I think I forgot to blog about our First Annual SOMA Olympic Paddle Boat Races! It's a brilliant tale.
We were all set to meet in the lobby at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon in Fuzhou. Costumes and mascots were encouraged for teams, but Michael (Captain von Trapp) and I had not planned to do anything for our team: The Thunderous, Rampaging, Monstrous Rubber Duckies. Yes, the name was his idea.
I was out most of the day on Thursday, so I didn't even try to reach him, and on Friday he got in touch with me at 1 p.m. and asked if we should try to scrape together some costumes. We thought of wearing orange shirts (like ducks?), or wearing black shirts with paper cutouts of ducks on them, but we realized we'd be overshadowed by nearly everyone else, so two hours before we were to meet, we went out shopping at Carrefour.
We managed to find bright yellow shirts, possibly the exact color of your standard duck body, and orange sun visors that definitely looked like duck bills! We purchased those, along with some permanent markers. We tried to find some kind of duck mascot, but apparently the rubber ducky is not as popular in China as it is in the USA.
We ate a quick lunch at McDonald's (shame on us!) because we hadn't had time to eat before the race that day, then came back to my hotel room to create our outfits. On the front of the T-shirts, we drew an evil looking rubber ducky, traced from a template I drew, having looked up children's wallpaper online and found one with ducky outlines on it. On the back we wrote our entire team name, and on the visors we drew evil looking eyes and eyebrows.
We met the group downstairs at 3 pm, having finished our costumes just minutes before, and boy were we a hit -- the whole group, I mean! We had Mangor and Brunhilde, the Vikings (Uncle Max and Liesl), Zeus and Prometheus (Rolf and Friedrich), the over-prepared campers (Elberfeld and Elsa), the hillbillies (Sister Sophia and Nazi Youth), the Goat Boat (Sister Margaretta and Frau Schmidt), The Monkey Pirates (Gretl, her mom, and Mother Abbess), the Bible Boat (Franz and Baroness Elberfeld), and the plain old Monkeys (Christine and her husband). The costumes were amazing, from mop beards and binder-cover lightning bolts, to blacked-out teeth, to eye patches, gold earrings, and bandannas, to a full-body goat suit (Sister Margaretta was the back end). We were quite a hit in the hotel lobby and on the walk to the lake where they rented boats.
Each team rented a boat from two different places, because they didn't have enough boats at a single place, and then we all paddled to a bridge to start the race. I must admit it was tiring paddling that boat, and I had Michael as a partner! You can bet I did not slack off -- in the beginning, we tried taking turns resting and paddling, and he certainly noticed a difference when I was not paddling with him.
The race started at an arched bridge, went to a far bridge, under it, back through, through the original bridge and past it to another bridge, under it, back around to the original bridge. We discovered early on that it was easy to be in the lead, get under a bridge, and get stuck waiting for every single other boat to go under the bridge and turn around! This happened to Christine and Danny, who were in a larger boat and couldn't fit under the bridge with another boat there! They started in the lead and lost their position quickly.
However, Michael and I were charmed. We started near the front and did not get caught because we managed to sneak back under the bridge as later boats were just coming through for the first time. We broke away from the crowd, our boat dripping with speed, and forged away under the original bridge and to the far bridge, just tailing the tech boat and the Greek gods. On the way back from the far bridge, we caught up with the tech boat, with just the Greeks in front of us. We stayed side by side with the techies for a while, then decided to part ways as we came near the finish line, and we pulled ahead again! We watched the Greek gods win first place, and then -- lo and behold -- we won SECOND! The Rubber Duckies do it again! I was so proud of us, and our prize was a gold painted rubber ducky emblazoned with the race title and our second place prize. It was really a fitting prize for our team.
We finished the day with a small pizza party in my hotel room and then a bigger Ukrainian birthday party in one of the conference rooms, where we all sat and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Great times were had by all!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Eight show countdown!
This is the saddest week -- our final, eight-show countdown until we depart. On a high note, we left China and are in Macau, a special administrative region of China, which is nothing like China! For those who don't know, Macau used to be a Portuguese colony, so all of the signs are in Portuguese and Chinese, and some people speak Portuguese, and some of the people who speak Cantonese have an odd Portuguese dialect! It's so interesting. My sister speaks Portuguese, so it's neat to hear the familiar language here.
