My Fair Lady - Tech Week in Boise, ID

As mentioned in the last post, I arrived at the hotel at the same time as the cast bussing over from Utah.

What I failed to mention is that after introducing myself and saying, "Hi, I'm Megan," to a few people, each one said, "Oh, you're Megan's Foodie Finds!"

They knew right away! And people are already telling me how helpful my list was in Utah. That's great!

This is what I was socially hoping for. An introduction that's not, "A girl who plays the trombone, that's...unusual...." or "Oh you worked for the CIRCUS? Tell me all about it for the next hour!" or "Didn't they abuse those animals?"

Don't get me wrong, I'm not ashamed of what I am or did. I could gladly talk about the circus for hours, and many of you have found out!

But as explained to my BetterHelp psychologist, these exciting, unique social "points of interest" seem to eclipse everything else about me, which in addition to my abrasive personality, makes it difficult to actually make friends. Once the words "I used to work for the circus" come out of my mouth, naturally people want to know more and ask tons of questions, so it becomes this huge one-sided Q&A. And then when I want to know something about the other party, they wave me off and give some iteration of, "Oh, you don't want to hear about ME, my life is so BORING compared to that!"

But I DO want to hear about other people! We aren't what we do for work; we are all more than that. And I don't want my own background, interesting or controversial as it may be, to make others feel like we can't connect.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want "She's the chick who traveled with the circus" and "That's the girl trombonist" to take a back seat for a while, and let other less-shiny facets of who I am get some consideration. Like, "That's the person who makes our foodie sheets each week!" Followed by, maybe, a two-way conversation about something that we have in common. Everyone likes food, right?

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I slept "ok" on Wednesday night, though the altitude and climate change meant I felt itchy (dry skin) and dehydrated when I woke up (not unusual anyway after a day of travel.) I had a nice breakfast, and coffee from the lobby because I was too lazy to make my own.

I packed a lunch to bring to the theatre since I had so many nice things to try.
The lovely rosemary bread, the herbed turkey, some maple squash, some granola, and these adorable kiwi berries!
Yes, they really are just tiny kiwi without the fuzz. You can eat them whole like grapes or blueberries :)


When it was time I gathered up my trombone, mutes, etc and wandered toward the theatre.
Along the way I saw a woman carrying a violin case, and realized that it was my friend Amanda, who helped to get me this gig! I ran over to say hi and we caught up as we walked. It was really nice to see her, and I'm very glad to play a show with her again!

We found our way to the third floor where the band would rehearse while the actors worked on stage. I am so used to seeing this setup of a half-circle of musicians flanked by keyboards and drums that I hardly blinked. Everyone was very friendly and we all mingled and introduced ourselves before warming up, tuning, and getting to work.


It was SO. DANG. NICE. To have women in the workplace!!!
There is nothing wrong with men either, but when women are the majority it is such a different vibe.
For one thing I feel at least 50% less tense. Much less like I'm being viewed as some sort of oddity or gimmick...or as a threat to someone's precious manhood. For another, I feel like I won't have to break through a machismo barrier just to discuss things like articulations and dynamic changes as they arise. It is generally NOT a man's fault when society has conditioned him to behave or react a certain way, but regardless it is a real thing that impacts many types of interactions, and can be frustrating when you are JUST trying to get work done.

There are absolutely downsides to a majority of women in a musical ensemble too, don't get me wrong. It's just been a really long time since I've experienced those downsides, so the whole scene is refreshing to me right now. Ask me in another three months if I feel the same way lol. What a fun case study.

I was very nervous, but did my best and overall think I did a good job.
"A good job" for a trombonist, imo, is when the conductor barely notices you and comments on your playing as little as possible :p The few feedback notes that I did get today were stylistic; in other words my articulation, dynamics, pitch, and musicianship were acceptable enough that they didn't warrant correction/feedback. Yay!

After rehearsal was over we had a mandatory all-company dinner. Unfortunately the main purpose of the dinner/meeting was to inform us that one of our lead actor's partners had passed unexpectedly the day before. I guess they hadn't been at rehearsal, and this was very understandably why. The person would like to continue with the tour, but of course their feelings may change over time as grief takes over, so the company (and that person) decided it was best to make an announcement to avoid confusion over future changes. We were also given access to some mental health and grief resources, which was nice. In fact I wish such had been offered on Tootsie when my dad passed away during rehearsals.

It was a bit of a sober dinner, but I can understand why it was important to do it.
And we got a chance to meet some of the cast and chat a bit, that was good.

And we got our lanyards/backstage IDs for the show, along with an Affirmators card (these were randomly placed around the dining tables.)
Here is my ID badge, and the affirmation card that I got at random and that could not be more appropriate.


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Friday, woke up still feeling like I'd been run over, but it usually takes me about 48 hours to acclimate to a change so drastic.

