I play soccer. :)

♥ cats♣

Donnerstag, 17. März 2011 / 05:42

I found this while researching for something...

At the End of the Day we Presented our First Musical ♫♣

Mittwoch, 16. März 2011 / 06:23

For the Foundation day Celebration in October last year, the High School Students of Abba's Orchard School were supposed to present the musical Les Miserables.

At the end of July the teachers asked us students to sing in front of them, Mr. Dan and Ms. Annie, so that they could pick people for the main characters in Les Miserables. I remember that I really did not want to sing, I don't like singing in public and I do not like acting either, so the whole thing was not interesting for me. I did not want to present a play.

But they forced us anyway, we started practicing regularly, first vocal exercises and then we started singing and memorizing the songs (they even played it during lunchtime!) Practicing took a lot of our time. We could not have our self expressions and P.E.s anymore, and since we had to present the musical in October, we only had four months to prepare, which is a really short time. The closer the end of October got, the more stressed we got, we stayed at school until six in the evening, and the main characters had to stay even longer to sing.

I hated this project for taking so much of my free time. Then we also had to practice the acting, and we realized that the musical was too big for us to master in four months. We just presented a teaser on the Foundation Day Celebration, which was better for everyone.

But after this we did not continue practicing, we wasted a lot of time. Only in January we realized that we only had three months to catch up. This time we started recording all the voices. The main cast sometimes recorded until 9 pm (I felt so sorry for them), sometimes they were gone for the whole school day for that. They were really loaded, and the teachers also had a hard time.

During the whole week before the final presentation we were in Rodelsa Hall, practicing the whole day. We had to work on the acting, entering and exiting on time, practice with the props and with costumes. Our director kept on changing the actions and it was really hard to us to follow. She was stressed, too. According to her everything had to be perfect, she always wanted us to give our best. And even though she was insulting us, she is a good director, threatening, but she knows what she wants, and we improved because of her.

We went through the scenes over and over again until it was good enough. It was hard work. We had to change a lot, there were different costumes for the scenes, and sometimes we only had a few minutes to change our clothes. Make up was also needed, we reapplied it a lot of times.I never used that much make up in my life! Most of the girls were prisoners, factory workers, lovely ladies and beggars and sometimes we had to look dirty and poor, sometimes attractive or tired, the dirty again...that is why we needed a lot of make up. So changing and appyling make up also had to be practiced, because we have little time and the area there is not that big. And all ladies also had to curl their hair, which was tiring because it took a long time, and barely anyone had a curling iron.

It is not easy to bring the props on stage as well. The setting for each scene is different, so we have to move in chairs, tables,etc. very quick between the scenes, and the lights are even turned off.

What I am trying to say is that everyone had to put a lot of effort in this play, and I never realized that presenting a musical would be so hard until I was part of one.

Anyway, the big day finally came, we went through the whole play in the morning, and in the evening it was showtime. We had to be there two hours to prepare. Even if my part in the play was very small, I was kind of worried that I might do something wrong and embarrass myself. I would probably never go on a stage again.

Anyway, the show went pretty well. The songs sounded good, the actors were good, the props were there... And I think that we did not forget anything. I think that our parents, friends and all those people who were watching were really surprised, even I could not imagine that our presentation would be that successful.

At the end I saw that the theater was really full, and they were all applauding and that made me really happy and proud. It was actually fun in the end, and I am glad that I was part of this event. Though it was sad that there were a lot of songs that were not included (which made it hard for those who did not know the story to understand what was going on), it was still a good play for students like us. We are no professionals, and I guess that it was the first time for most of us to present a musical like Les Miserables.

We should thank all of those who made this happen, especially Ms. Jeni, Mr. Manuel, Ms. Annie and Mr. Dan for supporting us.

Here are some pictures which I stole from Facebook, since I did not take any. Sorry, they are unorganized because I am too tired to move them in order. :P

This are Denise, Diana, Pia, & Katrina as beggars backstage...

After we were done everyone was so happy.

Lovely (???) Ladies :D

Reine, the loveliest among all :D

Erica and Jerome ( M. & Mme. Thénardier) were so cool & amusing

the little people with Gavroche (Rodney)

The bishop (Gio) & Valjean (Sean)

Marius (Andrew) & Fantine (Evee) backstage

I think that this was the Finale...

Eponine (Kim), Javert (Emman) & the guards in the backround

The students (the barricades in the back were so nice!)

