The Best Laid Plans...

Sometimes it is the things that go wrong that teach us the most. I think tonight's rehearsal may have been one of those times.

Ostensibly we were blocking Act 2 Scene 1, which is what we started off doing. By the time we got to a number called "Blow, Gabriel, Blow", the director decided to have us run through the dance we had learned for same. This was a dance that I had started to somewhat understand the last time we ran it during dance practice.

That was then. Not long into everything, 90% of what little I had learned flew right out of my head. It was gone. Complete blank. I stood there lost, I am afraid to say. I even forgot to bring out Reno's chair when I was supposed to.

My only comfort was that I was not the only one who was lost. Nearly everyone else seemed to be lost at some point during the number.

To begin with, we found that we had tables and chairs in the way. Putting that matter aside, we had roughly half the space on stage that we had in the dance rehearsal hall. Couple that with having twice as many people as we have ever had for the dance before. (Many of which had never learned the dance.) The result was what I like to call a cluster&*#%.

I am not saying that to be sarcastic. Nor am I the only one who thought so. Judging by the fact that our choreographer had buried her face in her script by the time it was over, I think it's fair to say she too was not thrilled with the results.

The plan is to drill this dance into everyone's head on Sunday.

In other news from this same dance number, one of my friends is my partner for parts of this dance. The choreographer wants there to be "heavy flirting" happening with the partners at this point. While one, (or in this case two) can say that everything is professional and there is nothing to feel worried about for such things, most people feel some awkwardness at first. We will not be required to do anything distasteful, so neither one of us will be terrified about it. Nevertheless, there is a small hurdle to get over. For some reason it is easier for me when the "partner" starts out as a near total stranger than when the other person is a friend of mine. Go figure.

Yet I am sure we will work something out, and all will be just fine. Just one of those things. The key will be to not make a big thing out of it before hand. That way it will lose it power. Somewhat.

I overheard someone say that costumes fittings and such may start next week sometime. So make sure you all keep you fingers crossed for a cool hat for me.