Boy do I have a treat for you guys today! Here is an inside look (yes, that means pictures) at my daily routine to become a Cat. ( Please contain your excitement and no drooling allowed. )

Maybe tonight I'll get pictures of stretching, backstage right before the show starts, card playing at intermission, etc... Ooo! I even have a picture or two somewhere of me with friends who came to see the show out in the lobby where we greet the audience afterwards.

Man, it's been a while since I've updated. Sorry about that. Just been really busy with birthdays and holidays and such.

Crazy stuff happening tonight. Mostly with Sarah (Bombalurina). Recently her wig had been getting really ratty and the hair was falling out so Steve Souza asked the costume shop to get her a new one and it arrived today but he didn't tell her that. He played a joke on her and told her her old wig had been thrown away and the new one hadn't arrived yet so she had to put her hair in a bun and put a headband with cat ears on her head for the show. Of course she thought he was serious and came into the womens' dressing room to tell us this, slightly hysterical. We all were too, until Sarah left and Kathy (Jennyanydots) explained to us what was really going on. We sniggered and giggled whenever Sarah wasn't in the room. About fifteen minutes later we heard a bit of commotion in the main dressing room and Sarah came back in with a big grin on her face, shook her head and said, "that big, fat liar!"

So that was pretty funny. Her new wig looks awesome! Same color but a bit more like Kim's style-wise and it's nice and pretty and new.

The second thing that happened to Sarah tonight was really bad. You win some, you lose some, I guess. Well, during Jellicle Ball in the ballet section where there are four couples doing lifts and stuff, Sarah's one of them and when Steven caught her with one arm around her torso to do the fishtail lift he caught her a bit too high and instead of letting go and getting a better grip like you're supposed to do he just grabbed harder and ended up snapping one of her ribs! Of course it's not his fault because he was never trained in ballet dancing with a partner so he just didn't know any better. I'm SO glad my partner is Steve P. (Gus) who has been doing ballet partner dancing since he was a young man so he really knows what he's doing. In fact, he and my mom danced together in our local ballet company a long time ago. I have no fear of being dropped or lifted wrong.

But anyway, getting off topic. Poor Sarah, she should have just gone off and not done the rest of the number, but man, what a trooper. She did the rest of the number and I had no idea anything was wrong until intermission when she began crying from the pain and had an ice pack held to her side. It was starting to bruise and swell so we're pretty sure it's a break. Sarah even mentioned that she could both hear and feel a *SNAP* when it happened. The problem is that there's nothing that can be done for broken ribs except maybe to wrap your torso in an Ace bandage and take heavy painkillers.

She's not going to bother going to the hospital since there's really nothing they can do for her so she's just not going to do Jellicle Ball or a few of the other big dance or high-energy numbers for a while. She did act 2 just fine, she was just a little stiff in the middle and didn't do Growltiger or Skimbleshanks. So everything's okay, we'll just be missing one of our best dancers in a few numbers for a while.

Other than that, almost everyone's back to full health again. Yay! I think Janet's the only one that's really sick anymore and even she can sing okay so it's all been good.

We have two shows tomorrow since we won't have any on Sunday. Whoop-dee-doo. But hey, that means THREE-DAY BREAK!!! *dances*

Gosh, it's been a while since I last updated, hasn't it? I bring you PICTURES!!!

( Wheee, pictures! )

Also, I think it's official: we're adding that 10th week onto the run. TEN. WEEKS. *falls over* Ticket sales for that week start on the 18th.

Oh, and Steve S. is going on as Deuteronomy every show until Sunday night. He went on tonight and he was fabulous! Had a few microphone troubles in the first act so he was a little quiet but we fixed that later and the rest was good to go.

Yay, I think everyone's finally out of the woods illness-wise. Emily was still feeling crappy yesterday but a least she was eating a bit. Janet, Jonathan, and Sarah's voices sounded much better, and Jason went back to doing all his flips and stuff.

Kathy said that she really wants to go to her niece's baptism but she'll miss it if she does the show that day. She asked Denise if she could miss that show but Denise is hesitant. Sydney's readying herself to be Jennyanydots just in case and Kathy's plotting ways to get Denise to approve, lol.

