First Day of Staging

Today we jump right into staging the beginning of Act I, woo-hoo! It will be interesting to see how much I remember. It sounds like Paul is going to put his own spin on some things, with Thad's blessing, which is really cool. But Paul also told me that he's probably going to keep the Three Ladies stuff pretty much as it was, and really focus on getting the Hindu poses and movements and postures. Can't wait!

Added later, after a full day of staging rehearsal

Oh. My. God. I am so tired. My knees and quads are on fire. The opening scene with the Three Ladies is so physical and very specifically choreographed. So the first few days of rehearsals are pretty grueling because you are doing the very physical things over and over and over. This staging has tons of up and down and up and down. In one performance, that is fine. Rehearsing it is exhausting.

BUT! It is such a pleasure to work with all these people, it really is. Paul is so wonderful. Tim Long, the conductor, is fabulous. All the other cast is really great - great performers and really nice people. That is a really important thing when you are with these people hours and hours a day. Oh, here's a shot of a model of the set - so you can see that in addition to running back and forth and getting up and down, we are doing it on an uneven rocky outcrop that is all jagged and multi-leveled. It rocks.

Tomorrow I get fitted for my costume and wig, I'm stoked! I know what it looks like, but it's such a gorgeous costume that I can't wait to put it on again. And it looks so good on me, too.

I took a little walk on dinner break tonight and saw some gorgeous views of the sunset. These photos don't really do it justice, but I'll post them anyway. In the first one, there is a cliff that is all red because there is copper in the soil, I think. In the sunset, it just looked amazing, like it was on fire.