I'm Back (for now)

After the whirlwind of posts leading up to last week's Academy Awards and the busyness of this week at work, I decided to take the week off from blogging.

This past week my dad, brother and I provided sound for our 4th school musical of the season. We provide wireless mics and sound effects for middle and high school shows in the area and we're finally done. Our most recent show, that wrapped late last night was High Society. I had never seen it before this week and I wasn't particularly taken by it.

It's the story of a well-to-do family, the Lords, on the eve of daughter Tracy's wedding to the ambitious, though not very "nimble-witted" George. Tracy's ex-husband and neighbor Dexter conspires to break up the couple and win Tracy back. Meanwhile, a reporter and photographer (Mike and Liz) from a tabloid magazine are invited to the wedding to report on some salatious gossip about Tracy's father. In order to play it up for the reporters, Tracy and her sister Dinah make up stories and convince their often-drunk and bottom-pinching Uncle Willie to play their father, Seth, while their father plays Willie as love triangles abound.

Having nothing to do with the school's production, the play isn't very good. The writing is just perhaps for a different audience, but it certainly doesn't translate well. Though there are moments of humor, overall it's just not funny. The music is by Cole Porter but most of the songs are not very memorable - though after hearing them for a week straight I can't get them out of my head!

It was certainly a high school performance. There were a couple of singers who did very well and the entire cast came a long way from last Monday. It wasn't perfect but, as with all the shows we do, it's great to see the students having a good time and watch them grow throughout week that we're there.

I was involved in drama throughout high school and I can certainly appreciate the amount of work they've put in and how much it takes to get up on stage - being someone who isn't a huge fan of being in front of people or is able to memorize lines very easily. In a moment of immodesty I will say that I had the best male voice in my high school for my senior year and was fairly confident in that fact but I still got really nervous whenever I had a solo or acted in a show. I much prefer being behind the scenes, even now as I run the camera instead of sit in front of it.

I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging over the next couple of weeks. A friend of mine from Semester at Sea is coming out from Boston next weekend and the following weekend I'll be flying down to Texas to visit my best friend from college for a few days of movies, UNO, and all in all rowdy behavior. (And I can certainly use it right now!)