Show Order

Prologue 

Womanly Song of God

Rebecca’s Piece
Night Yoik

Warrior

Maia’s Piece 
From Rivers

God Will Give Orders/Sweet Child

Michelle’s Piece
I See You

Xara’s Piece

Kuka Nukkuu Tuutussasi 

When The Earth Stands Still

Famine Song

Pallaanda 

Storm Soundscape

Wanting Memories

Winter Sun

Epilogue

Rise Up!

Hair and Makeup

HAIR OPTIONS
Guiding Principle - your hair needs to be completely off your face and we are going for a slick, clean look (so no strands, whisps, or intentional fly-aways).

Straight hair: tidy high ponytail (all hair off your face):




















Straight hair: tidy half back (all hair to your ears pulled back)

Curly hair: half back




















Curly hair: all back

MAKEUP
Here is a tutorial for what we're after for the eyes. It's basically a smoked out winged eye. So, no hard black liner to create the wing ... use tape and dark shadow. You can use you're own shadows (or mix and match with friends!) but it should be neutrals, not bright colours. Also, falsies aren't needed - just a couple of coats of black mascara.


As for the rest of your face, we're going with standard stage makeup. If that doesn't mean a lot to you, here are the basics:

• foundation (important) - could be slightly darker than your regular shade - beware of anything that makes you look more "porcelain" or lighter than regular ... you'll look like a ghost!
• blush about 2x darker than you would normally be willing to wear
• a lip colour that enhances your regular lip colour but is not dramatically brighter or darker.

Here's a video tutorial if you'd like one. Just remember that the eyes are going to be as above, rather than the standard that this woman is doing.

Show Week Details

McNally Theatre Location:
923 Robie Street (South of Inglis)

• Enter through the big main entrance of the building and go straight through the large corridor
• Theatre lobby entrance is at the end of the corridor, facing the main entrance
• You can enter the actual theatre space on either the right or left side of the lobby area

Parking:

• After 6 PM street parking is free
• After 6 PM you can park in the SMU general parking lots but you cannot park in any spots that are labeled for faculty, president, etc. The lots are on the four corners of the campus.

To Bring Each Night:

• Your costume (blacks, red, anything else Jordyn gives you)
• Xara shoes
• Nylons if you aren't comfortable in bare feet
• Music/Script
• Black Folder
• Tuning fork (if applicable)
• Water & snacks
• Whatever you need for makeup/hair

Schedule:

• Wednesday (Apr 25) 6-10 PM
• cue to cue: purpose is for Matt to establish all the lighting cues; we will not be running the full show but will be starting and stopping
• we will work in show order (WSOG, Rebecca, Maia, Michelle, Xara-only, Rise Up!)
• Costumes required but no makeup or hair
• Thursday (Apr 26) 6-10 PM
• Tech Dress: full costumes, makeup, and hair
• You will have 20 mins (6-6:20) to get dressed/made-up when you arrive
• The first part of the rehearsal will be for anything that still needs tech attention
• The second part of the rehearsal will be a full run of the show
• Friday (Apr 27) 6-10 PM
• Dress Rehearsal: full costumes, makeup, and hair
• You will have 20 mins (6-6:20) to get dressed/made-up when you arrive
• The first part of the rehearsal will be to fix any music/movement things that still need work
• We will start the dress rehearsal at 8 PM (same time the evening show will start on Sat)
• We'll finish in time for some final fixes and notes
• Saturday (Apr 28): 12:30 PM CALL TIME
• Come as close to ready as possible (hair, make up, blacks) as there may only be 30 mins backstage to finish getting ready after our warm up and sound check
• 12:30-2:30: warm ups, final fixes
• 3:00: SHOW
• 4:30 Break
• 6:30 CALL for warm ups, fixes
• 7:30 Backstage to prep
• 8:00 SHOW
• 9:20 RECEPTION
• 10:00 TEAR DOWN
• All singers will have jobs to do to help with the tear down. This ensures that Matt isn't there until 2 AM by himself. It shouldn't take more than 45 mins with everyone contributing!

Videos from April 22 Rehearsal

RISE - Video of Full Run


I See You - Video

Reminders & Schedule for Apr 22

Schedule
(Alto 1s and Alto 2s on snack!)

