The End of Fiddler

Last night was closing night, and it's all over now. Last night was definitely our best performance. Two of the funniest moments of this whole experience included my brother, the Rabbi, singing "Mazeltov, mazel--fuck," when he couldn't find his note during rehearsal and someone backstage saying "Who moved the goddamn box?!" during the show when their mic was still on. It happened during my scene, too. I'm so sad that I won't see everyone as much anymore. :( We're all just lucky we go to the same school. I can't wait for the winter play! It's a comedy...not sure what it's called. I wish I'd gotten into acting sooner. I had no idea how much fun this is.

10/25/12: Fiddler on the Roof cast, pit, and crew

Copyright © 2012 Matthew Lasala
www.lasalaimages

Opening Night

I never realized how it would feel after all the hard work. How it would feel, walking out on that stage to the sound of cheers and applause, throwing clasped hands into the air and down for a bow. Incredible.

Well that's about all the "good" writing I can handle for now. Last night was opening night for Fiddler and I am proud of us. :) We have worked our butts off for two and a half months and it has payed off. We have five more shows, tonight, tomorrow night, and three more next week. It'll be weird not going to rehearsal every day when it's all over. But I'm so glad that I did this. I've made all kinds of new friends that I never would have if I hadn't done it. It was odd how fast it seemed to go by. I'm very excited for my other family and friends to come see it. I've had SO much fun with this production and it'll be sad when it ends.

L'Chaim. Mazeltov. Amen.

Movie Night & Plans

Today we had a movie night for Fiddler on the Roof and a bunch of the cast came. I was reminded how infuriated I get when people talk during a movie, and how anxious I feel when they aren't following along. I had  hoped people could see the movie and get a feel for how they should behave on stage, but I felt like I was one of the only people paying attention. Despite all the talking I almost cried about five times (I would have if there weren't so many people there) and I actually did once. I can say this has become my current favorite movie. I was also reminded from the movie, though, how sad I get at the sight of an old person crying. Especially (spoiler alert) when it's one of my favorite characters: the sweet, adorable, old Rabbi. I'm really worried though because we won't be able to make it anywhere near as good as the movie and it reminded me of how I felt watching all of the same scenes that we do in rehearsal. Now I feel like I should stop writing about all this because someone could read it and suddenly decide they don't want to come to the show or get mad at me or some other bad thing. Maybe seeing the movie again will at least help me put on a better performance.

In other news, I'm getting my senior pictures taken on Sunday by the oh so wonderful Sarah McMurray. I freaking love her. She's going to get some pictures of me with my mom as well! I have four outfits picked out. Very excited. :) I'm also hoping to send in my college application to Western Oregon University this weekend. I attended an Oregon universities visitation thing at my school and a representative from Western talked to a group of us about it. I'm very excited. With my GPA, Mrs. Future-Center-Unnamed-Lady said I could probably just go to a 4-year school right off the bat. So that's what I'm going to do. Western is one of the only universities in the northwest that offers a Bachelor's Degree in ASL Interpreting and it's the best in the country. I know I'm going to the right place. I consider myself very lucky that I don't have to go too far to get there and it's still in my favorite state. Oh boy it is quite late and I'm very tired. I wonder when I'll start doing some actual quality writing.

