Uhlalica Uhlalica!!

It was a little surreal to wake up this morning and get ready for work and head back to the 'real world', knowing that there would be no more time spent as a Utopian maiden. As I walked to the train, I thought back to the beginning; back to late July when my calm and quiet life got turned on its head.

It all started when, on a whim, I went in for a last minute audition for a show and, much to my amazement, they offered me a part in the women's chorus! Of course, I accepted. And so it was that, for the last two and a half months, I spent MANY an evening hour working with a local theater troupe to put together a production of Gilbert & Sullivan's "Utopia Limited". Whee!!

At the very first, we were rehearsing just the music:

here's our glorious pianist... she was fantastic!!

at our first, full run-through.. we sounded pretty amazing!

A few short weeks later, we began staging:

the featured chorus and leads learning the minuet

this is how we all looked the first few days of staging..heh

As more weeks passed, in between rehearsals, we noticed the set began to grow..

One Saturday morning, I went in to help build the set..

Here they were preparing to put a backdrop flats onto a "fly",
so another chorus member and I got to hold the bar forward
so they could hook up the flats and get them into place.

The view from the wings:
Here the Wise Men demonstrate their dance of joy
as they've schemingly decided how to get
the Princess Zara to marry Phantis.

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Not super high quality, just taken from my phone, but this is the featured chorus and leads learning the minuet.

The King (middle), singing to his Wise Men
(one lady substitute for absent man)
about how life is just a farce.

Captain Fixbattleax and Princess Zara (far right) singing
to the Wise Men (minus one -absent from rehearsal that day)
about how dueling is the clear answer to solving the love triangle.

It seemed, overnight, that the scenery evolved dramatically!
Here the pink foam-board wall has been transformed into
an impressive-looking stone wall.

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Not super high quality, just taken from my phone, but this is the featured chorus and leads learning the minuet.

Then, in late September, I snatched a bit of video of one of my favorite songs from the show.
See it HERE.

Finally, it came down the the final few days and we had our last dress rehearsal:

Utopians lazing about Utopia

the Debutantes, in Act II costumes, dabbling in the "rouge pot"

the unscrupulous Wise Men

the whole company

Then, suddenly, it was Opening Night!!

And, before we knew it, we'd completed the run, struck the set and Utopia Limited (2009) was complete.

What a BLAST!
Though, now I have my life back... that's nice too :)