Unraveled Show Week - FIRM dates and times

We are sad to say that we learned over the holidays that we were not successful in our last-resort grant application for Unraveled. Therefore, we will not be having an intricate lighting plot but will have, simply, a lit stage and our beautiful singing and moving! Although we always like to work with lighting, the simplicity of this is not unsuited to the subject matter.

So, without lighting, we will have one fewer rehearsals during show week. Here is the FINAL and FIRM schedule! Please book off ALL of this time (and the time you need to get ready and transported) NOW!! A reminder that the rehearsal before the dress rehearsal, as well as the dress, are mandatory for being in the concert.

DRESS REHEARSAL: Wednesday, 30 January (6:30 - 10:00 PM)
SHOW: Friday, 1 February (5:30 - 10:00 PM)

Power Weekend Details!!!

Hi everyone!!

We wanted to give you some more specific details about the Power Weekend so that you can be 100% prepared come January 5th & 6th!

To reiterate, for the Power Weekend ALL PIECES AND TEXT MUST BE MEMORIZED!!!! (with the exception of One Voice choral parts and text for Wanting Memories which you will receive at the Power Weekend). Our schedule is as follows:

Saturday January 5th from 9:30 am - 4:30 pm (lunch is from 12:00-1:15 pm; bring your lunch or money to go out for lunch)
Sunday January 6th from 1:15-4:45 pm

We will be rehearsing Reverberations all day Saturday. We will rehearse Wanting Memories and Pull on Sunday.

Some things to note:

• We will be doing auditions for the solos in One Voice on Saturday. Please come with them prepared if you are interested in auditioning. Christina will start auditions over the lunch break at 12:45 pm on Saturday, so if you are interested, you should bring your lunch so you're ready to go.
• We will be trying out Reverberations costumes on Saturday. Please bring a couple of options (as best as you can, two full possible outfits that you think could work for your character). Remember to consider their age, occupation, relationship to other characters. You may want to get in touch with the other people who are in your "character group" to see if you are all on the same page. We are only asking you to draw from your existing wardrobe, or borrow from a friend, not to purchase anything new at this point. You will only have to wear your costume options for the afternoon run through on Saturday.
• We will be discussing Pull costumes on Sunday. This is the day to bring your dark coloured shawl and day gloves so we can get a sense of how they look.
• If you missed any blocking rehearsals, it is your responsibility to meet with someone to get the notes. We cannot waste time going over things that we have already covered. 
• Unfortunately, due to travel plans, Claire Gallant is unable to join us for rehearsal for the Power Weekend. This means that we will rehearse everything else to get the pieces in excellent shape. Then, we will have three rehearsals before the dress rehearsal to figure things out with Claire.

Some important dates:

• Sat/Sun Jan 5/6 - POWER WEEKEND
• Fri Jan 11 - Xara Fundraising Night at the Bus Stop Theatre!
• Sun Jan 13 - Regular Xara rehearsal
• Sun Jan 20 - Regular Xara rehearsal
• Sun Jan 27 - Regular Xara rehearsal
• Tues Jan 29 - Unraveled tech rehearsal (evening, tentative)
• Wed Jan 30 - Unraveled dress rehearsal (evening, firm)
• Fri Feb 1 - Unraveled!!!
• Sun Feb 3 - No rehearsal
• Sun Feb 10 - First rehearsal for Sweet & Low

Have a wonderful holiday everyone!!!! We can't wait to see you in January!

xoxoxo

Power Weekend Prep + Holiday Party!!!!!

Hi everyone!

Thank you for your hard work on Sunday - I know it was a tiring rehearsal with lots of little details, but the work we did on Reverberations will be invaluable for January! If you were not there on Sunday, it is your responsibility to sit down with someone and get all the blocking notes. Try to find someone who is your 'group' of characters (ie - friends with friends, teachers with teachers etc).

Our first rehearsal back in the New Year is our Power Weekend!!! The Power Weekend is our 'off book' deadline. You must have all pieces of music memorized, and all text/cue lines for Reverberations memorized. When you're practicing at home, it will be helpful to walk through the script so you know where you move on the stage at all times. This will save us SO much time in rehearsal. Some details:

Saturday January 5th from 9:30-4:30 pm (bring your lunch or money to go out for lunch)
Sunday January 6th from 1:15-4:45 pm

Please do whatever you need to do to get your schedules in place so you can be there for the whole weekend. If you have an unavoidable conflict with any part of the weekend you must let us know ASAP.

And now to end on a fun note! Our holiday party is this Sunday! It will be held at Claire's house (2323 Brunswick St., Unit B) from 1:30 pm until whenever we're finished. It's a potluck so bring some yummy food! We do a Secret Santa gift exchange every year - bring a wrapped present (homemade or under $10) and we will take it from there. Significant others are welcome, and if they'd like to participate in Secret Santa then they can bring a wrapped present too!

Looking forward to seeing all of you on Sunday for a lovely festive time!!!!!!!!

Getting ready for Nov 25

Thank you again for your great rehearsing and your committed, sensitive read-through of Reverberations on Sunday. We have a very special show on our hands and we are so excited to work on this with you.

