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Nov. 17th, 2011 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pedantherThis evening there was a concert to showcase the arts centre and the various local musical groups and activities. The line-up included a couple of bands, a couple of choirs, a music teacher solo and in a duet with one of her students, and various other solos, duets, etc. (I was in the brass band.)
It was nice enough, but I'm not sure how successful it was as a showcase - subtract the performers and their relatives, and there wasn't very much audience left over.
***
This reminds me that I haven't written the entry I was planning to about the annual performing arts festival.
There are a few things that I do every year, and I did them again this year.
The brass band played, as usual, and won, as usual, against no actual competiton, as usual. (Sometimes there'll be a school band, or the Esperance Brass Band will come for the day, but most years it's just us. There have been cases where somebody has been the only competitor in their category and still come second, because the adjudicator didn't think they'd done well enough to deserve a first, but that hasn't happened to us. Not recently, anyway.)
The other thing I always try to do is catch the Character Vocal section, which is my favourite part of the festival. And then every year I get quietly annoyed by the junior grades, where "character song" is interpreted as "sing a song in costume, not necessarily even an appropriate one"; every year we get one or both of "A Whole New World" sung by somebody dressed as the character the song is sung to in the movie and "Beauty and the Beast" sung by somebody dressed as the character the song is sung about. (I'm not sure I'd even count "Beauty and the Beast" as a character song, properly speaking, and if it is the character certainly isn't a young woman.) The other one we get most years is "Colors of the Wind", but at least that's usually sung by someone dressed as the right character. This year we had all three. I did still enjoy the songs, and enjoyed even more the performances in the older grades, where actual characterisation was going on. A highlight was the rendition of "I Cain't Say No" by the young lady who took home the Most Outstanding Vocalist Under 18 trophy at the end of the day. (That one wasn't a surprise; she took first place in every category she was entered in, and she's been an accomplished and experienced singer from a young age - I first met her a few years ago when she starred in a production of Annie.)
This year I also caught the Popular Vocal section, but I don't remember what I wanted to say about that except that two different people did Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", and one did the pronounciation incorrectly properly and the other did it correctly improperly. (I still don't understand how people can get that wrong, but it keeps happening. I have a recording of a performance that I can't listen to without gritting my teeth, and it's really sad because otherwise it's a beautiful rendition.)
The main part of the performing arts festival is the music sections, which take up a whole weekend, but there's also a drama section, which takes one evening a few weeks later.
I haven't gone to the drama evening in previous years, even though, or perhaps because, I do theatrical stuff myself; for some reason it just never caught my interest. This year, though, I had a reason or two for deciding I might as well go, and as it turned out I quite enjoyed myself.
This year (I don't know what it's usually like, having not been before) it was all drama students, mostly from high school, but there was also a primary school drama class that provided an early highlight.
They performed (and I think had written) a play. It one of those modern tongue-in-cheek fairy tale things - think Shrek, or perhaps Hoodwinked would be more apposite. At a party attended by many famous fairy tale characters, one of the princess's necklace goes missing and the police are called in. Who could have stolen it? Why was animal hair found at the scene of the crime? Incidentally, had you noticed what big teeth Red Riding Hood has? Okay, so the guilty party was pretty obvious straight off, but there was some pretty impressive actual detective work that led to the characters figuring it out, and the motive was good too. All the actors were enthusiastic and sincere, and the whole thing was very funny (definitely in the laughing with sense).
Most of the evening was dramatic monologues. Top prizes went to a Voluptua (from Lysistrata), a Macbeth (from the play of the same name), and a James North (from The Term of His Natural Life). I really liked the North monologue, which was both funny and well-acted, and included a bit of stage business I want to remember in case it ever comes in handy. North is a drunkard, so the monologue included as props a drinking glass and a bottle of something that looked like whisky. Near the beginning of the monologue, he pours himself a glass and drinks it. Near the end, likewise. Somewhere in the middle, at a moment of high emotion, he pours himself a glass, looks at it, then puts it down and takes a long drink straight from the bottle. And then he drinks what's in the glass too.
The young lady who enacted Voluptua got the official first prize. Unofficially, afterwards, the adjudicator also offered her a part in a play. Cue segue to another entry I haven't been writing:
One of the reasons I went to the drama night this year was that the adjudicator was Raymond Omodei, who was Director-in-Residence at the Repertory Club for a few months this year. Adjudicating the drama night was one of the incidental things he did as Director-in-Residence. The main thing was directing a play, The Playboy of the Western World.
