It's All Over

Well, Return to the Forbidden Planet, the musical I was in, has finished its run, and I am suffering from post-show blues that no amount of Haribos is able to shift. I miss everyone so much. I miss the adrenaline when you first run out on stage, the applause. I even miss the ache in my limbs and the random bruises afterwards. The world seems a little flatter, a little devoid of colour, now that it's over.

Long Sigh.

But anyway, I am back from being all theatrical, and really do need to make a start again at the writing. I still have a novel to edit and rewrite, plus another one that needs completing, and an older one that I've been thinking of rewriting too. Think I'll give myself tonight to finish mopping about, and then get back to work.

Musicals

Rehearsals are heating up for Return To The Forbidden Planet. Last week, I was filmed for a montage that takes place about half way through Act 1, and since then, we've been running the show every rehearsal. I am so exhausted by the end! I can't believe the show is on in only 2 weeks; I'm going to be so sad when it finishes.

I love Glee, and have just finished watching the "Rocky Horror" episode. I'm not sure I like that they changed the lyrics in "Touch-a Touch Me" but I guess it's understandable given that the show has quite a young audience. We did The Rocky Horror Show at uni for a charity night, and I got to play Magenta. The whole experience of that night has to be one of the best of my entire time at university - to stand on that stage and to have everyone in the audience stand up and sing along and dance to your performance was just magical. Have dug out an old photo so you can laugh (actually, it's not so embarrassing to me, as I'm probably wearing the most clothes out of anyone!). Ah, happy days.

I'm off to New York City in April, so if anyone has been before or is reading this from the other side of the pond, and has any recommendations of things to do, please let me know.

Ciao for now - I have to look over my lines again tonight, because apparently what I thought was crazy obscure Shakespeare turns out to be a typo in the script. Ooops!

Planet

It's three weeks until my show opens. Eek! How did that happen? It doesn't seem so long ago since it was the first rehearsal.

Things are pretty much coming together now; I know most of my lines, most of my song lyrics, and have a pretty good idea where I'm supposed to stand at any given moment. Can't wait until we start running it all the way through though - I know I need to build up my stamina as the show rolls from one big number into the next, and I really don't want to be panting and wheezing my way through "Great Balls of Fire".

Just to plug the show again to y'all, I'm in Return To The Forbidden Planet at the Concordia Theatre, in Hinckley Leicestershire, from Mon 21st - Sat 26th February. Tickets are £8-£10 depending on which night you come, and details about how they can be obtained can be found here: www.concordiatheatre.co.uk. I play the Science Officer, "a woman with a mysterious past".

Because of the increased time I'm having to put into rehearsals, coupled with the busy period starting at work, I'm going to have to put the editing of Matti to one side for the time being - simply until the play is done - otherwise I might have some sort of break down. Big plans are afoot for the week beginning 28th February, don't you worry.

Happy Belated New Year

Right, let me explain the lack of posts since December. At first it was a case of "nothing much has happened today," which branched into "I'll do it tomorrow". Weeks past, and then suddenly in my mind, due to the delay between posts, my next blog post "had" to be about something interesting, witty and important; well written and relevant. But I couldn't think of anything.
Then Christmas and New Year flew by, and I missed the perfect opportunity to ease myself back into blogging with a quick non-judgemental Christmas greeting. But I didn't, because I was having an off-line Christmas, like we did in 1996 before the internet was commonplace and you actually had to turn on the telly and wait for a designated timeslot to find out the news.
And now it has come to this. A month with no new updates.
What can I say? I psyched myself out.
So here it is, not particularly witty, well written or interesting, but a blog post nonetheless, in the hope to get this thing moving again.

What I'm reading now: The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
What I'm procrastinating from doing now: Learning my lines for Return to the Forbidden Planet (I'm on at end of February folks!); re-reading my NaNoWriMo novel.
Weird proof that wishing on stars works, but not always in the way you'd like: I wished I would finish my novel. So my computer has broken, making it impossible for me to play The Sims 2. Annoying, expensive to fix yet will probably mean my second draft will be completed within six months.

