The Mikado rehearsals have moved on from singing to acting. We began on Monday with some character work. We were asked to imagine an adjective, and try to portray it through our facial expressions and body language as we moved around the stage. I tried to convey 'fidgety', which the director interpreted as either 'shy' or 'obsessive-compulsive'. I can see how the concepts could be related, even though they aren't quite the same. He recommended I go with shy. I don't think I'll find that difficult: the challenge will be acting shy, but not acting shily!
As one of the younger chorus members, I am one of Titipu's eligible bachelors. The law making flirting a capital offence has inconvenienced us somewhat, but we are rather proud of the plan we instituted to avoid that punishment. None of us have particularly high regard for Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner (although we don't make that too obvious).
Speaking of musical entertainment set in some extremely stylised version of the Far East (how's that for a segue!??), last night I joined some Tech Catholic Community friends to eat pasta (and cookies and popcorn) and watch Mulan. If you haven't seen Mulan, think Joan of Arc in China with a happy ending. For some reason US university Catholic communities seem to like Disney movies: I remember a Disney singalong on the way to Nevada City for the Fall 2007 retreat while at Berkeley. That was before I knew any of the people there particularly well (I'd met many at student dinners, but it was that retreat that really built my friendship group), so it was an interesting introduction!
I'm just checking that it's possible to post with a name, but without signing into a Google account.
ReplyDeleteI always pick choose an account. I created one the first time I commented on my friend Deborah's blog. If you were a Japanese lady, hiding behind your fan while giggling would convey shyness.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I'm a Japanese gentleman!
ReplyDeleteBig news Matthew: Cats is coming back to Australia! I have requested two tickets as my Christmas present, for a performance on 19 May.
ReplyDeleteThat's optimistic.
ReplyDeleteI don't get so excited about ALW. That's not to say I don't enjoy his work: I do, but I would rather go along to a good amateur (the ADFA production is my yardstick) group's production of an earlier musical (apparently I have seen both of the 1930's musicals that are popularly revived). Think of ALW as the New England Patriots: I'd rather watch the California Golden Bears play (although they didn't play this weekend, and instead I watched both the Engineers and the Patriots lose).