Little Women--Wrapping it Up

It's been a week since opening night, and I feel like I'm still recovering from Little Women. It was a crazy two weeks leading up to the performances--I was at school 12 times in less than two weeks, which is quite a feat when you have a baby who still nurses five times a day. Even though it's been nearly a week since the show closed on stage, I've still been working on wrapping things up. Handing out reimbursements, getting reimbursed, closing the account, the cast party, putting stuff away, bringing my excessive amount of things home that I used for the play, putting that excessive amount of stuff away...Yesterday, I spent several hours organizing the mess. Now, I have a clean guest room--which had been piled high with drama stuff. And an organized closet--which had been floor to ceiling full of stuff. De-cluttering, cleaning, and tidying up. It feels good.

These pictures are from one of the dress rehearsal days. I had to bring Willow to school at 2 o'clock. Adam has a planning period during that time, so he came and visited us when he heard we were at school.

Willow was over joyed to see her dad! She loves him so much.

The set pieces coming together. 

Lots of little touches here and there to make it look more 'homey'. It was my life-sized doll house.

Program cover. I became obsessed with this clip art and had it put on everything. I wish that it had been on the tickets too, but I found it after those had been printed. 

It was on our posters too--I just found out (from looking at the bill) that the reason my pile of posters never dwindled was because 250 had been ordered. I had asked for 50 copies....oh well. 

Willow ready to go to school on Friday afternoon, dressed up for Opening Night.

Dave helped a lot with tech again--seriously, I don't know what I would do without him! He is very experienced, and always finds great sound effects and music.

Opening Night jitters. I was so nervous for them! They did a great job overall, and it was a successful performance--but I still caught all the mistakes that were made here and there. I'm sure it was all the tension and pressure they were feeling--never having had a 'practice performance' before opening night (like we usually have). And never having gone through the entire show in one shot (which probably made me more nervous than it made them).

We used a little room backstage for special make-up. We had a few costume racks in the activity room. The doors were plastered with stars that had each cast and crew member's name and role/job. You can see on this particular door is a tiny star--it has Willow's name on it! Hannah, the assistant director, was so sweet to do that! :) We also did hair and make-up in the activity room. The supplies were set up in stations--we used the ping pong tables. haha! Had chairs moved in the room for the kids to sit on--vast improvement from previous years when they had to sit on the floor. 

Since I had a poster surplus, we hung one for each cast/crew member so that they could write encouraging notes to each other throughout the production weekend.

The Johnson family on Saturday night.

Like I've mentioned a hundred times before, I'm not allowed to post pictures of students on the internet. But I'm going to go about this in a round about way and send you to this blog. The writer's daughter was in Little Women--she is a great blogger, so you should check out her other posts too! :) Also, for my American friends/family, if you want to see pictures or videos of the play when we visit this summer, I would love to show off! I think these kids are the best and love to prove it.

Recap of the performances:

Friday Night: lots of energy and nerves. some people were difficult to hear (we don't have microphones, so they have to project their voices). a few falling set pieces, including the coat tree which sort of broke. a few missed cues, some dropped lines. huge audience turn out. relatively unruly audience. girl wore roller blades. a bunch of kids in the front row were loud and obnoxious and kept standing up in their chairs and talking loudly. people were passing out yogurt and drinks in the auditorium (even though they shouldn't be eating in there). some people were asked to leave by the ushers because they were so disruptive. it was hot in the auditorium. the fog dissipated way too quickly in the scenes that needed it. some black outs were an eternity long because the girls backstage were not using the walkie talkies to call lights up correctly. started ten minutes late, because of a small crisis backstage--causing intermission to be shorter and the audience to be late for their buses home. there was no time for the cast to greet the audience because of this--which was disappointing because it is my favorite part of directing a show (to see the audience congratulate the cast/crew). found out just how LONG the play really was. over two hours! way longer than the last two years. the students were so happy to be done with the performance. it was a huge wave of relief to have one performance finished. since we had never been able to run the whole show before (a point of personal panic), I'm sure they felt an amazing sense of accomplishment to get through the whole beastly play!