If you're not already, follow me on Twitter @LucyAnnWade

It's nice to be back.

Righty-O

My writing is now back on track. I've begun to catalogue what currently happens in Dorcas Grubb, chapter by chapter (one more to go), and can already see the major faults and where I'll need to rewrite and create new story. I've also begun to story board it as a graphic novel - I thought back when I was writing it that it would make a great comic, mainly due to the scene at the end with the giant time vortex ripping between Memorial Arch in Leicester, so thought I'd give it a go.

It's also almost NaNoWriMo time. It's really crept up on me this year. I've re-registered with the site, but haven't given any more thought to the story I'll be writing for it. My head is too full of Dorcas, and I'm not rewriting that as part of NaNoWriMo because I need time to contemplate and improve and polish and NaNoWriMo really isn't that place. NaNoWriMo is the place for spitting out ideas, tapping into that dream state and silencing that inner critic to give the imagination free reign for one whole month. I am registered on the website as "Grizabella", so if you're NaNoWriMo-ing yourself, feel free to add me as a buddy.

Rehearsals for Return To The Forbidden Planet are continuing to go well. It is on February 21st - 26th 2011 and ticket information is available here: http://www.concordiatheatre.co.uk/showguide/showdetail.asp?Key=76

Rehearsals and a New Story

At the moment, rehearsals are consuming most of my time. I had forgotten how good doing a show makes you feel. It's all those endorphins, probably. It is so good to be singing again. In this show, I get to go back to my "alto" roots, after singing mezzo- and top-soprano for the past 5 years. Apparently, my alto voice is "sultry and powerful". :-) I was even given chocolates after yesterday's rehearsal, so can't be doing too badly.

I've also been working on a new short story, about a girl who gets possessed by a symbiont on her 16th birthday. I'm up to the point where she's got the thing inside her, but don't know what to do next. Am going to send it around to a few people to read, and hopefully their feedback will help me see where the story is going. I kinda like what I've got so far, so am a bit loathe to throw away the story just on the basis that I can't figure out what's going on! This is where having understanding but honest people who you can bounce ideas off is great.

Rehearsals and Dorcas

Rehearsals for Return To The Forbidden Planet are going well. Last night we set "It's A Man's World" and it was the first time I got to sing and act in front of the rest of the cast. It was a really fun night, though I'm feeling very tired right now. The show doesn't stop - it goes straight from one number to the next, and is really testing my stamina. At least I'll be a lot fitter after it's all over.

On the writing side of things, I've submitted a story to an anthology, so fingers crossed on that one. I've also decided to write a second draft of Dorcas Grubb, whilst I'm waiting for NaNoWriMo to start. So far I'm up to the second chapter. I reread it recently, and was surprised at how sad the story is, which I think is just about right; if your main character has just lost their father, then I think they would and should be sad. I suppose the story is as much about a family dealing with their grief as it is about time travelling adventures.

I do enjoy being busy. Does that make me weird? :-)

So, my audition on Sunday was successful and I got the part of the Science Officer in Return to the Forbidden Planet! It is very strange, and it still hasn't sunk in properly; I guess because I didn't think I'd get either of the female parts. I just went into the audition room, knees shaking a little (literally) and had a good old sing, and I got the part. So I'm going to have to work hard on learning my lines and learning my songs. It's a really silly show (in a good way) - at the end of the 1st act I get attacked by a giant tentacle - and it should be fun to do. The rest of the cast are brilliant. Hopefully I'll be good in it. I'll try my best, at any rate. The video above isn't me or from the production I'm in, but it gives you an idea about the type of show this is (the clip is Miranda singing "Teenager in Love").

This does mean though that I'm now over in Hinckley every Monday and Thursday night until the middle of February. So I need to structure my time a bit better to make sure I can fit in work and my writing. Wednesdays I still go to Speculators, which has been a real help in motivating me to complete the things I'm working on. On Tuesdays and Fridays I will have to go to the library after work to get stuff done. Not sure how I'm going to fit NaNoWriMo into all this, though I've completed it before whilst doing a show, so I'll just have to make it happen.

Going to be a tad busy for the next four months.