12:45	Arrive early to get your costume from Jordyn
1:00	Warm ups
1:20	Concentrated work on Xara-only material WSOG (1:20-2) Pallaanda (2-2:30) Wanting Memories (2:30-2:50) Winter Sun (2:50-3:10)
3:10	Break (Alto 1s snack) & Prep for Run (incl costumes)
3:30	Run Xara-only section of show
4:00	Notes/Fixes
4:30	Rise Up!
5:00	Break #2 (Alto 2s snacks)
5:10	Maia’s piece
6:00	Michelle’s piece
6:30	Home

Important Reminders:

• Wear or bring you all-black base for this rehearsal (we will be working with full costumes for the run)
• Bring your Xara-shoes 
• Sell your tickets!
• All of everything that is supposed to be memorized should be completely off book (the only things that do NOT have to be memorized are Rise Up, God Will Give Orders/Sweet Child, From Rivers)
• Please keep working on your facility/ease/accuracy with the three unmemorized pieces so you don't need to be glued to your music and you aren't making mistakes while you sing. We want to be expressive, even if we are using folders!

Finalizing the end of Michelle's Piece

Thank you, everyone, for your honest feedback about the last segment of I See You. We will omit offering a hand to an audience member and focusing on a specific person and will, instead, walk up the aisles, making general eye contact with the audience while genuinely attempting to carry Michelle's invitation to connect and see her as a real person forward. What is most important is that we support her in making a statement to the audience about her willingness and desire to be seen and known as a genuine, multi-faceted person rather than as a caricature. 

Standing Formations for Maia's Piece

• God Will Give Orders/Sweet Child
• begin in our standard U
• at m. 78 the small group who sing beginning at m. 89 form a small U directly around Maia and the rest of the choir breaks open/spreads out the U to look more like a slightly arched mixed scattered formation behind the small group.
•  From Rivers
• During the open measures of cello (which we may extend to accommodate the formation shift; return to our standard U.

Standing Formations for Rebecca's Piece

• Night Yoik
• Sectional "scattered" formation filling the stage but with a space DSC for Rebecca
• Piano transition
• Rebecca will walk to the back
• Xara should fill in the gap
• Warrior
• 1st verse remain mixed scattered
• 2nd verse form two straight lines across the width of the stage space
• 3rd verse back to mixed scattered
• During the last chorus, Rebecca will come back to the front (make room for her)
• Once Warrior is over pivot slightly to face Rebecca while she recites her second slam poem.

Prep for Apr 15 Rehearsal

Hi all - I hope that my detailed blog post last Sunday have been helpful in guiding your personal rehearsal this week. As I said then, what's contained in those notes are your homework for this week!

Pacifico Night
TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT!!! Bring as many people as you can, bring your own $10 for your ticket, and have funnnnn!! If you aren't sure about where to get your tickets, please review Hayley's FB post.

Rehearsal Plan
Soprano 1s and 2s on snack
(Two snack sessions!!)

12:45	Arrive early to pick up your tickets
1:00	Warm ups
1:15	Michelle’s Piece
2:15	Music: Rise Up!
2:30	Maia’s set
3:30	Break #1 (Sop 1 snacks)
3:45	Rebecca’s set
4:45	Break #2 (Sop 2 snacks)
5:00	Prep for run of Xara-only piece
5:10	Full Run
5:45	Fixes
6:10	Run WSOG + fixes

Show Tickets and Pacifico Money

Jess, our General Manager, will be at the church from 12:30 onward on Sunday to hand out packages of tickets to everyone. Each of you will receive 5 tickets for each show and you are expected to do everything in your power to sell all of them! Please arrive no later than 12:50 in order to retrieve your tickets before the start of rehearsal.

Please bring any remaining money you owe for Pacifico Tickets.

To Do in lieu of rehearsal (stormy Apr 8)

I'm sure that all of you, like me, are feeling a bit anxious about losing a rehearsal today. Pulling together the parts of our show with our guest artists has been challenging enough but losing a rehearsal at this critical time makes it even tougher! However, I want to reassure you that I KNOW we are going to be fine and that we are going to reach show week with a beautiful, polished performance in place. In Xara we try to avoid as much "final crunch" as possible but those of you who have done other forms of theatre, etc will know that it's actually not very uncommon to still be mastering aspects of a show right up until the first performance. So, please TRUST me and just focus on the things you are able to control (your own practicing!) and know that I will guide us to opening night with love and strength to support you!