Saturday Afternoon: we were harried in the beginning while getting ready. for one main reason--we needed more hands! on Friday night, we had several people helping with hair and make-up. on Saturday, we had only three people--thankfully a few moms showed up out of the goodness of their hearts--but we were still severely understaffed. for instance, i did four updos in less than an hour. they turned out pretty cute too, considering the amount of time I had--and I would have taken pictures to prove this point had i found a spare moment! we were all working as fast as we could, and kept asking each other, 'what time is it?' I kept telling myself to breathe--you can do this! during performances, one of my biggest responsibilities is making sure the show starts on time...only succeeded 1 out of 3 times...Overall, it was a much calmer, cooler, quieter performance, especially in comparison to opening night. it was nice to be able to watch the show in a calmer setting--far more enjoyable for me! and it was a thrill to watch the students performing even BETTER than the night before, even though there were only fifty people in the audience. even though there were less people in the audience, but they were extremely supportive. started on time, ended on time. adequate time for intermission. only two mistakes; one was pretty funny. the guy who played laurie was on stage when the lights came up, but then realized that he wasn't in that particular scene. He slowly walked of the stage, and i died laughing in the back row. I laughed quietly, of course. the students had to eat a very early lunch, so they were hungry by the time intermission came. i ended up buying them a bunch of food from the refreshment table--including fourteen hotdogs, which they devoured before act two started. Adam watched Willow at home, and then brought her to school as the first performance was ending.

Saturday Night: because the show is so incredibly long, we only had about forty minutes for a break before we had to start getting ready for the next show. the students ate dinner quickly--we had Subway delivered again (Subway on Friday and Saturday....) and then we started setting the stage, touching up hair and make-up, taking cast pictures, and meeting before the show started. It was a little emotional to know that this was the last show for several of the students, including four seniors who I've had the privilege of directing two or three times before. we had to start late again because one of the buses was several minutes behind schedule. list resulted in a shorter intermission because i wanted to make sure that there would be time after the show for the audience to greet the cast/crew. of course, a few days later, i received complaints that the intermission had been too short. sorry folks! can't please everyone, and the cast getting to see their friends and family after the show is more important than stuffing your face with hot dogs and popcorn. Adam recorded the evening performance, our friend took Willow home to put her to bed. It was the best performance in my opinion. another packed audience. they clapped, laughed, and gave the first standing ovation in SYIS drama history! i was literally exploding with pride for the students--jumping up and down backstage for them, screaming my head off. YAY! I was backstage at the end of the show so that I could give flowers to our lovely seniors after the curtain call. could barely get through my scripted speech because i didn't want to cry. then i made them do our little drama dance! haha, the girls were not happy about that. at least i joined them in the humiliation.

Mama Side Note:
  People comment, "how did you do this AND teach?" I would like to respond, "it was easy. i had help."  The reality is, how can I direct AND be a mom. This is the real tricky business! I don't know how people mother multiple children. Or...I guess I should say, I don't know how I could direct and be a mom to more than one child. It has been a difficult balancing act, and Willow was the victim of Little Women. I tried to do as much work as possible during the times when she napped, or after she went to sleep for the night--but towards the end, there was just so much to do. It's also tricky to find baby sitters here--although I had one friend who consistently babysat every Monday, which was a huge blessing. Going into this play, I thought it would be easier, since I wouldn't be teaching full time simultaneously. Although teaching and directing is difficult, at least I was at school all day. It's very hard to direct when you are stranded at home. There are so many issues that just can't be dealt with, and there are so many times when you have to rely on the good will of others to get things done.

PURE MOMENT OF JOY:
One of the best moments--you know, one of those moments that makes everything worth it--I was sneaking my way backstage during a black out. The lights came up while I was still in the House, so I crouched in the front row. I looked back at the audience, at all their faces as they watched the story unfold before their eyes. Their expressions were priceless. Right there, my spirit soared, as I watched them transfixed and smiling. All the markets, the mafan, the frustrations, the thousands of emails--it all became so worth it. Vaporized by joy--or maybe I should call it relief. Nothing sweeter than a little validation.

Speaking of relief...it was a relief to have Anna helping out. She joined during the last few weeks of the play, and was able to stay backstage to help supervise operations back there. It was a relief to know that I could text her, "something's wrong with Jo's wig" in the middle of a performance, and know that she would receive the text and fix the wig before the next scene started. Not to mention, having full faith in the fact that she would have her phone on silent while backstage. So nice.

