In a rapt ecstatic way

There sure are a lot of infants on this flight. There are five of them in the three rows immediately in front of me. Happily, they’ve been mostly well-behaved so far — only one shreiking instant, before take-off, and that lasted only five minutes or so. And one of them smiled and laughed and waved at me as I boarded, which totally outweighs five minutes of shrieking. The flight was some twenty minutes late in boarding and some additional thirty minutes late in leaving. This was annoying, both because I have to get to Houston and rehearse, and because it’s a long flight as it is and my back hurts a lot. It’s also quite full and I’m sitting a (friendly) large man. Not the fat kind, just a largish person who fits awkwardly into a middle airline seat and needs the shared elbow rest.

Ben dropped me off at the airport at a little after 8:00 this morning, and I flew to Baltimore, had a layover (randomly encountered Phil, who was my neighbor in college and now apparently works in the Baltimore airport), and got on the plane to Houston. Did y’all know that I’m going to Houston? Have I mentioned it recently? Quite possibly not. I am performing in the Rice Light Opera Society’s Patience, giving another crack at Bunthorne. Lauren invited me to perform in a guest artist type of situation, and I rehearsed two weeks in January, and then they rehearsed a while without me, and now I’m coming back for performances. I’ll get into Houston between 3:00 and 4:00, and then go to campus and rehearse a couple of duets, and then this evening we have a dress rehearsal and review for the Thresher, the Rice student paper. One more dress rehearsal tomorrow, and then Thursday is opening night. I fly back to Providence on Sunday for class, and then back to Houston again Wednesday for the closing weekend. I’m excited. I’m also nervous, which I rarely am for stage performances. (The only time in recent memory I’ve been nervous for a show was actually the last time I did Bunthorne, which was also on limited rehearsal. Usually by production week I have no doubt that I know what I’m doing.)

There’ve been a bunch of things I’ve been meaning to write about, but that didn’t happen, and now my life has passed them by. I went shopping on Saturday in Boston and got some neat stuff. I watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban yesterday and it was better than I’d remembered. None of this seems important any more. I’m going to Houston! My cold is mostly gone, although maddeningly, I still have a cough. My voice is maybe 85%, which is dissapointing, but sufficient for Bunthorne.

My battery is low. More eventually.

And eventually is now. Midnight, Tuesday night. I’m laying in bed at Joe’s, very anxious for the point — close, now — at which I’ll use it for it’s standard purpose. Nick (no, not that Nick) and Lauren picked me up at the airport at about 4:00, and Lauren bought me Chipotle and I ate meat for the first time since January because Chipotle has free-range pork, and it didn’t seem at all traumatic or odd or anything. And at 5:00, we began rehearsing. I ran my duet with Stephan, and our scene, and then I ran my scenes with Alex, and then I ran my duet with Kira, and then I ran my solo for light cues, and then I ran my solo for orchestra coordination, and then I ran my solo for light cues and orchestra coordination, and then I ran both duets for same, and then I got dressed in my (fun!) costume for the first time ever, and then we ran my entrance with the full chorus, and then we ran the Act I Finale, and by that time it was 8:30 and the reviewer was there, and so we ran the whole show with costumes and make-up and the orchestra and lighting and props and everything, and there were still substantial bits of it I hadn’t done since January, when we had none of those things.

There were technical difficulties. The monitors for the orchestra weren’t working — we could see and hear them, but they couldn’t see or hear us. HHH had to sort of conduct on faith, and usually we were pretty ok at following her. We got off occasionally, but rarely *really* badly. My duet with Stephan was, I think, the worst. His verse, not mine.

And then there was the show. It was really exhillarating. Also: fun. Also (maybe): good. All of my interactions seemed natural and rehearsed and considered and appropriate — it’s a testament to this excellent cast. Alex’s Patience is *phenomenal*. I told Emily, and meant it, that any professional G&S company in the world would do well by picking her up as a principal soprano. I assume she’s outstanding at other stuff, too, but God, that girl can perform G&S.

(Alex, like everyone else, looks really fantastic in her costume, too. But unlike everyone else, Alex may be responsible for inserting a future long-standing milkmaid fantasy into my psyche. The girl is, in addition to being the nicest person ever and a superb actress and an incredible soprano, HOT. She introduced me to her boyfriend after the rehearsal tonight, which was good, because, like I said in January, I want to set my big ol’ crush on her aside and be her friend, and it’s good to have things like that out of the way. Anyway.)

Kira! She is SO CUTE. She has padding, and age makeup, and giant eyes that make her so beautifully pathetic. Pure delight on stage. Stephan, too, has really grown into his role. It’s easy for me — a baritone who loves G&S and knows it very well — to be hypercritical of baritones doing roles I love in ways different from the way that I would do them, but Stephan’s interpretation is really working well for him, and the audience ate it up. He and I have good stage chemistry, too. I have an entrance during his soliloquy in Act II, and I could just sort of imagine the audience thinking, “oh, this scene is going to be funny”. Maybe I’m just being presumptuous when I think that, but think it I do.

There’s lots more to rave about. The precision on the dragoons! The cuteness of the fawning maidens! The sound of the full group together! The sound of the sextet! But I’m *exhausted* after travelling for nine hours and rehearsing for six and a half hours. I had a really great time tonight, and I think with hard work the next 48 hours, we’ll be able to acheive a truly excellent opening night. Our problems are the ones that shows at this level are supposed to have at this point: annoying technical things. I don’t think that my late entry into the game will cause any problems that last into Thursday, and that was my personal goal.

I also think we’re going to have a kick-ass production of Patience, which is very, very sweet icing on the cake.