Presentations, dance practice, and a sweaty performance

August 17^th, 2006: “Ohio Gozaimas (sp?)” Japanese for “Good Morning”

First day of school for Michael and Matt! What’s encouraging is that they are looking forward to going to school! How often do you hear kids say that!? These brother’s are a real trip.

The cast worked today at American Royal, a large local Agricultural organization. They developed materials for their educational programs. I worked on dances. I am starting to feel a bit out of the loop with all these dance and vocal workshops. At Kevin’s (staff) recommendation, I noted this to our statistical coordinator, Simon (from Denmark. He was my “bus date” on the way to Kansas City). Simon is aware of the situation. There’s three of us who haven’t participated in a CI in a few weeks and who may not participate for another week or so ::sigh::. I’m very thankful to have singing and dancing roles in the show. I’d just like to be sure that I get the complete UWP experience, not just the performance angle of things.

Anywho, I practiced dance today until our BTS (or brief show) at the Starlight theatre. Thankfully, those were not my only activities. Over the past week, several cast members and myself put together a presentation on “gay culture”. We were composed of cast who identify themselves all along the Kinsey scale (American researcher from the 1940s who proposed the idea that sexuality is not necessarily as concrete as many think. According to him, people fall along a spectrum from 1 – 6. “1” being completely heterosexual and “6” being completely homosexual). Respectfully, nobody was expected to expose their orientation. This made for a wonderfully safe presentation and the cast never demanded the information.

I’m glad it went well because I spent, what felt like, an eternity trying to get everybody coordinated and putting everybody’s ideas together. The final concept was a talk show in which “experts” were interviewed by a host and the audience (the cast). This proved to be a great presentation. As expected, this became a “hot topic” ripe for debate, especially from those with strong religious affiliations. Emotions were elevated certainly. I look forward to diving into the topic more with cast members.

The BTSs at Starlight were, well, sweaty. We held them outside (it’s an outdoor theatre). It was exciting though. We were the opening act for RENT.

That and both my suspenders popped off during our swing dance :O I look forward to at least ONE uncomplicated performance. Wait…that would be boring. Scratch that. Let the adventures keep coming. Just let me keep singin’ and dancin’.