Wednesday 11 February 2015

Open Stage (Or the one where I am exhausted).




Tonight I am exhausted. Profoundly, utterly and completely exhausted. Because for the past week I have been participating in a delightful programme aptly named Open Stage. This is a five day workshop run by Opera Queensland and involves professional opera singers training high school students to perform five different songs from a number of both operas and musicals. Five days.

My school condensed it into four.

Four.

Not to say that it wasn't a load of fun, because it was. I got to know people I wouldn't have otherwise, forwent school work for singing and I learned some things about myself. Like how I actually do enjoy performing, a great deal more than I thought I did. It just takes some confidence and being willing to give it my all instead of being hesitant when uncomfortable. When you put everything into it, it actually becomes... pretty fun.

Though I do think I prefer the creative aspect of it all a bit more. I'm more interested in writing then I am performing if I am to be honest with myself. But I do think, if I were to become an actress, I'd be in musicals. Or Opera. If I ever developed my voice enough for it.

The workshop also increased my confidence when performing, and I learned a number of great songs:

America from West Side Story
Gossip Chorus from Elixir of Love
Breaths composed by Sweet Honey on the Rocks
Heart and Music from A New Brain

All of which are great pieces of music. So I broadened my repertoire and experienced something new, an opportunity I would have regretted passing up if I had done so. Hence I am, overall, quite happy with the experience. 

However, not sitting down for hours on end, and singing and dancing without many breaks in between is a wee bit tiring. You know, just a bit. Today, for instance, was our last chance to rehearse and get everything together before the performance. So I was dancing and singing and walking and standing, for seven hours. Seven. 

I. Am. Exhausted. 

When I arrived home at 7:00 I curled up on the couch under a blanket and stayed there for an hour, aching all over, with a pounding headache, and a queasy stomach.

So unless you are serious about a career in acting or singing, particularly in theatrical performances, I don't recommended it.

It's really not for the fainthearted. 

Tuesday 10 February 2015

At Sundown (A Poem)

At sundown white grass glows golden,
A beauty to the sun beholden;
Red ground ignites in shining colour,
The earth's awakening from her slumber;
Leaning gum bares pale skin to the light,
Dry leaves falling drift left and right,
And bark gleams a silver shimmer,
The tree sways and its branches shiver.