Hello! Sorry it has been so long since I last posted. Things have been very busy lately. Because the past two weekends have been spent zigzagging across the prefecture to perform the musical, I've been trying to catch up on rest, housework and regular work during the week. It's been a bit crazy, but things are finally slowing down.
So, last you heard from me, we were heading out for our first weekend of performances. Things have become such a blur that I can't really go into detail about each show, but that is probably just as well. Otherwise, this post would be ridiculously long. Over the course of two weekends, we did nine shows. For our first weekend we had a dress rehearsal in Motoyama followed by an actual performance there, and shows in Aki, Muroto and Tosa City. Just this past weekend we had shows in Sukumo, Yusuhara, Kochi City, and Konan. There were two performances in Kochi City; one was a shortened version for kids.
Since the towns and cities we performed in were fairly spread out, we spent a good deal of time on a rented bus. It was fairly big; it held the entire cast and all our props and luggage. Of course, it wasn't always the most comfortable fit since we sometimes had to store the larger props (the tram, trees, and roof of the house) in the aisle of the bus. It was pretty fun, though, traveling around with all the cast and crew. In addition to the mostly foreign cast, we had a few Japanese volunteers who did all kinds of work backstage and sometimes had roles on stage.
For the first two performances or so, I got pretty nervous when it was time to go on. The first time I thought it was indigestion because we'd had to scarf down lunch immediately before going on stage, but when it happened again I figured that it was probably nervousness. On an intellectual level I felt pretty calm, but my stomach felt like it was burning. Part of the trouble for me was that I didn't go on until the end of the third act, so I had a lot of time to get nervous while waiting. Once my scenes started, though, I was busy enough with acting, dancing and costume changes that I didn't have a lot of time to think about it.
One interesting part of the tour was an overnight stay in Muroto. Since it's way on the southeastern tip of Shikoku, we had to drive there the night before so that we would be there for the matinee show. We stayed in sort of a youth facility like the one we used for the dance retreat. This one was larger, though, and was comprised of several buildings. The place where we slept was about a kilometer away from the breakfast hall, to give a sense of the scale. There were also a few groups of college students staying there at the same time. We arrived after dark on Saturday night and went straight to our rooms after the mandatory meeting on how to make your bed. But in the morning we had time to look around outside a bit. There was a beautiful view of the coast, and it was a really nice day. After breakfast, we had some time to mess around, and someone discovered a few sets of hula hoops, balls, stilts and square scooters. I mostly played with a hula hoop, but a bunch of the others started a game of scooter tag. They even got a few of the Japanese university students to join in. It was a fun start to the day.
For each show, we were at a different venue. Each stage was a different size and had different resources. Some had great light and sound systems, some had convenient dressing rooms, and some had passages behind or under the stage so you could get from one side to the other. Of course, there were also stages with very narrow wings, or no way of crossing the stage without being seen, or dressing rooms in entirely separate buildings. Before each show we usually had an hour and a half to get into costume, arrange the props and figure out how to adapt to the new stage. There wasn't a lot of down time. The most interesting stage was also the least high tech; it was a kabuki theater in Yusuhara. The lighting and sound systems were very simple, and the dressing room was actually just a little hall right on the side of the stage. The theater itself was beautiful, though. There were no chairs, only cushions laid out on the floor. There was also a balcony level. I don't even know how to describe it, but it felt very elegant and traditional. We had a tiny audience at that show, but I felt like it was a privilege to perform on that stage.
I have to say, the performances went really well. I felt like everyone did a great job and put on a really good show each time. There were mistakes here and there, but nothing ever really fell apart. Some bad things did happen; on the last day, Sasha hurt her foot, and Sile (pronounced like "Sheila") got a migraine so bad that she threw up before the show. Even so, they both did all of their regular acting and dancing. Amy's face was stained red in places from her kabuki makeup and her skin was really irritated from applying and taking it off so many times. And everyone was pretty exhausted by the end of each day. But somehow it was still all kinds of fun.
The show that was the most important to me was the finale in Kochi City. That was the show where I would know the most people in the audience. It was also the show with the largest audience; it ended up being around 200 people. The last show is also the one where the cast tends to go all out, and anything is fair game. There were a few pranks pulled. At one point, Sasha is supposed to run away from some invisible dogs while barking sound effects play. Instead, for the last show, Steven (the producer) put on a weird rat-like nose and chased her. Sasha had no idea any of this was coming, by the way. She said afterward that it scared the bejeezus out of her. Another prank was pulled on Marisa and I. In the final act, Marisa (who plays my lover) and I do a parody of a scene from Ghost. We're both turning clay together and looking at each other lovingly while "Unchained Melody" plays in the background. At the final show, Mark, who does sound effects, added in a moaning noise to the music. Marisa and I had kind of suspected this might happen as he had done it once before at rehearsal. We managed not to crack up, though, and I'm not sure the audience even really noticed it.
Overall, I think the finale was the best show. All of the acting and dancing was turned up a notch. I felt really good about the Gaga dance, which is always my favorite part of my role. I could hear my friends from hip hop cheering for me; four of them came, and they gave me cookies and crackers as a gift. My English teacher from the mountain school also came, and she even gave me flowers. When she came to talk to me after the show, she couldn't stop laughing. The final performance just felt so good. It was satisfying to be done and to go out with a bang. I was very proud of the show.
Once the final show was over, we had an after party. There was food and drinks, and we all got to sit and talk. Everyone was given an award in the form of a photo collage. My award was the "Going Gaga Dancing Queen Award". There was a nijikai, but Julie and I skipped out on it because we were just too tired. Sasha went on to karaoke with the others. I had originally thought that I couldn't take Monday off, but it turned out that my school was closed on Monday of this week, so I could have the day off after all. My supervisor told me this after the final performance, actually. So I spent Monday sleeping and recovering from the weekend. I also went to get my hair cut. Finally, my bangs don't cover half my face. They went down to about the end of my nose, they were getting so long.
Anyhow, there's so much more I haven't managed to tell you about the musical. There were all kinds of funny incidents and random moments. I can't remember them all right now, and there just isn't time to talk about all of them, but I'm sure I'll tell you more stories about Genki in the future. Some entertaining things include getting out at rest stops or going into convenience stores while wearing full stage makeup; Julie chatting up some Japanese guys while wearing her armor and manly makeup; making children cry at the kid's show in Kochi; two students from Osaka falling in love with Adrienne and Amber while they were following our show for research with their professor; and me taking a cold shower in Muroto when I didn't realize that you had to flip a switch to turn the hot water on. Maybe in a while I'll get a chance to tell you more about it all. But for now it's getting late, and I'm still having trouble organizing my thoughts.
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