Xara Retreat 2013!

Hi everyone!

We are creeping closer to the start of our 2013-14 season and we are so excited! We can wait to dive into the prep for our first show, Constellations, and to spend some quality time together at our annual Xara Retreat Weekend, happening this year from Friday, September 6th until Sunday, September 8th. Please make sure you have this time booked off from work and other commitments, as the retreat weekend is mandatory for singers.

The retreat weekend is a time to get to know one another, develop skills in musicianship, theatre, and movement, and start working on our first show of the season. This year, our retreat will be divided between William Black Memorial United Church Hall in Glen Margaret (30-40 minute drive from downtown Halifax), and our new rehearsal venue, St. Matthew’s United Church on Barrington St. You will have Sunday morning off to take care of all your non-Xara life things!

Note that this year we will have three meals together. The first two will be potlucks - Friday night supper will be brought by the altos, and Saturday lunch will be brought by the sopranos. Please keep in mind that we have a variety of dietary needs (some vegetarian, some gluten-free etc), so try to accommodate these as much as possible! Saturday evening dinner will be provided by the XCT board!

Please start organizing drives NOW for this retreat weekend. Our Facebook group is a great place to take care of that!

Here’s a basic schedule for the weekend:

Friday

Location: William Black Memorial United Church (Hall), Glen Margaret

6:00 Arrival, Intro, Potluck Supper (altos)

7:30 Session 1

9:00 Constellations Intro

10:00 Home

Saturday

Location: William Black Memorial United Church (Hall), Glen Margaret

9:30 Warmup

10:15 Session 2

12:30 Potluck Lunch (sopranos)

1:30 Session 3

3:30 Break

3:45 Session 4

5:45 Supper set up

6:15 Supper with XCT Board!

7:30 Session 5

8:30 Bonfire with Guest Astronomer for facilitated star-gazing

Sunday

Location: St. Matthew’s United Church, 1479 Barrington St.

1:15 Warmup

2:00 Session 6

5:00 Closing

5:30 Home

Things to Bring:

Comfortable clothes for sessions - must be able to move freely

Water bottle, pencils (a pencil case full of things is a great idea)

Music folder

Yoga mat or large towel

Warm clothes/layers/blankets for being outside in the evening (it gets REALLY cold and we won’t be moving a lot)

Potluck item, as per schedule

Gas money for your driver

Any questions, please let us know! We can’t wait to dive right into all the amazing things we have planned for this year! Looking forward to seeing you all very very soon!

Love, Claire & Christina

Welcome to the first season of XARA CHORAL THEATRE!

Hi Everyone!

We can hardly believe it’s that time again, but our new season is almost here! We hope you’ve all been having a fun and relaxing summer so far!!! As many of you know, Christina is basking in the joys of being newly married, and Claire has just returned from a whirlwind European vacation. Over the weekend we spent two days at Christina’s cottage, planning many exciting details for our 2013-14 season!!!! There’s lots to share with you all, but here are a few key things to keep in mind for the start of the season:

Fabulous New Singers

We have had an amazing round of auditions! We will be posting more details on our newbies soon but we at least wanted to share their names and encourage you to all start mixing and mingling in Facebook-land! Welcome to Paige Marvel, Devon Pennick-Reilly, Rachel Lutz, Mackenzie Hepditch, Colleen MacIsaac, and Joanna Burris!! Welcome back to Zoe Leger!!

Communication

We have a new Facebook group! Our secret Facebook group is called Xara 2013-2014 and this will be the spot to go for all your up-to-the-minute Xara news! We will continue to use the blog for longer updates, but will always post links to the most recent blog post on the Xara Facebook group.

Retreat

Our annual Xara Retreat weekend will be Friday September 6th (6 p.m.) to Sunday September 8th (finished at 5:30 p.m.) and will take place within HRM so we can take advantage of a special field trip (exciting details to come!!!). You will have Sunday morning off (at home) but the remainder of the weekend is especially for Xara and is mandatory. Please make sure you blocked these dates off in your calendar and are pro-active (now!) about ensuring you don’t have to work, etc. This is a time to get to know one another, take part in skill-building sessions in singing, movement, and theatre, start working on our fall show, and have fun! More details will follow very soon including a schedule and things you need to know about the weekend.

Schedule

We use a Google Calendar to help you stay up to date with important scheduling for Xara. All of the relevant dates (to the best of our knowledge) have now been entered for the Fall 2013 rehearsal period. Please make sure to look through the calendar, taking note of any special dates outside of regular rehearsals. The Google Calendar is accessible on the right side of our blog, or by clicking this link: https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=sf61a4mdec3uu1pe2g7l6mhlv0%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Halifax

Rehearsals

This year, rehearsals will be held from 1:15-5:30 pm on Sunday afternoons at St. Matthew’s United Church on Barrington St. Typically, from 1:15-2:30 pm we will schedule sectionals, workshops, or rehearsals for specific sections of the show. Every week there will be a full company rehearsal from 2:30-5:30 pm. We will post call lists as far in advance as possible to let you know what dates you are required for the first part of rehearsal.

Team

As we have transitioned to our own independent (AWARD WINNING!!!) organization, Xara Choral Theatre, there are some evolving changes to our structure. Xara Choral Theatre now has two choirs: Xara Choral Theatre Ensemble (you!) and Xara Youth Ensemble. We now have a dedicated and fabulous Board of Directors who are focused on supporting our organization and providing leadership and guidance. This board is currently chaired by our wonderful alto 2 Tejas Madhur, with fabulous alto 1 Tenille Goodspeed in charge of our choir fundraising. You will meet the other lovely members of the board as we get our season started. Another exciting development is that graduated singer Erin Gaudet will join our team in a wonderful new volunteer position. She will continue as choir librarian and attendance maven, and she will also now perform a number of other incredibly helpful functions, including weekly rehearsal note- taking regarding movement, divisi, and homework. These notes will be distributed to you weekly. We think we will all find that Erin’s organizational gifts will enhance our community!!!

That’s it for now ladies! We’ll be in touch soon with further details about the season. Enjoy this lovely summer, and we’re looking forward to seeing all of you in September!

Love, Claire & Christina