Past Year's Resolutions: 2015

What did I accomplish this year?

Every year I ask myself this question and make my retrospective resolutions for the year.  Hindsight is 20/20.  And I think it is much more uplifting to reflect and think, "Wow- I did that!" than to think, "I didn't meet two of my ten goals.  I'm a failure."  Know what I'm saying?

In no particular order:

1. Attend the Tony Awards in New York City!!!  What a dream-come-true, all thanks to my little sis.
2. Be featured on a national network television show.  Blood and Oil.  Opposite Don Johnson. Yes, that Don Johnson. 
3. Choreograph Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for Taylorsville Arts
4. Choreograph 4 elementary school musicals for Murray City and Sandy City
5. Be dance captain for Sandy Arts Guild's Shrek
6. Perform as an ensemble member for my very first time in Sandy Arts Guild's Shrek
7. Perform in Nunsense for my third time.  Sister Mary Leo and I can't seem to part ways.
8. Meet the original Broadway cast of Jersey Boys (minus John Lloyd Young) and sit front row center for their concert - Midtown Men
9. Increase my husband's business, Life of the Party Entertainment, 234%, since I first began working with him three years ago
10. Continue to celebrate many special occasions and adventures with my hubs
11. Continue to work out regularly
12. See myself on the big screen at the movies during the Sundance Film Festival - Don Verdean 
13. Live through rubber bands, metal springs, and braces galore
14. Take a road trip to California with one of my dearest old roommates, Andrea, for the wedding of one of my dearest friends of the past 14 years.   I love him with all my heart, he was one of my toasts at my own wedding, and now I can love his darling wife just as much!
15. Visit Las Vegas thrice - once for Mobile Beat, once for Las Vegas DJ Show where my little sis and her hubs met up with us, and lastly for a quick 24-hour trip to visit my older sister while she was there for a convention.  On the February trip, I survived the most violent illness I've had in a long time - even having to call a doctor to come to the room to treat me because I could not leave the room.  Awful.  Rob learned a lot about me that day and I him - he's amazing. 
16. Take my parents to see some of Utah's/Arizona's wonders they had on their bucket lists: Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks, Zions' National Park and the Shakespeare Festival.
17. Visit Disney World and Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights/Harry Potter with my husband - we've been talking about doing this since I first met him and he told me he worked there for three years.  Lindsay and Elliot were extremely generous in hosting us.  I can't wait to go back in November to help make their wedding the best day of their lives.
18. Throw the greatest "A Christmas Story" party yet
19. Continue helping beautiful brides plan and implement their weddings
20. Continue helping with The Cultural Hall Show Podcast
21. Learn how to groom/shave my cat 

Resolutions of Year's Past
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008 

Taylorsville Arts: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Every once in awhile something magical happens with a cast both on and off the stage.

In years past, I have had a rough go at teaching my choreography.  The ideas are all beautifully harmonious in my head, but due to my little voice disorder, it becomes painful to project/yell (yes, even with a microphone) for three hours at a time.  Don't worry, voice therapy and medicine mostly keep my vocal chords strong and can now last a two-hour show no problem.  Most community theater participants are performing for many reasons - one of them being social.  I love it when my casts love each other, but the anxiety that grips my heart when I realize they love talking, and loudly, is pure dread.

I love to perform as well as choreograph.  The two most often can't go hand-in-hand because I have to dedicate my voice to one or the other.  Yet, when director Wendy Dahl-Smedshammer approached me to choreograph Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, I could not say no in spite of the stifling fear of facing a painful and not-as-successful-as-I-would-have-hoped experience like I've sometimes had in the past.  To cover all my bases, I found a wonderful choreographer friend in Natalie Fortie Adams for 5 of the bigger of 21 numbers who also covered some of the rehearsals I could not attend and the best dance captain a girl could hope for in Aubrielle Johnson. 

Miracle of miracles - everything fell into place to choreograph and perform all while successfully pleasing both groups.  But this is not the point of the story.

The point is, I was scared going into this experience.  I didn't know if I could do it.  I didn't want to let down my performers or myself, but could I get them to successfully bring to life the dancing visions in my mind?

