Kate of the Desert

Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts

This year I had the pleasure of working with a performing arts group called Funkytown, from Fuse. From hiphop to Broadway, hits of the 80s to today, we combined music and dance to have pretty much a blast working and becoming friends with 30 teens across the Valley. Though our performances were fun, it all led up to our trip to Disneyland.

I have a few friends who are obnoxiously obsessed with anything Disney. Though I think the movies are cute and I enjoyed the trip to Disneyland a few years ago, I thought it was a bit overrated. But OK, maybe I was wrong. I REALLY had fun this time.
I'm a semi-adrenaline junky cause even though I get scared to death of some stuff, I love doing exciting things that make my heart race & still bring a smile to my face. For example, roller coasters. Not saying that roller coasters are scary, but I love that stomach-in-your-throat feeling when it drops, or when you go upside down, or when you think you're going to go left but then you veer right. One time the worker at CA Screaming let me wait in line extra time so I could sit at the very front. I also offered to take the front of Splash Mountain so I could get the wettest {I know, I'm absurd like that}. Now, what definitely wasn't as enjoyable as Space Mountain or Pirates of the Caribbean was being broken down inside the Haunted Mansion for ten minutes super late at night-- stuck in our little car in the dark where the black widow ghost taunted us with photos of her dead husbands, cooing seductively, "Here comes the bride...in sickness and in wealth... till death do us part..."
You can't forget the guilty pleasure of Disneyland food-- a vacation must-- from churros to Dole pineapple whip to New Orlean clam chowder in a bread bowl... I adore my mother because, while she understands the importance of healthy eating, she knows how to live a little. Man, when I went to Boston with her over spring break 2011 she remembered more restaurants to take me to after ten years than historical sights to visit.

But the whole reason we came was for the performing. First, we had a workshop where our instructor taught us the importance of "throwing up emotion all over the audience," or letting them know what it's all about with more than just the words you may say or sing. Then two days later we performed at California Adventure. Although I still get nervous, there's just something so exciting about taking the spotlight {if even just for a moment} especially when I sang the duet Georgia on My Mind, a slow and peaceful jazz oldie. When it was all over, we were so happy because, despite the raging heat & the exhaustion of running around theme parks for three days, we had performed with more energy & commitment than we ever had before.
I hadn't really been close to anyone in Funkytown before, but the trip made me realize how amazing in general people can be. No one has to be some famous inspirational soul to make everyone around them feel happy-- and that's what these kids did. From speaking in British accents the whole trip in the hope of getting girls' attention {some of these guys were shocked to have girls ask for their autographs just for being "British!"} to sending harmonized songs between the three cars on the drive home, these people made me want to live life to the fullest. Is that silly? So thanks, Disneyland. I had a blast.

Ah, December. Quite a crazy month, wouldn't you say? The end of the semester brings lots of finals, last-minute freaking out over grades, the usual scrambling to buy gifts in time and dealing with those psycho drivers who shouldn't be driving.

But not only do we scrape through, we make it memorable and happy. Like one Saturday morning, my friends and I sacrificed sleep for a beautiful Sonoran hike. Yes, the desert is beautiful, and no matter how much I complain about the raging summer heat, the brown theme, the scorpions, the lack of proper seasons.... Well, I do love the beautiful red tones painted across the sand in fine mineral patterns, fineness of the cactus needle as it catches the sunlight, the pink wildflowers speckling the landscape like the fierce, bold survivors they are...

Just remind us to take a map next time, so we don't get quite as lost as we did.

I love my friends so freaking much, though. We've hung out a lot, whether spontaneously meeting up for desert and a movie on the beloved beanbag, freaking each other out in the garage, wrestling/Nerfgun wars {I realized pitifully that I would die within the first minute of either being kidnapped or made a soldier}, listening to the boys use inside jokes as a way to start dying laughing about something apparently dirt, singing along to the Frozen soundtrack, watching movies like Mr. & Mrs. Smith,walking around the lovely temple lights, watching the ferociosity of a five-year-old {poor Bryan is never gonna live down getting nailed in the face-- literally, like, this kid scratched him and drew enough blood in this long line that the mark is still there & everyone who glances out of the corner of their eye thinks he has a bloody nose. I tell him to make up some heroic story as a cover-up, but he's too modest.} Last Friday Bryan and I went out on a date with Lindsey and Cody biking around brightly-lit neighborhoods. The colors were bold and holidayish and the air was crisp, freezing our knuckles and crystallizing our breath. We stopped our bikes on the freeway overpass to watch the cars flying by, then sipped peppermint smoothies, sang as Jingle Bells as atrociously as we could on the top of our lungs since the whoosh of the traffic whisked the ugly sound away anyway, and went back to Bryan's house to huddle around the fireplace as Bryan almost lulled us to sleep with his gorgous piano skills and played a game of Life and massaged each other.

