Notes for Sunday October 2 + Deloitte Gig

Hi everyone!

Thank you for a great Sunday including both the rehearsal and the church service!

Here's the plan for this Sunday's rehearsal. Tenors and basses are called from 1:15-3:30pm. Jennette is called from 2:15-3:30pm.

1:15  Physical Warm up
1:25 Vocal Warm up
1:35 SATB Music
2:15 Snowdrift Soundscape & Blocking
2:45 Block Sc 2 - Sc 3.1
3:15 Break
3:30 Pakkanen Music & Blocking
4:25 SSAA Music
5:15 Vocal Solo Auditions

For SATB music we will be working on Jing-ga-lye-ya and Nothing Else Matters. We will be running Jing-ga-lye-ya from memory and with blocking so please make sure to review that piece this week so we don't have to spend any time re-teaching things on Sunday.

For SSAA music we will be working on O-Yo-Yo and Songbird in addition to Pakkanen. Reminder that Pakkanen is to be memorized for this week.

To review the list of vocal solos we will be auditioning on Sunday, click here.

Deloitte Gig

Date: Friday September 30

Time: 10:45pm-1:30pm

Location: Bluenose Room, Delta Halifax

Repertoire: Sister Song, Warrior, One Voice (all memorized)

Clothing: tunics, boots, black leggings

Hair/Makeup: Clean and simple, hair can be up or down but must be pinned off your face

To access the script that we are using for the event, click here.

Thank you to everyone who is able to do this performance! We are really looking forward to sharing our music with Deloitte and all those attending this luncheon to thank Deloitte for their support of our Chrysalis program. Any questions, please let us know!

Tales 2016 Long Range Rehearsal Plan

Hi everyone!

Please see this spreadsheet that outlines our rehearsal plan from now until tech week. On it you'll find rehearsal dates/times, including call times for tenors & basses, as well as which songs and scenes we will be blocking, and which pieces are to be memorized!

Those with speaking roles should make careful note of when we are blocking particular scenes, and make sure that you are available for the rehearsals that involve your character. If you have any unavoidable conflicts, you MUST let us know ASAP so we can plan accordingly.

Rehearsal Notes - September 25

Pakkanen - Music changes/updates

First page :

Rachael, Rylee, Kallie, Georgia, Hayley, Leah, Jess, Natasha & Karen - Sing the Ah-Eh-Ohs with hands cupped around mouths while everyone else does whooshing snow and wind noises.

Mm 26 - S2as do the whisper (not the people singing the words at A2)

Mm 27 - A1bs do the whisper (not the people singing the words at A2)

O Yo Yo - Music changes/updates

There is a misprinted note in measure 58 in the top choral part. The B on the word “autres” should be a G#. The G# on the word “vous” is to be sung as written, even though it is different from what the melody line normally does.

BLOCKING

Lie Light

Beginning : Two lines along the sides of the stage (see photos)

: Move toward the front of the stage, Sop 2s stage right, Sop 1s in the middle, Altos stage left

M 24 - 27 : Hand gesture with right hand. See video of Claire for timing.

Explanation Video

Example Video

M 28 - 31 : Hand gesture with left hand (start on the second beat of m 28)

M 32 - 45 : Stand and sing

M 46 - 53 : Drift back to the sides of the stage, be slightly scattered, not in a straight line. You will remain in these positions until the end of the piece

M 54 - 61 : Sing to each other

M 62 - 69 : Hand gesture again (same as 24 - 31) Start when the Sop 2s have moving eighths.

M 70 - End : Stand and sing

Full Video of Lie Light

Notes for Sunday September 25 & Fall River Church Service

Hi everyone!

Thanks so much for a great rehearsal on Sunday. First song memorized & choreographed, and first scene blocked! :) Way to go all!

Here's the plan for this Sunday. This Sunday the SSAA company is called for the full rehearsal. Jennette from 3:30-4:30pm. Tenors and basses are off this Sunday.

1:15 Physical Warm up
1:25 Vocal Warm up
1:35 Tales of the Old North Music
3:30 Break
3:45 Lie Light - Blocking
4:30 DeLoitte Music

Only those singing at the Deloitte performance will need to stay from 4:30-5:30pm. Reminder that soprano 1s are on snack!

This week we will be working on Lie Light, Pakkanen, O Yo Yo, and Songbird. As per the memorization schedule, Lie Light is to be memorized for this week. However, we acknowledge that we have not had much rehearsal time on this piece - so we are asking you to do the best you can for this Sunday and to not stress too much about it! We will put in some solid time on the music before we move to blocking.

St. John's United Church Service 

Call Time: 9am (this will give us a decent amount of time to rehearse prior to the service)

Repertoire: Bring Me Little Water Silvy, Psalm 23, Morning Tide

To Bring: black folders (Christina will bring extras for those who do not have one); a packed lunch (it is going to be a tight timeline between the end of church and driving back to the city for the rehearsal so it would be best if you brought a lunch with you!)

What to Wear: Xara tshirt (Christina will be bringing extras for those who do not have one) + nice black bottoms (dress pants or a skirt) + black flats. 

