Dress Rehearsal

In the morning, I take the food for the lasagna dinner in and fill the refrigerator with fixin's. I check to make sure the music is available for anyone who may not have what they need and check to ensure that we have set up correctly and provided for everyone's needs. Bottles of water, name tags, pencils, programs, copies of the communion words, the hymns. Yes, it seems like I have covered all bases.



I scramble to make sure that my advisor is met at the airport and taken to her hotel while I am rushing to meet with 4 of the 5 quartet singers. Our main bass singer will not be able to come ahead of time for a rehearsal. But at least the tenor will be there! Yeah! We dig right in, and suddenly, the other parts realize that the tenor line affects their part.



They are not used to hearing the tenor line and it takes a bit of adjusting to tune the parts correctly, especially in the Stravinsky. We do manage to work through all the pieces before time to start the main rehearsal. We agree to meet early tomorrow before the recital for another go round.



I have asked two dear friends to help with the dress rehearsal, to be runners so that no one - especially me - has to delay the rehearsal or miss anything while they scrounge up necessities. I know it will be a long and grueling rehearsal. We have to go through in the exact order so that people know what to expect and so that the children will know when to ring the triangle and light the candles.



I know I must push rigidly on regardless of the issues or we will be there all night. I know people cannot be hurried, but must feel comfortable and trust that they will not look foolish or be left hanging. I have prayed for peace and productivity. I have no desire to waste anyone's time. Here we go!



The recital itself is a solid 2 hours. Even if we do not stop to read all the slides, it will take us at least that long to work through the program. Even though I have been talking about it all along, I know that until they experience the walk through, no one really gets the idea or sees the vision as I see it. I am hopeful that people will not decide that its too much. Or too esoteric. Or too whatever. But I cannot think about that now.



Right now, I just need to make sure everyone is on my page and that the music is ready. We beginning in the fellowship hall. I have asked my QiGong instructor to come and limber us up with the joint moving exercises. Everyone takes it seriously and participates fully. Then we warm up vocally, and I give instructions about the processional. And we move down the hall in order toward the sanctuary and the beginning of the rehearsal, chanting the Lord's Prayer in unison as we move into place.



My choir has been practicing this every Sunday and since I know they understand, they will bring everyone else along. It works well. We move through each petition carefully, watching the slides which we will not be able to see tomorrow. Once in awhile we stop long enough to fix something quickly, but we keep moving along. Time is flying.

We are just past the halfway mark when I realize we only have 20 minutes left. I know we will not finish in the 2 hour time frame, so I begin making encouraging remarks about coming down the home stretch. We go just a half hour over our allotted time, but the hot lasagna dinner is waiting. Hopefully that will ease any angst about the long rehearsal. And most of the time people (except for me) were sitting.

There was nothing major to make me anxious about tomorrow, especially considering that the quartet will have a bit more time to fine tune. Now I can address the questions and details that still need attention. I want to wind things up so I can get my advisor back to her hotel before she collapses! [not to mention I myself am tired].

It was a good rehearsal. Bit long, but good.