And there's a whole 'nother entry I could write about that, but I don't think I'll do it right now. This is long enough already.
It was nice enough, but I'm not sure how successful it was as a showcase - subtract the performers and their relatives, and there wasn't very much audience left over.
***
This reminds me that I haven't written the entry I was planning to about the annual performing arts festival.
There are a few things that I do every year, and I did them again this year.
The brass band played, as usual, and won, as usual, against no actual competiton, as usual. (Sometimes there'll be a school band, or the Esperance Brass Band will come for the day, but most years it's just us. There have been cases where somebody has been the only competitor in their category and still come second, because the adjudicator didn't think they'd done well enough to deserve a first, but that hasn't happened to us. Not recently, anyway.)
The other thing I always try to do is catch the Character Vocal section, which is my favourite part of the festival. And then every year I get quietly annoyed by the junior grades, where "character song" is interpreted as "sing a song in costume, not necessarily even an appropriate one"; every year we get one or both of "A Whole New World" sung by somebody dressed as the character the song is sung to in the movie and "Beauty and the Beast" sung by somebody dressed as the character the song is sung about. (I'm not sure I'd even count "Beauty and the Beast" as a character song, properly speaking, and if it is the character certainly isn't a young woman.) The other one we get most years is "Colors of the Wind", but at least that's usually sung by someone dressed as the right character. This year we had all three. I did still enjoy the songs, and enjoyed even more the performances in the older grades, where actual characterisation was going on. A highlight was the rendition of "I Cain't Say No" by the young lady who took home the Most Outstanding Vocalist Under 18 trophy at the end of the day. (That one wasn't a surprise; she took first place in every category she was entered in, and she's been an accomplished and experienced singer from a young age - I first met her a few years ago when she starred in a production of Annie.)
This year I also caught the Popular Vocal section, but I don't remember what I wanted to say about that except that two different people did Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", and one did the pronounciation incorrectly properly and the other did it correctly improperly. (I still don't understand how people can get that wrong, but it keeps happening. I have a recording of a performance that I can't listen to without gritting my teeth, and it's really sad because otherwise it's a beautiful rendition.)
The main part of the performing arts festival is the music sections, which take up a whole weekend, but there's also a drama section, which takes one evening a few weeks later.
I haven't gone to the drama evening in previous years, even though, or perhaps because, I do theatrical stuff myself; for some reason it just never caught my interest. This year, though, I had a reason or two for deciding I might as well go, and as it turned out I quite enjoyed myself.
This year (I don't know what it's usually like, having not been before) it was all drama students, mostly from high school, but there was also a primary school drama class that provided an early highlight.
They performed (and I think had written) a play. It one of those modern tongue-in-cheek fairy tale things - think Shrek, or perhaps Hoodwinked would be more apposite. At a party attended by many famous fairy tale characters, one of the princess's necklace goes missing and the police are called in. Who could have stolen it? Why was animal hair found at the scene of the crime? Incidentally, had you noticed what big teeth Red Riding Hood has? Okay, so the guilty party was pretty obvious straight off, but there was some pretty impressive actual detective work that led to the characters figuring it out, and the motive was good too. All the actors were enthusiastic and sincere, and the whole thing was very funny (definitely in the laughing with sense).
Most of the evening was dramatic monologues. Top prizes went to a Voluptua (from Lysistrata), a Macbeth (from the play of the same name), and a James North (from The Term of His Natural Life). I really liked the North monologue, which was both funny and well-acted, and included a bit of stage business I want to remember in case it ever comes in handy. North is a drunkard, so the monologue included as props a drinking glass and a bottle of something that looked like whisky. Near the beginning of the monologue, he pours himself a glass and drinks it. Near the end, likewise. Somewhere in the middle, at a moment of high emotion, he pours himself a glass, looks at it, then puts it down and takes a long drink straight from the bottle. And then he drinks what's in the glass too.
The young lady who enacted Voluptua got the official first prize. Unofficially, afterwards, the adjudicator also offered her a part in a play. Cue segue to another entry I haven't been writing:
One of the reasons I went to the drama night this year was that the adjudicator was Raymond Omodei, who was Director-in-Residence at the Repertory Club for a few months this year. Adjudicating the drama night was one of the incidental things he did as Director-in-Residence. The main thing was directing a play, The Playboy of the Western World.
And there's a whole 'nother entry I could write about that, but I don't think I'll do it right now. This is long enough already.
