and, without missing a beat, joined in on the kick line. She’d certainly had enough ballet and tap lessons over the years to be able to manage that.
“Nice work, Lisa!” Jane said.
The PA was blasting a poor rendition of “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” leading Lisa to assume, correctly as it turned out, that they were working on the grand finale. That was one of the things she loved about putting a show together. Sometimes there appeared to be little or no logic to the order.
However, as Lisa looked around, she knew exactly what the logic was. There were almost no men present. Since a kick line was all women, it made complete sense to begin with that.
Jane had them go over the steps four or five times until it was roughly passable.
“We don’t need this to be too professional,” Jane said. “Enthusiasm is much more important than precision!”
Lisa smiled to herself. That was typically the case with amateur shows. The fact was that precision was impossible, so enthusiasm was essential.
Once they had the finale down, Jane checked her clipboard for other acts to rehearse.
She shook her head. “We need men,” she said.
“I’ve got one coming,” Lisa promised.
“Where is he now?”
“Taking a nap,” Lisa said. “But he’s got talent and I can fill him in on stuff so he’ll be up to speed tomorrow. I mean, I don’t think he can do the kick line.…”
“I don’t expect that—just that he can hold a tune and is willing to sing with the chorus.”
“You can count on that,” Lisa promised.
“Okay, leave a space for him,” said Jane, indicating where the group should make room for one more.
Jane had worked up a number of funny skits for the performers to put together. One of them was about a honeymooning couple who didn’t notice anything else going on around them. It was very funny, and Lisa could easily imagine herself and Tec playing the parts—for real—but Jane wouldn’t cast anyone who wasn’t there.
There was a skit making fun of the activity director, and another that involved a barnyard and required several people to share costumes for horses and cows. Lisa’s favorite skit was about snorkeling. Almost all of the skits required a chorus of some sort, and in each case Lisa made a space for Tec. None of this was hard. All of the music for the chorus parts was recorded, so the chorus had to do little more than be there and lip-sync. Tec could do that, for sure.
Lisa had had the foresight to stick a notepad in her pocket. As Jane described the blocking for each skit, she made notes for herself and for Tec. Since there would only be three rehearsals before the dress rehearsal, Tec would have to work hard to catch up. He could do it, though, she was sure.
“Okay,” Jane said, inviting them all to sit down on stools on the stage. “Those are the general skits, and since we do variations of them with every group of guests at the resort, I can assure you the audiences love them—especially the all-male
Swan Lake
takeoff. The other part of the show will be individual performances by guests. If there are people who would like to perform, sing, dance, juggle, twirl batons, whatever, they should see me. I’ll be holding auditions tonight at six and tomorrow at four. Thanks for all your good work, and I’ll see everybody tomorrow afternoon, same time, same place.”
Individual performances. Maybe that included duets. Could she and Tec do something? There were a lot of wonderful Broadway show duets they could sing, like “Anything You Can Do” from
Annie Get Your Gun
. Or maybe something like “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” Either one of those would be great. They’d be showstoppers. They’d be wonderful! She knew it wouldbe unbelievably fun to work with Tec on a silly song like that, but she also knew, and was less eager to admit, that it would be a way of showing him her talent. She didn’t like to think of herself as a show-off or think that she had
“Nice work, Lisa!” Jane said.
The PA was blasting a poor rendition of “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” leading Lisa to assume, correctly as it turned out, that they were working on the grand finale. That was one of the things she loved about putting a show together. Sometimes there appeared to be little or no logic to the order.
However, as Lisa looked around, she knew exactly what the logic was. There were almost no men present. Since a kick line was all women, it made complete sense to begin with that.
Jane had them go over the steps four or five times until it was roughly passable.
“We don’t need this to be too professional,” Jane said. “Enthusiasm is much more important than precision!”
Lisa smiled to herself. That was typically the case with amateur shows. The fact was that precision was impossible, so enthusiasm was essential.
Once they had the finale down, Jane checked her clipboard for other acts to rehearse.
She shook her head. “We need men,” she said.
“I’ve got one coming,” Lisa promised.
“Where is he now?”
“Taking a nap,” Lisa said. “But he’s got talent and I can fill him in on stuff so he’ll be up to speed tomorrow. I mean, I don’t think he can do the kick line.…”
“I don’t expect that—just that he can hold a tune and is willing to sing with the chorus.”
“You can count on that,” Lisa promised.
“Okay, leave a space for him,” said Jane, indicating where the group should make room for one more.
Jane had worked up a number of funny skits for the performers to put together. One of them was about a honeymooning couple who didn’t notice anything else going on around them. It was very funny, and Lisa could easily imagine herself and Tec playing the parts—for real—but Jane wouldn’t cast anyone who wasn’t there.
There was a skit making fun of the activity director, and another that involved a barnyard and required several people to share costumes for horses and cows. Lisa’s favorite skit was about snorkeling. Almost all of the skits required a chorus of some sort, and in each case Lisa made a space for Tec. None of this was hard. All of the music for the chorus parts was recorded, so the chorus had to do little more than be there and lip-sync. Tec could do that, for sure.
Lisa had had the foresight to stick a notepad in her pocket. As Jane described the blocking for each skit, she made notes for herself and for Tec. Since there would only be three rehearsals before the dress rehearsal, Tec would have to work hard to catch up. He could do it, though, she was sure.
“Okay,” Jane said, inviting them all to sit down on stools on the stage. “Those are the general skits, and since we do variations of them with every group of guests at the resort, I can assure you the audiences love them—especially the all-male
Swan Lake
takeoff. The other part of the show will be individual performances by guests. If there are people who would like to perform, sing, dance, juggle, twirl batons, whatever, they should see me. I’ll be holding auditions tonight at six and tomorrow at four. Thanks for all your good work, and I’ll see everybody tomorrow afternoon, same time, same place.”
Individual performances. Maybe that included duets. Could she and Tec do something? There were a lot of wonderful Broadway show duets they could sing, like “Anything You Can Do” from
Annie Get Your Gun
. Or maybe something like “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” Either one of those would be great. They’d be showstoppers. They’d be wonderful! She knew it wouldbe unbelievably fun to work with Tec on a silly song like that, but she also knew, and was less eager to admit, that it would be a way of showing him her talent. She didn’t like to think of herself as a show-off or think that she had
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