it's June ...
... and the garden is bustin' out all over!
I don't like to plan it this way, but sometimes I schedule too many things in a day! both of these were worthwhile though, so I chugged through and enjoyed it all. first, I made a reservation midway through the run of this fun variety live show. I knew the name of the theater troupe from my work with the Pride & Prejudice team (they loaned us costumes). I thought I would get dinner between gigs, but this lovely charcuterie plate filled the bill, and a little sparkling cider is always welcome! they performed show tunes from many generations, and all the performers were delightful - some were even phenomenal. if I can, I would like to audition for something and work with these folks. one character was the Cabaret MC, and he came out before the show and sat for a minute with me, making me feel welcome. we greeted each other after the show and he hugged me, and said I was such a responsive audience member. I chatted up a few of the performers, and they feel like a welcoming bunch. they are a bit of a "gypsy" troupe, like my P&P team, as they don't have a permanent performance venue. this show they were performing at the Elks Club, which was a perfect venue for this sort of a show, at least it seemed so to me!
the most delightful discovery at this show was seeing my tech director for P&P, Tom, at the light/sound board for this show. he was working it with his son-in-law. we chatted a bit and each mentioned our current and future grandparent statuses. their daughter is having a girl in August! I congratulated both of them. at the end of the show Tom came up and greeted me again in the group of performers I was standing with, confirming that I had indeed done a show with them, as if validating that I would be an okay addition. sometimes you need that in the insulated world of theater, where we have some absolute divas!
then I left Rancho Cordova and wended my way over to Carmichael. the temperature was hovering around 90, but there was a nice breeze occasionally. there were a number of folks enjoying the bands. I got there midway through the third-from-last band, this was the band who were trying to recruit me at the spaghetti fund raiser a few months ago. they sounded wonderful, and played several songs I liked. I chatted up a vendor at a booth selling artwork - - she's also a writer, and was very engaging!
finally it was our turn. the band shell was cool enough, but I almost needed my sunglasses. since I need my reading glasses to see my music, that would have been bad. our band director was doing his bit to recruit new members. we played our music very well.
for one piece of music - Ride of the Valkyries - all five of us horn players put on horned Viking helmets. As soon as our director saw us he cracked up, and had to take a moment to compose himself. this is the first time I've been in a band where we take a group photo after the performance, but they were all set up to do this with all the bands, so I guess it's a thing here! I happily posed for the serious version, then we horn players donned our horns once again for the silly version. that's me, the horn player most left!
