I wish I could have taken pictures during the performance, because the costumes were just amazing (an my seat was incredible!). The play takes place in Japan, but it is actually a comedic commentary on British politics and government. The cast inserted quips appropriate for present day (so little jabs at David Cameron etc.) and it was hysterical! It is considered an opera, but I would have put it into the category of musical, I think. The soloists had incredible voices, and they were brilliant actors as well! I recommend seeing it to anyone who has the opportunity! :)
In other news, the practices for the play that I am acting in have been going very well, and I've been rehearsing without my script for the past two rehearsals! I was worried that I'd have trouble memorizing my lines, and I actually hadn't even started to memories when the director said that we'd be going scriptless. And to my surprise, I already knew all of my lines! I was quite relieved. I'm sure I'll get a bit more nervous as the time for the performance gets closer....
Both my orchestras have been going very well, and I'm really excited about my rehearsal with Sinfionetta tonight! We're rehearsing with the piano soloist for one of our pieces, and it's always really exciting to play with the soloist. And that is for a couple of reasons. 1) They are often incredible musicians and it's nice to hear them play and hear the suggestions for us that they have and 2) Playing accompaniment without the soloist can tend to be a bit tedious so it's nice to be refreshed with what it is that we're supporting.
Today I am presenting on a collection of short stories for my Art and Craft of Fiction II course. I'm a little bit nervous, but only because the collection I'm presenting was written by my professor. In hindsight, I'm not sure why I volunteered to present on his book. I suppose I didn't think it all the way through. It puts me in a bit of an unusual position, because usually we critique the stories and tear apart what techniques we thought worked and didn't work. But since the author is sitting right there (and eventually will be grading me) I feel a bit uncomfortable saying anything negative about it. So, I'm not sure what up going to do, other than play up the positives... We'll see how it goes. I have the positives and the negatives scribbled down, but we'll see how much of the negatives I have the guts to say.
My French class has been going really good and I'm starting to feel like I know how to say a bit more. It's taught a lot differently than I'm used to for language classes, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Hopefully it will come in handy when I venture over to Paris!
Finally, I've gotten the feedback from my professor on the first half of my novel, and while she did suggest some pretty substantial changes (I changed the POV from first to third person for half of it), she thought it was promising and had lots of nice things to say! I've finished making the edits for the first six chapters and I really think it's gotten a lot better. I'm not sure if I'll make it or not, but I'm hoping to finish the book and submit it for a prize on March 8. It will be a stretch, but I'm hoping... If not, I'll still finish it and submit it to a different prize.
Speaking of prizes, I have submitted a short story for a prize which focuses on and celebrates horse racing. I think it turned out well, and I'll be finding out if I've been shortlisted for it or not by the 14th of March, I believe. So once I find out if I've made it through or not, I'll post it here (since it's only 2,000 words).
Cheers,
Sarah