YES!  The answer is a resounding, "YES!"  The 70-ish performers in Taylorsville's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat work incredibly hard.  They love each other and talk, but also respect all of the production team members when they are talking.  They remember all of the notes they are given for a better performance.  They practice.  They ask for tips on how to be better.  They help each other.  The list goes on and on.  I could not be more impressed with this group.

In fact, for the first time I have teared up watching them dance.  This is the first time I can say, "Yes, that is the vision that was in my head and there it is on stage just as I imagined!"  I tear up watching how much they have grown to love each other the past couple of months.  I tear up thinking about how there is no way we could have known when we were casting the show the first weekend in May that these performers would step up to a level they were not near two months ago.  There is no way we could have known the magic that would happen.

I love this cast.  I would work with them time and time again.  There is an air of love floating around that stage I have no doubt the audience feels.  There is laughter and joy every night.  Mingling in the crowds after the show, I see nothing but smiles.  We don't have a budget for fancy technology or sets or costumes, but we've got magic.  What more do you need?

Closing night is tonight.  I truly hope lives have changed this summer.  I also truly hope I have been a part of that.

Alder Amphitheater SLCC Campus off 4600 Redwood Road.  8:00 pm.  $7 or $5 for groups larger than 6.

All photos courtesy of Janel Williams. 

    

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Goes to Hale

Once upon a time I had a deep love for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.   If you don't know the plot, go read the Bible.  My mother even took me out of school one day to surprise me with seeing the touring production.  I have performed many of these songs and know each one by heart.  Something happened, what I am not sure.  Maybe it's like how your favorite foods change, or your taste in clothing, but I grew to detest this show.

Until I saw it last week at Hale Centre Theatre in West Valley City, Utah (HCT).

Children are plucked from the audience to listen to the narrator sing her first song.  The thing I loved about her (T, TH, S cast - I can't find my program or the cast list online to name names), more than any other narrator I've seen, is that she is quite engaging in the story and with the audience.  She is, in essence narrating the story for us.  Most narrators I've seen stand there and look pretty whilst singing - most of the time you don't even know where on stage they are.  I cannot rave about this performer enough.  I loved everything about her - her look, her angelic singing, her presence.  She was the caretaker over all of these performers and held the show in the palm of her hand. I'd have seen it just for her!

Our Joseph, well,  his vocal skills are flawless and I actually preferred his high tenor, which is a rarity.

The rest of the performers come on stage and at first I squinted a little at the velveeta, but they were so relentless in their enthusiasm, they had me entirely won over by the end of "One More Angel in Heaven."  I am now convinced that perhaps being in the ensemble of this show would be better than having the leading role in another.  Don't hold me to that though - I still want parts!  I've never auditioned for a Hale show - perhaps I should start doing that...I would love to be a part of a production like this.

Because I have seen over eighty professional productions in NYC, I'm not as prone to clapping when an elaborate set piece comes out.  Seems I forget how much work goes into those and that we should clap for the pro team as well as the performers.  Naturally as the stage went spinning and twirling and an electronic goat made his debut, the audience exploded.  Likewise, there is a life-size camel that set the entire place abuzz.  Kudos.

All the excuses I usually make for community theater (sound crackling, weird costumes, bad lighting, etc.)?  I have to make none of those for Joseph.  Many have argued that this venue isn't exactly "community" theater.  Regardless.  Everything went off flawlessly.  Time for my shout-out to the comrades I have in the show - Jonathan Tate, Janine Crockett, and Galen Chatterton (unfortunately I didn't get to see Janine or Galen in the cast I saw)!

Lastly, I want to share with you my favorite part of the show.  I have never felt touched in this portion of the show, which is perhaps why it struck my heart.  Towards the end, Joseph is reunited with his father.  Typically you see the father with a grin on his face welcome Joseph into his wide-spread arms.  You never get the impression that the father has been apart from his most beloved son, whom he thought was dead, for many long years.  I cannot describe to you the emotion on the Hale stage when Jacob realized he was standing before his son and began sobbing as he collapsed into Joseph's arms.  Oh goodness, I'm getting teary-eyed again.

You can still catch the show until September 24.  Go, Go, Go here for more information.