The Sunday of the Savoynet rehearsal period is a nice little break, as we can’t rehearse all day in whatever church we’re in, it’s Sunday! St. John’s, the church that we did the Zoo in, has an annual “Gilbert & Sullivan” service to which a lot of us are invited to sing in the choir. (I opted out.) We do rehearse in the afternoon, but usually just principals, so most of the cast get a day off. Then in the evening, we traditionally have the Savoynet dinner, and it’s also the night of the American cabaret.

I took the morning to do laundry and get caught up on life-stuff. I’d kind of wanted to go to Noonology or wherever and have a nice sit-down brunch, but the timing of the laundry torpedoed that plan, so I went out and got a takeout sandwich meal and went over to the Production House (unannounced) to sit and eat it and chat with Andrew.

In the afternoon, we did a lot of good cleanup and ‘missing stuff’ work with principals. But two things happened that wrapped me around the axle. First, a cast member texted me to ask if he could use my washing machine – and while I said ‘yes’, I immediately went into “oh, boy, that’s going to take a long time and how are we going to schedule this with what’s going on tonight’ and also ‘oh, is this the first of many cast members asking to use my washing machine?’ so suddenly part of my brain was chugging away on that.

Then, we’d scheduled rehearsal so that Rick and I would be working on staging and music downstairs, while Rachel worked on choreography with the dancers upstairs, which was fine. But at some point, they presented me with, ‘and then Rachel will bring the dancers downstairs and show Rick what’s going on and you’ll work with these actors upstairs’. And I just got completely confused, and was like, ‘wait, what am I supposed to be doing alone with those principals, we haven’t discussed anything’ and they thought I was making a fuss about going upstairs when clearly Rick couldn’t go upstairs because of his leg, which of course I wasn’t, I just didn’t understand what my upstairs rehearsal was for. And I’m afraid I had a bit of a meltdown because I wasn’t being heard and plans were being made without me and I didn’t get it, well, so I threw a diva fit. A polite one, but still.

It all worked out and the next day I wrote an apology email and we kind of figured out what was going on. Basically, Rick and Marisa (and also Rachel) were having a lot of in-person conversations about ‘what happens next’, because they were living in the same house. And I wasn’t being looped in, which was mostly, but not entirely fine. (It wasn’t deliberate or malicious.) The upshot was that I made it clear that I needed to be included in decisions about what was happening during rehearsals, and that I would from that point on absolutely be part of a daily post-rehearsal planning session up at Production House. Which we did.

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After a cabaret rehearsal, I led Tobin and his lady friend to my digs, where they just did an ‘express wash’ and then put the stuff in the dryer, to be retrieved later, so that wasn’t a big deal. I fed them tea and cookies, and changed into my somewhat-snappier evening dress.

Off to the Opera House. The tradition on Sunday night is that Savoynetters (including some who aren’t in the show this year, and other Friends of the Group) gather in front of the Opera House before the show and once the audience is inside and the doors are closed, we gather very quietly and have a group photo taken. This we did.

Then we trundle over to Kwei Lin for a group Chinese meal. This is always delightful as company, but a little bizarre as a dining experience. For instance, they always give you one teeny paper napkin, then immediately serve a really messy ribs appetizer. Then look startled when you ask them for more napkins. I was at a good table, with Brad and Kelsey and Kathryn and Angie and John and Manya and a couple of others. And the food is actually quite good, although it takes a while to hit the table. I ordered a bottle of wine to start, and someone else got the next one.

There are toasts to absent friends and to Gilbert & Sullivan and the music director (me this year) leads the crowd in singing “Hail, Poetry”.

As Brad, a newbie to this, pointed out, this was the first time in years he’d been asked to bring cash to an event. He could barely remember how that worked!

The American Cabaret people skedaddled and headed to the Festival club to set up. (Early enough that we could grab drinks before the show audience got there.) The cabaret was really fun! Here’s the whole playlist.

I was a little skeered to watch the video of “Book Report”, which I MD’d and accompanied, but it actually wasn’t bad, despite the overloud bass from the keyboard and the unexplained mike freakout in the middle.

Anyway, it was great fun and well-received – and, at the end of the evening, something I no longer had to worry about. I led Tobin back to the digs to get his laundry, and then crashed like a big crashing thing.