That being said, we still have LOTS of work to do!! Musically, the read-through was pretty rough and it's mostly because we were rusty on many of the pieces. Now is the time to kick our show preparation into high gear. By this Sunday the following pieces are supposed to be from memory:

• Wanting Memories
• Tree of Life
• Zai Itxoiten
• Les Angelus
• Da Pacem
• You Are the New Day
• Uraren Besotik

And by the following Sunday, we'll be adding In Autumn and Pen-Pen to that list! As Jordyn said on Facebook last week, Feb 1 may seem far away but it's not at all!!

So, for the rest of this week, please shore up your memorization and do global review of your music and be looking ahead to all the pieces that remain. Also, please read over the Reverberations script several times to get a sense of the overall narrative as well as your own characters and lines.

We also wanted to let you know that, for the next few weeks, some major blocking work is scheduled for each rehearsal. It is SO important to have everyone present each week. Please move heaven and earth to make sure you have no conflicts!

• Nov 25: Blocking the first half of Reverberations
• Dec 2: Reading through the script and blocking Wanting Memories
• Dec. 9: Blocking the second half of Reverberations

Finally, we wanted to remind you that our baby-sisters in Xara Youth Ensemble will be giving their premiere performance this weekend - Daughters of Fire. We hope that many of you will be able to make it out in support of them! They've worked really hard and are really excited to show the world what they've done! The performance is on Saturday, Nov 24, 7:30 p.m. at Bethany United Church.

Updated Memorization Schedule

Sept 16	Wanting Memories
Sept 30	Tree of Life
Oct 8	Zai Itxoiten (Thanksgiving Monday rehearsal)
Oct 21	Les Angelus (+ solo auditions for all pieces)
Nov 18	Da Pacem; You Are the New Day
Nov 25	Uraren Besotik;
Dec 2	In Autumn; Pen-Pen
Dec 9	One Voice (new version); Circle
Jan 5	Past Life Melodies; Nada te turbe; Two Strings; Little Birch Tree (Power Weekend & first rehearsal after Christmas break)

Notes for Sunday Nov 18

Hi everyone!

Bravo!!! Your performance on Sunday evening was stunning in terms of singing, storytelling, and communicating with the audience. Thank you for all your hard work to make our pieces so polished. We are so proud of all of you (and Claire loved singing with you again!!)

As of this week, we dive into Unraveled rehearsal BIG TIME! This Sunday, we will be working through the blocking for Pull, doing detailed music work on the pieces with piano, and (very exciting!) we will be doing a full read through/sing through of Reverberations. We will bring copies of the script for you this Sunday. This should help you get a full sense of the piece, all of the characters, and how everything fits together.

We also wanted to let you know the results of the solo auditions. Thank you to everyone who auditioned - we have sooo many talented singers that it is always hard to choose!

In Autumn - Kallie (sop) & Tenille (alto)
Circle - Shannon (sop) & Mackenzie (alto)
Uraren besotik - Shila

We have decided to re-audition for One Voice solos since we have several people in the choir who weren't at camp. If you're interested, take some time to look through the piece and we will be doing auditions for that in a couple of weeks time.

For this Sunday, it is non-negotiable that your eyes have touched every piece of music for Unraveled. We have spent lots of time on the four pieces for We Remember, but now is the time to stay on top of everything else. Listen to the Soundcloud recordings and make sure you have a solid feeling for all the pieces. Although we didn't get a chance to work on them on Nov 4th because we got caught up with We Remember prep, we are still expecting Da Pacem and You are the New Day to be memorized as per the memorization schedule published on Sept 25.

Here are the songs for Unraveled grouped into the three pieces to help you get a sense of the overall show. It's also helpful to group them in your folder in this order so you start to get used to it:

"Wanting Memories"
You Are the New Day
Wanting Memories
One Voice

"Pull"
Les Angelus
Uraren besotik
Da Pacem

"Reverberations"
Pen-pen
Zai Itxoiten
Past Life Melodies
In Autumn
Circle
Nada te Turbe
Two Strings, but One Voice
Little Birch Tree
Tree of Life

Thanks everyone!!! Have a great week and see you Sunday!!!

xoxox Claire & Christina

Details for We Remember!

Hi everyone!

Thank you to those who came to the CCC concert on Sunday afternoon. It meant so much to Christina and I to see your smiling faces in the audience! Just a few reminders about our concert on Sunday evening "We Remember".

Dress rehearsal is Saturday November 10 at St. Patricks Church from 10:30 am-12:15 pm. We will be working the Kontakion (the joint piece you received on Sunday evening) with the other three choirs first, and then we will will take a half hour break while the little girls' choir rehearses their set. We will then have 45 minutes in the space from 11:30-12:15 pm to rehearse our own program. Time is tight so we will need to start immediately once the girls' choir leaves the stage. For this rehearsal, you do not have to wear your Xara dress, comfortable clothing is fine.

Call time for the concert on Sunday evening is 6 pm. You need to arrived dressed in your Xara dress, black hose/socks, black shoes (either Xara shoes or black flats), hair and makeup done (hair can be up or down, but bangs etc need to be pinned off your face). We will wear black belts with the Xara poppy adornment (Robin will bring the poppies). If you don't have a black belt, please be in touch with her ASAP.

See you Saturday!!
Claire & Christina