For those folks who know me in real life, you know that 1) I got cast as Val, a.k.a. “the tits and ass girl,” in A Chorus Line and 2) I’m not so good at updating blogs when theatre takes over my life. Any time not spent at rehearsal was spent at the dance studio because ballet class is surprisingly meditative and grounding, working at the day job, sitting in traffic on the way to rehearsal, or sleeping. Eating took a back seat to sleeping…or more specifically, a driver’s seat, as the only time I could nosh on my show diet of portable food (granola bars and apples) was while I was stuck on 400 North.

Things have been extremely busy since I last posted, as you may have gathered from that last paragraph. The show at Dance 101 happened, and I did indeed do Jerome Robbins’ choreography from West Side Story. That was a week or two of dancing seven days a week. There is footage of the performance, but it is grainy and far away. I may post it eventually.

March was also a month of healing, as I got kicked in the hand during a photoshoot/rehearsal for the opening number of A Chorus Line. The side of my left hand – just below my pinky – was at the receiving end of a lusty high kick.

Poor hand

I was extraordinarily lucky that nothing was broken, but the healing process for my hand was very slow due to the severity of the impact. My poor pinky and ring finger were bandaged together for weeks, and I was typing with 6-8 fingers. It made work interesting and exhausting to say the least!

After that show went up, rehearsals for A Chorus Line at the Cumming Playhouse got more intense…or maybe it just felt that way because it was suddenly April – the month that we open!

My plan of conquering my dance show fears (Really, as a singer, will I find too many other shows with as much dance as this? If I can do this show, I can do anything) and getting closer to the coveted Broadway Body (Think about how Broadway performers look) have been accomplished. Yes.

Tech week was rather brutal for A Chorus Line – typical long hours of course, but the Georgia pollen was making its debut just before we were! It got me good. Oof. By the time we opened, I officially had my obligatory allergy season sinus infection. Excellent timing, huh? Thankfully, I had a superb choir teacher as a kid (thank you, Mrs. Bradford), so I have the technique to sing over and through the issues. It was still rather miraculous to belt “Dance 10, Looks 3” as my sinuses descended further into chaos every night, but I did it! And I was grateful to have a microphone for “What I did for love” at the matinee – I had no voice left except a light legit one.

But I survived! We all did! And we’re now a family. So come see A Chorus Line at the Cumming Playhouse. Three performances down, twelve to go. Here’s our #SIP (Saturday Intermission Pic for those who are unfamiliar with broadwayworld.com’s weekly post of SIPs):

Shiny happy dancers for the #SIP of A Chorus Line during opening weekend