We went out to eat in between shows yesterday and some people kept on their makeup around their eyes. I tried to do that but my eye makeup is connected to the makeup around my entire face so I just couldn't do it without smearing it too much. It looked like I had taken fingerpaints to my eyes without a mirror, lol. After lunch/dinner (I guess it was technically dinner since we finished around 5:30) we went to a vintage thrift store. It must be the coolest clothes store in that area. I bought these adorable shoes! Hm. This has nothing to do with Cats, lol.

Anyway, we came back and did our first double show day. It was exhausting but the few hours we had in between managed to replenish our energy supply.

HAHA!
Denise played the best April Fool's Day trick on us.

( Take a look... )

I totally believed it for a minute and I was like, "OH NOES!!!" Two Cats performances in one day is bad enough. Three would be the death of us all. THE DEATH.

Gah, people are STILL sick. Everyone's wondering when we're going to have a performance where no one's coughing, no one's throwing up, no one's voice is cracking, and no one has sprained limbs. Hopefully it'll come soon.

John had to go on as Munkustrap tonight because Jonathan's voice was almost completely gone. He did well for the most part. He just forgot a couple lines but we were able to cover up for him. Now Janet's getting sick too, but we already know that Debi does a good job for her so no one's too worried. Emily's doing better than last night but she's still feeling queasy, Sarah's voice is hoarse, my voice is hoarse, Jason's ankle is better but he's still favoring it, Kathy's finally getting over her cold, Jacob's almost completely back to normal, who else? lol

Oh, and everyone's over stomach flu finally. Except Emily but I think she's out of the woods and on the road to recovery for the most part.

*sigh* Last night was my second and final (as far as I know) performance as Griddlebone. Went smoothly. Janet will be coming back tonight and everything'll be back to normal. We only have the rest of the run to look forward to now. @_@

We've been getting wonderful reviews. Anyone who can, COME SEE IT!

And to top it off, ( a picture of Debi as Grizabella... )

Yay! First night successful. Debi was AWESOME, Emily was fabulous from what I could hear of her while I was backstage during Gus, and I managed to not drop my fan, made people laugh at the right moments, didn't trip over my feet, and remembered all my blocking and lyrics (although, I'm a big Cats fan, I was never worried about the lyrics even though they're in Italian, lol). Alex was very helpful, too. He went over it once with me quickly backstage during Gus, told me he would squeeze my hand to signal a change in stance, and I gave him permission to pretty much pull/nudge me wherever I needed to go. Mostly it was just making cheesy lovey-dovey faces, looking dramatic and batting my eyelashes a lot. Oh, and I practiced a lot with the fan. It makes a really loud FWAP when I fling it open.

My parents and my best friend were there, too. I think my sisters are going to see it tomorrow night. It was fun and I'll be sad when tomorrow night's show is over. But then, there's always the rest of the run. Never know what'll happen. Kelly could get sick or injured (*knocks on wood*) and then, oh dear, we'll need the Jemima understudy. ^_^

I think it's weird when people really don't want to go on for their understudies roles. I ALWAYS do. I think it's SO much fun! Psh. People are just weird. When I was Eliza in My Fair Lady my understudy, Sabrina, always told me she would cry if I called her one day croaking out, "can't sing... you go on... me sick." She was so terrified of the possibility of having to go on. I asked her why and she told me because it's such a big role. Going on for a supporting role is totally different, but I disagree. It takes the same amount of rehearsal, dedication, and focus as understudying the lead. I once was an out of cast understudy for Maria in Sound of Music. Talk about huge roles... but I wanted to go on SO badly. I also once understudied the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I actually should have gone on twice throughout the run but there was a lot of drama and not many people liked me including the Narrator and the director. Those two against me were a bad combination. Long story.

Anyway, my point is, understudying is a serious business and shouldn't be attempted by those who aren't enthusiastic about it. The end.

Okay, gotta work tomorrow and wash this gunk offa my face.

Oh, and the channel 47 thing (VERY) very early this morning went well, too.

We've had our first series of tests as a cast. On Sunday Steve S and John were both sick with stomach flu and Jason sprained his ankle Saturday night. They all did Sunday's performance, but they were very lethargic and Jason cut out all of his flips and leaps and stuff. Still, the show went on and it was actually a good performance other than the fact that we were missing a couple people in the high energy numbers. John wasn't feeling as bad as Steve was so I think he did every number.

