I've performed a lot over the last 25 years and in a variety of settings, but I had never before been in an actual play. Back in the day, a friend said I'd make a perfect Daisy Mae and encouraged me to audition for the role in Lil' Abner, but never had the nerve. Time marches on, though, and now new opportunities are welcome adventures.
The crew needed a few dance tunes for the Christmas party at Fezziwig's in Scrooge's youth, and after a little looking around and considering a few numbers, I decided to just write the music myself! It was an interesting experience, writing a piece of music to fit dance choreography; I had to adjust my mind to the dancer's needs, such as "four eight-counts" as well as to the timing of the play required by the director, such as "this needs to last 12 seconds." "A twelve second song," I thought. "Well, that's awfully short and sweet, but I can do it! Let me just remove all these repeats!"
I must say, I've created a lot of little melodies of my own over the years, but I've never really written them all down to completion. This play provided a much needed motivation to get it written down and shared with the world! And it was pretty exciting to write and perform original works in my home town with my own students. Steve and Charlotte had learned all their pieces for my Christmas recital, so I invited them to join me. Charlotte's mom, Nadine, is also a pianist so we made a nice little team. Tiffany Kilgore joined us on flute for the morning school performances, but a virus prevented her from joining us further.
We rehearsed and performed with the cast and had lots of fun doing so! There are some wonderful professional cast photos from rehearsal available to view online. Shared below are a few of our photos from the adventures backstage and performing for theatre patrons in the lobby!