This month, we built a stage. Actors Youth Theater opened up its own studio we plan on designing like the Venecian. Even if I don't do quite as much acting as my siblings who participate in so many productions I literally {and I mean LITERALLY literally} can't keep track, the love of performance runs deep in my blood and it's been amazing seeing this all fall into place. Adam did an eagle project the size of three-- impressing all-- by helping install seats and paint, among a million other things. I'm proud. My mom's the president of the board too, so congrats to her.

I also can't forget the incredible experience I'm having with Fuse Performing Arts and their little Glee group Funkytown. I'm the oldest one in the group, but I've never met a group of nicer, more welcoming and fun-loving kids. We have a blast at every concert, and even if we're not the best group out there, it has been amazing putting together songs to sing and dance to. I was honored to add a little candle to my cake of a Christmas season by having the choir back me up as I sang O Holy Night.

Cause these nights-- and this one tonight especially-- are brightly shining.

I cannot lie and tell you that I like auditions. Cause I don't. They make your stomach all fluttery, and even if you rocked it you still have that feeling of paranoia that lasts until you get the results, especially after over two years of being off stage.

But I couldn't resist the temptation to try out for Tim Rice & Elton Jon's Aida with Actors Youth Theater. I saw AYT's first production of this musical back in 2007 and instantly fell in love. And I was absolutely ecstatic to pretty much give up my entire month of June when I made the ensemble, acting as a Nubian slave. It was so. Much. Work. I was trying to figure out how I had managed to accidentally lose weight and realized it was because of the dozens of hours of intense dancing I had worked my tail off sweating. And you must understand, I am slower when it comes to learning dances simply because I never took straight dance classes as a child, so it was harder for me. But it was so absolutely worth it to be part of an amazing cast with amazing directors helping weave our interpretation of an amazing story.

Aida is "a contemporary musical take on a grand classic tale of the timeless bond between an enslaved Nubian princess and an Egyptian soldier. As forbidden love blossoms between them, the young lovers are forced to face death or part forever. Together, they set a shining example of true devotion that ultimately transcends the vast cultural differences between their warring nations, heralding a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity."

I have always been fascinated by both the story itself and also Ancient Egypt in general, so I was so excited to try out the thick Egyptian makeup as well as wear part of my hair in cornrows and the rest crimped big. The costumes and the set too were done well, a lot of which made from scratch {the paint refused to come off for days after the whole cast met up to create the set till 1 AM one night}. People in the ensemble alone had at least five different costumes, from slave rags to military uniforms to Egyptian kalasiris to light up prom dresses {for the fashion show of Amneris's Strongest Suit}. I was seriously impressed by the creativity and effort put in. No details were abandoned.

But this stuff? It's all just the shell. I seriously would get chills from the beautiful music, not to mention the fantastic job of acting done by our leads. The story too is purely haunting and left me pondering what I would do if it came down to choosing between two passions.

The cool thing about being an actress is that you get to put yourself someone's shoes. You get to imagine a life of completely different circumstances, of completely different DNA. Perhaps you and this character share the same face, but in reality you are just the gateway for this soul to come to life as you slip on your mask and tell their story. For different scenes I was the desperate young girl captive in a foreign land, despairing at the loss of freedom but despite tears still thriving with the spark of hope... the prissy handmaiden to the pharaoh's daughter, skeptical of the princess's ability to be a future leader yet still content to primp with her in the bathhouse... the merchant selling vases at the marketplace because that's simply a way to make money, and money is how to provide...

Combine this masquerade with the melody or harmony in your lungs and the movement of your feet as you dance, and the magic just bursts and pulses through your veins.

So I shall admit that I'm one of those oddies who believes that everything happens for a reason. I had tried to sign up for EFY and had started the registration months in advance, doing everything I could to get in, but for some reason despite my friends getting signed up fine I didn't get in. But I hadn't known at the time that the session I had tried to go to was the same week as the Aida performances. I can go to EFY next summer even if it would have been a great experience this year. But Aida? That was the opportunity of a lifetime for me, one that I will never forget, and it would have been so sad for me to skip out on it.

I tried literally almost every rehearsal and performance to produce tears while I fake cried for some of the most emotional scenes, but could never do it. Yet-- oh the irony-- as soon as I exited the stage after the bows of the last show, try as I did I couldn't get the tears to stop rolling down my cheeks as I realized that this spectacular experience was now but a memory.

Everyone just laughed at me when they saw the look on my face. It was kind of mean-- I mean, how could I help the shock that in a matter of two seconds had managed to seize my whole body when I entered the house and was greeted with a nice loud "Surprise!" from dozens of people?

Lets rewind. It had been a tiring day. First off, I woke up to discover that my lights were still on, I was still wearing my glasses, and the book was lying next to me without a bookmark. Then, according to my mom, my grandparents were coming from Utah on Monday and we had to get everything perfect. So even with General Conferece, we had to pick up everything so that we could hire the carpet cleaner and cleaning ladies to do much better than we could ever do at deep cleaning. While the inside of our house was stripped of dirt, I had the opporunity to clothe myself in it as I sadly tore out all my old garden plants and replaced them with new flowers and herbs that hadn't been brutally murdered by a hot AZ summer.

