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!!!

XCTE 2016-17 Season Start Up!

Hi everyone!

We are in full swing gearing up for our 9th season and we can't wait to see you all on Monday September 5th for our first rehearsal! Expect lots of communication over the coming couple of weeks as we give you details for the beginning of the year and start getting into heavy rehearsal mode for our first show, Tales of the Old North: The Three Princesses in the Blue Mountain.

Our first rehearsal is on Monday, September 5 from 5:30-9:30pm at St. Matthew's United Church. We'll do some group bonding, a big group snack (everyone is on snack duty!), our Show & Tell for The Three Princesses in the Blue Mountain, sing through the SATB repertoire, and discuss the audition process for speaking roles/vocal solos.

5:30 Team Building Activities
6:00 Potluck Snacks
6:30 Show & Tell + Casting/Audition Process Discussion
7:00 Physical Warmup
7:20 Vocal Warmup
7:40 Music
8:45 Script Read-Through

Note that auditions for all speaking roles will be held on Sunday September 11.

Please make sure to be checking the Google Calendar for all dates/times for the fall rehearsal season. We will make a separate post on the Facebook group when we add anything to the calendar to give you a heads up. Any known conflicts for the fall need to be communicated via email to Claire, Christina, and Erin. We would like to know all conflicts by Sunday September 11.

If you have any questions prior to Monday, please don't hesitate to let us know. We are looking forward to being back together and having a wonderful season!!

2016-17 Singer Schedule

Hi everyone!

The Google Calendar has been updated with dates and times for the 2016-17 season. Please go through carefully and make sure you've got these dates marked off in your calendars. Some important notes and explanations included below:

Xara Camp
This year, Xara Camp is one weekend later than it usually has been (Sept 9-11) to accommodate university move-in being on Labour Day weekend. As a result, we'll be kicking off the year with a regular rehearsal (plus fun bonding acitvities!) on the Labour Day Monday evening (Sept 5).

General Rehearsals
Rehearsals will be the same as always, Sundays from 1:15-5:30pm at St. Matthew's. Note that there are special Monday night rehearsals on the Labour Day weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, and Easter weekend, in lieu of Sunday afternoon rehearsals.

Power Weekends
We have added two 'Power Weekends' into next year's schedule. This means an all day Saturday rehearsal + a Sunday rehearsal. The dates are November 12 and February 11.

Fundraisers
We have already scheduled three yoga fundraisers into the year (Oct 1, Jan 21, Mar 25). Please make sure you have these blocked off so you can attend and invite lots of your friends to come. Our annual wreath-decorating day is scheduled for the first Saturday in December, as usual. Please note that this is a MANDATORY fundraising day.

Tales of the Old North
There are a few changes from last year's schedule that we need to fill you in on. The first is that we will be doing 4 public shows instead of 3 (Thurs, Fri, Sat evenings + a Sat matinee). This is in response to our sold out shows and waiting lists that we had last year!

We also recognize that tech time was very rushed and stressful last year and are working to make that better on many levels, including more focused rehearsal time in the lead up, the November power weekend, simpler costume design, and more tech time in the space.

Currently you'll see that we have two rehearsals blocked off on Sunday Nov 20 & an evening rehearsal blocked on Monday Nov 21. We will not be using all three of these blocks - maximum of two. We would ask that you hold all three of these blocks in your schedule until September - then we will release one-two of them depending on our assessment of the technical needs for the space. We are trying to find a balance between having enough tech time that we are all feeling secure in the technical elements for the production + making sure you have adequate time off the week of the show. Thank you for your patience as we sort this out.

We then have Cue to Cue & Dress rehearsals for the two nights leading up to opening night.

The Hours Turn to Nothing
This show will be at St. Matthew's and will have the same tech schedule as we did for The House of Bernarda Alba. The only change is an extra matinee show on the Saturday afternoon.

Run Outs
We are in process of booking The Hours Turn to Nothing for touring next spring. These will be weekend touring dates only throughout May and June, and we will have them settled by September.

Sold Services
We are currently in the process of booking sold services/gigs for next year to boost our revenue streams and visibility for the organization. As soon as we have dates confirmed, we will add them to the schedule and let you know.

Thanks all - any questions please let us know!
Claire

Notes for Sunday June 5 Rehearsal + Annapolis Royal Performance!

Hi everyone!

We hope you have had a lovely couple of weeks and are excited for our final two weekends of the year together before our summer hiatus! Please read below for info on our June 5 rehearsal, show in Annapolis Royal including drives, Membership Survey update, and June 12 final gathering!

