"I belong in Anatevka..."
Feb. 3rd, 2003 03:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaalaWell, it's over and I'm exhausted. Fiddler on the Roof ended its four-day run Saturday. It pulled together marvellously at the last minute, despite a fairly depressing dress rehearsal. The show was received very well: the Dean of Students (not a universally admired figure, but still...) said it was the best G&G production he'd seen so far, and a friend from my (arts) high school compared it favourably to the better productions put on there.
Others complained that they weren't allowed to talk or look bored, but I loved being in the orchestra, on stage. We got to wear costumes which, again, annoyed some people but delighted me. (My new userpic is a photo of me in my costume; the musicians were to dress like boys/men with, for some reason, yarmulkes instead of caps.) The aformentioned "cultural consultant' complimented me on my yarmulke/kippah several times--in Yiddish, no less, which made comprehension a bit difficult until I asked for a translation. (The student playing Lazar Wolf liked my costume as well.)
Aside from those times when I was too busy playing, I got to see the entire show (albeit from the back). As with most shows in which I've played, I never tired of watching it or listening to it. The acting was so affecting at times that I had to restrain myself to avoid crying visibly, sitting there on stage, during the Chava sequence. A number of theatre actors were in the cast this year, and it showed. (Though some of their singing made me nervous, it improved by leaps and bounds. The audience didn't seem notice the odd occasion when they sang off key anyway.)
The production team made quite the effort to get the details of Ashkenazy Jewish costume, manners, and (name-)pronunciation as accurate as possible within our limited means. (This university, as opposed to my high school, has remarkably few Jews in its student body. Actually, that was probably good for us since our production was filled with Gentiles in drag as Jewish men and boys.) The costumes and sets were designed to resemble Chagall paintings, with bright and vivid colours, which was a nice change from the usual. The costumers' attempts at Tzizit didn't turn out to well, but much of the rest of the costuming was pretty impressive.
My accordion-playing abilities, though by no means flawless, have improved noticeably. If you have an accordion and want to learn how to play it decently, I recommend getting yourself into a Fiddler on the Roof orchestra. I hope I get around to practicing some more in future so I don't lose the momentum.
After much deliberation and wandering about town at night, I attended the cast party for about an hour. I am sick, just like at least half the people in the Society. And I have class tomorrow. Now I'll have to spend the next month (at least) trying to catch up to all the work I missed.
* * *
G&G has taken up almost all of my "free" time for the past few weeks, but a few other things did happen...
I witnessed an installation of Debian on to a housemate's computer. (He's much more of a bona fide geek than I could ever be. But then again, I don't have a second hard drive to risk messing around with.)
I showed up for the first "chorus" rehearsal of the Opera Workshop of Vaughan Williams' Riders to the Sea. I was under the impression that this was to be a sizeable chorus, rather like the 8-14 member chorus in The Beggar's Opera last year. I was mistaken. As it turned out, there were two people on each part, I was only non-vocal-major of the lot, and everybody else had practiced their parts together before. The word... oh... "intimated" springs to mind.
* * *
I'm really out of the Whoser loop. I didn't know that Bix had posted photos of WhoserCon 5 until I did a Google search a couple hours ago. (Cutest photo of Emile, ever...) Now that I can't afford to attend WhoserCon this year, I'll probably be pretty well out for good.
*sigh*
Ah, the memories.
* * *
And finally, a quiz result I actually felt like posting:
Which OS are You?
Others complained that they weren't allowed to talk or look bored, but I loved being in the orchestra, on stage. We got to wear costumes which, again, annoyed some people but delighted me. (My new userpic is a photo of me in my costume; the musicians were to dress like boys/men with, for some reason, yarmulkes instead of caps.) The aformentioned "cultural consultant' complimented me on my yarmulke/kippah several times--in Yiddish, no less, which made comprehension a bit difficult until I asked for a translation. (The student playing Lazar Wolf liked my costume as well.)
Aside from those times when I was too busy playing, I got to see the entire show (albeit from the back). As with most shows in which I've played, I never tired of watching it or listening to it. The acting was so affecting at times that I had to restrain myself to avoid crying visibly, sitting there on stage, during the Chava sequence. A number of theatre actors were in the cast this year, and it showed. (Though some of their singing made me nervous, it improved by leaps and bounds. The audience didn't seem notice the odd occasion when they sang off key anyway.)
The production team made quite the effort to get the details of Ashkenazy Jewish costume, manners, and (name-)pronunciation as accurate as possible within our limited means. (This university, as opposed to my high school, has remarkably few Jews in its student body. Actually, that was probably good for us since our production was filled with Gentiles in drag as Jewish men and boys.) The costumes and sets were designed to resemble Chagall paintings, with bright and vivid colours, which was a nice change from the usual. The costumers' attempts at Tzizit didn't turn out to well, but much of the rest of the costuming was pretty impressive.
My accordion-playing abilities, though by no means flawless, have improved noticeably. If you have an accordion and want to learn how to play it decently, I recommend getting yourself into a Fiddler on the Roof orchestra. I hope I get around to practicing some more in future so I don't lose the momentum.
After much deliberation and wandering about town at night, I attended the cast party for about an hour. I am sick, just like at least half the people in the Society. And I have class tomorrow. Now I'll have to spend the next month (at least) trying to catch up to all the work I missed.
* * *
G&G has taken up almost all of my "free" time for the past few weeks, but a few other things did happen...
I witnessed an installation of Debian on to a housemate's computer. (He's much more of a bona fide geek than I could ever be. But then again, I don't have a second hard drive to risk messing around with.)
I showed up for the first "chorus" rehearsal of the Opera Workshop of Vaughan Williams' Riders to the Sea. I was under the impression that this was to be a sizeable chorus, rather like the 8-14 member chorus in The Beggar's Opera last year. I was mistaken. As it turned out, there were two people on each part, I was only non-vocal-major of the lot, and everybody else had practiced their parts together before. The word... oh... "intimated" springs to mind.
* * *
I'm really out of the Whoser loop. I didn't know that Bix had posted photos of WhoserCon 5 until I did a Google search a couple hours ago. (Cutest photo of Emile, ever...) Now that I can't afford to attend WhoserCon this year, I'll probably be pretty well out for good.
*sigh*
Ah, the memories.
* * *
And finally, a quiz result I actually felt like posting:
Which OS are You?
