I was born to entertain!

Opening Weekend. What a trip! I was soooooo worried about this production! Yes, we've been practicing since January, but most of us only had to come about once or twice a week to rehearse. We were nowhere near ready last week. Somehow, we've pulled it off, though! [Blogger is not letting me push Enter at the moment, so please pardon the lack of paragraphs and breaks! Break for Paragraph] I've actually been calling "Be Our Guest" "See Our Mess," because it was so chaotic. We have 60+ people in the number. And, of course, we can't just be normal. Oh, goodness, no! We have Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip, Babette, and Madame Bouchere (spelling? The Opera-singing Wardrobe) alongside Belle. We have a line of 8 featherdusters/can-can dancers. We have 3-4 cakes. We have rugs. We have a footstool, and a table with stuff on his head. We have a line of about 8 tapdancing silverware. We have 11 redheaded dancing tables (myself included). We have 8 flappers/dishes. We have about 3 teacups. We have 4-5 saucers. We have salt and pepper shakers. We have about 4-5 dancing candles. I can't even continue the list, because I've exhausted my mental picturing of all involved in the number. That could be all, but it's insane. And we all have our "moment" leading up to our end of number kick line and confetti guns going off. Oddly enough, it's been recieved with cheering and huge applause every night--to the point where the scene afterwards had to wait at least two minutes for the audience to be done celebrating this number. I'm in shock. Break for Paragraph. So, I've found that the key to my having a good show (if I were to be superstitious) is to get some kind of wound/pain every performance. Opening night: Belle whipped me in the face with her hair, and ran into me in the course of two minutes during "The Mob Song," which I ended by pulling my fist up and back--and hitting the lady behind me in the eye! Saturday Matinee: During "Gaston" we have to do this crossing line shuffle-thing. I hit our Gaston in the back (hard) with my left cheek--ended up with a tiny bruise and a headache. Saturday Evening: I run off with two others in the middle of "Belle," and then we turn around to come back on in a line quickly. Yesterday, as I turned, I banged my elbow into a random podium. In "The Battle," I get "kicked in the face" by one of the featherduster/can-can dancers and fall. I fell on my knees, hard. Three new bruises. Sunday Matinee: Belle and Maurice ran into me pretty hard during "The Mob Song." Well, four performances next week and we're done. Here's hoping I don't end up in a cast or coffin! :) Break for Paragraph. I've decided that I'm also the "Louella Parsons" or "Hedda Hopper" of this show. All gossip must come through me. It's the funniest thing. I just happen to always be in the right place at the right time, or people tell me things. If there were to be a newspaper, I'd have to be elected the gossip columnist. I literally get it all. I used to think it'd be awesome to know all the gossp in junior high and such; I'd be considered popular or something. Now, it's a way to laugh and be entertained. I don't really have a niche that I fit into in this show like the others. I kind of float. Break for Paragraph. I also have come to discover that I am a "Powerful" person in this show. This is only to say, I've found that I seem to have a lot of influence for some unfathomable reason. I've not yet decided whether to use this influence for good or evil, yet! ;) Here are a few examples: 1) Chorus people are always asking me things like, "What is the lyric after this?" or "Could you show me this move?" etc. Last Thursday, we tables practiced in the hall for 45 minutes for our 2 or so minutes at the end of "Be Our Guest." They actually had me keep coming forward to be the model for this number! 2) There's a guy in the cast named Ryan. I once referred to him as "College Boy," because I didn't know his name. Everyone laughed and started calling him that. I apologized, but he said he doesn't mind it. As a result, about a good 20% (if not more) of our cast calls him that. Chris actually had him help him with his costume today, and said something along the lines of "Thanks, College Boy. By the way, what's your name?" I've also started the trend of calling Jen (who plays a fork) "Space Age Barbie" which has caught on, too. 3) Opening night, at intermission, I decided to sit on some of the steps since it was quiet, and I wanted to sit. A couple of people said, "This was smart. Can we join you?" Of course! Yesterday, at the matinee, a few others joined us. Last night, there were probably twenty of us!!!!! I jokingly suggested we call ourselves the "Stair Sitting Society, aka the SSS." It caught on. Today, people were racing for seats, afraid they wouldn't get them. Others were asking to join the SSS. Weird. All we do is sit and talk about how funny the SSS is, or random things to do with the show. Today, Caitlyn (Mrs. Potts) got us going on the philosophical discussion of Plot Holes in BATB. It was hilarious, partly because it was so serious! Break for Paragraph. So, the show has been an amazing success so far, and I'm pleasantly surprised. What with our backstage dramas, and chaos galore, it seems to work. We've had almost full houses at every performance, and standing ovations every night! Insane! Break for Paragraph. The title of this post comes from the song of the same title from Ruthless. I figured it completely covered this post. The first time I heard the song was not when I saw the show, though. It was sung by adorable Amanda Braun at Camp Timber Tops' Talent Show. She was an 8 year old, and blew me away. She had one of the leads in Aladdin when we did it, and her older sister Nancy played Marian Paroo in our production of The Music Man. Their brother Scott, who was between them, apparently was also an amazing singer/dancer/actor. Three triple threats in one family. YIKES!!!!!!!!!