Now I have the flu, lol. Actually, I had it yesterday, I'm just feeling the aftereffects today. I'll be fine by tomorrow. I also feel as if I'm getting a cold, but then I've been feeling like that for the past few weeks. I just keep taking vitamin supplements and zinc. If I can just hold off this cold for a few more days and get through my Griddlebone understudy performances I'll be happy. Honey tea and salt water gargling! And lots and lots of cough drops.

My new shoes came today. They fit perfectly! Just need to sew on the elastics and I'll be all set for tomorrow. Gotta get to bed early if I'm going to be up at 4am, especially since I'm sick and have been sleeping about 15 hours every day.

My family's getting tickets for Thursday so they'll see me do Griddlebone, YAY! Okay, gonna go take a nap so I have plenty of energy tomorrow.

GUESSWHATGUESSWHATGUESSWHATGUESSWHAT?????

So Janet's not going to be able to make it to next Wednesday and Thursday night performances so Debi's going on for her and then Emily's going to do all of Jellylorum's stuff, but we always thought that she's also remain Griddlebone. Well, it turns out that she just doesn't have enough time to make the change (put the flower in her hair?) for Growltiger. *shrugs* In most shows Jellylorum has to put on a completely different costume, a head piece, and shoes for Growltiger. Don't know how Emily could possibly not have time for the next number. She doesn't even have to be on stage right away. There must be some other reason, too. So do you know what that means?

I'M GONNA BE GRIDDLEBONE THOSE TWO NIGHTS!!!

My parents are going to try to get tickets for Thursday and hopefully my sisters will come too. I'm going to tell all my friends at Church tomorrow but I've heard that the next three weeks are just about sold out so people may have trouble getting tickets.

Anyway, got to do some stuff before I go to bed. 'Night!

Sorry I didn't update last night, there was a party at Philip's house after the show so I didn't get home until around 1:30 am. Last night's audience wasn't quite as good as Thursday's but they weren't bad either. Pretty average. Dave posted a schedule of who's going to go into the lobby after the show and greet people. I was on the list for last night but I liked it so much that I asked him if I could do it every night and he said that that'd work out really well since everyone wants to meet the white cat, especially all the little girls, lol.

During intermission we're always sweaty and miserable from Jellicle Ball so as soon as we get upstairs we strip off our wigs, arm and leg warmers, and the top halves of our unitards and turn on every fan in the general vicinity. Then we sit down, guzzle water, and reapply our dripping makeup. I was observing this scene last night and thought it was so funny, everyone walking around half naked (except the ladies in bras and camis and stuff) that I had to take a couple pictures. They're a bit blurry because I forgot to change out of the close-up mode from when I took pictures of my flowers the night before, but they're still easy to make out. I just stuck my head out of the dressing room door and made sure the flash was off so that no one knew, lol.

( Half-naked kitties! )

Argh, the paint that they used on the stage is tearing up our shoes. Mine are cheap canvas ballet slippers so they're extremely holey already. The people who have leather shoes are also getting holes in them but they're not quite as bad. I bought two pairs of leather ballet shoes today and used express shipping so they'll be here in 2-3 days. Until then I'm going to try sewing the holes shut and sewing fabric to the inside of the toes to reinforce them a bit.

The Roger Rocka's site has been updated! Click here.

Wow, what an opening night. Complete success. The entire theatre gave us a standing ovation. I did not see a single person in their seat. It was magical. I saw Janet crying because of the huge applause she got after Memory. And likewise I think some audience members were crying. During the bows we had to stand there forever, just bowing and accepting the tremendous applause. I wish you all could have been there!

Then after the bows we went out into the audience and took pictures with people and signed our autographs in the autograph books being sold. They all have a big group cast photo in them. SO many people came up to me raving about how good the show was and how beautiful I am. ^_^

Oh my gosh! So everyone's been saying that I'm going to win the affections of every little girl in the audience because I'm the pretty white cat. Last night, first audience, a little girl at one of the very front tables says, loud and clear, "The white kitty's my favorite!" It made me so happy.