Cosette (Julia)

Kendra and Florence (as Madam, old woman, lovely Lady, squealer, etc.) acted so well

If you want to know the story of Les Miserables, research it somewhere, I am to lazy to post a summary! :D

Labels: I dreamed a dream, musical

On the 12th day of Christmas♣

Sonntag, 12. Dezember 2010 / 05:36

I am going to describe a certain thing that a lot of families have in their home during Christmas. It is green, and decorated, and you put presents under it. You probably know that I am talking about Christmas trees. But why do we have Christmas trees? Why do we go to to the forest, look for a nice, bring it to our house and decorate it?

I heard that people started doing that in Germany and in Livonia in the 16th century. People believed that plants that were always green like spruce and pines is a lot of life and power, so they thought that by bringing it into the house, it will bring them healthiness, and it reminded them that spring will come after the cold winter.

Today we decorate it with a lot of things, like Christmas lights (originally candles), ornaments, garlands, tinsel, candy canes, angels and other shapes. It looks really nice.

Labels: Christmas tree

weekend♣

/ 04:53

Today was my study and relax day.
It's a Sunday, and I was still sleeping, while other people probably were in church. I actually waste a lot of time sleeping during the weekends. And I am too lazy to go to church. I am not that kind of person who grew up with reading the Bible and praying everyday, and going to church every Sunday. I find religion actually interesting, to know what other people believe in and that stuff, but it is not such a big part oy my life...

Anyway, I was supposed to study a lot for my exams next week, and I did - but not as much as I planned to. There was this really exiting book that I started to read... and while I studied about Leonardo da Vinci, I thought about "The da Vinci Code" which I read last year, that reminded me of the story that I was reading this morning...
I could not concentrate. But I did study a little, and anyway, I still have tomorrow.

Then my brother came home from his soccer game, and proudly told me that his team won every game (that's nothing new) and that their best score in one game was 18:0 . That really is a high score for soccer. Sometimes no team makes any goals at all.

Today is our last day of the blog requirement for grammar... and I don't know if I am going to write omething in here again...
Maybe, sometime...

on the 11th day of Christmas♣

Samstag, 11. Dezember 2010 / 05:17

Today is a Saturday. A really boring one. I almost slept until 11 am, because I was too tired to get up earlier. I wake up around every hour after 6 am, and tell myself to wake up, but then I always go back to sleep...

There is not much to write about today, aside from the fact that I wasted my time in the waiting area of my dentist, sitting there, reading a book, doing nothing and then almost falling asleep, before she finally called me in. And I watched a TV while waiting, but it was boring, since I could not understand what they were talking about. It was Stuart Little in Filipino. And it sounded a bit weird. No offense, but it somehow always has the same tune.. I don`t know how to describe it.

I miss the snow. I covers the land so that everything is white, and it gives the place a "Christmas atmosphere." It covers the trees, soil and lakes. And you can go skiing, ice-skating and use your sled. And after that you can go inside, drink hot chocolate and cookies and you feel warm and happy, watching the snow fall through the window. Without the cold season, a real winter with snow, I don't really get the Christmas feeling.

Labels: dentist, sleep

On the 10th day of Christmas♣

Freitag, 10. Dezember 2010 / 18:44

Christmas is a happy time, especially for children. They can eat a lot of sweets, and get presents...from Santa Claus. That's what a lot of parents tell their five-year old kids: behave or Santa Claus won't give you any presents. I wonder why they tell their kids that Santa lives in the North Pole, and has a big book where he can read about every child in the world: If they behaved, their wishlists from this year. And that he gets help from elves, who wrap all the presents, reindeers who pull the big slide packed with all the gifts and fly Santa around, to every village in one night.
It makes the children only think about presents on Christmas, and they forget why it's really celebrated.
And sometime, they will find out that there is no Santa Claus anyway, so why tell them lies?!

Friday♣

/ 03:54

Today is a Friday!!! Finally weekend. This week was really tiring, and I want to rest.

We had a psychology test at school, and it is really amazing what those people know about you, that you do not understand quite well yourself. We were supposed to close our eyes and imagine any random object. And then we had to tell our teacher why we chose that object, and then she told us how we feel or what kind of person we are. [I chose an airplane, and according to my teacher, I am adventurous, which might be true :D ] Psychologists are scary. I fell like an open book that they read, to learn everything about the story. It is kind of cool, maybe I should learn that. Then I might learn and understand more about people's feelings ( or I might be more confused )...

Labels: psycho., soccer