in the air if she'll make it or not.
Also, Tony Danza called the box office this weekend and bought tickets. He's a past patron of the Pepperdine program, so we don't know if he's really coming or if he was just being supportive of our program.

is it a break?

Hi everyone!
The show has run its first weekend with great success and critical acclaim. We have pickup rehearsal Wednesday and then Thursday we perform the first of our last four shows. The timing is just about perfect. Any fewer shows would feel like too short a run for as good of a show as this is, but any more would really just be an unneccesary incroachment on our lives.
So, for today and tomorrow, I don't have any rehearsals. It's weird, I feel guilty right now, b/c my body just tells me it's time to go to rehearsal, and I feel like I'm skipping.
But is this really time off? No, not really. Because, you see, due to the heavy rehearsal schedule of the last two or three weeks, it just took all the time I could spend to keep up with classes, much less work ahead. So then, all last week, I did NO homework or studying. So today and tomorrow, I've pretty much got two weeks' worth of homework to finish.
For the above listed reason, I will give a more thorough update later, and right now get back to writing my English paper.

1 down, 7 to go

Well, the show finally opened tonight. It's really a relief to finally be at the point where we just do all the same things we've been doing the last three months, but this time, everything you're doing is in front of 500 impressed people. The show went well as far as I could tell. I don't really know if things were as clean as they needed to be, but I do know that the energy was REALLY HIGH!! I could feel it on the stage, the power was coming from every person on stage. So, even if there were some things done sloppily, they were done with fire and enthusiasm.
Aunt Jean, and her nephew-in-law, Jonathan, came to see the show, and said they really enjoyed it. That was exciting. Aunt Jean raised an actor, and has even done shows herself, but this was the first time she's seen one of my shows.
My parents should be getting to their hotel about 20 miles from here, any minute. I'll see them in the morning. I'm tired, and not ready for be yet, so goodbye.

Ok, Marla

So, I thought that I made it understood in my last blog that until this show was over, I'd be busy minute to minute. And that's been pretty much true. Going to rehearsal as soon as class is over, rehearsing until about 11, grabbing something for dinner afterwards, run back to the room and shower, then do homework until about 1 or 2, go to bed and power nap until 8 the next morning.
But, apparently, I have neglected to update the blog. So, here I am now, spending the one morning of the week I don't have 8 am class, putting off breakfast and cello practice to write a new blog.
Let's see. What's new? My aunt is coming to see "Music Man" when we open tomorrow, and my parents are flying in that night and will see the show Friday and Saturday. Saturday afternoon I'm playing in this master class for Christopher Parkening, the greatest classical guitarist alive. The guitarist playing with my string quartet has, like, three potential record contracts riding on this performance. No pressure, right?
The show looks really good. We've had two straight run-throughs with full, non-stop everything, and both were kept under three hours. That's always good. You can drag a show out longer than it should be, but anything more than about three hours and your audience starts to notice. Each time has been better than before, and we have one more dress rehearsal tonight. Then we open. Hooray. I'm excited about the show, but also just as anxious for it to be over so I can get back to the other things I like/need to do.
That's all for now.