A Day of Rest

After our 12+ hour a day rehearsal schedules of the past week, most of the musicians in the Saltnote Stageworks Festival are sleeping in and memorizing their parts today. Tonight is my first performance as a member of the Chorus for Porgy and Bess, the Concert Version. I love the music and appreciate the opportunity to sing such an amazing American Opera.

In his will, George Gershwin declared that in all fully staged productions the chorus would be made up of African Americans. Because we’re doing the Concert Version we do not have to follow this requirement. However it is odd for me as a white woman to sing in the chorus knowing I will never sing it in the fully staged Opera. Just feel odd. There are also some lyrics I am not sure how to sing (see today’s Inspiration Quote for an example). I am simply ignorant of how to sing lyrics which are in their content and phrasing from another time and place other than reading what is there and trying to be honest to the feeling behind them.

It is much easier to appreciate the soloists who take such difficult and charged music and not only do it justice, but make it their own. Especially fantastic are Marcus Allen Jordan (Porgy) in his performance “I’ve Got Plenty of Nothing”–he makes it an anthem of a simple life; Tiffany Roberts as Bess (also Suor Angelica); and Shareese Johnson singing Summertime is an inspiration. Anyhoo, off to more memorizing!

Inspirational Quote:

Today I am gay an’ I’m free
Oh just a bubblin,’ nothin’ troubblin’ me
Oh I can’t sit down
I can’t sit down
“Oh I Can’t Sit Down” from Porgy and Bess

Almost Published!

Hey All, I had the joy of being involved in the research for the current Newsweek’s article “Geek Girls: Revenge of the Nerdette” by Jessica Bennet and Jenni Yabroff. It mentions MAGIC (More Active Girls in Computing) which is one of my favorite programs working to fix the leaky pipeline in computing. Anyhoo, it’s late!

Inspirational Quote:

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored. - Evelyn Waugh

New favorite choral peice

I had never sung in Carmina Burana before–it was brilliant! Some of the Sopranos were kicking butt on the high notes which made it a joy to create the foundation of the piece as an Alto. I found out the name for one of my characters in Suor Angelica is called La Badessa in Italian which looks like La Badasse when I am tired and which pretty much sums up her character (well, ok, more like she’s a hard case with no sympathy for Suor Angelica’s problems but it’s still fun to play). Here is a video of Carmina Burana:

Inspirational Quote:

“Most of the good things in the world are done by tired people.” a paraphrase of a quote found on the wall in the La Plata Best Western.

Welcome to the real world

I heard this phrase a few times today. It was never said in a mean or negative way, but usually addressed to someone absent from rehearsal who then had their part reassigned to someone present. As the beneficiary of a few of these reassignments (I am now the 3rd Sister and The Novice in Suor Angelica) I don’t feel bad for their original owners, if the characters had any. In this extremely fluid Festival, schedules change, parts change, singers change but the music goes on and everyone works toward that goal because it is so important to all of us.

As I sit here printing 4 copies of Pagliacci’s Ensemble parts (some girls paid me to print out there parts–works for me!), I can’t help but thinking how some of my new miniassignments will never be missed by their original assignees. There are no small time actors here, desperately clinging to their bit parts; and with the pace and busyness of this festival I am sure no one misses the extra load.

Inspirational Quote:

“The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.” ~ Pearl S. Buck

Shows I will be in (as of now)

Hey all,

Here are the shows I will be in at the Saltnote Stageworks festival as of right now:

Jazz/Porgy & Bess (Chorus)
Carmina Burana (Chorus)
Pagliacci/Suor Angelica (Chorus)

Mozart/Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy (Chorus)

The Magic Flute (3rd Genii, Chorus)

I had a rehearsal for Pagliacci Chorus today, and will have rehearsals for Flute (Chorus), Pagliacci and Carmina Burana. Wish me luck!

Inspirational Quote:

A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them.
- Mark Twain Letter to the Millicent [Rogers] Library, 2/22/1894

You know you’re in the South when…

Ok, so I wasn’t sure if Indian Head Maryland, where the Saltnote Stageworks festival is being held, was *really* in the south. I mean, it’s 1/2 an hour from Washington DC. But I found three indicators I am in the South.

1. You see a WaWa
2. Church signs root on local teams (ie, Go Mustangs!)
3. The air sweats on you

I have my first rehearsal tonight–fun! I’m staying in a nice hotel right across the street from the Sheriff’s Office. I walked to the local Walgreens (about 2 or 3 miles) to buy some toiletries and came back seriously glistening (know the old joke, women don’t sweat, we glisten. And right now I’m glistening like a pig!). Anyhoo, more updates later!

Inspirational Quote:

What is an example day in your footsteps?
Pacing. Stick.

