Sunday – Day 101
November 13, 2012
I fear today’s post isn’t nearly as exciting as yesterdays, but I can’t expect to have a show everyday. However, I seem to have at least one per week. This week’s being Legally Blonde the musical, presented by Penn Singers, the premier light opera company on campus, with a standing cast of which I am part of.
Today marked load in for the show and I arrived at the PAC Show (Performing Arts Committee Workshop) to help load things into the truck to take to the theatre. Unfortunately for me, this is the least enjoyable part of amateur theater! At midday I was excused from my duties temporarily to clean up last nights party venue, the ‘Glouse’ (Glee house) aka. J.Ho and Scott Ventre’s (of the Glee Club) rented off campus accommodation. This was fast and delicious with food provided for all the newmen who showed up.
The afternoon was all set building and really a waste of my time as I sat in the corner un-needed, doing my work.
There was a one hour dinner break that I spent at Hillel and, following that it was back to the theatre for a sitzprobe (sing through of the show with the band) before finishing up finally at 11PM for a production meeting that ran till midnight. All in all 14hrs of rehearsal. Not as much fun as Saturday.
Saturday/Shabbat – Day 100
I have now been away from home one hundred days. It’s a big number and home has never seemed further away.
The morning was all rehearsal for our matinee show, with a call at 10AM to get into costume. Today’s show was fantastic despite a less than packed audience, they were almost as lively as we were, with a number of alumni and Penn students coming out to support us.
Of note in our performances were guest showings from the Penn Glee Club Band, now it’s own separate entity. Teddy, above and below, is the lead singer for most of their numbers. Also see the scene below with some of my token Australian lines and a brief appearance by Jon Diamond (apparently he looks like Jack from Will and Grace).
The afternoon only left us one hour free before another Glee event, the GCGC (Glee Club Graduate Glub) formal reception. This was open again, to the many glee alumni who had come to see our show and, their families. In this reception rosettes (badges for the blazer) were presented to three individuals who had served the Glee Club for many years and in various means. Thomas amongst them (his parents were very proud). In addition we sung a few number in full force, current members and alumni together and this in my opinion, was the best I’ve ever heard the chorus.
Our evening performance was completely sold out! It was also incredibly high energy and gave us all the greatest feeling on it’s completion.
Some of our big numbers included a modern setting of the Dies Irae text from the Requiem. This is a new favorite of the members.
However my personal favorite number was an Aaron Dale (of OC Times arranging fame) arrangement of Go The Distance from Disney’s Hercules. A beautiful upbeat barbershop song with an incredible tag.
My personal moment to shine was in Baba Yetu, seen in the second half of the below video. And though I’m out of frame, I am proudly singing the swahili verse along with a small select group of others who managed the text and notes to audition standard. The first song is the Glee Club Anthem, “Afterglow” which all Glee Alumni in the audience are invited to sing with us.
The crowd favorite of the evening would have to have been “Run Freedom Run”, the PGC choreographed number, which as seen below had us literally on the edge of our seats.
It would also be remiss of me not to include a sampling of the offerings that Penn Dance brought to our show. However, Thomas’ dad who recorded these videos, neglected to film them as his son didn’t appear in non Glee numbers. My apologies to PD. Thus instead I have posted the finale in which they appear.
After all that, there was the cast party with PD and PGC combined. It wasn’t bad, however PD and PGC as per usual had some troubles integrating, and in my opinion PD was a little cliquey and brought a few too many outsiders to the party, which left a number of clubbers disappointed (aside from those who were just looking PD up and down).
I managed to get to bed at around 3AM, which was problematic as Sunday I was to be up early…
Friday – Day 99
November 12, 2012
Friday was a large buildup to the performance and as a result I hardly payed attention in classes. Even when my singing lesson hit, I was both too exhausted and too pumped up to really focus well. Despite this, Brian noted that my singing was coming along well and I too felt I had been making good progress since coming to Penn, particularly in practicing on breathing from my diaphragm.
The evenings performance was just about sold out, with the theatre full to the brim. Our numbers were well received and I even managed to catch Shabbat dinner!
Our show opened with Footloose a combined dance number:
I’m not sure which night the video is from and this greatly affect how strong my dancing is, in addition in the videos I’ll be posting I’m rather hard to spot. However, the show still looks great, even without yours truly.
Glee’s next number was a piece I truly love by American composer Randall Thompson who has always had close ties with the Glee Club. The piece is titled: “The Last Words of David”
After the show and dinner I headed straight to sleep for a huge day of performances on the morrow.
More videos to come!