Busy busy with all good things.
The week after the Planets concert, I didn’t have QUO rehearsal, but I did have a rehearsal up in Connecticut for a church gig. My college roommate Vance’s husband Craig is the Minister of Music at the First Congregational Church of Old Greenwich, one Metro North stop south of Stamford. It’s a lovely church, both in its facility and its attitude, very welcoming. Craig hires me from time to time, even though there are plenty of more local hornists, and I love playing up there. I’ll frequently run into people I worked with at Troupers Light Opera in the 2010’s, particularly Linnea, who is their alto soloist and who was one of my fabulous Rosalindas when TLO did Die Fledermaus. These are all great people who I don’t get to see nearly enough of.
Vance and Craig took me out for an early dinner when I came up on Thursday for rehearsal (for my birthday, a month late, but I’ll take it) and Vance caught me up on our 40th college reunion, which had been the weekend I was doing Planets. Much gossip, I wish I’d gone. Then I joined the choir for our piece, which went fine, and caught the train back at a reasonable hour. (I don’t mind doing that schlep once in a while, but doing it for three seasons of TLO was grueling, and was the main reason I didn’t make it four seasons.)
Sunday, I needed to get up there in time for rehearsal, which meant catching the 730 am train from Grand Central, arrrgh. I didn’t even try to risk the subway to GC, I just took an Uber. But I made it in plenty of time, got a lovely bagel from Zaro’s and Vance, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, picked me up at the train station (even though it’s very walkable).
The service and the piece were delightful. I was nervous, because this wasn’t a hide-in-the-back situation at all, and in fact the solo part, while not overly difficult, had a lot of deceptively easy looking intervals that were in fact traps (easy to crack). I’d botched on the first try on the Thursday rehearsal so badly Craig started over. But in performance, oh la, it came off fine. I can hear my nervousness in the tone, but I got the job done. Linnea sang the solo, lovely, and it was great to get caught up with her during little breaks here and there.
I’m impressed by the video, I must say. They livestream the services and then post the video on Youtube. I had to play some games to make a clip, but I got it going.
And back home to finish out the rest of my Sunday. It was really quite nice.
I’d actually called in sick on the Friday before because I’d slept so poorly (for no apparent reason) on Thursday night, but that gave me basically the weekend day I’d lose otherwise for the CT gig, and I had plenty of time to play this quirky computer game that had been recommended online: Easy Delivery Co. You are a cat in a low-resolution environment, driving a truck and making delivery around a snowy landscape. There’s a bit of a plot, and it’s melancholy rather than adorable, but I just loved it.
I loved it and have now played it through twice and wish it weren’t over.
Social media has also pointed me to Dispatch, which I’m playing now. The buzz is around a certain (delightful) homoerotic subplot, but it’s great fun. Actually, the gameplay itself isn’t that interesting, but it’s mostly like watching a slightly interactive movie.
The Monday following the church gig was Charles’s birthday. He should have been turning 70. So that was sad and weird. I took myself out to dinner, but my heart wasn’t in it. It definitely feels like he’s getting farther and farther away, which I don’t think is wrong, but is still sad.
So this weekend, as we’ve done in the past, his two best friends Patti and Tessa came in for a slumber party at my house. After a lot of snacks and catching up, I took them to our local insane restaurant, Fabrika, for dinner. We had a fantastic time. We split a fritto mixto plate, then Patti and I had some traditional sushi rolls (they have some very untraditional sushi rolls too) and Tessa got snapper. Then we split two desserts. The waiter was adorable and actually remembered me, which is odd since unlike other restaurants on that block, I don’t go there every frickin’ week. (it’s hard to just walk in to Fabrika and get a table, you need a reservation) That was fun.
Sunday, we got up in our jammies and had pastries, then I took them out for brunch at the Queensboro. (timing-wise, we didn’t really have enough time between pastries and brunch to get hungry again, ah well). I had to kick them out by a certain time because I had a matinee ticket.
This was the first of ‘my theater groups have fall shows and I need to see all of them’ runs. St. Bart’s was doing A New Brain. Even though I know William Finn’s Falsettos like the back of my hand, and really enjoyed Spelling Bee too, I didn’t really know ANB much at all. But I was eager to see it, and I had a bunch of friends in the cast. They had a week-long run, and the matinee was the closing performance.
I am here to tell you that it was impressive as all get out. Beautifully sung, beautifully staged, very funny. Everyone on stage was dynamite, and I was so proud of my former colleagues in the cast, who I knew would be wonderful. The show itself? Definitely worth doing. I thought it was (while the proper length for a musical, even one with no intermission) too long for the material. But such great moments throughout, and everyone in the cast was on their A game. Between the work that VLOG has been doing lately and the last few St. Bart’s shows, I think that I am hanging around with the right theater crowd.
Next week is BHT’s She Loves Me, featuring a whole different crop of friends (including several Pinafore principals), and then in December is VLOG”s Death Takes a Holiday, which I’ll be doing front-of-house for (and hope to get to see as well).
Yep, that’s what’s going on. It’s November now, and while I know it’s not even near Thanksgiving yet, I didn’t get Christmas at all last year (Dad and I were traveling) so I’m going to start prepping for Xmas now.
The Toast Point Page 