A little RANT:

Of course, we received compliments about the show. This year, we also had 'feedback' from parents. "Feedback" means 'complaining'. I can't call it constructive criticism, or even criticism--because that would imply that something could be done about the problems that were brought to my attention. I say this a bit snidely because if there are ANY problems, I am acutely aware of them before anyone else is and already scheming on how to improve the situation next year. Complaining and whining about how the auditorium is too far from the cafeteria is just obnoxious. As is complaining that the 'no eating in the auditorium' rule is inconvenient when you're hungry. Not to mention, it is ridiculous to complain about the length of the show and say that it is too long for babies/toddlers. Of course it is! I just rest in the fact that the 'feedback' is all stuff that I have basically no control over. If we can change it to make it better for the students, then we will next year. Such as bus stops changing to be more convenient. The bottom line is, I don't do this for the money, I do it because I love sharing theater with the students. They aren't doing it for money, or even to please their audience--they're doing it for the educational experience. It's for fun. It's not a professional company; we don't have a professional company's budget, facilities, or talent network---it's a fledgling school club. End rant.

To end on a happy note: I LOVED LITTLE WOMEN!!!!! Every minute, good and bad, will be cherished in my memory bank. Loved the chance to work with such a talented group of kids. Loved watching them grow. Loved seeing them explore new interests. Loved watching them in their element, and for others to see them in their comfort zone. Some kids don't excel in class, but are amazing on  stage--I want people to see this facet of the kids. I want them to be appreciated and accepted for who they are. The lady who recruited Adam and I to work in Shenyang was visiting our city and able to see the show--she thought it was great and had lots of encouraging things to say. She had seen our first play, which had been put together without a cent from the school, with a cast who had largely never done theater before. We've come a long way in three years! I swell with pride over these students! They were remarkably talented, focused, and so great to work with. In my opinion, this was the best acting, best backstage crew, best set, best costumes, best overall look, smoothest production we've had. It was a delight to be a part of! The students make the work worth it--they were a wonderful mixture--we had super talented kids, super hard workers, super encouragers, super clowns....I loved watching them share their gifts with others. It was beautiful.

~julie

No Upbringing At All, They Say...

"What do you think of the boy?"

"They say he's had no upbringing at all. He grew up in the theater among artists and vagrants"
"Do you think he has a noble brow? If I were a boy, I would want to look just like that"

-Little Women 

This video makes me think of this passage from the beginning of Little Women. Willow is growing up 'among artists and vagrants'. She was at the first 40-ish minutes of every dress rehearsal--on my hip--or crying because someone else was holding her. While people were changing, and setting up, she was playing in the 'attic' of our set. She got scared during the fight scene, and didn't care for blackouts. At least Adam was able to take her home as soon as his last class was over. She was such a trooper! 

Little Women

I haven't had a chance to write about Little Women in a while. We have only four rehearsals left before opening night. They are all in the same week, so essentially, we have only one week of drama left. Lots of emotions go with that reality.

-stress
-panic
-sadness
-excitement
-relief
-exhaustion
-more panic

In keeping with tradition, we've had our share of ups and downs so far. Since I don't know all the students as well as I would like, I'm sure there's plenty of other trials and tribulations going on. But from my perspective, they keep things together pretty well despite all the bumps in the road.

-We've had to re-cast the play twice. The second time happened just today.
-We lose 10 backstage crew members in a matter of two days before the first tech rehearsal.
-We lose costume pieces
-We take head shots with no prior warning (to the horror of senior girls)
-Our prop room floods
-Our bus stops for the audience change last minute because of construction

We hold up against complaints. We try to navigate through confusion, mis-communication, delegation, and tri-lingual barriers.

The last two weeks have been fairly productive. My to-do list has shrunk from four pages long (size 10 font in Word) to only one page long. Too bad all the remaining tasks are each intense pieces of work by themselves!

Almost finished with props, sets, and costumes. Almost finished polishing up the acting. Almost finished with ticket sales.

The parent volunteers do so much to help. This year I have far less volunteers than last year, but these people are doing quite a bit.  Hair, make-up, ironing before, washing costumes afterwards, buying food, baking treats, selling refreshments, setting up, tearing down, cleaning up....they work so hard! Today, I had a meeting with some of the volunteers.

We aren't rehearsing at all this week because the middle school students are gone on their spring trip. Our main character is in 6th grade! But the high school students are still working on sets, props, costumes, and the backstage area. Even though it hurts not to have this week to practice, at least we have time to get all these other tasks accomplished. I hope all the middle school students return in my one piece! Oh yes...my husband too!

