So it's been over a year since I came off tour but I'm still in this crazy ass business we call "show" so I decided I would go back to blogging about it. This was prompted by the fact that I currently have such acute laryngitis that I can't call anyone to chat about life! There are only so many things I can or want to say on Facebook, so here I am.
I am settled in to my room here in Ogunquit, Maine. I am staying in a cute little old house that I share with Gail (Maria), Ashley (Liesl) and out stage manager Jinay. I am pretty happy with my digs! I have my own room and bathroom. And my room has it's own air conditioner )so I can freeze when I want to), a mini fridge, and a tv with Directv. I pulled a "To Wong Foo..." and decorated with stuff from my "road box" that has fabrics and little decoratove touches I can add to feel more at home. It always makes me feel better to have my own stuff. Since I drove I brought all of my creature comforts along with me. Moving it all in by myself kinda sucked but I'm glad I did it.
I had a really long, rough drive up here Monday. I had hurt my back Sunday cleaning the tub, was sick, and had only had 3 hours of sleep before embarking on an alleged 7 hour drive that took much longer thanks to traffic, construction and frequent stops to stretch my throbbing back out. I'm a mess! But on the way I stopped in Hartford, CT to visit my old college theatre professor and his partner. It was great to see them again after such a long time and they both looked great. I was grateful to have a chance to thank Charles for all he taught me and for being so hard on me. Some things just don't make sense when you're so young.
I finally arrived at 11:30 at night and was beyond exhausted. My voice had been fading all day and instead of being refreshed and strong Tuesday morning to start rehearsals, I was horrified to find that it was 100% gone. My producer and company manager immediately went to work to get me in to see the ENT they work with. We did a meet and greet in the house of the theatre first as usual. What a large cast! I didn't realize we'd have so many ensemble members. And we're even missing a few more that are coming up in the next few days. Next we headed back behind the theatre and through the woods across a little wooden bridge and up some steps to a clearing where there are two old barns that have been converted to rehearsal and office spaces. It's really pretty back there! We went through a lot of music and I followed along, recorded my parts and sang along in my head! It's going to be really hard to learn all of this latin the nuns have! Thank god for "Maria" because I think almost everyone on the planet knows the basics of that song. I don't double roles at all so I will have a LOT of downtime during the show!
I was done for the day really early so I went grocery shopping and explored a little bit before heading back to rest. The town is so cute! I can't wait to get the show up and running so I can really walk around and explore everything. Tons of little shops and cafes and flea markets. I look forward to getting to the beach as well but waiting is made easier by the fact that it's a little too cold for it right now. It gets down in the 40s at night right now. I'm savoring it because come August in Florida I will be missing these days something awful.
I'm happy to be working once again with my director and A.D. Gary John and Chris. Our music director, Aaron, is awesome and so so sweet. Everyone is being very understanding about my voice loss. I went to the ENT today and now have steroids, a Z-pack and orders for full vocal rest through the weekend. It's very frustrating and tough to learn music when I can't sing it and get it in my body which is how I learn best.
This morning started out interesting with the electricity going out and I learned from our company manager that it was out everywhere. Thankfully the outage woke me up right before my alarm was to have gone off. Some of my castmates weren't so fortunate! Music rehearsals moved to a piano bar in town and there was fear that the matinee of The Drowsy Chaperone wouldn't go on. Luckily it was restored around noon so the show went on and normal rehearsals resumed. I went to the doctor on lunch break and was done with rehearsal by 4:00. I'm in my room relaxing now and am about to hunker down with my music to try to get this damn Latin. Early to bed and praying for some voice tomorrow for peace of mind.
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