The table in the dressing room was groaning under the weight of bouquets, chocolates, cookies, gift bags, even cat treats and cat food! Debi even took a bunch of packages of cat treats, opened them on the bottom, empied the treats (saved them for her cats), washed them out, then put candy in them and resealed them! How creative is that?

I baked chocolate chip cookies for everyone. ^_^ Nothing to do with cats, but everyone likes cookies.

And now, a few pictures to wrap up this awesome night... er, early morning. ( Piccies! )

Okay, gotta go to bed 'cause I gotta work tomorrow. I'll gradually be getting pictures of everyone in the cast as we go. Oh, and the website should have the promotional photos on it any day now. I'll let you guys know when it gets updated.

PS, on Wednesday the 29th we're waking up really freakin' early in the morning to do a promotional thing on the news. We're all going to get in our makeup and costumes and be interviewed and it'll be live and broadcasted all over the valley! I've done it before for other shows I was in including My Fair Lady (I was Eliza), but it never gets old. I'm hoping I'll be able to find an AVI or MPEG file of it somewhere after it's filmed so that I can show you guys. Whee!

I managed to snap a few pictures today before we all changed out of our costumes. Mostly of the women because I was in the women's dressing room at the time. And it's late and I'm going to bed soon so I'm just going to post the pics and go nighty night.

( Piccys! )

Okay, bed!

ETA: Kaye changed the White Cat Solo so it's easier now, I'm not going to fall over, and it looks cooler. BIG yay!

It actually went better than I expected it to. There were some costume and set malfunctions, some missed cues, the normal. But it was pretty much your average first dress rehearsal. My White Cat Solo is going to be changed because I just can't balance as long as I need to. The spotlight is in my face and the stage is dark and my shoes were slipping off my feet because of the shiny unitard material and my legwarmers were slipping down and getting caught under my heels... So Kaye's going to change it a bit so I don't have to be balancing for so long and Ginger and the other costume ladies are going to be adding more elastic to the arm and leg warmers. Everyone's were giving them trouble. Not many people wore them in the second act.

I only got a few pictures because I never had time to do an extensive photo shoot. Don't worry, as soon as things settle down I'll have more time than I'll know what to do with.

( Follow the sultry sound of photos... )

I'll try to take more pictures tomorrow, but I can't guarantee anything. We're all running around like chickens with our heads cut off so things'll be a little frantic for a few more days. Once we relax there'll be pictures galore. I'll at least try to get a picture of myself all done up. Tonight wouldn't have been the best anyway because the little fuzzies on the shoulders of my unitard weren't done yet. But everything will be completed by tomorrow, more people will have collars, arm and leg warmers will be fixed, so yay! We're also taking promotional pictures tomorrow and soon the GCP website will be all set up and you can go see some of the pictures we take there.

Gah, I'm getting so stressed. I tried on my unitard tonight and it was SO TRANSPARENT. Pretty and white and shiny, but TRANSPARENT. I mean, you could actually read the brand of underwear I was wearing, lol. I'm going to have to buy a sort of undergarment unitard and some special seamless nude-colored underwear. That stuff's expensive and I'm jobless = broke. Plus, where do you get stuff like that besides the internet? How the heck am I going to acquire such things in a few days??? I looked at the overnight shipping fee on Discount Dance and it was over $30! HECK NO!

Well, I'm going to the costume shop tomorrow to do more work so I can tell Ginger that I just can't afford to buy everything that I need. Besides, it's part of my costume. Shouldn't the costumer be responsible for that? I mean, I know she's busy but maybe I can get her to give me money so I can go out and do the buying myself. I think I know where to get a unitard undergarment but I'm not so sure about seamless underwear. I think a thong would work but the bra might be tricky.

Anyway, we ran act 1 tonight. Last time running it in the rehearsal hall. *sigh* Tomorrow's act 2 and then we're done rehearsing. Yikes!

BTW, the other day when I was in the costume shop I sat down and calculated out how much yarn has gone into making these costumes (arm and leg warmers, tails, and the yarn sewn onto Deuteronomy and Gus' costumes)...

51,000 feet.
17,000 yards.
That's almost 10 miles of yarn!

We're going to have them put that in the programme.