Macau is mostly casinos, and our hotel itself is even a casino. We didn't know what it would be like, but it's quite nice. Analisa and I were lucky enough to get one of the biggest, fanciest types of rooms here. Evidently the hotel is giving us all of their free internet rooms, so they tend to be nicer than the others, but they still vary. Ours is the nicest of all -- totally enormous, with practically a dance floor at one end, there is so much extra space. (Analisa did yoga there this morning, and we rehearsed some scenes there yesterday.) The bathroom has a giant shower stall with a separate tub inside of it, so the whole stall is the size of two bathtubs, and the shower has a large standing head, a hand-held head, and some funny openings that spray a fine mist out of them. It's so neat!
We are right near the Macau Fisherman's Wharf, which is sort of Disney-esque, with lots of faux European architecture and nice places to eat. We sat in a booth shaped like a car at the Miami Food Court, and I had some amazing garoupa (grouper?) fish. Tonight we got burgers at Al's Diner. Yes, it's a far cry from mainland China.
We've had a number of days off in order for the set and costumes to transit from China to Macau, but yesterday the von Trapp family had a press event. We were interviewed first by the Chinese press, then by the Portuguese press, and they took photos of us. Zachary (Kurt) takes the prize for the best interview response to, "Why do you wear the traditional Chinese clothing?" (This is because many of the kids had Chinese dresses or shirts made, and they've been wearing them to press events all the time.) Zachary said, "We wear the traditional Chinese outfits to show our respect for the Chinese culture." Good answer, Zachary! That kid is smart. They also asked each of the kids our opinions on our character, and our character's relationship with Maria and the Captain, so I told of the time I asked Christine (Maria) what SHE thought of Louisa (me), and she said she thought that Louisa reminds her of herself when she was younger. I quite like that! The press asked us if we feel like a real family, and we certainly do, although it was funny when I turned to Maddy and whispered, "I feel that Michael is like a father to me." Michael, our Captain, is not that many years older than I am, nor is Maria!
Christine and Michael talked about their compatibility and their chemistry onstage, and the press brought that up later, saying, "You mention that you have a chemical reaction onstage?" I loved it!
Today was another special day. The Macau presenter requested that we do a dress rehearsal here, although we don't usually do a dress rehearsal in a new city. They wanted to get an idea of the set changes and costume changes. But the stage manager decided to use the dress rehearsal as a chance to let Analisa go on as Maria, and to give Christine a day off (especially since it was her anniversary yesterday!). Today Analisa performed as Maria, and we were allowed to go into the audience and watch the show when we weren't onstage. It was fantastic! I mostly got to watch the Max/Elsa/Captain scenes, because those are what I'm not in, and they are absolutely phenomenal. I've always known that they were good, but have never seen them from the audience with full costumes/makeup/hair/orchestra, and I was absolutely blown away. This is really a great show through and through! I kept turning to whomever was beside me in the audience, and saying, "She is INCREDIBLE! She's so good!" about Tiffan, our Elsa, who really is perfect in the role. I've never seen anyone do a better job in that role, which can sometimes be boring or even forgotten if it isn't done well. There is so much more to this show than I realize from my onstage viewpoint.
Tomorrow we'll have Christine back for opening night, and we'll do an eight-show run here in Macau. We're told that it's pretty much sold out for the entire run, although our two optional matinees are not happening, and I wonder why not (if it's sold out!). Oh well! So this is our countdown. We also have two birthdays to celebrate, and a company party. We will have performed the show 62 times since opening night. I can only hope it comes back to Asia, or to another location, soon enough!
Macau is mostly casinos, and our hotel itself is even a casino. We didn't know what it would be like, but it's quite nice. Analisa and I were lucky enough to get one of the biggest, fanciest types of rooms here. Evidently the hotel is giving us all of their free internet rooms, so they tend to be nicer than the others, but they still vary. Ours is the nicest of all -- totally enormous, with practically a dance floor at one end, there is so much extra space. (Analisa did yoga there this morning, and we rehearsed some scenes there yesterday.) The bathroom has a giant shower stall with a separate tub inside of it, so the whole stall is the size of two bathtubs, and the shower has a large standing head, a hand-held head, and some funny openings that spray a fine mist out of them. It's so neat!