Always this is a learning process for me. I learn how to do it better, where I failed, what to do differently next time. I wonder if I will ever get the hang of this? Between bus routes, casting decisions, costume fittings, delegating.....lots to learn!

IKEA

One Sunday, after fellowship, we took a taxi to IKEA to grab a few things I needed for Little Women. We walked around the displays for end tables and desks, looking for a small table I could use as a writing table in the play. We settled on a small kitchen table that collapses, because it was actually the cheapest option. We were able to get the table and a chair for less than the price of the desk I had been eyeing online. After we jotted the location numbers for the furniture down, we went to eat some lunch. Fortunately there were some empty chairs--a difficult thing to find on a Sunday afternoon at IKEA. It seems like thousands of people are there on Sunday.

This was a few weeks ago, but I still remember that Willow ate a TON of food there. She is interested in all finger foods and is not picky at all. She ate spinach, potatoes, meat balls, chicken, rice, broccoli, bread, and a pancake. She loves food so much. In fact, tonight she was eating so much lasagna, carrots, and green beans that I was starting to wonder where she was putting it all. For all the eating she does, she is actually slimming down. I think she will be a tall lady.

We were wearing matching outfits this day...but we forgot to take a picture!

People sleeping on the tables in the food court.

A sign explaining why you have to bus your own tables. It's something we take for granted in America. But in China, you never bus your own table. Even at Starbucks or McDonalds! IKEA is the only place that makes the customers clean up after themselves--which apparently confuses/frustrates them.

During this meal we had lots of people staring at us. For three reasons, I'm guessing. #1, Adam is a large foreign looking man with blond hair. #2, there is a baby and Chinese people are obsessed with babies. #3, there is a bi-racial couple who look too young to be parents. I think that you have to be 24 years old to even get married in China. So being parents at our age is pretty unusual. I started taking pictures of the people that were staring at us so that they would leave us alone. We had a few kids come up to us too so that they could see their "Mei mei" (which means 'little sister'). Although, most of the people thought she was actually a Di Di (little brother).

~julie

Cheer Up

It's been pretty heavy around this blog lately. So, I thought I'd lighten the mood for a bit before plunging into another introspective post.

Lately, when I come home from Little Women rehearsals, Adam is waiting outside for me with little Willow. She is always very happy to see me.

Below, Willow is on the set of Little Women. She is doing her, "How big is Willow? So big!" trick for the camera. I'm not sure how she picked it up, since we don't do it with her often at all, but she definitely understands the cue to put her arms in the air.

My assistant director, Willow, and me. I couldn't manage Little Women without Hannah!

My script. This is actually NOT an artsy picture. Adam snapped it without even looking--he was checking to see if the battery was working. But, since it's my script...now you have a visual.

Starting to use costumes and sets...still a lot to do!

This cute outfit has a little stuffed panda attached to the pocket. Willow loved having a toy nearby at all times. What a silly goose!

She enjoys going in her castle. I think it is hilarious when she goes in her castle on her own accord. I might be working on chores or Little Women, and then I'll notice that she's sitting in her castle.

First halter-top dress.

New book from her Grandma Johnson

oh, these pictures are out of order. 

Willow on the set of Little Women again.

~julie

Ache in the Gut

Most memorable stomach aches (...because this is what I've been thinking about, when not stressing out about Little Women):

1. Swine flu, 2009
2. Morning sickness, 2010
3. When I had a tick in my belly button, 1992

4. Labor, 2011

5. Little Women, 2012

----------------------------------

On Monday, I arrived at school to work on Little Women stuff. The tailor was coming for costume fittings, and there were a lot of kids that needed to be fitted before they left (not everyone was staying for rehearsal). We had a limited time to do this, so that was stressful enough. But when I got to the drama closet to grab a hoop skirt, I was confronted by an open door. This scared me immediately because this door is meticulously locked all the time. When I turned on the light, I noticed everything was moved around, and nothing looked the same as how I'd left it on Thursday. I couldn't even fathom what had been changed, because so much had been altered.

I went to the man who is in charge of maintenance and asked him if he knew what had happened. Only the directors and maintenance have keys to this room.

He looked confused, and then his face registered some recognition as he remembered that this room had FLOODED over the weekend. Instant panic! He said that they noticed water pouring out of the room, so had opened the door, fixed the problem, and moved the wet stuff around. Oh brother.