At first I was thinking that I didn't have any pictures to show you guys tonight but then I remembered that Lorie, a lady who works in the costume shop was taking photos of rehearsals the other night and told me today that she sent them to me. They're a little blurry because she was just learning how to use the camera but they're okay. They're all of me mostly because those are the only ones she sent me. That was also the night that I went on as Griddlebone so there are a couple of me and Growltiger singing the aria.

( Pictures right this way... )

Today I finished Munkustrap's leg warmer, brought that in, and they gave me Pouncival's leg to finish. More unitards came in today so Ginger's frantically painting them all, lol. Mine and Emily's are the ones that she's doing the least amount of work on so she told the lady who made them to send those last so those haven't come yet, but they're supposed to tomorrow. So hopefully I'll finish Pouncival's leg, bring that in about an hour before rehearsals start, and get to try on my unitard too. I'll be sure to bring my camera so someone can take a picture of me.

Guess what? More glorious pictures! I would have posted them last night but my camera's batteries died and there weren't any fresh ones in the charger. Meh. But here's what happened: so I've been having trouble with my mouse mask because it's too wobbly and loose. So Ginger suggested that I take my wig with me to rehearsal one night and try it underneath the mask. So I did that last night and it worked perfectly! After rehearsal I couldn't take my wig back to the costume shop because they were closed so I had to take it home with me. WHEE! I put on my makeup, then the wig, and TOOK PICTURES!

You wanna see 'em? Do ya? Do ya, do ya, do ya? ( TADA! Er... PRESTO! )

Rehearsals have been monotonous for the most part, just running over and over, then working certain scenes. Though this week we're having understudy runthroughs, yay! I did Griddlebone tonight and tomorrow I'm doing Jemima. Also, Sarah did the White Cat Solo tonight. She's so much better at it than I am. *sigh*

Gah, I can't believe we just have a few rehearsals left. This Sunday we're striking the Beauty and the Beast set and putting up Cats. I don't like strikes but they're mandatory for everyone over the age of 13 except out of cast understudies. Ah well, it's always fun to watch the set be put up.

Okay, nightie!

ETA: Oh yeah, I also found out that I have the only shiny unitard. Everyone else's is cotton lycra because it's easier to dye/paint. Yay, shiny! We'll also have a black light on stage some of the time. Black light + all white costume = GLOWING LIEK WOAH. Woo, shiny, radioactive cat up there!

I didn't finish Tugger's tail at the costume shop so I got to take it home again, lol. But, that means that I took pictures of the finished product which you'll find below. I also took a walk to the set shop and they let me take pictures, YAY! It's SO COOL! We have a ramp and holes to crawl through and sliding doors and things to sit on and WHEEE!

Didn't do much in rehearsal, just ran the first act. Went well. I'm finally getting all of Jellicle Ball and I think I've got all of Gumbie Cat. But that stupid mouse mask kept getting in the way. If I don't get used to it soon I won't be able to wear it. I'm so afraid I'm going to fall off the stage or run into somebody. I also kept hitting it with my arms while I was dancing so I just took it off and did the rest of the number without it. I haven't been able to do that number all the way through with it on yet. Of course, it's only the second time I've tried so we'll see. Still have a week left of rehearsals.

Now, the exciting part... ( PICTURES! )

Enjoy and nighty night.

YAY! I ordered white canvas ballet shoes and they came today! They fit PERFECTLY. I wasn't sure they would because it said to buy the same size as my street shoes and I usually wear 8-8 1/2, but those ballet shoes are Leos and my jazz shoes are also Leos, but my jazz shoes are 9's. So I took a chance and bought the ballet shoes in 9's. And they fit! I wore them to rehearsal tonight and they were tres tres comfortable but they also got very dirty so I'm going to go back to my jazz shoes until dress rehearsals start.

Today at the costume shop I made Quaxo's tail (brown and tannish) and I started Rum Tum Tugger's tail but I had to take that one with me so I'll have pictures of it for you guys. And Ginger started painting the unitards! I might be able to take some pictures of them. She did Jennyanydots', Quaxo's, Bombalurina's and Mungojerrie's.