Our make up rehearsals will be as follows: the next two Sundays (1:00 - 6:30 PM). I will provide TWO breaks each week to help us with brain space. Please do your best to be well-rested for these small marathons and bring extra (personal) snacks if that will help you! 

Since we cannot practice today, there are a few things that I'd like you to do to keep us moving ahead. Please consider using the hours that we would have been together today to incorporate the information I'm including below.

RISE (Xara-only section)

• Continue to perfect your memorization, ensuring that all your blocking and the dynamics of the music are taken into account
• Pitches for the pieces will be given by the following people using tuning forks:
• Kuka nukkuu: Kallie will sing the first "Ha-jai-jaa(h) haa___" as a solo and the whole choir will come in on the 2nd half of m.2 at the "Ha-jai-jaa(h)" that starts on an F#.
• When the Earth Stands Still: Hayley, Mackenzie C, Leah, and Rhian (on A2 for just these three notes) will have tuning forks (As) and will pitch their own notes for opening of the song at the back and sing the first "come listen" as a quartet; tutti will sing from "in the silence" onward. Rhian, I've put you on the A2 line for just this moment because both Jess and Erin have text prior to the open and this will ensure that neither of them have to boot it to the back, grab a pitch from a fork, and start singing. The opening chord needs to be super stable to set the key so this seemed like the best way to ensure that. Rhian, after the first three notes on A2, you should go back to your regular S2 for the whole piece!
• Famine Song: Talisa does the first "hmm" (m.1) as a solo (I'll give you an A fork); tutti A2s enter m.2 
• Pallaanda: Talisa starts the A2 drone note and other Altos (on low B-flat) gradually join. I will cue for the F to enter.
• Wanting Memories: Sarah does m.1 as a solo; all A2s enter m.2 (I'll give you an E fork)
• Winter Sun: At Theresa's line "Ready to fight", Sarah sings E and all A2s and A3s join gradually; at Charlotte's line "Ready to discover", all sops + A1s will slowly add the A above until we have a strong A&E being sung by everyone at "Begin". Then I'll cue a breath and we'll start Winter Sun.

MICHELLE RAINE COLLAB

• Please carefully review the blocking notes (and minor musical changes) that I posted yesterday for I See You. Please put them into your score and tweak your memorization to include these things.

REBECCA THOMAS COLLAB

• For Night Yoik, please CUT mm. 49-64 to match the recording. Please memorize accordingly! We will be standing still in our regular U around Rebecca for this piece. Warrior will come directly after it and there will be simple blocking that Claire will teach you next week.
• Here is the sound file for Rebecca’s piece (please note that, under no circumstances can yo  share this with anyone as it is Rebecca’s work and has yet to be premiered - I’m posting it here for your reference only): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EJtw-K9RNb6a3Q2dG1gHn8y59wCqXDZ0 

MAIA BRUCE COLLAB

• Please work on these as much as possible this week using the reference recordings I provided previously to assist you. (Here they are again: Spotify link for God Will Give Orders/Sweet Child; Youtube link for From Rivers)

PACIFICO NIGHT TICKETS

Mack was going to distribute the Pacifico Night tickets today. :( We are working on a plan that Pacifico will approve (since we aren't allowed to stand in front and sell tickets. Mack will post about that soon. At the very least, please continue to invite people!!

Standing Formations and Musical Changes for I See You

Hi all! Michelle Raine will be at rehearsal tomorrow to work her piece (and each of our remaining rehearsals). She has reworked things considerably and there will no longer be a soundscape required! The concept for her work is a series of short "letters" to the important people in her life and they are all worked into I See You. To create enough places for text to fit without conflicting with sung text, there are going to be two repeats added to the piece and one section will be hummed instead of sung. I am including that information along with detailed notes for your standing formations, etc. below. Much of her piece is being communicated in relationship to you on stage so she had some really cool ideas for how you could help convey meaning through your placement/simple gestures. We will work our way through these things tomorrow but I know some of you will be happy to have a jump on getting this info into your scores.

