This past weekend was filled with technical rehearsals for the Genki musical. We were finally going through the musical with all the props and sets, so things started out at a snail's pace. Most of Saturday was spent going act by act and breaking down all of the details of which props were needed at what time and who would be handling them. Most of the responsibility goes to the Japanese volunteers. I honestly can't see how they can stand to come to all of these rehearsals to help out. If I weren't doing something on stage, I don't think I would have the patience to spend hours at practice each weekend. They've done so much to help us, from teaching us the intonation of our lines to juggling props.
The process of adding in the props and sets has been a little challenging in some places. For two of the acts I'm in, we're using a small house as part of the set. It's made of several pieces and can be taken apart completely, which is pretty cool. One wall is a sheet (which will be used for a scene where Marissa and I are only seen in silhouette), and the other wall is a smaller sheet plus a cardboard door that slides on a rail. The house even has a roof with blue tiles (paper plates). However, it takes several people to assemble the house, and even then it's hard to do quickly. So getting the house put together on stage during the transitions can be a bit nerve wracking.
I think my favorite part of the technical rehearsals was the addition of the costumes and makeup. I finally got to try on my Gaga costume, which is completely awesome. For a base layer, I'm wearing a regular black shirt and black leggings. Over that, I wear a skirt with little reflector tape windows stuck to it, and a vest with buildings growing out of one shoulder. I also have a jaunty little hat. The hat is a bit challenging to wear while dancing, but so long as I don't get too wild with the head tossing, it shouldn't fly off my head. I'm responsible for my own makeup and I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out most of the time. I've gotten surprisingly comfortable with the gigantic false eyelashes. In two of the other acts I'm a normal person, so I get to wear a kimono. It's a very pretty peach/orange color with a white obi (sash that goes around the waist) that has green and silver details on it. I kind of struggle to dress myself properly since I don't really know how to wear a kimono, but I can usually get it on without too much trouble.
While it was satisfying to see the musical coming together, it was not a lot of fun spending all day at rehearsals. Each weekend I've had less and less patience for them. On Saturday it was especially frustrating because there was a party that Sasha, Julie and I had been looking forward to, and rehearsals ended even later than predicted. We were at practice from about 9:30 am until 6:45 pm, and the party started at 8:00 pm. Marissa also joined us, and I was pretty amazed that all of us managed to get ready in time. This involved scrubbing off the heavy stage makeup, changing clothes, fixing hair, and putting on normal-person makeup. The four of us were doing this in my small apartment, which has a grand total of one mirror.
The party that we went to was a traffic light party. It was more or less speed dating, but you could also go just to make friends. If you were single, you wore green. If you were in a relationship, you wore red. If you were somewhere in between, you wore yellow. When we arrived, we discovered that there were slightly more than twice as many women as there were men. Also, most of the men were in their 30s and 40s. Not exactly ideal, but the party was still fairly fun. Most everyone was very friendly, and at a lot of the tables I was more interested in talking to the women than the men. Generally there were two women and one man at each table during the speed dating. In traditional speed dating I think that would be a bit awkward since you'd be competing with someone for the guy's attention, but in this situation it actually made things more comfortable. Surprisingly, I was fortunate enough to end up on my own when I was at tables with the few guys actually in my age range. There were a couple of guys who were rather interesting, but I didn't get their phone numbers.
Midway through the party, Julie and Sasha bailed to meet up with Taka and Chihiro, the guys they've been going on dates with. Marissa and I stuck around for the rest of the party. There was some awkward dancing and a few other random activities before the party ended. The two hours went by fairly quickly, actually. While the speed dating wasn't successful in terms of actual dating, I think it was a convenient way to practice talking with other people. A lot of the time we were speaking in Japanese.
After the party, I met up with Julie, Sasha and the guys at Hirome. It was a little odd going to meet them since I kind of felt like I was interrupting a double date, but they all made me feel welcome. If anyone was awkward about it, it was me. I did feel a little sad when we were walking around to find the next venue and the others were all paired off. But then Sasha or Julie would grab my hand and we'd go walking along together. It must've looked odd to the other Japanese people, Taka and Julie and I walking down the street holding hands. That gave me a laugh.
We stayed out entirely too late, which meant that we were extra tired for Sunday rehearsals. But we all survived, and Sunday went a lot more smoothly than Saturday did. We started at 9:00 am and I think we finished around 4:30 or 5:00 pm. We managed two full run-throughs and had extra practice on the bits that needed more work. The musical should be about an hour and a half long when we actually perform it. Next weekend we'll go on tour to four other cities in Kochi Prefecture.
I'm looking forward to the performances, but I'm sure I'll also be nervous. There's always the possibility of blanking out on my lines. Still, I think I know them pretty well. I think my favorite part will be the Gaga dance. Going directly from the dance to my spoken lines is a little challenging since I get kind of out of breath, but it'll be fine. I feel like the performances are coming at a good time since the beginning of the new school year hasn't gotten too busy yet. My junior high schools don't have a lot of work for me to do at this point, and we haven't been assigned our elementary school visits yet. I've gotten so used to having a lot of free time during the day that it may be a bit of a shock when I actually have things to do again. But having nothing to do also gets to be maddening after a while, so I suppose I should look forward to things speeding up. Anyhow, I've just got to get through this week, and then the fun begins.
No comments:
Post a Comment