We are right near the Macau Fisherman's Wharf, which is sort of Disney-esque, with lots of faux European architecture and nice places to eat. We sat in a booth shaped like a car at the Miami Food Court, and I had some amazing garoupa (grouper?) fish. Tonight we got burgers at Al's Diner. Yes, it's a far cry from mainland China.
We've had a number of days off in order for the set and costumes to transit from China to Macau, but yesterday the von Trapp family had a press event. We were interviewed first by the Chinese press, then by the Portuguese press, and they took photos of us. Zachary (Kurt) takes the prize for the best interview response to, "Why do you wear the traditional Chinese clothing?" (This is because many of the kids had Chinese dresses or shirts made, and they've been wearing them to press events all the time.) Zachary said, "We wear the traditional Chinese outfits to show our respect for the Chinese culture." Good answer, Zachary! That kid is smart. They also asked each of the kids our opinions on our character, and our character's relationship with Maria and the Captain, so I told of the time I asked Christine (Maria) what SHE thought of Louisa (me), and she said she thought that Louisa reminds her of herself when she was younger. I quite like that! The press asked us if we feel like a real family, and we certainly do, although it was funny when I turned to Maddy and whispered, "I feel that Michael is like a father to me." Michael, our Captain, is not that many years older than I am, nor is Maria!
Christine and Michael talked about their compatibility and their chemistry onstage, and the press brought that up later, saying, "You mention that you have a chemical reaction onstage?" I loved it!
Today was another special day. The Macau presenter requested that we do a dress rehearsal here, although we don't usually do a dress rehearsal in a new city. They wanted to get an idea of the set changes and costume changes. But the stage manager decided to use the dress rehearsal as a chance to let Analisa go on as Maria, and to give Christine a day off (especially since it was her anniversary yesterday!). Today Analisa performed as Maria, and we were allowed to go into the audience and watch the show when we weren't onstage. It was fantastic! I mostly got to watch the Max/Elsa/Captain scenes, because those are what I'm not in, and they are absolutely phenomenal. I've always known that they were good, but have never seen them from the audience with full costumes/makeup/hair/orchestra, and I was absolutely blown away. This is really a great show through and through! I kept turning to whomever was beside me in the audience, and saying, "She is INCREDIBLE! She's so good!" about Tiffan, our Elsa, who really is perfect in the role. I've never seen anyone do a better job in that role, which can sometimes be boring or even forgotten if it isn't done well. There is so much more to this show than I realize from my onstage viewpoint.
Tomorrow we'll have Christine back for opening night, and we'll do an eight-show run here in Macau. We're told that it's pretty much sold out for the entire run, although our two optional matinees are not happening, and I wonder why not (if it's sold out!). Oh well! So this is our countdown. We also have two birthdays to celebrate, and a company party. We will have performed the show 62 times since opening night. I can only hope it comes back to Asia, or to another location, soon enough!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Counting down - final two weeks in China
Last night we celebrated our 51st performance, and our last show in mainland China. It suddenly hit me that this is all ending, we're all going to be leaving, and some of us may be in touch, and might see each other again, but many of these friendships might not hold past the length of tour. What a depressing thought! Many of these people I know I will never see again, simply because of their age (the kids!) and where they live. I definitely hope to have a cast reunion in the future. That is what is so sad about this business: every gig is so short-lived, even the longer runs. You meet a fascinating group of people, become very close to them, and then you part ways.
Today a group of us went to visit a Buddhist temple after having a wonderful Japanese lunch at the hotel next door. I must admit that my favorite meal, perhaps so far in China (and I'm sorry to say it's not Chinese food) is the beef stroganoff served in the Western restaurant of the hotel next door. It's incredible! I've had it twice and I'm getting it again tonight. My favorite Chinese meal in China was definitely the Kung Pao Chicken at that first hole-in-the-wall restaurant we discovered near our rehearsal space in Chengdu. I wish we could go back there! If I had known that the tour was going to be cut short, there are many things I would have done differently. (Every meal at Kung Pao chicken, etc!)
Some things I'm really going to miss about performing The Sound of Music in China:
-The audience applause we received in one city for the children's marching entrance. This isn't a meaningful moment in the show, but it felt so good to get entrance applause for our group of kids!
-Even more important, the audiences that applauded as Michael (Captain) began singing Edelweiss. What a moment!
