The Weekend, It Was

[jducoeur]

Before I forget: it was a fun and interesting weekend.

Friday evening, msmemory was busy with an Eastern Star function, so I went down to outlander's church production of Godspell. I was sitting near the front (joined by etherial and rosinavs at intermission), so that we could be flirting targets in her performance of "Turn Back, O Man". I'd never seen the show before (gap in my education, I know), so wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was a fine time. Performances were variable, of course, with the best singers generally in the lead roles, but there were some standouts, including a professional-grade rendition of "O, Bless the Lord My Soul" that brought down the house.

I now understand why this has been consuming so much of her time lately, though: they had an astounding cast of over 80 people, and somehow managed to keep everything together anyway. The first half was dominated by the kids (with what appeared to be one song for each of the classes), but avoided being excessively cute: the kids were working hard and doing quite well. Indeed, the overall stage management was pretty damned impressive, keeping that huge group moving in and out smoothly from number to number. (And the set was faboo: good enough to provoke a discussion afterwards about how much it looked like old North Station. They managed to perfectly reproduce Boston's classic corroded green steel uprights, in graffiti'ed foam-core.)

Saturday was focused on tpau's birthday party. Once again, we found ourselves glad at having bought a house specifically designed for parties, and folks seemed to have a good time. No surprise, the first half of the party was spent pretty much entirely in the dining room (where the food was), and the second half in the living room. This seems to be a general pattern for parties, and may even be consistent enough to quantify. The earlier phases of a party are typically larger, center on the food, and have many small conversations going. The later phases get smaller, move to the comfy chairs, and settle down on one larger conversation. The state transition happens at around 10-12 people, pretty reliably, far as I can tell.

Anyway, party done and we have a clean house again. One advantage of hosting parties regularly is that it forces us to clean the house a bit. A couple of hours of tidying beforehand gets things presentable, and orderly enough that cleanup after the party is quick. So long as we hold parties often enough, the clutter doesn't have time to get too bad...

Comments

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I was in Godspell in High School. As I recall, it was a compromise show, chosen when our female music director refused to do How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on grounds of sexism, a move for which I have never forgiven her, as we had the perfect cast for it... Where was I? Oh, Godspell, yes. The director said, approximately, "This show has no story, and few good songs, so you're going to have to carry it on pure energy." Which (he said smugly) we did :-)

[etherial.livejournal.com]

There were subtle hints of things resembling plot. I'm not sure if the story got removed or just never really materialized, but it was fun to look for.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Hunh. It may just be an example of my particular flavour of nerdity, but it had enough of a story for me to be able to tell which version it was (Matthew, IIRC, as opposed to the other three guys).

[outlander.livejournal.com]

It is the book of Matthew set to music, essentially. But, no real plot until the 2nd act, and even then it's pushing it to call it a real plot, especially when there isn't the real continuity of characters with a 10 person produciton. But it was a good show.

[ladymacgregor.livejournal.com]

How To Succeed is a great show with really great music. I'm afraid I must agree with your teacher, however: it is REALLY sexist. Now, one could argue that it is portraying a time (50's, early 60's) in business when things really WERE sexist, so it is accurate.

That being said, I'm sorry you never got to be onstage in "The Brotherhood Of Man."