Guest Post 2

Here is a second guest post from Susan:

Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Super R&J Business

I've been to two more rehearsals for Romeo. On Saturday we carried Juliette in and out on that stretcher thing about 5 times. That was a bit much on my arms! But I survived.

Yesterday was the first run-through. Once again it was amazing to hear all the singing! And what was really cool too was that I didn't care that all these extra people were watching. Not that I do anything momentous or requiring any skill, really, but I had no problem taking a deep breath and lapsing into, "Sad, accepting, respectful monk-mode," or, SARMM as I just this moment decided to call it. I hung out for a while after I was done, just to watch. It was such a treat! I wish I understood more French so I could follow the dialogue. Actually, I wish I could sing like that!

I was sitting near the assistant stage manager and she was buzzing with adreniline. She was everywhere at once, grabbing props, cuing people checking the score.

At once point a bunch of guys ran offstage past me and past the stretcher that was leaning on the wall. It started to go over and one of the other supers caught it. I was sitting cross-legged on a chair filming at the time and you can hear me squeak and see my knees come up as I tried to make myself smaller! All the videos are here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v259/luindriel/Romeo/.

Guest Post

We have a guest blogger for us today. Susan Myers, one of our supernumeraries (non-singing extra role) has generously offered to write some of her observations for this blog. She also gave me some pictures and stuff, so I'll post more shortly.

Here's her post from June 24:

Super Duper

I went to the rehearsal this morning for Romeo and Juliet and I'm in as a super! I'm going to be a monk. (Ok stop laughing now, especially those of you who know that I was a nun in my high-school's production of The Sound of Music!) So the opera starts out with a the chorus and a monk lamenting the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The monks (hey, that's me in that brown robe!) bring them in on pallets. I'm one of the 4 who carry Juliet. It's a dancer double, not the opera singer. I'm in the front, near her feet. We bring her on stage and stop at an angle. The 4 other monks come in from the other side with Romeo. The friar uncovers each face, then we straighten out and place the pallets down. The monks near the front of the pallet (hey, that's me!) cross over to the front side of the stage while the friar does his thing (he wasn't there so I'm not quite sure what that is...) and then we come back and carry them out. And that's it, I'm done, as far as I know. We rehearsed with the chorus after lunch and that was awesome. They sound amazing.

After the rehearsal we went to the costume dept to get fitted into our robes. Mine was too long of course, but the sleeves were too short. The costume dept is quite a scene - costumes stuffed onto racks everywhere, and desks with sewing machines crammed in between.

On one of the performance days we're going to see Die Zauberflote at 1pm and then I'm in Romeo that night at 8! A long day at the theater!

What have I been doing?!

So for all of you wondering where I've been, here are some shots of my desk, to which I've been chained for the last 2 weeks or so, working on the program book.

So after a couple of looong weekends and many near all-nighters, the program book is complete and is at the printers, getting ready for opening night (which is this coming Friday)!

I have a ton of backlogged photos that I've taken and a slew of them from a cast member and a volunteer, so stay tuned. In the next day or so you're sure to have MANY posts and images to view.

Nassau Park Pavilion

There was another Preview Concert on Saturday night - this time at Nassau Park Pavilion in West Windsor. The weather was GORGEOUS (much better than last year's deluge) and there was a huge crowd - about 385 people. It was a great night of music - a fewPirates, some Flute, a little Romeo & Juliette and a bunch of Musical Theater - how great does that sound?

You can see more Nassau Park Concert pictures here.

Don't forget that you can catch more Musical Theater THIS WEEKEND at Palmer Square in Princeton: Friday at 7:30pm and Saturday at 2pm.

2 Previews down, 1 to go

So last night there we had 2 previews (one was a mini-concert). The big concert was at the Princeton Public Library and from all accounts it was amazing. There were at least 150 people crammed into the Community Room - since I had only made 125 programs, they had to scramble to photocopy more. You never can tell how many people will show up! As you can probably guess, I wasn't at that concert last night. Instead I went with a couple of our singers and a pianist who were performing a mini, 20 minute concert at Crossing Vineyards in Washington's Crossing, PA. It's a really gorgeous place and we had great weather last night, so it was lovely. We sang just a few numbers at the start of the dinner concert that they were having. We had a great time and we should be back there next year - stay tuned!

Tonight is the Nassau Park Pavilion preview. I'll be there, so be sure to look for more pictures tomorrow. As always, the web album will contain even more photos!

Preview Concerts

In case you're dying to hear what our wonderful singers sound like, you're in luck! This weekend we have 2 (count ' em) TWO preview concerts.

The first takes place at the Princeton Public Library at 7pm tomorrow (Friday) evening. The second preview takes place at Nassau Park Pavilion in West Windsor (behind Panera) on Saturday evening at 7:30pm.

There will be pieces performed from each of the three operas (Romeo et Juliette, The Magic Flute and The Pirates of Penzance) as well as some Musical Theater.

Summer Season Poster