Monday, April 1, 2013

Whoa, Wait ... It's April Already?!

What happened to February and March? I feel like I went to sleep the day after my last blog post and just woke up.

That's a real nice April Fool's joke on me.

Well, I guess I just didn't notice the rapid passage of time because of how busy I've been. I got called on to join a show already in rehearsal when someone dropped out. At the time I wasn't even considering auditioning for the last couple of shows of the season at VPA, but when my phone started blowing up with messages like, "Heather, come join the fun!" - well, how can anyone resist that?

I almost resisted. Having just gotten a regular schedule in teaching and coming off from a subbing stint that made me appreciate the time I had to myself, I almost said no. But when I saw who all was also in the show (and more friends have joined since I arrived), I had to change no to yes. Besides, hubby was actually encouraging me for once, since he's been taking martial arts classes in the evenings.

So with rehearsals, a heavier teaching schedule, new routines to practice, trying to keep up with Write 1 Sub 1, and much more, time got away from me. In March, I actually stopped writing again. (What is it with the month of March? I go strong for two months and then conk out at the same time every year.)

I promised myself that I would pick up the writing again in April, since our show opens this first weekend in April. I still need time to practice new exercise routines, which is hard since each routine is an hour and I have four to learn. But as each one releases this month, that load will get less and less. And this is the last week of evening rehearsals during the week. Now I'll just be busy with the show on weekends.

I found out the musicals next season are Brigadoon (the first show) and The Marvelous Wonderettes (next year.) I am very interested to see what happens at the Brigadoon auditions. For one thing, it's a big musical, so lots of people needed. For another thing, it's the first show of the season, which means rehearsals will run through the summer. In Alaska, it's hard to get people to commit to a show during the summer because everyone wants to get outside while they can. And one other thing, it will need a lot of guys. One of them at least has to be a good singer and dancer.

So, as is always my burden to bear, what part I get will rest squarely on the shoulders of what men show up to auditions. This season I was screwed out of both shows I auditioned for because the guys were too young for me to match up with. I shudder to think this may happen again. But next season is more girl-heavy, as opposed to this current season, which was more guy-heavy. So guys got spread pretty thin this year.

Alas, nothing for a poor girl to do but wait and see. And stew.

All right, back to the writing thing now. I've got three flash stories I need to write this week for a submission call. That'll help make up for the stories I missed this last month. I know that's not technically in the spirit of Write 1 Sub 1, but this year I'll settle for having fifty-two stories at the end of the year, even if they weren't written one a week. That'll still be a bigger accomplishment than the previous years.