There is a small sink in our closet. The faucet had been left on, but it wasn't such a big deal since the water was off in this building. Apparently, they turned the water in the building on, and flooding ensued.

I'm still nervous about what has been affected by the water. I'm not sure about the extent of the damage, because between the rehearsal and the costume fittings I never had time to fully check out the situation.

I really hate this last month of production. There's so much to do, and not enough time to do it. We need more time for rehearsal, and I need more time for the million little jobs. It's especially stressful when other people don't understand the pressure that we're under. Parents don't understand that their kids need to be at rehearsals, students don't understand how little time they have left to get their parts ready, administration doesn't understand that we need more time, and everyone doesn't understand how much work a play requires. I was telling a lady last week that I worked 8 hours the previous day on play stuff. She was shocked, since it was not a rehearsal day. "What were you DOING?"

Well. I was DOING a lot.

My to-do list is five pages long.

And here, I sit. Blogging.

Everything just takes LONGER. For instance, I've been trying to pay the royalties to perform this script for five months. Last week, I thought it had finally gotten sorted out, and then I received an email that there were further complications! I wish that there was a button that solved everything instantly--this drawn out issue is so exhausting, I'm sick of it!

I'm getting to the point where I'm fantasizing about life-after-Little-Women. What will I do with my extra time? Scrap book, picnic, watch a movie, organize my closet....

It's a love-hate relationship. I can't imagine NOT doing Little Women, I'm enjoying the process. But the amount of work is currently outshining the level of enjoyment. The last few days are always tricky--it's a rough balancing act.

Oh man! Willow just woke up! I thought she would sleep for her typical two hours. But no, she is already awake after thirty minutes.

~julie

The End of a Long Week

We woke up late this morning. Too late. Slept in. Adam jumped out of bed in a panic! Here's why.

It was our second night of trying to break Willow of her sleeping pattern. She likes to wake up 2-3 times a night to nurse. I know that she does this because she is hungry (she's too distracted during the day to eat much), and because it has become a habitual routine. It started when we got back from our Christmas break in America--she had jet lag and got the influenza in February. By the end of February, it had solidified, and I had just been hoping it would go away by itself all during March. Well, now it's the middle of April and there's no signs of it going away on it's own. So instead of doing the easy thing--which is bringing her in bed with us so I can nurse her for a few minutes--Adam goes to soothe her mid-night cries. If I go, she'll want to eat.

The first night was successful. She only woke up once, and didn't protest to Adam settling her back down.


Apparently, night #2 was not as peaceful. Adam spent a few hours up with Willow--I had told him that should this happen, he should let me take a turn (after thirty minutes). But, I guess he forgot. His alarm didn't go off.

And neither did mine. Willow is my alarm. She slept in because she was tired from being awake so much during the night.


We woke up with a start. Adam had to leave for school in ten minutes, and I had to be out the door with Willow in thirty! She had a wellness check up at the foreign clinic. It was a mad chaos as we took turns getting ready, packing our stuff, getting Willow up/dressed/fed...We all made it to our various destinations on time.

Willow is doing great! I found out that I should be giving her fluoride supplements to help with her teeth. The water here doesn't really have added fluoride, and it's not consistent with the bottled water that we drink either (depending on companies). So if I want Willow to take a daily supplement, I have to first get our drinking water tested so that the appropriate dose can be given. Part of me doesn't really think this is necessary, but I would hate for Willow's teeth to rot prematurely. It's ok with me if they rot when she's 89.


These are her current stats:
weight: 20.7 pounds
height: 28 inches

I wouldn't put TOO much emphasis on the accuracy of these measurements. But, I suppose they are close enough, so we'll go with it.


This week felt so long. It feels like spring break was two or three weeks ago. I'm working lots on Little Women. Probably anywhere from 4-8 hours a day...which I guess might surprise people who think I only work three hours a week when I'm at rehearsals. Chinese lessons are coming along too. I have a new teacher now, and I asked her if we could review the book that I had already finished, and that I had been reviewing last year as well. Technically, I'm on the third book, but I feel like the second isn't sticking in my head. So we're reviewing AGAIN. And it struck me, that I originally passed this book two years ago. That was slightly depressing. At least this time I go through all the vocab and grammar, it makes more sense. It's not that I remember it--because I don't, hence the reviewing--it's just that my frame of reference for this language is a lot broader than it used to be. I have some stories to share next time.

~julie