How Babes on Broadway stole November

Having NaNoWriMo in November was a really bad idea, for me, because November is also when my community theatre puts on its musical show. And if you say the words "musical show", I'm there. If you say the words "Broadway musical show", I will be there five hours early with a list of songs I'd like to sing (I'm like a less pushy Rachel from Glee), fifty musical soundtracks, and the complete score of Wicked. If I had it.

This show was called "Babes on Broadway", and they had me at the title. The "babes" part came in because, as per usual, no men auditioned for the show. What is it with men and theatre? In Allo Allo they had to have two women playing some of the men's parts, although at least they had five men, which is five more than we had!

We started rehearsing in August, and by early November most of the cast never wanted to hear "You Can't Stop the Beat" ever again. Or "Fame", or "There's no Business like Show Business". Except me, cos I'm theatre-geeky that way. :-) The show was to go on stage on the last two weekends of November, with three shows the first weekend and two the second. And as November wore on there was more shouting, more tantrums, more people crying because they were being picked on, more threats of walking out (between August and November we did lose about 12 cast members, but you get that with every show. There are always people who can't be bothered to show up and perform properly), and lots of yells of "You're not ready to go on stage in front of an audience!" from the director. And yes, we do this for fun. :-)

And it was fun! I LOVE those 15 girls who were in the cast with me. Not only did they include Sister Ruby Slippers and BFF Ruby Slippers (whom I blackmailed into joining by promising to watch all her June Allyson movies, because she adoes June and I kind of hate her), but a there were a few old friends and some fantastic new ones! And not a bitchy diva amongst the lot of them. Which is unbelievable.

Anyway, the long rehearsals and then weekend performances really took it out of me, especially since I was spending all my free time writing that darn novel. Which is my second excuse reason why I haven't been around on here.

And when we get the dvd of the show I'll try post some clips on here. It went amazingly well; we played to almost packed houses every night, and people couldn't gush enough. But the best part was making all these new friends, who are now my karaoke posse and party pals!

Here are some pictures of the fun we had on Sunday at our Christmas party:

Bombs away!

The Producer of the show, Paul:

Something so great about sitting round on the grass in the evening, eating boerewors rolls and salad...

This is a running joke that I can't even begin to explain...

There's me on the left at the back. The downside to being the photographer is that you're never in any pictures! I can't remember who I got to take this one, but I'm glad I got to be in one with my lovely ladies.

Play Festival madness

It's play festival madness here at the Ruby Slippers house! I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this (I'm sure I must have) but Mr Ruby Slippers and I met when I joined The Franklin Players, a community theatre group of which he was a long-standing member. I joined in 2004, and though we weren't actually in the same show - I was in the big musical while he was in a heavy play about infidelity and fighting and more fighting - he did come to help us out with putting up the set and providing an outsider's viewpoint. Plus he was the director's housemate so I saw him a lot. Lucky me :-)

Here's me doing my best Judy Garland impression in "Get Happy", the closing number of the musical, "Faces of Music".

So fast forward a few years and hubby and I have both been in a number of other musicals and short sketches and plays. Well, not me so much; I far prefer singing to straight acting. Anyway, I've been in stuff. But last year we bowed out because of The Wedding (those rehearsals are killers) and, well, we just haven't felt like going back. I just feel like it's not as fun as it used to be. You really have to enjoy going to rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday nights plus most of Sunday, and I just don't anymore. And Mr Ruby Slippers, after two years as chairman of the Franklin committee, has lost all enthusiasm and soul for drama. Which is a pity.

HOWever, it's still fun to go and see what's going on there. Plus we're kind of obliged to, since Sister Ruby Slippers and her husband, not to mention a host of our other friends, have all got plays on. My sister and her husband co-wrote a play, which he is directing, and she is directing another one which is on next week. (And which she's now starring in, thanks to a dropout two weeks ago. Can I just say that I ABHOR people who can't stick to their commitments? Way to ruin it for everyone else).

Here's Sister Ruby Slippers and friends Paul and Tarryn in 'Teatime of the Living Dead' last year, which was written by my clever husband. She's a dead body come back to life (one of many) in a funeral parlour...it's a long story.

The play festival runs over four nights, and other amateur dramatic societies are invited to participate, which means that we have eight plays this year, four from Franklin and one each from four other societies. Mr Ruby Slippers is adjudicating along with two other people, so that's what we'll be doing for the next two weekends. It's kind of fun, though, to be on the outside looking in. Though I have to say I do miss that dressing-room excitement; the smell of make-up, the roar of the crowd...oh wait, we didn't really get that sort of crowd at Franklin. Well, the pleased applause of the crowd, then.

I just wish I could muster up the enthusiasm to be a part of all this again. I love theatre (well, mostly musical theatre), I really do. But sometimes the effort doesn't seem worth the result. Sigh. Mr RS and I have had many, many, sad conversations about this.


PS - I have to get up at 5am tomorrow morning to get to my photography class practical at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens at 6am. Shudder. I don't even know what 5am LOOKS like.