Newslets

Lots happened over the weekend.  Shortest to longest:

Chicklet8 did very well on her audition and was one of 3 girls called back for Wilbur, the pig in Charlotte's Web.  She ended up with the role of the Lamb, which is a great part, and perfect for her.  The show is in mid-May.

I got sick over the weekend, finally caught the same thing that most of the kids had--a bad cough, sore throat, slight fever and body aches.  Stayed home from church and slept till noon.  Feeling somewhat better today, but still, when I speak, I'm a bass.

Which will make it somewhat hard to teach my drama class tonight, but fortunately, we're planning to do a read-through for the first half of class, which means the kids will do all the talking, and fortunately, I have an aide whose vocal chords are in great shape!  (She's an amazing singer. ;)

Even though I was sick on Sunday, I attended a marathon Holy Week planning meeting in the late afternoon that was really helpful.  I think I'm finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.  I haven't been blogging much because I've been forcing myself to concentrate on Holy Week stuff, but each email I send seems like merely chipping away at an iceberg.  When I don't know for sure who all my readers are, or when they are available, or when the chapel is available, or when we are going to be able to rehearse the nine readings, it makes for pretty high anxiety until some of that is nailed down. On Sunday, we got a lot closer on most of these questions!  Still have a lot of schedules to make and emails to send, plus a couple more readings to arrange, but once I hear back from everyone and adjust as needed, I may finally be able to relax for a few days before actual rehearsals begin. Fingers crossed....

And this weekend, Papa Rooster, B16 and B13 made some major purchases we've been discussing.  We've been looking at some software called ProTools that is used by musicians for recording, composing, editing and mixing. It would not only be helpful for B16 to record his own compositions, but to record with his brother and with his out-of-state friend, when she's in town.  (That would be his "indie/acoustic" band.) Meanwhile B13, our piano player, has been saving up his farm earnings plus his birthday and Christmas money for a synthesizer, and it worked out that a package deal would enable him to get a much better synth than he had even hoped.  So they've been playing around with their new equipment all weekend, and as soon as they got the ProTools set up, Papa R was able to record himself singing the Exultet that he sings every year at the Easter Vigil, so he could send the file to his composer brother, who's going to write some accompaniment for it this year.  I'm sure we're going to find many uses for it that we never even considered, but it is our prayer that God will be glorified and the church will be served by all the creative endeavors this new equipment inspires!

Finally, the professional photographer's Sound of Music production photos are here. (Left side of site, under Recent Photos.) You'll see B13 and C8 as Von Trapp children at the beginning and at the end, and B16 is Captain Von Trapp all the way through. In the middle, C8 is a townsperson in a gray plaid jumper and B13 is in a tux as a Party Guest.  There are a LOT of photos--you'll want to mostly page through the thumbnails.  I think some of the best ones are toward the end--maybe start there.

Okay, hoping now to nail down some more moving parts for Holy Week!