Please make sure you have sorted a drive to and from Fall River!

Choir Fees

For SSAA company members, choir fees are $150 for the year or $75 for one term. You can pay via cash or cheque (made out to 'Xara Choral Theatre'). We are very happy to work with you to create a payment plan to pay in instalments if that is useful for you. Erin will collect choir fees at rehearsal, and you should speak to her about payment schedules if you'd like to do instalments. Choir fees (or arranging a payment schedule) are due Sunday October 16.

Vocal Solo Auditions

All vocal solo auditions will take place on Sunday October 2. See casting blog post for the list of solos!

Rehearsal Notes - September 18

Rehearsal Notes

Jing-ga-lye-ya - VIDEO

Letter F - Greeting the audience. Start with right hand sweep up, then down. Then left hand. Six motions in all (ending with a movement on measure 79)

Letter G up to the end of measure 89 -

Movement 1: Second row tenors swing backwards towards SR, then front row tenors. Second row sopranos swing backwards towards SL, then front row sopranos.

Third line altos pivot towards the centre, third line basses pivot towards the centre

Movement 2 : Fourth line altos swing around to join the back row of sopranos (SL) & Fourth line basses swing around to join the back row of tenors (SR),

Movement 3 : Third row basses back up to join front row sopranos & third row altos back up to join front row sopranos.

Measures 91 - 96 : Six steps towards the centre starting with right foot (sixth step is to bring your left foot to join your right foot

Letter H -

Measure 98 - Turn to face forward

Measure 110 - Designated people take a step to the left

LINK TO SCRIPT WITH BLOCKING NOTES

Xara-Only Notes

DELOITTE MUSIC

Sister Song

Please memorize for next week as there will be choreo for this piece.

Here On These Branches

CHURCH MUSIC

More information on call time, dress, black folders etc. will be forthcoming on the blog this week.

Psalm 23

Morning Tide

Bring Me Little Water Silvy

Reference Recordings

For ease of finding, here is the folder with all of the reference recordings...

CLICK HERE

Casting - Tales of the Old North 2016

Hi everyone!

Thank you to all who auditioned last weekend for speaking roles in Tales of the Old North. There were truly SO many talented people that it made our job extremely difficult. There were many different ways we could have cast the show, and we took many things into account, including needing to keep each section balanced throughout the show, and trying to feature different performers from production to production. There are still a number of vocal solos that we will be auditioning for (listed below), so please look ahead to preparing those. We'll let you know when we will be auditioning for these solos.

King: Alan
Queen: Leah
Seer Woman: Jordyn
Soldier: Joanna
Soldier’s Mother: Morgan
Princess Runa: Mackenzie
Princess Sanna: Georgia
Princess Vita: Natasha
Sentinel: Luke
Captain: Sid
Lieutenant: Colleen
Lutin: Dan
Troll: Denton
Magical Bird 1: Kallie
Magical Bird 2: Rowan
Magical Bird 3: Maria
Magical Bird 4: Hayley

Vocal Solos

Pakkanen: mm. 2-11 (S2 line)
Pakkanen: mm. 68-71 (S2 line)
Nothing Else Matters: mm. 33-40
Songbird: mm. 1-8
Call of the Flowers: mm. 34-end (duet)
Clocks: mm. 17-24, 132-133
Kayama: Letter A
Kayama: Letter C (first 7 measures - trio)

Memorization Schedule - Tales 2016

Hi everyone - Please see our music memorization schedule for each piece of music in our show:

September 18 - Jing-ga-lye-ya
September 25 - Lie Light
October 2 - Snowdrift Soundscape + Pakkanen
October 10 - O Yo Yo
October 16 - Nothing Else Matters
October 23 - Songbird + Pseudo-Yoik Lite
October 30 - Call of the Flowers + Clocks
November 6 - Kayama + Parting Glass

Notes for Sunday Sept 18

Hi everyone!

Thank you for a wonderful weekend of rehearsing and group bonding! We are off to a wonderful start for our 9th season and we are excited to continue to dig deeper into Tales of the Old North this fall!

Here's the plan for our next rehearsal, Sunday Sept 18. SSAA company is called for the full rehearsal. Tenors, basses, and Jennette are called for 3:45-5:30 pm only.

1:15 Physical Warm up
1:25 Vocal Warm up
1:35 Church & Deloitte Music
2:20 Tales of the Old North Music
3:45 Break (Tenors, Basses, Jennette arrive)
4:00 Jing-ga-lye-ya blocking
4:40 Snowdrift Soundscape
4:55 Block Scene 1

Note that for this rehearsal, Jing-ga-lye-ya must be memorized! (All music + blocking we have worked on so far)

We will be working on Pakkanen, Lie Light, and O Yo Yo music in terms of Tales of the Old North SSAA rep.

Please review Erin's very excellent and detailed blog post containing rehearsal notes and IMPORTANT INFO regarding attendance, snack, communication etc. Please note that tenors & basses are on snack this week!