Today in rehearsal we ran through once and then worked and tweaked stuff. We had the Pekes and Pollicles head pieces and the mice masks, though we couldn't see out of them very well so I think I'm going to learn the Gumbie Cat dance number before I start wearing my mouse mask all the time. I'm just afraid I'm going to fall off the stage so I have to position my mask low, but then I can't watch people around me to make sure I'm doing the right dance steps. So I must learn the dance really well THEN I can wear the mask more comfortably.

I'm going to work on Tugger's tail tonight but I doubt I'll get it finished because I only have about eight inches done so far, so I'll just do as much as I can and take pictures of whatever I have before I leave for the costume shop tomorrow. I might also walk to the set shop tomorrow and take some pictures of the set.

Eeeee! It's coming together! Two more weeks.
Oh, and I can officially say now that the entire show has been blocked and choreographed and learned and all we have to do now is run it over and over and over and over...

Went to the costume shop again today and I was set to work on Steve S's regular cat (when he's not Bustopher Jones) tail. It's gray and black striped but I think he's mostly black. Then Steve came in and he was doing more wigs. He had me put mine on so that he could make sure he was cutting it the right length. EEEEE! It was so exciting! Then I learned how to use the little circle Knifty Knitters and did a couple rows of a Growltiger legwarmer.

In rehearsal we got our makeup bags and charts. Most of them are exactly like the movie except she doesn't want our faces entirely covered (mostly because that takes A LOT of makeup) so Ginger changed them a bit. My face won't be entirely white (which I'm a little sad about but also a bit relieved) and neither will Josh's or Steve S's etc... Though it's weird: Kathy and Kim's charts were almost entirely blank. We couldn't figure out if she wanted them to make up their own or if she was still in the process of creating theirs or what.

We finally blocked/learned Mistoffelees tonight and I was one of the people who never joins into the dance, thank goodness. I really didn't want to have to learn another dance. *sobs* Although, both Emily and Kelly are in it so if I have to go on for either of them I'll undoubtedly have to learn it. So I'd better learn it now just in case. It's short so it shouldn't be too hard.

And now... PICTURES! ( Right this way... )

Okay, time for bed.

Ooh, Nicholle and Philip are just as angry about Memory as I am and when we got to that scene the three of us didn't do the congratulating Grizabella thing before she sings. We're hoping we're noticed soon so that we can possibly convince Denise to change it. There were some other people who were agreeing with us so we could possibly do a petition or go on strike or something. YEAH! Finally some action. Hopefully we can turn the scene around to the way it's supposed to be. I don't even care about me not being the first one to accept her anymore, I just think her being accepted before she sings is utterly stupid and doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Anyway, I went to the costume shop again today to do some more tails. I did Jemima's tail while I was there (it's gray with a blackish tip... I guess she's gray) and started Pouncival's. I brought it home to work on it and I have a picture of it in the process of being knitted but I'm going to wait until it's done and I can take pictures of the finished product before I upload them. Ooo! And some of the unitards came in! Mine wasn't one of them, but oh well. Now they can start painting them! Oooo, and Steve S went to beauty school so he's styling the wigs and WOW, he is SO good! The wigs look FANTASTIC!

I'm a little miffed that most of the cats aren't their traditional colors (Munkustrap and Alonzo are brownish, Jemima is grey, Cassandra is fluffy, and I could on and on) but oh well, at least my costume color can't be changed, lol. The costumes all look awesome, and that's all that matters. No one's going to know unless they're as obsessed with the show as I am, lol.

Rehearsal went well. We did a complete runthrough and wow! We're almost done learning everything. Mistoffelees is the only one left and most of it is Josh. We learned the rest of Rum Tum Tugger, too. The closest girls make a circle around him and squeal and stuff while he does hip wiggles and then we faint at the end, pretty much like the movie.

Aaaaaand, I think that's it. I'll try to finish the tail tonight and post pictures but if not I'll finish it tomorrow morning and post them then (or possibly tomorrow night, depending on how busy I am.) Don't worry, you'll see them.