-Trying to communicate with our Chinese dressers. It's so funny! They'll simply talk to us in Chinese, and we'll talk to them in English, and nobody understands the other. My dressers always have a problem because I enter one scene with a head kerchief on, and I exit without it (when Captain grabs it off my head). In every single city, my dresser mimes to me, "Where is your kerchief?" and I point to the stage, indicating that it's still out there in the scene. In the end, I have to get Justin, our head wardrobe, to explain to them that the kerchief is used in the scene and exits in Maria's pocket.
-The antics of our von Trapp kids. I won't go into detail, because I don't want to incriminate anyone, but we have got one dramatic, crazy group of kids here! (Not to mention talented...)
-Understudy rehearsals. We have done some understudy rehearsals that end up like a production of Noises Off. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound funny at all when I try to explain it, so I'll just leave it at that.
-The orchestra. What other situation would enable us to meet a group of handsome, young, in most cases Ukrainian men!
I'll leave it at that. Perhaps more later! We have a few days off here in Fuzhou, then we take a bus to Xiamen so that we can fly from there to Macau. I'm so excited for Macau, not for the gambling, which doesn't interest me in the least, but for the Portuguese influence! We'll have eight performances in Macau, and that's the end of our tour ... for the time being, at least!
Today a group of us went to visit a Buddhist temple after having a wonderful Japanese lunch at the hotel next door. I must admit that my favorite meal, perhaps so far in China (and I'm sorry to say it's not Chinese food) is the beef stroganoff served in the Western restaurant of the hotel next door. It's incredible! I've had it twice and I'm getting it again tonight. My favorite Chinese meal in China was definitely the Kung Pao Chicken at that first hole-in-the-wall restaurant we discovered near our rehearsal space in Chengdu. I wish we could go back there! If I had known that the tour was going to be cut short, there are many things I would have done differently. (Every meal at Kung Pao chicken, etc!)
Some things I'm really going to miss about performing The Sound of Music in China:
-The audience applause we received in one city for the children's marching entrance. This isn't a meaningful moment in the show, but it felt so good to get entrance applause for our group of kids!
-Even more important, the audiences that applauded as Michael (Captain) began singing Edelweiss. What a moment!
-Trying to communicate with our Chinese dressers. It's so funny! They'll simply talk to us in Chinese, and we'll talk to them in English, and nobody understands the other. My dressers always have a problem because I enter one scene with a head kerchief on, and I exit without it (when Captain grabs it off my head). In every single city, my dresser mimes to me, "Where is your kerchief?" and I point to the stage, indicating that it's still out there in the scene. In the end, I have to get Justin, our head wardrobe, to explain to them that the kerchief is used in the scene and exits in Maria's pocket.
-The antics of our von Trapp kids. I won't go into detail, because I don't want to incriminate anyone, but we have got one dramatic, crazy group of kids here! (Not to mention talented...)
-Understudy rehearsals. We have done some understudy rehearsals that end up like a production of Noises Off. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound funny at all when I try to explain it, so I'll just leave it at that.
-The orchestra. What other situation would enable us to meet a group of handsome, young, in most cases Ukrainian men!
I'll leave it at that. Perhaps more later! We have a few days off here in Fuzhou, then we take a bus to Xiamen so that we can fly from there to Macau. I'm so excited for Macau, not for the gambling, which doesn't interest me in the least, but for the Portuguese influence! We'll have eight performances in Macau, and that's the end of our tour ... for the time being, at least!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Park joys in Fuzhou
We are now in Fuzhou and I'm almost over my recent illnesses! Yesterday, I was thinking about the fact that we have a show tonight, and I felt like I had been absent for a long time, since I performed none of our eight shows in Guangzhou feeling well. What a shame! Now I'll appreciate the show even more, coming back to it, in a sense. I also started getting my sense of taste back, and had some bread with peanut butter yesterday, and it was the most fantastic thing! Funny what you come to appreciate, after having lost it.
Fuzhou is quite nice, so far. We had been warned about the hotel (although I don't know who warned us, because nobody had seen it) and felt some trepidation over what we were to experience here, but it's totally nice! The rooms are significantly larger than the midget rooms we had in Guangzhou, and that's enough for me! Our hotel is right next to another (fancier) hotel that has a fabulous and not-too-expensive restaurant, where we ate our first meal here. I had the beef stroganoff and it was really good, with vegetables and all! Yesterday a small group of us went shopping at the Carrefour (my favorite store, still), and we were all hungry, so we made a routine stop at Papa John's for lunch. I think I've had more pizza (from Papa John's) on this tour than I've had in my life altogether before tour!