Important Upcoming Dates

All dates are in the Google Calendar (to the right of this page) but please make sure you have the following special events marked:

Sunday Sept 25 - St John's United Church service (morning, exact times TBA)

Friday Sept 30 - Deloitte Luncheon at Delta Halifax (approx 11:00am-1:30pm)

Saturday Oct 1 - Yoga Fundraiser at DANSpace on Grafton (10:30-11:30 am)

The yoga fundraiser is a super easy way for us to raise money for Xara! Please start to spread the word and let your friends and family know all about it. We will teach a very accessible class suitable for all experience levels. Cost is $10 per person. Bring your own mat!

Rehearsal Notes - September 11 2016

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS

Snack

Please Click Here for the snack schedule this term!

Late Arrival

If you are going to arrive late to rehearsal, please text Erin (902 300 9840). When you arrive late, please text and you will be let in. It is our policy NOT to answer the doorbell.

Missing Rehearsals

If you know ahead of time that you must miss a rehearsal, please email Erin (eringaudet06@gmail.com) AND Christina (xara.choir@gmail.com) AND Claire (claire.xara@gmail.com) Please send ALL known rehearsal conflicts by next Saturday (September 18th) at the very latest.

If you need to suddenly miss a rehearsal, please email and/or text Erin, Christina and Claire. If you are able to attend rehearsal due to illness (even if you can’t sing or move around a lot) that is preferable to missing rehearsal altogether.

Fees

We will discuss fees for the term at rehearsal next week.

REHEARSAL NOTES

Jing-ga-lye-ya - Music memorized for September 18th (all notes and rhythms, all words, all dynamics, all movement to date)

Music Notes

Observe staccati

Go to the “ng” quickly each time you have it in a word

Full woman sound

Click for videos of each section :-)

Blocking - Opening

M 1 - Altos Enter

M 4 - Basses Enter

M 7 - Tenors Enter

M 11 - Sopranos Enter to the middle of the stage, others make room for them and look at them

Letter C - Move to groups and form your circles (Sop Downstage left, Alto Upstage left, Tenor Downstage right, Bass Upstage right)

Letter D - Walk in circle with your group

M 48 & 49 - Open circles into the Wifi symbol

Letter E

M 50 - 54 Walk forward 5 steps (one step per bar on the downbeat). Right foot first. Bring feet together after the 5th step.

M 55 - 59 Walk backward 5 steps (one step per bar on the downbeat). Right foot first. Bring feet together after the 5th step.

M 60 - 64 Move into two sets of parallel lines (one set downstage, one set upstage)

Xara Retreat 2016!

Hi everyone!

Thank you all for a wonderful first rehearsal last night! We are really excited for this fall, and eager to dive deeper into our season with our Xara retreat weekend! Please note that all XCTE members + Youth Mentorship Artists are expected to be present for the whole weekend. Tenors and basses are only called for the Sunday afternoon rehearsal.

Schedule

Friday - XCTE + Youth Mentorship Artists
Location: Women's Council House, 989 Young Avenue, Halifax

6:00  Welcome
6:30  Dinner
8:00  Group Bonding
9:30  Home

Saturday - XCTE + Youth Mentorship Artists
Location: St. John's United Church, 3360 Nova Scotia Trunk 2, Fall River

9:30 Voice & Movement Clinics

10:30 Break

10:40 Music Session

12:15 Lunch Prep (sopranos)

12:30 Lunch (sopranos)

1:30 Xara Ambassador Session

2:00 Music Session

3:15 Break

3:30 Acting Session

4:15 Music Session

5:30 Dinner Prep (altos)

5:45 Dinner (altos)

7:00 Group Bonding

8:00 Home

Sunday - XCTE + Youth Mentorship Artists + Tenors & Basses
Location: St. Matthew's United Church, 1479 Barrington St., Halifax

1:15 Physical Warm up

1:25 Vocal Warm up

1:35 Music Session

2:30 Movement Session

3:15 Break

3:15 Blocking - Jing-ga-lye-ya

4:30 Annual General Meeting

5:00 Auditions - Tales of the Old North

Food

We will have three meals together. Friday evening's dinner is very graciously being provided by the Xara Board of Directors (thank you!!!!). The second two will be potlucks - Saturday lunch will be brought by the sopranos, and Saturday dinner will be brought by the altos. From past experience, this works best if you coordinate beforehand what everyone will bring - so use the Facebook group to your advantage! Please keep in mind that we have a variety of dietary needs (some vegetarian, some vegan, peanut allergies, some gluten-free, some minimal/no dairy etc), so try to accommodate these as much as possible. There is a thread on the Facebook group for dietary considerations.

Drives

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

To Bring:

Comfortable clothes for sessions - must be able to move freely

Sensible footwear - sneakers or shoes you can move in

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

Music folder

Sunscreen for any outdoor activities

Yoga mat or large towel (for Saturday only)

Potluck item, as per schedule

Gas money for your driver

Any questions for this weekend, please let us know via email! We can't wait to be back together again and getting ready for what is going to be an amazing season!!!