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!