The costume shop is swamped with arm warmers, leg warmers, and tails to make so I went over there to help out today. Wow! The pieces that they have done look AWESOME! I also got somewhat of a glance of the wigs and they were mostly the wrong shape or in need of a trim or needing more color so... they're obviously not done. The unitards are coming next week so Ginger (our head costume lady) will be busy coloring them. She'll need as many people as she can get to do the other stuff. There were so many cool costume pieces there I just can't name them all. I didn't see anything that looked like it came from my costume but there were a lot of things missing or incomplete. Oh, the cockroach costumes are SO CUTE! I'm kinda sad only the guys get to be cockroaches. Oh well, I'm sure the mouse costumes will be just as cute, if not cuter. The cockroach costumes are basically black trashbags which will be decorated and giant colorful glasses with springy antenae with silver balls at the ends. There will probably be other pieces but that's all I saw of them.

Anyway, I went in there for three hours and they set me to work knitting Mistoffelees' tail. The tails are 16 stitches across (most of them with Fun Fur, that special furry yarn you can buy) and about 30-35 inches long depending on how tall the person is wearing them. When they're done being knitted they're folded in half and stitched up the side and on the end, then turned inside out. The tail I did was knitted with a regular black and white twisted wool yarn combined with black Fun Fur, and another special white yarn at the end but I don't know what it's called exactly. I finished knitting it before I had to leave (they were very impressed with my knitting speed so I'm coming back next week to work on more things) but I didn't finish stitching so I got to take it home. You know what that means...

PICTURES!!!!!!!! ( Click here to see them. )

Then I had to go to rehearsal. We learned the Macavity dance and it's mostly between Macavity and Plato. Skimbleshanks fights too at the beginning but quickly gets thrown out of it and "goes to kitty hospital", AKA exits stage left, lol. Then all the ladies get up and break them up, and Macavity... does something cool. I don't know what it is yet. Oh! And before the fight, Macavity comes on right after the song bit (I know, no disguising as Deuteronomy, but oh well) and all the ladies back away from him. Then he goes to the front of the stage and sits on the milk carton and Syndey and I meet up-center and start making noise. Macavity crosses to us and glares. We, wide-eyed, scamper off. *shrugs* I'd rather have him disguise himself as Deuteronomy and do the Demeter-jumps-on-his-back thing, but whatever. At least the fight between him and Steven is really freaking cool; there are a ton of flips and acrobatics since they're our two guys who can do that sort of thing. They do flips during Jellicle Ball and Jellicle Cats, too, but there are so many more in this fight scene.

Then we finished Skimbleshanks. Nothing too special. The big train eventually moves and spirals in on itself, then does the crashing thing, and we end in the song in poses.

Then we learned the little bit at the end of Mistoffelees (most of the number will be just Josh, obviously), but I've forgotten most of it already, lol.

I... think that's it. Yup. Monday we're running through everything, so yay! We'll probably do the rest of the numbers with understudies, too. I think those are our official understudy runthroughs. I hope not, though, because some of us are understudying people who have complicated solo blocking and/or dancing. I'm not one of them, thank goodness, but there are a lot of others who do. It'd be nice if they could do a normal runthrough in their understudy roles rather than just singing the songs. At least once. *sigh* But alas, I'm not directing this show.

Nighty night.

We ran through the second act tonight and did more understudy stuff. And I think we worked some problem areas, too. Oh, and the other people finally got to see the Memory blocking. A lot of people complained like I thought they were going to but no one did anything about it. I'm thinking going to Tracy by myself wouldn't be such a good idea. If I could get a bunch of people together so that she could see that it wasn't just one person complaining it would be more effective. Otherwise I'm just going to forget it and go with the flow.

Anyway, then Kaye came and we finished Gumbie Cat. It's so cute! Each of the mice dance with their two partners one at a time then we make a little V for the "for she's a jolly good fellow" line while two guys carry her under the arms to down center stage and then finish in poses. I go in splits right in front of Kathy and end on the last beat with my arms up. I think so far I have the only choreographed splits in the show. Cool! Finally, something fitting for my character. I just need to stretch more. @_@ Oh, and because I can only do splits on my right side I had to switch sides of the stage that I dance on so I can get to my spot easier. So now I dance with Jason and Steven.

Then we choreographed the Tugger dance break. He mostly picks random girls and does little hip wiggle stuff with them, then they either faint away or he bumps them away with his hip. First he dances with Sarah, then Emily, then he dances with me and Nicholle at the same time and we kinda melt onto the floor, lol. And then we sing again, and then after the song there's another dance break right before Grizabella which Kaye didn't know about because it's not on the soundtrack that she has, lol. All these different versions are driving everyone crazy! So she's going to choreograph that and we'll learn it later.

