‘Tis time once more for tales from Fyse,
Both long and tall that shall be spake,
With language florid yet precise,
And thus the idle silence break.

And this is the point where I realise I am embarrassing myself. I wasn’t entirely sober when I wrote that and, having seen a Shakespeare play earlier in the day, was in the mood for some rhyming. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Prepare for the quick-fire update…

Last time I described the busy day ahead of me, a day through which I passed relatively unscathed. I never made it to lectures, needless to say, but the singing workshop in the afternoon was useful. It got more than a little bizarre at times, but even the weirdest of things she got us to do seemed to help. She had a very strong technical knowledge under pinning all her crazy methods, and was always able to describe things clearly. I’ve had singing lessons before, but they were based on classical technique and, as she explained during the workshop, musical theatre singing is slightly different. If being forced to jump round like a lunatic whilst singing helps ‘free up my voice’, then who am I to argue? At least the only people to witness this unedifying spectacle also performed similar lunacies.

The careers event that followed this was entirely useless. Lord knows when I’m gonna get my act together to find a job for the summer, but it’s certainly not going to be till after the show now. Speaking of which, rehearsals are now more frequent and hectic than ever. We have one day of rehearsal left, before a day off on Sunday and the technical rehearsal on Monday. The dress rehearsal is then on Tuesday afternoon before we open that evening. It’s really a quite terrifying prospect.

Brief pause in typing as the fattest fly in the world is politely ushered from the room…

I wrote the beginning of this post late on Thursday evening, having just returned from the ADC Theatre bar. (ADC stands for Amateur Dramatics Club, the main Cambridge student drama society, and owner of the theatre.) I went to the Arts Theatre earlier in the day to see ‘The Comedy of Errors’, which somewhat excuses the random beginning to this entry. Or at least gives some explanation in conjunction with the alcohol. The show was very well done, but unfortunately the auditorium was almost entirely empty and the atmosphere was completely dead. Enjoyable nonetheless, and the standard of the acting was very high. Now for another treat from my drunken ramblings…

‘Twas Wednesday eve our hero came,
Called forth by our conductor grand,
Who then rehearsed, perchance to tame,
That foul and dreaded beast, ‘The Band’.

This rubbish refers to the rehearsal we had with the band on Wednesday. It’s known as a ‘sitzprobe’, but I’ve never been furnished with a satisfactory explanation as to why. It was great for us all to get an idea of how things will really sound, especially for the soloists, and everyone was very upbeat after the rehearsal. A degree of tension has crept into proceedings of late as we’ve begun to realise how much there is left to do. At a theatre like the Arts, failure to produce a polished performance isn’t really an option…

Still, I’m sure everything will come together. If my experience in ‘The Sorcerer’ last term taught me anything, it’s that miraculous amounts can be achieved at the last minute. At the moment we have a good show, which I’m sure they audience will enjoy, but we’ve got lots of hard work to make it the slick and professional performance required. Just so long as my tap dancing is sorted by the time my friends come on the Thursday…