Then my friends requested me to hang out with them. Apparently it was a good that I hadn't turned that down despite feeling out of it. Since Chelsea's family were "going to a restaraunt," we couldn't stay for more than a few hours, but we watched a movie and watched Chels try to toss grapes into her own mouth. When I realized that her hair was curled, her brother who doesn't know me all that well wished me a "happy birthday," and my mom seemed really stressed out, I began to wonder.... But I quickly hushed the ideas. As my English teacher had told us, when we want something to be true, our mind will find unrelated things and tie them together to form a pattern that will satisfy that desire. That's all that's going on, I told myself. Yeah, I was wrong.

The whole house was decked out with glittering lights and lanterns. The dining room table and rug was gone to make room for a dance floor with a DJ. Food spilled across the kitchen. The pool was filled with balloons and a volleball net had been set up. And all the people! Friends I hadn't seen in forever or didn't even know that well had come to celebrate. A certain Slade who I hadn't seen in years also visited. I had thought he was way older than me, at least graduated, but apparently he's sixteen as well. He made seventeen paper roses and gave them to me one at a time, requesting that I not add the sixteenth and seventeenth to the bouquet till those actual birthdays.

A party? It definitely was one. Except I still couldn't get over the shock for about half the time I was there. I went from being broke {thank you vacation to Peru and an previous inability to get a job} to having a whopping $230 in cash and gift cards.

Seriously, it was a Sweet Sixteen that was more than I could ever asked for.

So that was on a Saturday, and my birthday was the next Wednesday the tenth. Although I did hit the snooze button, I had to get up bright and early. I had been up hours the night before working on homework, and now I had to get ready, wearing my cheer uniform for the last JV football home game. "Happy birthday!" my family chanted. But I was still tired. And during school, the three quizzes and an essay didn't help boost my energy level. Though I was pretty happy to receive balloons and have to sit on a stool while all the boys in my seminary class knelt before me and sang- alright the second was pretty hawkward.

Still, forgetting to take my medication for my ear infection didn't help the headache I had already developed after so many tests. Even after going home and then to Liberty Market for a tasty dinner, I wasn't feeling my best. Then I had to the game. Apparently the medication kicked in at that point though, because my energy was boosted. But even though it was our last chance to cheer on our boys at home, there was nothing as cool as the surprise that came up. And by cool, I mean chilling.
Before the game started, we lined up with our hands on our hearts for the National Anthem. The ROTC stood silently with the flags. But before the choir's recording could echo through the stadiums, an announcement was made. After being away at war for so long, Charles Haas had safely returned. At that moment, a soldier in uniform stepped out. Our friend on the squad, Savannah, could only stare in shock. "Go!" we encouraged her. Then she burst into a sprint and jumped into her father's arms. All the other cheerleaders? We bawled, every single one of us. Luckily enough, they hadn't caught us on tape when it all turned up on ABC News.
Unfortunately the excitement of game started was cut short for me cause I had to perform in the choir concert. One of the other girls and I scrambled to the other side of the school where we quickly tore off our uniforms and slipped on our dresses. I almost left in my giant teal bow. Fast forward and we were on stage. Ms. Scholz proudly announced that we, the Advanced Women's Choir, had ranked Superior with Distinction at the music festival we had attended the week before. Then we began our songs-- Music, Spread Thy Voice Around by Handel, Lakme's lovely Call of the Flowers, and then a slightly more modern piece called Accentuate the Positive. Now I've already mentioned how much I enjoy performing, but once we began our third piece... Well, it's a jazzy piece from the thirties and I, being me, prefer music like that over more classical styles. They had told us to snap. Okay, I could deal with that. So then I decided to have fun with the song and, with the entire auditorium filled, I allowed the beat to take over me as I sang.
I hadn't expected the audience's reaction once I left the stage.
"Girl, move those hips!"
"Dang, you're sassy!"
"All the girls in my choir were like, 'Is she in theatre?' and I was like 'Yeah, and she's my cousin!"
I mean, I knew when I was singing that I wasn't going to look like a robot, but geez. Apparently I went more full-out than I realized. I didn't even know till after my mom commented about it that I had been making faces, and it wasn't till the choir watched the video of it the next day for critique that I realized I was the only one to so much as snap with my hands raised above my waist. I had people I didn't even know coming up to me with compliments. When I tried to tell one of my friends about it the next day, he had already heard about it from one of his friends who hadn't even been able to remember my name!
Yeah, I let's just say that I hadn't even touched my homework when I got home at 10:30. But what the heck. I still couldn't get over the concert, so I just kept dancing around while I ate cupcakes and plugged numbers into the calculator. Then I couldn't help but laugh when I saw another present left by doorbell-ditchers: a foam sword with a note reading "To fend off all boys (except Slade)."
Can I just say I'm psyched to be sixteen?

Pages

About Me

Popular Posts

Search This Blog

Blog Archive

Recent Posts

Instagram