Then we choreographed the Growltiger fight sequence after "but a serried ring of flashing steel Growltiger did surround" - "Ayeee!" Kathy is actually Genghis. Nicholle just says the lines backstage. Oh, and Steve P. is now saying part of that, too. They kinda narrate that part from backstage. So Kathy leads all the Siamese onto Growltiger's barge and the crew are all fast asleep. Me, Joanna, Kathy, and Syndey surround Emily while the others surround the crew. Then Emily kinda slips away as we're grabbing for her, we look for her a bit, then we surround Alex and commence the fight sequence. We spread out in fencing stances, do some little jumps back and forth to the music, run around in a circle, then pair off. First I'm paired off with Steven. We fight for a while, then me, Sarah, and... I think it's Kelly, do a grand jeté (big leap) to the other side of the stage, run a little bit, our partner follows us, then we turn around and run him through. Steven and I decided that as I'm running he's going to grab my tail and I'm going to spin around agrilly and give him what for, hehe.

Then the three of us find another couple who are still fighting and we kill that guy off, too, all on different beats. I have Josh, Sarah has Greg, and Kelly has Phil. Greg's killed on 5, Phil on 6, and Josh on 7. So, stab, stab, stab! And they all drop. SO COOL. Oh, and the guys all have kitchen utensils like potato peelers, beaters and bottle openers, and we, the Siamese ladies, have matchsticks. They're all giant and they look SO REAL! Man, our prop people rock.

Then Kathy knocks Alex's weapon out of his hand and he's taken captive. We move into a line with Alex in the middle (in front of me) and we march him across the stage to the plank. Kathy points to it and I push him forward and she pokes him down the plank with her matchstick. I guess at "kerflip, kerflop" he's going to jump. Then we move into a line again upstage and sing the rest.

Ooo, then we did Skimbleshanks. Four people were chosen to be Greg's "train". It was me, Sarah, Josh, and Jason. I was really hitting the jackpot tonight, getting chosen to do all these things. W00t! So we do a cute dance with him (we're going to have toothpick canes!!!) and a few times we line up, facing the side, grab our own cane and the cane in front of us and do train steps. I was watching the mirror, IT LOOKS SO COOL! Then Kelly and Steven join in and we line up for the little inspection thing, do more trains and then we sit down while Greg sings to us. Then everyone comes in and we make a big train!!! AH! *runs around in circles* I LOVE this number. Everyone with a cane does the same grab-the-cane-of-the-person-in-front-of-you thing that we did before so I guess we're the... whatever you call those. And then there are four people with umbrellas for wheels. There's going to be a giant piece of a straw and Steve S. has a pot for the smokestack. It's so cool!

Wow, I just totally described every number in detail. THEY'RE SO FUN. Man, I'm not even stressing about Memory anymore. If it looks stupid and confuses everyone it won't be anyone's fault but Denise's.

Oh, and Steven said he talked to Denise and we're still doing our Plato and Victoria mating dance, it'll just be somewhere else. Except... I can't imagine where else it would be. We've done pretty much every dance number except Mistoffelees and I don't even think we'll be dancing then, I think it'll just be Josh. Steven mentioned that Kaye might not know about it so that could be why. I think we'd better remind her soon before we get too comfortable with the current choreography. The problem is that the music that they usually do the mating dance to isn't in our version of Jellicle Ball.

Ah well, that'll be for Kaye, Terry, and Denise to worry about. Denise said we're doing it so I'm not worrying.

Ugh, I'm gonna get out of this leotard and tights, get comfortable, and get something to eat.

Woot, we did a lot more tonight than just a runthrough. Actually, we just ran through the first act, then we ran through certain songs with understudies (I think we'll do the rest of them later). Then Kaye came and she started teaching us Gumbie Cat. I'm one of the three mice, yay! No tapping, but the number's still very cute. We almost got to the end but just couldn't get all of it before 10. We'll have plenty of time to learn the rest tomorrow.

I think we're running through second act tomorrow and then learning the rest of Gumbie... then probably something else considering we still have a few more numbers to learn.

It's coming along! Yikes... two and half more weeks. @_@