Marya Hart Music

Fidgety played two shows at Concord Elementary in Edina Monday with the Perrault cast. This was their first time out, and I was a little worried. We had held three additional newbie rehearsals; Deja had missed two of them and Alix and Justin one each. Teenage moodiness had cycled through the cast like a case of the flu. As soon as one would get over it, another would catch it.  We were rehearsing in a cramped space, nothing like the gymnasium with four hundred kids they would have to fill with their voices and their presence. The school was offering us one mic on a stand and three hand-helds which they would have to pass around. We didn’t have any chance to practice with mics, and I was dreading the contrast between unamplified and amplified voices.  I was working hard with actors on their diction and getting them to slow down and project, but it was difficult to make the point in our tiny room, with no audience and the stakes low. At the last rehearsal Deja was squirrelly for the first two hours and exhausted for the last two, turning her face upstage and more or less conversing with her fellow actors.

But of course, I should have known. The first show, at 9:45, was good–a few dropped lines and late entrances here and there but they held it together and did very well. We didn’t use mics. Jared came along to hang out backstage and help with props and costumes and push people out on stage as needed.

We had a long lunch break and after eating and fooling around for a while we ran some trouble spots. Some of the actors sat at the back of the gym and gave Chris feedback on whether they could understand his narration. “I don’t talk that slow normally,” he said to me. “Ah, but this isn’t about who you are normally,” I replied.  Matt worked with the witches to get them to be physically witchier. Sara found a nice creepy character voice for her witch. Marianna’s wolf, picking her teeth, was amazing. We decided Rapunzel could just come out of the dang tower to get her haircut instead of having to have it turned around. The second performance was amazing! They are on their way. I love these kids.