Gonna do a show

Well, it's a sort of a show. It's show-like.

One of the guys I know from uke circle, name's Terry, invited me to participate in his church's annual Broadway in the Basement musical revue thingy. He said they didn't have enough women (an unusual occurrence) and asked if I'd like to come to a rehearsal and see what it's about. I'm not a churchy kind of gal but I had heard that this particular church is very liberal and accepting of all types of humans. So, yesterday I went to their rehearsal.

I showed up early and got a tour of the whole facility. It's quite large and pretty old (built in 1910). The basement is really cool. It's pretty big and it has a stage. On our way back to the music room Terry showed me the main sanctuary. They were in the middle of tranny Sunday service. Yep, this place is very broad-minded.

It looks like there will be five men and four or five women in this thing. Two of the women were absent. We'll be doing songs from My Fair Lady, Sweeney Todd and Oliver. The director seems to know what he's doing. At first he told me that he hadn't assigned all the solos yet and that he was going to wait until he was more familiar with everyone's voices. I think that was his polite way of saying, "I don't know you. You're someone that Terry dragged in. You might suck." He handed me the song sheets and we started in on the first number. After he heard me sing he said, "Ok, Donita, we'll have you sing this...and this...and this....and this...and this..." Like that. Heh, heh!

I think it's going to be fun. Everyone seems pretty nice and they're all good singers. I like the director. He's going to stage it with some movement and light choreography. It'll be fun to do that kind of singing again.

After the rehearsal Terry and I walked over to the uke circle meeting. Wow! The place was packed! That's the biggest turnout so far. I hope they keep coming back.

After that I went to the brewery and had a salad. Pretty boring. The brewery has great burgers. Next time I'll stick to the tried and true. I was going to meet Bill and Jeff at the Royal Falconer later to see this Irish band so I had a couple of hours to kill. I went to Fairmount Park to sit in the shade and play my uke for a while. The park was pretty full. Lots of families, lots of barbeque. There were a couple of guys doing some African drumming. One of them came up to me and invited me to come play with them. I didn't think my uke-ing would mesh all that well with their drumming but I wasn't going to turn down such a kind invitation. It took a while to find some songs that would work. Sway and I Saw The Light worked really well. I feel so cool and hip. I was jammin' with the bruhthas in Fairmont Park.

Then I headed over to the Falconer. Again I was early. I sat at the bar and had a not quite cold enough Smithwick's. When the band started to set up I grabbed a table. Bill showed up soon after. I think Jeff showed up about an hour after that. Man the band was good! The only amplification was on the mandolin. The place was pretty noisy so it would have been nice if they had had at least some sound equipment. But since they were all Ren Faire veterans they all had big voices that cut through the din of the room.

It was a very good weekend. On Friday I cleaned and got rid of a truckload of stuff. On Saturday I replaced a faucet and on Sunday I was immersed in music. Today was pretty great too. I got a raise!