Cabaret Pictures!!!

Finally got my pictures from Cabaret - TADA! They turned out pretty great, I think. ^_^

I really love these pictures of Sierra Sowders, Maria Gomez, and myself. They're from our West Side Story number, I Feel Pretty. Maria played Maria, Sierra played Rosalia, and I played Consuela. On an interesting note, I thought it was pretty cool that all of us actually would fall under the "sharks girls" categories. Maria and Sierra are both half-Latina (not sure if it was actually Mexican or something else, but still. And I'm Filipino, which got conquered at some point by the Spaniards, so it counts! I mean, my last name is Nacionales...) The first picture is just about perfect because it perfectly explains the feelings of the characters during the song.

It was actually one of the better numbers of the show, because it's a very soprano-oriented song, and all three of us have very strong head-voices. Also, I think the second picture is hilarious, because Sierra looks like she's about to kill somebody, I'm freaking out, and Maria's just off in her own little world because she's in love. It's brilliant.

This is me in my black dress. I wore this dress for the opening number, There's No Business Like Show Business! I've had this dress for what seems like forever and a half, so I'm really glad it still fits. I think the last time I wore it was for my Halloween costume a couple years ago - I was Jane, from Eclipse. The evil, sadistic child vampire played by Dakota Fanning. The one who can make people feel pain just by looking at them... o.O

And here are my pictures of me as Elphaba, from Wicked. I was SO excited to be able to sing The Wizard and I in the Cabaret, because I identify so much with Elphaba, and this song (amongst many others from the musical) was one of the things that really kept me going when I was really depressed about how my life seemed to be unfolding. It was really fun, and really funny, because you can barely see the green due to the flash from the camera. In reality, I had green matte all over my face, and a green paste that I rubbed all over my hands like lotion that took four days to wash off completely!

 

The Hokey Pokey, Shakespeare Style!

So much dancing in Shrew rehearsal today! (We're working on curtain call.) So in honor of both Shakespeare and dancing, may I present The Shakespearean Hokey-Pokey!

O proud left foot, that ventures quick withinThen soon upon a backward journey lithe.Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke.A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.To spin! A wilde release from heaven's yoke.Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubtVerily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.

Isn't it awesome? (Courtesy of HistoricalLOLS.com)

One Direction, Accents, and Electricity

Okay, so my younger cousin Vanessa's new obsession is One Direction, the boy-band from the UK. They apparently placed third in the UK version of X-Factor, and they've been touring in the US. (Her friends who were able to sign up for their school's Washington D.C./New York trip got to see them, apparently?) I listened to their songs, and I think they're not bad. I especially like their song What Makes You Beautiful.




I agree with her, they're adorable. ^_^ I also think it's kind of funny, because it absolutely invokes nostalgic memories of boy bands I grew up listening to, like N'SYNC, the Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, and so on and so forth. And, like Ness, I thought their accents were adorable, and it reminded me of Gwion from Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's TV show, I'd Do Anything. Gwion was one of the three boys who won the role of Oliver in Oliver! in London's West End, and he was Welsh and adorable. He's the blonde-haired angel with the solo in this clip:



And all the talk of accents reminded me of another musical with awesome accents, in this case, what's known as a "Geordie" accent. It sounds very Scottish, but apparently it's still another variation of the British accent. I read somewhere that it's because the people who live where the Geordie accent is most prevalent live really close to the Scottish border, so it's seeped into their accents, or something? Anyway, the show is Billy Elliot.

I'm dying to see Billy Elliot live on the stage. Ideally, I'd watch it in the West End, where getting the accent right is apparently more stressed than in the American version. On Broadway, to make it more easily understandable to the Americans' ears, they tone the accent down. I think the accent's awesome, though, and after I'd watched the movie, I ended being accidentally in an accent mode for several hours. Not quite Geordie, but definitely more British/Scottish than American.