Last night another group of us walked from the hotel, through the park / waterfront, to a nice Thai restaurant some people had visited the previous night. On the way through the park, we saw big groups of children and teens rollerblading in a cement area. This seems to be a theme in China. The meal was tasty and just spicy enough for someone getting over a cold! Inexpensive, too. When we walked back home, we walked along the river through the park again, and this time we passed a huge group of Chinese people doing what looked like line dancing, or easy aerobics, or the electric slide, with music being played over a loudspeaker! It was so neat! A little farther down, some other music was being played, and older couples were dancing with each other, old-fashioned dances like my grandparents try to teach me, like the fox trot. They were just there, outdoors, in the park, and it looked like anyone who wanted to could join the dancing. People who weren't dancing were milling around listening to the music and watching. Now why don't we have this in the US? What a fun and neat idea? This is actually something that my hometown (Davis, CA) would do, but they would probably charge money for participation. Other events people have witnessed in parks here have included morning tai chi (groups or just single people) and aerobics! This is something that should be brought to the USA.
Today I'm having a rather quiet day before the show, mostly because I have enough leftovers in my room to feed myself for several days, so I'm trying to eat some of them and not go out and buy more food today! Several people on the tour are battling sore throats and other minor ailments, and we hope that everyone pulls through and is able to perform.
I still don't know what I'm going to do when I get to New York in the fall. I'll be in CA for at least two weeks after the tour ends, and then I'll fly to NY, but I have no place to live! I don't want to get stuck in a sublet (with strangers) in case the show IS brought back this fall, which is possible (they are storing the sets in China for now, just in case), and in which case I would have to break a sublet agreement to leave again! What a hassle. I wish my parents lived near NYC like a lot of my castmembers' parents.
Fuzhou is quite nice, so far. We had been warned about the hotel (although I don't know who warned us, because nobody had seen it) and felt some trepidation over what we were to experience here, but it's totally nice! The rooms are significantly larger than the midget rooms we had in Guangzhou, and that's enough for me! Our hotel is right next to another (fancier) hotel that has a fabulous and not-too-expensive restaurant, where we ate our first meal here. I had the beef stroganoff and it was really good, with vegetables and all! Yesterday a small group of us went shopping at the Carrefour (my favorite store, still), and we were all hungry, so we made a routine stop at Papa John's for lunch. I think I've had more pizza (from Papa John's) on this tour than I've had in my life altogether before tour!
Last night another group of us walked from the hotel, through the park / waterfront, to a nice Thai restaurant some people had visited the previous night. On the way through the park, we saw big groups of children and teens rollerblading in a cement area. This seems to be a theme in China. The meal was tasty and just spicy enough for someone getting over a cold! Inexpensive, too. When we walked back home, we walked along the river through the park again, and this time we passed a huge group of Chinese people doing what looked like line dancing, or easy aerobics, or the electric slide, with music being played over a loudspeaker! It was so neat! A little farther down, some other music was being played, and older couples were dancing with each other, old-fashioned dances like my grandparents try to teach me, like the fox trot. They were just there, outdoors, in the park, and it looked like anyone who wanted to could join the dancing. People who weren't dancing were milling around listening to the music and watching. Now why don't we have this in the US? What a fun and neat idea? This is actually something that my hometown (Davis, CA) would do, but they would probably charge money for participation. Other events people have witnessed in parks here have included morning tai chi (groups or just single people) and aerobics! This is something that should be brought to the USA.
Today I'm having a rather quiet day before the show, mostly because I have enough leftovers in my room to feed myself for several days, so I'm trying to eat some of them and not go out and buy more food today! Several people on the tour are battling sore throats and other minor ailments, and we hope that everyone pulls through and is able to perform.
I still don't know what I'm going to do when I get to New York in the fall. I'll be in CA for at least two weeks after the tour ends, and then I'll fly to NY, but I have no place to live! I don't want to get stuck in a sublet (with strangers) in case the show IS brought back this fall, which is possible (they are storing the sets in China for now, just in case), and in which case I would have to break a sublet agreement to leave again! What a hassle. I wish my parents lived near NYC like a lot of my castmembers' parents.
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