So here we are at the end of the first week. Today is the production day off - no rehearsals, that is - but the cast members have been asked to sing at a development function, so it's kind of a performance day, really, even though we're officially off the clock.
The challenge in this for me is that I've hit spring for the second time this year since the Midwest is about 3 weeks behind the East coast temperature-wise. Thus, I am fighting my truly dreadful tree-pollen allergies for the SECOND time this year! But figuring out how to sing under less-than-optimum physical conditions is part of the deal as a professional singer, and you just find a way somehow. It requires more concentration and can be a bit nervewracking when you can't entirely trust what your instrument is going to do, but... we cope! It helps that this group of singers and the administration here are delightful as well as supportive, and thus there isn't that sense of tacit "judgement" from my colleagues (real or imagined - we're a sensitive bunch about our singing!) there sometimes can be in these situations.
But it's a quiet day today and I finally had a chance to check out the very nice pool here at the hotel, and am using the time to do the truly banal: laundry! It's always so funny how these domestic chores become an almost reassuring routine when you're on the road (rather than the intrusion they are at home) and it will feel positively cozy to collect my drying and put it away.
My husband, bless him, has put together a timetable of absurd precision for the weekend to cover all the babysitting and transport requirements for our daughter and it looks like he's got it all handled beautifully - I knew he could do it! Although it's particularly complicated this weekend, I'm actually very glad she's busy - she's sounded completely content every time I've spoken to her, and I'm sure some of that is because she's busy with "kid stuff" and not having time to feel out of sorts. This is good!
And on that note, off to collect some clean clothes out of the dryer....
PS I know I trailed some artistic musings earlier in the week and I haven't forgotten - they will emerge at some point!
The challenge in this for me is that I've hit spring for the second time this year since the Midwest is about 3 weeks behind the East coast temperature-wise. Thus, I am fighting my truly dreadful tree-pollen allergies for the SECOND time this year! But figuring out how to sing under less-than-optimum physical conditions is part of the deal as a professional singer, and you just find a way somehow. It requires more concentration and can be a bit nervewracking when you can't entirely trust what your instrument is going to do, but... we cope! It helps that this group of singers and the administration here are delightful as well as supportive, and thus there isn't that sense of tacit "judgement" from my colleagues (real or imagined - we're a sensitive bunch about our singing!) there sometimes can be in these situations.
But it's a quiet day today and I finally had a chance to check out the very nice pool here at the hotel, and am using the time to do the truly banal: laundry! It's always so funny how these domestic chores become an almost reassuring routine when you're on the road (rather than the intrusion they are at home) and it will feel positively cozy to collect my drying and put it away.
My husband, bless him, has put together a timetable of absurd precision for the weekend to cover all the babysitting and transport requirements for our daughter and it looks like he's got it all handled beautifully - I knew he could do it! Although it's particularly complicated this weekend, I'm actually very glad she's busy - she's sounded completely content every time I've spoken to her, and I'm sure some of that is because she's busy with "kid stuff" and not having time to feel out of sorts. This is good!
And on that note, off to collect some clean clothes out of the dryer....
PS I know I trailed some artistic musings earlier in the week and I haven't forgotten - they will emerge at some point!
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