Anyway, here's the clip I meant to show when I began typing this post: Electricity, by Liam Mower, one of the original West End Billys. He missed his cue to start singing at the very beginning, but his 17 non-stop pirouettes at the end more than make up for it:



I love this song so much because, besides being a great showcase for a boy's talents in singing, acting, and dancing, this song so perfectly explains the jolt I get from acting, and especially singing on the stage.
Electricity sparks inside of me, and I'm free, I'm free!

Popular! =D

I've been sick all day, so I'm not really up to a full post. So, to make up for it, and to showcase the tip of the iceberg for my Cheno obsession/awe, here's a clip of "Popular" from Wicked.

Pie Jesu, Water Night, and Sleep

I miss Vintage Singers. I admit it. As much as I love being in a college that has an actual theatre program, I so miss singing with the choir. If only De Anza had had a theatre program or Gavilan had an advanced choir. (We have a choir, but while it's good, it's made up of mostly seniors and is not nearly as awesome as Vintage.)

It's actually funny, how I ended up in Vintage. I was in my second year of college at De Anza, and fall quarter was ending. I had recently become reacquainted with choir music, especially choir boys and the South London boys' choir, Libera.

I had stumbled across a show on YouTube called I'd Do Anything, which originally premiered in the UK and was later shown on the BBC in the USA. The show was a talent show designed to scout out the West End's newest stars: Nancy and Oliver for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's new revival of the musical Oliver!

While the actual voting competition was only for the Nancy actresses, a group of 12 boys were also being looked at as potential Olivers. After a great deal of whittling down, three boys would eventually be chosen from this group to share the role on London's West End. Each time a boy was selected to move forward, he would show off his musical prowess with a song, and one of these boys, Chester, I believe, sang Pie Jesu, a beautiful soprano piece that simply floats through the air.



When I saw that video, needless to say, I was very impressed, and quickly learned the song and began singing it pretty much everywhere I went. Toward the very end of the fall 2010 quarter, I had it down fairly well. I was on my way home, walking through what I would later know to be the arts quad, and singing this song, not paying attention to how loudly I was singing.

All of a sudden, from behind a car parked near the building, a tall man with a full brown beard popped his head out from behind one of the doors and said, "Was that you singing Pie Jesu in the quad?"

Properly abashed, I ducked my head in a slight nod and said, "Yeah?" rather embarrassed, because my mother was always telling me not to sing in public because it was "embarrassing" and by singing in the quad, I was directly disobeying orders.

Instead of chastising me, however, he said, "You hit a high C. That's Soprano 1 range. If you want to join a good choir, you should come join Vintage Singers."

Now, I hadn't really been in choir before that (I'd sung one song with the choir club in high school, but that hardly counted) but I figured I'd give it a go. I signed up for Vintage the next quarter, and even though I hadn't realized it was an entrance-by-audition choir, I made it. I quickly found out that the bearded man who'd invited me was in fact Dr. Ilan Glasman, the choir's director.

I remember that during our first section rehearsals, Katie, one of the girls in the choir asked, "So, everyone's been in choir before, right?" and I was the only one really shaking my head. I laugh at the memory now because she was so surprised, and she was like, "You've never been in choir? How the heck did you even find out about Vintage?" and then the whole "singing in the quad" story came out.

Anyway, I had the absolute best time in that choir, surrounded by music nerds (De Anza has a music program, so a lot of the people in advanced choir -amazingly- know what they're talking about.) It was a great experience, and I learned so much in the two short quarters I spent with them.

My memories concerning Vintage came to the forefront of my mind today because today in my "subscriber uploads" list on YouTube, this video was at the very top:



I first learned about Whitacre through Vintage Singers, where in my first quarter, the theme of the concert was "Music of the Night". No, not Phantom of the Opera, but songs related to music. One of these songs was Eric Whitacre's Sleep,  a gorgeous little piece with amazing dynamics and those wonderful clashing chords he's so well known for. My friend Stephanie, knowing of my interest, directed me toward a video she thought would interest me: Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir's performance of "Sleep". It was breathtaking, and of course I immediately subscribed to that channel.

Here's the video of that particular performance. It still gives me chills every time. The dynamics are just lovely, and it really brings out those clashing chords. Enjoy!