(See previous post for relevance)
http://blogs.atlassian.com/news/2008/04/interview_a_dev.html

Tips for Special Ed families in High School

Here is a comment I posted to a blog about preparing for an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting:

Here’s is a tip I heard about in a meeting of Disabilities Services Coordinators from a number of Universities and Community Colleges in Pittsburgh:

If you have a child who is a Junior or Senior in high school and you are tracking them for a specific community college or university, invite the Special Education Coordinator (or whatever they are called at that school) to one of your IEP meetings. This allows them to get an idea of how your family works, what the child’s educational environment has been and what their current development is. This allows your family and their office to work much more efficiently and smoothly to make your child’s post-secondary school experience as successful as possibly.

w00t for working inside a complex system!

Inspirational Quote:

Your official job title is “NerdHerder”. What does that entail?

Until we can get the electrodes wired into their seats, I’m forced to pace around my team with a big stick.
Atlassian Blog

Fudge Castle! (Fun with food)

ok, totally in a different vein, here is my second to last tea party at CMU for Spring 2008 (my first year).

Picture by Christie Ibaraki

Using a recipe from Ice Cream Treats for Fudge Sauce, a box cake, a kosher box cake and a full box of lacies (super chocolate and nutty cookies) I made a chocolate cake castle with a hot fudge sauce moat and a kosher township outside (with no crumbs touching).

I had been wanting to make a fudge sauce moat and since my suitemates had a prospie (prospective student) visiting who was keeping kosher for Passover (as was my suitemate) we picked up the kosher cake mix a Giant Eagle (or geeegul as Pittsburgers pronounce it).

Fatalities: one kitchen towel (but it’s better now).

Inspirational Quote:

“I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it.” - Garrison Keillor

Some things that work (Part 2)

This is related to my last post on Linda Hereshoff’s Special Education program at Jordan Middle School.

The next program that I would like to bring up is NYLC (or, the National Young Leaders Conference). This was lot of fun but more importantly, it was illuminating and well conceived. I had the chance to play a Representative, a Supreme Court Justice and a policy analyst–in the process discovering I love legal research.

Through the same program I will be attending the Presidential Inauguration in January.

The program is run like a sped-up session of Congress. The entire Conference was structured around a piece of legislation, bit of which were Amended and presented by student teams. Our legislation covered “safety”; ie, everything from terrorism to gun control.

Presenting policy was a blast. Me and another student were in charge of presenting modifications to federal weapon’s laws. He and I got the job because we were the only people in our group of 20 who had ever fired a gun. He was from rural Alabama so once I convinced him the restrictions were necessary, we had honed our arguments for the general caucus’s Amendment approval process.

I particularly remember presenting our Amendment in front of the committee–made up of other students–and caucus without my notes because I had had to give them to the committee unexpectedly. I had had to hand-write out 3 copies 10 minutes before my presentation so I basically had them memorized. Therefore, when a committee member asked for some piece of minutiae evidence I gave him chapter and verse of it from my notes.

The whole caucus went “oh!”.

The Amendment was accepted 40 to 2 in favor in my caucus.

My boyfriend, Matthew, attended another session of NYLC as well as the follow up Law Forum:

NYLC (especially the law forum) was an excellent educational experience for me. It gave a more in depth look at our government and legal system, not just by telling us how it functioned, but by inviting prestigious speakers and letting us enact demonstrations of our own, and thus showing us.

These programs require teacher or student referrals and cost a lot of money, but they are impressively run and a great deal of fun.

Inspiration Quote:

It would not be possible for Noah to do in our day what he was permitted to do in his own…The inspector would come and examine the Ark, and make all sorts of objections.
-Mark Twain “About All Kinds of Ships,” 1892

Some things that work (1 of 3)

I spend a lot of my time working through and within programs that don’t work. I am sure many of you do as well. So I think it is important to praise those who do well. I think a good system is one which is effective, efficient, and kind. In that spirit, I picked out one today (probably more later):

Linda Herreshoff’s program in the Palo Alto Unified School District’s Junior High School, Jordan Middle School. She works with students on the Autism Spectrum including students with Aspergers and other high functioning kids. Linda is a lifesaver for students with disabilities–her work has improved so many lives in this area it’s difficult to give her enough credit. From classes on how to tell jokes to working with parents to forming solid relationships with students (who, like all 11-13 years olds can be prickly critters). She is a wonderful teacher and person.

Inspirational Quote:

“You see, Asperger’s is unlike other ‘visual’ conditions. You can tell if a child is physically handicapped, you can tell if a child has Downs Syndrome - simply by looking at them. But an Asperger’s child looks COMPLETELY NORMAL! It’s what’s happening on the inside that is their detriment. If they tantrum, act out inappropriately, or do things that other children typically don’t do - it just looks like their parents are to blame for failure to ‘bring them up right’ or ‘discipline them correctly’. So again, my goal is not only to help Evan and others like him, but it’s also to help the general public know more about these types of pervasive development disorders.” Liller Family Blog