Lighted Rooms Day 26 July 26

GFCHDress rehearsal day with some of the dust-free brand new lights!  Forgot to turn on the GoPro; forgot half my lines, but Tim had Teague video-ing!  The small audience ( rounded up from the house next door) seemed to like the piece.  What will we do without Layne's lovely loud laughter....

New lights

Dillon, tech man

Dillon, Teague, and Tim's camera

Working on Over

More working on Over

I think I've got it!

Admiring the lights

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lighted Rooms Day 24 / July 25

GFCH
Another run through with an audience, including one delightful baby, Phil's grand daughter Nathalie, who perked up every time she heard her grand daddy's voice.

Since neither Nat nor I managed to take a single picture, I am posting some out-takes from June's rehearsals.  We've come a long way, baby!

The choreographer and the director

I can do this!

Tim and his thing of beauty, a can opener

Terry's happy feet

Maestro Phil

We are so easily distracted

Aaaaaaaaagh!

Lighted Rooms Day 23 July 23 Mostly the party...

GFCH and Sally & Adrian's

Did a run in mostly black and with one of the new lights.  In front of a small invited audience; Adrian, Freeman, Michele Hall, Nancy Sherman.  They liked it!  Although Freeman did say that when he came to a performance he would wear his hearing aid...

Pam, Randy, and the audience chairs

Like this

The company then moved to Sally and Adrian's back deck for a BBQ and booze.  To say thank you to Layne to wish Terry a happy 65th birthday, to discuss the Oxford comma, and the meaning of Philip Larkin's Old Fools.

Layne Coleman, directed the Angels to new heights

Who, me?

That was a good one!

George the gargoyle

Wayne bearing the birthday cupcakes

Freeman

The evening finished off with Adrian playing a tune with TWO harmonicas; one with his mouth and one with his nose!  A sight not soon to be forgotten!!

Lighted Rooms day 21 & day 22, july 20 & 21

GFCH day 21  July 20

Another run-through!  The hic-cups are abating somewhat.  Phil has an inexhaustible supply of lewd limericks.  Chairs were bandied about.  And a good time was had by all.

Teague gets away from it all

Rebekah Hall, Bear River  day 22  July 21

We are the best chair-movers on the planet, as proven today in Bear River.  The next piece Randy makes on us has to be called Chairs 'r Us!

After the chairs were moved, Randy and Layne figured out who was going to sit in them, and we did another run-through.

Wayne in a contemplative moment

George brought the house down when he donned his spelunking carbide lamp helmet! 

Layne then gathered us around and gave notes.  I think he said we should trust ourselves:  Don't worry about forgetting stuff, you're telling your own story, you know it, and if you have a momentary lapse, everybody has got your back.... or words to that effect, I think!  Forgive me Layne if I've muddled this up!

It's ok to turn your back on the audience

Preaching to the assembled

Phil sent the words to The Bells of Hell:

The bells of hell go dingalingaling for thee but not for me.

For me the angels singalingaling for me but not for thee:

"O Death, where is thy stingalingaling, O Grave, thy victory?"

The bells of hell go dingalingaling for thee but not for me!

Layne, gob-smacked in the extreme!

And Tim sent the YouTube link for A la Claire Fontaine so we can learn the tune and hum it.

À la claire fontaine
M'en allant promener,
J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle,
Que je m'y suis baignée.

Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
Jamais je ne t'oublierai.

Sous les feuilles d'un chêne
Je me suis fait sécher,
Sur la plus haute branche,
Un rossignol chantait.

Almost there!

Lighted Rooms Day 20 july 18 From A to Z

GFCH

Today the light came on!  We ran the whole piece ( with stops and starts )!  Here is some of it:
A to Z

And here are a couple of shots from Layne's directors workshop;  listening to and telling stories.

Michelle tells Gail's story about a stolen hop-scotch

No words needed

Lighted Rooms Day 19 July 16 / Putting it all together

GFCH

We seem to have an affinity for chairs.... here's Teague moving some: Moving of chairs

After tweaking  some of the dance pieces with Randy,  we work on transitions between movement and words.  Layne is like a sculptor, gently paring away slivers of words, adding a little gesture, pushing us to be confident, always encouraging,  we can do this!

Pamela learning a new limerick

Graybeards among us

I'm ready!

And G & S as you've never seen it: G & S unbound

Do you remember our discussion about spiles?  and Phil's impromptu limerick?  Look what turned up at the Farmers' Market pool table! :

Lighted Rooms day 18 july 13

Rebecca Hall / Bear River

Oh how we danced...!  And then we got all dressed in black.

Wo/men in black

 How we sang.... 3 Little Maids are We.  G & S must be spinning in their graves.  Layne did his best to control the mayhem... Here's a short clip:     G & S, eat your hearts out!

John, John, not the #%^(! horse!

George at rest

Wayne takes notes

Nat and Pamela paying close attention

Lighted Rooms Day 17 July 12

Some of us  wore black, some of us didn't.  We ran through the dance pieces and then Layne worked on the 'kissing' section with Terry, Pamela, Susan, George, and Wayne.  This led to some stories about children and morphed into where we grew up, how we met our partners, what our parents did...all sorts of fascinating stuff.

No stills, but a short clip of Randy giving notes on Slow and then our rousing finale, Limericks:
Slow goes sloooowly
Limericks

Lighted Rooms Day 16 July 11

GFCH on a gorgeous clear sunny day after a dark, drizzly, cold morning!  Today's rehearsal had a few holes; some of us were absent.  Pam had the impossible task of keeping us focused on the dance sections.... then Layne took over, working with Grace, Nat, and Phil, while the rest of us ran away.

Calm in the eye of the storm

So a couple of video clips, and my blocking diagram for Limericks:
The diagonal from Old Fools:  Diagonal    Followed by Slow: Slow (sorta)

Lighted Rooms / day 15 / july 7

Phil arrived with a limerick on the word 'spile'  (a small wooden peg or spigot for stopping a cask or tapping a tree.) Here it is:  Phil's spile

Randy took us through the choreography again, trying to imprint in our heads:
 Bits & Pieces
Limericks we love
And then it was Layne's turn to weave it together, adding a chorus here and a movement there.

Teague, our summer student, acts as prompter guy, sound guy, round when you need him guy.