I currently have half of the numbers set on the cast, and I think they're all in pretty good shape. I teach the remaining four over the course of the next week. Oy! I have sketches for all of these songs, but the actual choreography is far from concrete. Even with quite a few YouTube videos at the ready, I still have plenty of work to do.
And work it is. Some people think that doing theatre is all about having fun. Well, yes, there is some amount of joy we get, especially during the performances. I see the younger cast members enjoying the social aspects of their involvement in ways I appreciated when I was their age. For me, at this stage in life, it's more about investing in a creative process that brings joy and maybe even a bit of truth to others. I remember my boss, who works closely with the Musical Theatre program at UM, quoting the chair of the Department: "This field is all about people and culture." It's about holding a mirror up to our fellow human beings and saying, "This is who we are." It's not just singing and dancing. Well, sometimes it is, and I'll be the first to admit that breaking out in song and dance is downright gratuitous in some shows. But for the most part, it's about telling stories. That's what we do. In musicals and art and movies and songs and modern dance and novels and blogs. We tell important stories about life and love that need to be told and heard and seen over and over again. It's what makes us human.
And for my very small part in that, I'm grateful there's YouTube.
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