October 3, 2011

Equation for a Real Person

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Lauren who recently reminded me it had been ages since I updated this bad boy. So Ms Lauren, this post is for you!

I'm still here, finagling my way through this real world. Sort of playing-at being a real person. Flip flopping between being a real adult with a real paycheck and bills to pay, and the inner little girl, curled under the covers, asking her mommy for her binky. Okay so I never had a binky, but you get the picture. Being a big kid is hard! I am currently working five days a week at a cute, mildly trendy, semi organic sandwich place which is the main source of my income, and am this close (imagine me holding up my pointer finger and thumb close together right by my face here for the full image on this one) to paying my own rent. Bomb sauce indeed, but no easy task. On top of this I am working as Dance Captain on a production of Annie which is also paying me (more bomb sauce, real person points here) and we rehearse six days a week including weekends. While this equation does equal money flowing my way, it also equals lots of 13 hour days with zero days off until the show closes. Multiply that by the negative hours I am getting in sleep and you've got the perfect equation for a very tired lady, aka, me.

Don't get it confused, while I am quite exhausted I would much rather be too busy than sitting at home with nothing to do. I am so thankful to have a day job, AND a creative job. Both of which are quite tough to come by these days. Working on Annie has been a very fun experience. I did the show when I was 14, what musical theater geek didn't, right? And my memories were mostly playing the ditzy Lily St. Regis, wearing a blonde wig and a big stuffed bra, and lots of dancing servants. This version though has an entirely different feeling. Because it is being produced by a professional company the maturity level is much higher. How often do you see a production of Annie that isn't preformed entirely by children or teenagers? Where Warbucks is a 17 year old kid who was forced to shave his head? Our adult cast is comprised of people ranging from 20's-40's or 50's. All of whom probably have a lot of experience being real people, maybe I should ask them for some pointers before I go running back to my hypothetical binky again. This production also has very little dancing. There are many physicalized moments, movement patterns, and gesture-ography, but you would be hard pressed to find a pirouette. I remember being 14 and dancing like a crazy person all over the stage. But this production shaves away all that excess stuff. It's simple. Not in a negative way. Not in the way people often think when they think of a production of Annie. Sure, it's a cheerful, sometimes sentimental, and often cheesy show. But at the end of the day the message does still resonate. I'm so proud that this production seems to shatter the flippant and juvenile reputation the show has come to have. It sure isn't easy.

Anyways that's enough of my preachy, "my show rocks" speech. I've got to get up early and put my big girl pants on again tomorrow.

More soon I hope.