Moments of Pride

I learned how to play Mad World on the piano (Gary Jules), and it's very easy to play but still--great song. Also I'm drinking tea. I don't like tea. This stuff is good. I made myself drink it 'cause I'm sick and have junk in my throat and I have to have a clear throat so I can sing in Fiddler on the Roof and tea's good for that. It's almost 1 AM...I'm really just rambling right now. Today I helped Kate set up her basement for her party on Friday. We painted the walls black, or at least added another coat, and splattered neon paint everywhere. Also there are black lights and strobes, and we hung sheets and Christmas lights all over the place. It looks amazing. I'm excited. Also, I finished my homework for AP Calculus today (reading the first chapter) so now I just have to make a chart of political issues and write a paper on who I'd vote for and why. :P Blurgh. I don't even care about politics. I have 11 days to write that, clean my room, clean the bathrooms (because I'm weird and am getting OCD about them), and wash/clean my car. It's been gathering filth all summer. Darn...I'm out of tea. I want more. :( Maybe I'll clean my room tonight. I often feel jealous towards other blog-writers. They all seem so intellectual. I don't even try very hard to have exceptional writing so it just sounds like me talking. In other news, I asked a cute guy for directions today. I know him from school and I saw him on the way to drop a friend off at her friend's house. He smiled at me as I passed him. Then on the way back I stopped for directions because I actually needed them. I never talk about guys on here. I don't see why I shouldn't, at least little things like that. It's just something in my life, and here I go rambling again. I think I'm really tired. I have a lot of laundry to put away and some is in the dryer. At least tomorrow I can sleep in. Oh! It's Keala's birthday! She's 7! Gah these kids are getting so old. And geez, so am I. I've heard that the last year of high school is loads of fun and it goes by fast. It's a bit frightening, but I'm mostly just extremely stoked for it. I can't wait to see what happens to all of our lives, even if I'll be sad to say goodbye to people. I'm gonna be so sad next fall... But that's over a year away. Wow this is a random one! I'm gonna make more tea. At least now I can bring it to rehearsal and stuff since I know I like it. Well, this kind anyway. By the way, rehearsals are SO much fun. We rotate dancing, singing, and acting the last 2 hours of the day. Dancing is my favorite. It's going to be so great! I've invited a bunch of family to come see the show in October. I can't wait to get totally done with all the songs so we can practice with the band/orchestra in the pit. My, my I say I've written enough for one post, especially since this is so all over the place. If anyone still reads my blog, please feel free to comment so I know you're there... Even if no one does, I'm not going to stop posting! :)

Summer!

Whoop!!! It's summer! We just got back from camping for a few days. Maya came with us. We took the boat out onto the lake (Lake Billy Chinook) and found a nice big cliff to jump off of. Jake and I never had before and it was seriously scary. But YOLO. I kept straight but I was tilted slightly backward when I hit the water, so I have a nice big bruise from my upper right thigh to my butt. The worst part was that my swimsuit just about cut me in half. It was a good experience overall though.

The next day, yesterday, we found a spot and Andy set up a zip-line. It wasn't very successful though and I zip-lined into/through a tree. My legs are all scratched up...oh well. :)

Jake, Maya, and I are all going to be in Fiddler on the Roof this fall. I'm so excited. I'll be playing Chava, the third daughter. I fall in love with a Russian guy who isn't Jewish and it's a big deal.

It's weird to have to make plans to see my friends all the time. It still hasn't really hit me that it's summer and I'm a SENIOR. In less than a year I'll be graduating high school. Geez. I'm still trying to decide if I want to take a year off before college. I've got a pretty good plan for after high school, I just need to figure out the nitty-gritty stuff. It's all kind of scary to think about, so I'm trying to hold off a little until it gets closer to all happening...I've started figuring out some things to take with me when I leave home. I have a box of kitchen stuff. I think I'm mostly worried about being homesick.

I should get my report card in a couple days. I'm hoping for straight A's...these would be the best grades I've ever had in my high school career. :) Kind of exciting. I should get my AP Exam score sometime in July. I hope next year is a good one...I would really love it if the drama would just go away...

Musical

My has it been a while...My junior year of high school is almost over. I made new friends, had new experiences, and it's very hard to believe now that I'm almost a senior. I'm quite exhausted right now--very long day. Basically what's new with me is that I'm auditioning for the school musical, Fiddler on the Roof, on Monday. I'm very excited. I've never been in a real play before, and especially not a musical, so this will be a very unique experience for me. Also this evening I dropped my phone in the river. Fantastic! I'm about to fall asleep...Perhaps I'll write some more again soon and it won't be 5 months later...