Sunday June 5 - St. Matthew's United Church, 1:15-5:30 pm

We are going to do our regular warmups, some choreography spot checks, and then a FULL RUN (no costumes/hair/makeup). In particular during the movement session we are going to work on the Miserere and the Kyrie to make sure they are really tight. Following the run we'll do some final tweaks to music and movement. We have the same personnel as the Chester performance + Grace (yay!) so we will need to do a bit of tweaking regarding the stools etc.

Saturday June 11 - Kings Theatre, 209 St George St., Annapolis Royal

2:45 pm Call for Singers
3:00 pm Rehearsal - full mark through
5:00 pm Dinner
6:30 pm Call
7:30 pm Show

To Bring:

• music and script
• costume (including footwear)
• all hair/makeup items
• any props you are responsible for (fans, picture, etc)
• gas money for your driver
• snacks for yourself

We will have 1.5 hours for dinner but it would be best to call ahead to a restaurant in the area to book, or bring your own dinner.

Please note that following this show, we will need you to turn in any costume pieces which do not belong to you and were given to you by Dan. We will have storage bins available for you to return the costumes in.

Drives

Please use this spreadsheet to organize drives for the Annapolis Royal show: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AOBi8iBcfhgIqJrBHHGSVS8xIIGn60iJ3ReqOnQ6i2Y/edit?usp=sharing

End of Year Gathering

As we mentioned on Facebook, we would like to hold an end of year gathering on Sunday June 12 at St. Matthew's during our usual rehearsal time (starting at 1:15). We'd like to invite everyone to bring a snack to share, and it will be a time for reflection on the year past, as well as brainstorming for the future! Plus just fun XaraLove time! :)

Membership Survey

Thanks to everyone (13 people) who have filled out the membership survey so far. Just a friendly reminder that your feedback is truly very important to us and we would really appreciate it as we move forward with developing our strategic plan for the next three years. You can fill out the survey here: http://goo.gl/forms/pP7lZ7v1qxpdAkyA3 

Notes for Friday May 13 Rehearsal + Chester Playhouse Performance!

Hi everyone!

What an incredible weekend!! Thank you so much for your beautiful energy, expressivity, and dedication. We are so grateful to get to make art with you each week and we were so thrilled with both performances in Halifax. Now we get to hit the road!

We have a tour rehearsal this Friday evening for everyone who is doing the show in Chester this weekend (the only people we have confirmed who will not be doing the Chester show are Paige, Rachael, Carolyn, and Grace). Here's our plan:

Friday May 13 - The Bus Stop Theatre, 2203 Gottingen St.

6:00 Choreo Rehearsal - Servant & Poncia Only
6:30 Physical & Vocal Warmup - FULL COMPANY
6:45 Music
7:15 Transitions
7:45 Running in Sections

Rather than do a full run, we are going to run sections where blocking/music will be affected by the changes in personnel.

Saturday May 14 - Chester Playhouse, 22 Pleasant St., Chester

2:45 pm Call for Singers
3:00 pm Rehearsal - full mark through
5:00 pm Dinner
6:30 pm Call
7:30 pm Show

To Bring:

• music and script
• costume (including footwear)
• all hair/makeup items
• any props you are responsible for (fans, picture, etc)
• gas money for your driver
• snacks for yourself

We will have 1.5 hours for dinner but it would be best to call ahead to a restaurant in the area to book, or bring your own dinner.

We will post a drives spreadsheet on the blog within 24 hours for you to organize drives. Note that it's just under an hour drive from downtown Halifax.

Any questions, please let us know! Looking forward to sharing the show with a whole new audience in Chester!

Tech Week

Hi everyone!

Thank you for your great work on Sunday! We are now into our big week and are so excited to bring all the final elements together to make something powerful for our audience. Please make sure to review both Claire and Christina's vlogs in order to prepare for Tuesday night's rehearsal.

Once again, here's the schedule for this week:

Tuesday May 3 - St Matthew's
Cue to Cue Rehearsal
6-10 pm

Wednesday May 4 - St Matthew's
Dress Rehearsal
6-10 pm

Thursday May 5 - Atlantic School of Theology Chapel
Review Rehearsal
7-9 pm

Friday May 6 - St Matthew's
Show #1
6:00 pm call
8:00 pm show

Saturday May 7 - St Matthew's
Show #2
6:30 pm call
8:00 pm show

For the Tuesday & Wednesday rehearsals, the church will be open at approx 5pm for you to come in and get ready/eat/do what you need. We will be starting at 6pm sharp each night.

The Atlantic School of Theology is located at 660 Francklyn St., Halifax.

Hair/Makeup

Please see Dan's post on the blog about hair and makeup. Please make sure your hair/makeup is ready to go by our 6pm start on both Tuesday and Wednesday. No makeup is needed for Thursday.

Costumes

All costume elements must be brought and worn each night (except Thursday), including footwear.

Tickets

All ticket money must be in to Erin no later than Wednesday. Tickets will still be available at the door and online after that date.