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.

Notes for Sunday May 1 + Tech Week Schedule

Hi everyone!

Thanks again for your wonderful work yesterday at rehearsal. You really champed it and I was so grateful that you were so focused. I think we got a lot done despite being conductor-less!! Here's our plan for this coming Sunday:

Sunday May 11:15 Physical Warmup
1:25 Vocal Warmup
1:35 Music Fixes
2:35 Gallery Interlude Soundscapes - Music + Running w/ Blocking
3:05 End of the Show Soundscape
3:35 Break + Costumes
3:55 Curtain Call
4:05 Run

5:00 Notes & Fixes

Reminder to bring all your costumes elements including shoes to rehearsal. Reminder that Alto 2s are on snack!

Tickets

Reminder that you can bring in money for tickets to Erin at any time. She will accept ticket money up until Wednesday, May 4. Tickets are also available online: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2537816

Tech Week

Just a reminder of the schedule for tech week (all is on the Google Calendar but just so you have it here too):

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 - TBA

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.

Any questions, let Claire know!

Notes for Sunday Apr 24

Hi everyone!

Great work this past weekend - we are getting one step closer to performance ready every week! Here's the plan for Sunday:

1:00 Adela Team Choreo Review // Stool Felt Application Party

1:15 Physical Warmup
1:25 Vocal Warmup
1:35 Music Fixes
2:35 Gallery Music & Blocking
3:05 BREAK + change into costumes
3:20 End of the show - Blocking & Scene Rehearsal
3:50 Blocking Fixes
4:35 Run

Note that Adela team will meet 15 mins ahead of rehearsal to review their blocking for La luna asoma with Claire.

We need to put felt on the bottom of the stools! We will bring the felt - if anyone who is there for 1pm on Sunday can help, we can make it a team effort and get it done very quickly!

Please review all changes that we made this past week at rehearsal and make sure that you are super solid on everything - especially the transitions!!!!

Tickets

You can bring ticket money for Erin at any time! She will have additional tickets with her this weekend.  Christina and I have posted some text on the Facebook group that you can use when promoting the show - let us know if you need anything else to help you spread the word!

Notes for Sunday April 17

Hi everyone!

Once again another big and challenging rehearsal, but you all rose to the occasion! We are making significant progress each week, and each rehearsal brings us closer to having the show performance ready. As you know there are some areas of the show that are still lagging further behind in terms of preparation and this week we need to make some big progress on these places.

In terms of music please make sure the following pieces are rock solid come this Sunday: Cancion de jinete, O Vos Omnes, VC3 (in particular the key change). 

Claire will be providing movement notes in a vlog post this week.

Here's the plan for Sunday:

1:15 Physical Warmup
1:25 Vocal Warmup
1:35 Music Fixes
2:50 Transitions
3:40 Break + Costumes
4:00 Run
5:00 Notes & Fixes

Reminder that you need to be bringing your costumes to rehearsal every week for the run, including footwear.

Ticket money can be brought in to Erin at any rehearsal between now and show week! If you need more tickets, just let her know! Tenille has created the Facebook event, please keep sharing and circulating!

ECMAs

This weekend is the big weekend! Keep an eye on our social media mid-afternoon on Saturday as we will be launching the video right after the Classical Recording Showcase! Send lots of positive Xara love vibes out into the universe on Saturday and we will keep our fingers crossed for a win!! No matter what happens, we are SO proud of all of you and so thrilled to be nominated among other extremely well known classical artists on the East Coast!