Oh yes, forgot a funny bit from late in the rehearsal process. So, as is typical G&S, once Captain Corcoran is revealed to be a common sailor (oh, fie!), he immediately starts talking in a lower-class accent. And then Josephine runs in, all upset, with “My father! A common sailor!”. I logically inferred that maybe Josephine should also suddenly be talking all lower-class, and look horrified at what’s coming out of her mouth. WTF? she screams, lower-class-ly. Sadly, we did not adopt that logical position.
Another thing that I forgot to mention is that on Tuesday morning, two days before the show, just as I was about to do the dishes after breakfast, I got a call from chorister Alex. Alex is a super-talented tenor who’d been the male lead in the last two shows, and he was one of the ‘dance corps’ this year. He was testing positive for COVID! So unfortunately he had to drop out. After dropping by the rehearsal church so he could leave his Gondoliers ticket under a rock so someone else could use it. So THAT WAS A CRISIS except we solved it almost immediately. One of the cool things that has happened over the last couple of years is that UMGASS (University of Michigan’s G&S group) has been doing an annual scholarship to send a student over to be in our show, and this year it was Melinda, a lovely young woman. And Melinda was a really good mover and for some reason, was not one of the ‘dancing ladies’. So we just made her into Alex! She ended up playing a sailor for the whole show, and was one of the five ‘men’ dancers. She picked up the choreography like instantly and was a total rock star and we were all so grateful. IT’S HANDLED.
Anyway, Friday, the day after the show, was lovely and relaxed. I got up at my leisure, had yet another peanut butter and raisin crumpet, and drank lots of French-pressed coffee. Actually, I did still have a deadline – I hadn’t finished Rick’s director present, another knitted hat (this one had waves and anchors) and I knew he was heading out of town around lunchtime. So I finished the hat (how you have to finish the hat), which didn’t take long, sewed in the ends and put together his gift bag with the thank-you card.
Headed over to Production House where I dumped my less-than-half-finished bottle of white wine in the fridge, thinking I wouldn’t finish it at home, but someone would drink it there, and gave Rick the hat. Poor guy, he was only barely getting started packing when his Driving Miss Daisy guy showed up, but he had the guy for the whole day, so just sent him off to entertain himself for an hour or so. (Rick of course was still dealing with the leg, and recovering from the very strenuous show day. I’m still not sure how he dealt with the opera house’s many little staircases.) Marisa told me about the afterparty and all the fun of that, including the fact that she was all apologetic to Andrew this particular morning, thinking they’d been super noisy, but Andrew slept through the whole thing!
I headed out to the Portakabin to pick up my DVD, then went across the street to The Serpentine, a little cafe I’d never been in before. I got a ‘filled scone’, basically a sandwich of cheese and piccalilli (what? kind of a pickle relish), that came with a green salad, and I got a ginger beer with it. The scone sandwich was a fun idea, but the scone didn’t really stand up to being sandwich infrastructure, and although I’m glad I tried the piccalilli, I didn’t like it that much.
I had a vague goal of poking my head in all the shops that I hadn’t had time to explore during the last two weeks, and in the process, looked in the window of Dandelion Coffee (I’d never been in it before). Who was there but Marilla and Audrey, so I came in and joined them and bought them a second round and me a something or other, and as we sat and chatted, other Savoynetters kept wandering by and coming in and joining us. Their goal was to all go get lunch, but every time someone else came in, they’d get another coffee drink and it just kept getting later and later. Eventually, we dispersed.
I went around Spring Gardens, but didn’t buy anything – lots of appealing tchotcke and candle and homemade soap kind of things, but not enough to add to my luggage. Then went up the hill to the Marketplace and stopped in this funky little art shop, talking a while to the proprietor (the artist). That was fun.
Got home late afternoon and fell asleep in the comfy chair. On waking up, realized that I’d kind of implied to Audrey that we’d be making concrete plans for dinner and no such thing had happened, and she’s texting me asking what’s going on. So I headed back over to Production House, figuring that’s where people would gather (I was right) and chatted with Ashley’s husband Mike, and Marilla, and we all drank the rest of the wine I’d left earlier. Marisa and Audrey showed up, then we bid goodbye to Marilla (heading home), and the rest of us headed over the Michelangelo’s, an Italian restaurant I hadn’t tried yet. Audrey, poor thing, was heading to the airport late to spend the night camped out in uncomfortable chairs until she caught her way-too-early flight. So we ended up fetching her luggage and making sure her ordered food was quick, so we could get her out to the nearby bus stop in time.
Dinner was quite nice, I think I just got a basic pasta dish, but I ordered garlic bread and wine for the table – and that all ended being sent back to Production House for the inevitable evening gathering. Oh, right, they were having another game night, but one of our bunch had tested positive for COVID and I’m not sure how they dealt with that, either by having her just STAY AWAY, or moving the operation to a different house.
(side note: COVID has been a thing for the last three shows. We’re lucky we only lost one cast member this year.)
I’m sure I could have gone to game night, but having seen my hermitty ways for two weeks, I don’t think anyone expected me to. After sending Audrey off, they all headed to game night, wherever it ended up being, and I headed back for my last night in Dolly Cottage.
Next up – 15/15!
The Toast Point Page 