Annie Junior, day 5

We made it through our first week!!!  And we still have another one to go!!! 
 
Wow!  What a lot of work we got done today.  It won't seem that way to your 
actors, who will probably tell you "we did a couple numbers and went over some 
scenes and music."  But we got heaps of work done today. 
 
Our check in had to do with a kind of fruit we would be.  Kudos to those mangoes 
out there!  YUM! 
 
Then we jumped right in to a review of the NYC number which we tweaked and 
polished a bit.  Like I said the other day, it is going to be a great number.  
For you parents, please reinforce to your child on how confident they need to be 
onstage... it will help with their overall, well, confidence on stage!  
 
We started to review "Hard Knock Life" but I got distracted, as I easily do...  
adult ADD, go figure.  And when we had finished, it turns out we had blocked 9 
pages of script and 2 songs!  We were able to block the scene coming out of the 
Overture and into the first scene of the play, and it carried us through to 
"Hard Knock Life".  It was great!  We were acting and a show was starting to 
form in a great way!  
 
Earlier in the day, I had been able to go borrow some cubes for use as set 
pieces, and I also was able to purchase the orphan shirts for their costumes.  I 
think this helped in the acting department, as it made them feel like they were 
actually "doing something productive" rather than sitting around on the floor 
pretending to be an orphan.  So we got through "Maybe" and "Hard Knock Life." We 
then got kicked out of the lobby because of an open classroom and we moved 
downstairs to the studio where we finished "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here." and 
then took a short break.  It is going to be a FUN NUMBER!!! 
 
When we got back upstairs, our concentration was a bit off because of the room 
switching, so we didn't get as much done on "Never Fully Dressed" as I would 
have liked, but with several people heading out early, it was bound to be a 
little "off" anyway.  So, MK worked solos while I taught the start of "Never 
Fully Dressed."  Then, because of our 80's day celebration...  80's to these 
kids was like the 50's to my generation...  man did I feel old today, we went 
downstairs to the greenroom where we enjoyed some ice cream and 80's tunes.  
Sorry to give your kids back to you on a sugar high!  My favorite quote of the 
"party" was "I wish this party could last for three years!"   I don't make this 
up, parents!!  These are YOUR kids! 
 
Over the weekend, please don't let your actors forget that they have some stuff 
to learn! They should each now have an accompaniment CD, so they can sing along 
without the voices.  This is the same CD we will be using for the presentation, 
so they should know it and know it well. 
 
Next week, we need to knock through (quickly) the rest of "Never Fully Dressed" 
and the solo numbers choreographically.  Then we really need to focus on the 
scenework.  I let the actors know they should be off book by Tuesday, and 
hopefully they will be able to get most of their lines out.  
 
One of the things you can do to help when they are practicing is to remind them 
that their lines need to HEARD and their faces need to be SEEN!  Too many times 
in rehearsal I have had to remind them that I am not interested in seeing their 
backsides acting.  The front side is much more interesting! 
 
Have a  great weekend, and thanks again for the donations you have given, be it 
whipped cream or orphan shirts, or blank CD's!