• Here are the small musical changes:
• mm.41-48 is repeated - first time sops only, second time tutti (MR speaks over sops 1st time)
• mm.49-55 is repeated - first time altos only, second time tutti (MR speaks over altos 1st time)
• m. 60-64 hummed instead of text
• Michelle will be speaking in single sentence “letters” to various people during the song. The sections are:
• mm. 1-8 (may need to be vamped): “Dear Friends”
• mm. 8-24 (MR movement only; no speaking): Dear Parents”
• mm.41-48 1st time: "Dear Strangers”
• mm.49-55 1st time: "Dear Lovers”
• mm. 60-64: “Dear Self”
• mm.75-82: “Dear Sister”
• Here are the movement/formation directions:
• mm.1-24: choir sitting on the floor in a MS formation, facing different directions (but not to the back)
• mm.25-30: slowly stand, maintaining the non-centre direction you've been facing
• m. 31 on “why go risking the way that I see you”: all snap to look at Michelle (you are embodying the voice of her parents at this point)
• m. 34: slowly turn your bodies to face centre
• m. 49 (first time): choir moves to our regular U with Michelle in the centre
• m. 60-64: Michelle gestures slowly with her hands and the choir mimics her (like in a mirror)
• m. 65-68: tutti slowly bring hands down but 1 singer (I’ve suggested Madelaine based on height/hair colour/expressiveness/age) walks to centre and stands face to face with MR to continue the mirror gestures.
• m.69, beat 2: choir moves to a filled in V formation with MR at the point/front
• m. 91: MR walks to an audience member in the front row and reaches her hand out to them
• m. 97: choir slowly walks out and up into the audience (through the aisles) and makes eye contact with someone and reaches their hands out to them; you can break the hand hold whenever it feels right (depending on the comfort level of the audience member) and then slowly turn to face MR for the remainder of the piece.

Show Week Rehearsal Schedule

All rehearsals will be held in the McNally Auditorium at Saint Mary's University (923 Robie St)

Wednesday, April 25
6:00 - 10:00 PM
Tech rehearsal to set all lighting cues and figure out choreo adaptations for the space

Thursday, April 26
6:00-10:00 PM
Tech Dress rehearsal

Friday, April 27
6:00-10:00 PM
Rehearsal with alumni for Rise Up
Dress rehearsal of the full show

Saturday, April 28
12:30 PM call
3:00 PM show
4:30 PM (approx) dinner break
6:30 PM call
8:00 PM show
9:30 PM (approx) Reception

Please note that the reception is the event that will mark Xara's 10th anniversary so it is a mandatory part of being in this show. :)  More details will be provided by the Xara Board as we get closer to the event but there will be food/drink and various presentations!

Prep for April 8 Rehearsal

Great work on Monday evening, everyone! We did some excellent refining of WSOG and some great initial work with the pieces for our set with Maia Bruce. I heard from Rebecca later that evening and she had a bit of a personal emergency so she wasn't able to come, nor did she have her phone available. She is fine and feels really awful about it but I assured her we made good use of the time and we'll sort it all out this week.

Homework:
1. Memorize Warrior
2. Lock in all of the excellent refinements we did with Womanly Song of God - especial re: dynamics and chord clusters.
3. Review every aspect of our section of the show so that you are ready for a really good run.
4. Listen to the provided tracks of the two pieces with cello and make sure you don't lose any ground on the great work we did on Monday evening.

Spotify link for God Will Give Orders/Sweet Child
Youtube link for From Rivers

Rehearsal Plan
Soprano 1s on snack

1:15 Warm ups

1:30 Full run of Xara-only piece + fixes

2:40 Womanly Song of God (run with blocking)

2:50 Rise Up (run)

3:00 Break + Pacifico tickets + show posters/tickets

3:15 Michelle's set (I See You)

4:00 Rebecca's set (Night Yoik + Warrior)

4:45 Maia's set (From Rivers + God Will Give Orders/Sweet Child)

All our guest artists (except our percussionist) will be present for their section of the rehearsal on Sunday! We will get each piece up and running in its totality and film each for your reference.

Pacifico Night
Don't forget to get your people all lined up for Pacifico night on Friday, April 13! Tickets will be handed out at rehearsal on Sunday so you can pass them onto your people.