NOTION/ Orchestra

Yesterday I had my first rehearsal, in which Hiro and taught me how to use Notion.  I learned the program in less than a half hour.  The tricky part was fixing/editing the files, which took me almost 10 hours yesterday, and about 2 more today.  There were a lot of glitches and wrong notes that I had to correct, along with typing in notes to myself.  It finally runs pretty smoothly.  Here's what I do:

It looks pretty easy, doesn't it?  It's actually not.  Running the Notion requires a lot of musical intuition and timing; it's really easy to get ahead of yourself.  You also have to program in your own rhythms that you're tapping so you can have more control over the pre-programmed music.  Without a strong musical and technological background, the learning curve on this program is pretty steep.

Today we rehearsed the orchestra and ran through the entire show.  It.  Was.  Incredible.  As you may guess, these players do this for a living.  Therefore, they bring an enormous level of professionalism and talent to the rehearsals.  The first time we ran through each number was nearly flawless.  Needless to say, today was a straight-up good time.

(Spoiler Alert!) I also watched some of the tech-in today in which Princess Fiona turns into an ogre at the wedding and levitates, and Lord Farquaad gets eaten by the Dragon.   So cool!!

Tomorrow, the orchestra rehearses again. We join the cast on Wednesday and have an invited dress Wednesday evening.  Then, it's onto our first preview on Thursday.
                                              
                                                  The Capitol Theater, Yakima, WA