Rehearsal #2

Now that I have recovered from my second, more minor freak-out, I will update you all on the progress of the musical. The second freak-out was caused by a call received Monday afternoon from the director. The stage manager had made the schedule for the following weeks up until the show and my pieces were being rehearsed... wait for it.... on Monday nights. MONDAY NIGHTS! THAT VERY NIGHT! (thank goodness my dance classes I'm teaching for Salsa Mississippi have been temporarily cancelled while they remodel the studio!) Remember when I was trying to tell myself not to think about re-choreographing because I had until the following Friday? Yeah, out the window.
I spent the rest of the afternoon re-choreographing in a hurry, which I hate doing. I'm always afraid I'll regret something when I see the finished piece or that it will just not have lived up to it's potential. Fortunately, I had failed at trying not to think about the pieces and already had a few great ideas for changing things around to fit the stage and the ability of my dancers.
Monday evening arrived and my first rehearsal was with Poor Unfortunate Souls. Everybody remembered everything we had learned last time, which was great, and they all seemed more willing to get into their parts this time. The director was there and she was able to help me with a couple of questions and give some great input in key places. All in all, that hour was fantastic. We got the piece completely done, even down to details like where the scroll and the pen would be for Ariel to use at the end. I'm so so pleased with how it looks and the director flat-out loves it. It's going to be a fun piece to watch.
Then it was on to Some Enchanted Evening. I found out that one guy had been cut and another had taken his place...a guy that wasn't there at all on Friday. Ok, I can work with just one new person. Also, there was one couple completely gone and another that just hadn't made it to rehearsal yet. That means all my diagrams and choreography I had written for six couples, now needed to be for just five and the fifth wasn't there to learn it! UGH! If this had been at the dance department at UGA, that fifth couple would have been out of the piece. You can't not be there for a rehearsal when there are only, like, three more until the show! (Did you like "can't not"?)
I went ahead and worked with who I had there and still ended up having to rework some things on the spot. The director still thinks it's going to look great, but we didn't make the progress I had hoped for because I only had one hour with them. I told her last week when we were first planning the Friday rehearsal that there was no way they would be able to do that piece with just one hour of time. She had blocked out two, but then you read what happened there. Monday night, was almost like starting over, so, once again, I really needed two hours to get the piece finished. Oh well. I will just continue to hope for the best. (and hope for extra rehearsals)