Mom is right...again

A while ago (look down to see where), after I edited the opening dance of Bearskin, I showed it to my Mom and then asked her, "So...how does this measure up? Against E horo, I mean." Mom looked at me, chuckled in disbelief and said, "Em, nothing will ever measure up to E horo." In typical fashion, I became despondant and then had to spend an hour convincing myself that what I'd done wasn't bad, merely I had asked an unfair question.

But tonight, as I'm preparing for tomorrow's open house, I rewatched the four clips that I put on the DVD (Bearskin opening dance, Twelfth Night rehearsal Toby/Sebastian sword fight, Bearskin "Man without a Face" [I needed a song in there], and Brigadoon "E horo"), I realized: Mom is right. Again.

In E horo, an entire story is told, complete with inciting incident, rising tension, climax and denoument. Heck, it practically breaks itself into a three act structure. More, I realized that I could learn a lot about the Ophelia/Hamlet relationship by rewatching Maggie and Harry interact during the dance. Once again, it's all about eye-contact.

This is not to say that I'm not happy with my other work: merely that E horo works as entire play on its own, with no need to explain anything, really. Whereas the others are plot points, or in the case of the first expository introduction to a snappy beat. But they're not the entirety of the story contained within itself - nor are they meant to be. Anywho, had I my druthers I'd try rerecording the whole DVD again, except that it took about 2 hours for only a fifth of the DVD to be taken up, and I'm still not sure the DVD will read .avi files (rather than .mpg) - and the .mpg that I have isn't as good as the one on my other program, so I may be switching back to the other version of ULead after all and.... Well, we'll see. All in good time, my pretty, all in good time! (Hmmm, perhaps I ought to bring Oz....)

Which, on a related side note makes me wonder if I can really get away with including Bearskin in the drama pitch to prospective students and their parents. But I figure a) I'm really selling myself doing drama at HCH (not that I'm trying to sound braggy, but y'know how theatre works), and b) a third of the Bearskin cast was from HCH so nyah. I wanted the song snippet to be "Real Love of my Life" from Brigadoon but the capture device was being a scootch. Which is just as well - I'm running out of HD space.

Must off. Retreat tomorrow. Apparently a rumour has been going around that the students think either they're going to receive marriage counselling, or be "magic 8-ball" TOLD their vocation, or have to choose their vocation in three hours, or be told who they're going to marry, or.... I set the record straight, but I've a feeling a lot of these kids are still vaguely apprehentious. Good! It's always comforting to see teens off-balance - counteracts that old, "I know everything" mentality inherent to that age. (Not poo-pooing that: I was a snooty teen, too. Then I grew up and realized how little I knew. I'm still learning how little I know. Maybe one day I'll be wise enough to know how little I really know and then I'll be ready to truly sit at Socrates' feet!)

Mood: Dum-de-dum-dum...laaaaah!
Music: Combination of mental jute box overlaid with the best of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Thought: Making posters of past productions and remembering to keep them! is a wonderful thing. Wish I'd known that before I'd dismantled them last time...!