Coffee, breakfast, pack a lunch, over to the theatre for another day of toot-tooting.
This time we only did touch-up work, though that still took the entire rehearsal time. That is, we didn't play through entire numbers, but looked at troublesome sections or parts where the MD wanted to make changes to what we're doing. It can get a little nit-picky, but in the interest of sounding awesome all of us seemed willing to endure a little overanalyzing. I was ok with it, anyway.

During the lunch break I poked my head into the theatre for a few pictures.
Please do NOT share these photos, we're not supposed to post tech photos to social media.

The stage from the back:


From directly in front. Notice the blocking numbers lining the edge of the stage, to help the choreographers, lighting crew, props, stagehands, actors, etc to line things up.


Close-up of the primary setpiece that was in view while I was there, the inside of Henry Higgins' house.


The orchestra pit. It's a pretty big one, we should have a nice amount of room once we move in tomorrow.


After lunch, more touch-up work, then we were excused (all but the poor drummer and keyboardist who had to move their things to the pit and/or stick around for one more rehearsal with the cast.)

It was sunny and warmish, the first sunny day we've had since coming here.
I walked along the Boise Greenbelt Trail, and took these photos crossing the Friendship Bridge.



There was a Whole Paycheck on the other side of the park, where I picked up some supplemental veggies and proteins. I was pleased to see the Amazon One palm scanner at checkout. No need to dig around in my coat pockets for my card!


A nice walk back to the hotel where I washed dishes and packed lunch for tomorrow, then enjoyed computer time and tea.

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Saturday was a very long day.
9am-noon we moved into the pit and had sound check.


Here is my spot.


I have to say, I was VERY surprised to learn that we will not be using in-ear mixes (aviom units) for this show! In my experience that is unusual for  a modern show. It means that we will all have to listen acoustically. I won't have headphones with an audio mix, where I can turn audio that I don't need DOWN (the clarinet, for example) and turn audio that I do need, UP (the upright bass across the room, for example.) I know that this is how all pit orchestras operated before the advent of technology...but that doesn't mean I'm excited to go back to The Dark Ages! Our side of the pit was given a speaker with an aviom attached solely so we could hear the bass, but you still have to listen for it live in the room, with all of the other sounds of the show going on. I did feel a bit frustrated by this at first but as rehearsal went on things felt better, and I will certainly get used to it and forget it was ever an issue.

Everything went well and we were excused a little early for lunch break. I walked to Whole Paycheck for something from the sushi bar (and to get Mezcla bars which I had forgotten.)

Then we had Wandelprobe with the actors from 1pm-5pm.
Wandelprobe = the orchestra and actors are together for the first time, and run through the show with minor blocking; i.e. people are not in full costumes, are not fully acting/dancing, but are simply reading their lines and moving where they would be on stage for lighting/practice purposes. That went pretty well again, so we got a whole two hours for dinner. I used mine to go back to the hotel and get a shower, then eat and walk back to the theatre for round three of rehearsals from 6:30pm-10pm. This one was entirely a blocking/lighting rehearsal. These are the worst for the orchestra because we are almost not needed; it's all about getting the actors well-lit in certain costumes; and getting the lighting set for setpieces and scenes; and the movement of actors and sets and props between scenes; and other such technical aspects. The music is there for occasional support. So we end up sitting in the pit for long periods of time, reading or playing with our phones until they want a snippet of music to set a scene on stage before shouting, "HOLD!" for a lighting cue, and then we are left to wait again.

I have been through so very many wandelprobes, and came prepared with a sweater and a book and snacks and plenty of hydration.

Finally at 10pm we were done! The longest day of tech rehearsal, behind us. Phew!

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Sunday was daylight savings, and I was awake at 7am because my body has no idea what's going on :p

It was nice to have a slow lazy morning of breakfast and typing up this blog and emailing people and watching anime.
Well before rehearsal time I walked downtown to Lemon Tree Co., a cafe serving awesome and creative sandwiches.
The menu is long and rather overwhelming, but I had done my research beforehand so knew what I wanted.

The "Ham Yam Jam": Ham, roasted yams, cherry preserves, sharp cheddar, jalapeno dijon aioli, apple lime slaw served hot on ciabatta.


It was incredibly good. I'm a sucker for sweet + savory any day, but when the ingredients are fresh it puts everything over the top as far as quality and flavor. This sandwich was sweet, salty, tangy, spicy, and very very good. I'm debating coming back to try another one as there are so many flavor combinations that sound incredible here.

I also picked up this locally-made drink called "switchel", otherwise known as "haymaker's punch."
It's pretty much a primitive soda made with vinegar and natural sweeteners like molasses, honey, maple syrup, etc.
The soda was a big 16oz can so I haven't tasted it yet, will save that for a future post.

Back at the theatre, the whole rehearsal was pretty much for lighting and the actors, so it was an afternoon of reading books on my phone and playing occasionally.

For dinner we had time to go back to the hotel, then came back for more of the same until 10pm.
I had time to chat a little more with my coworkers and find out more about them, and they about me.
We were released about 15 minutes early. Tomorrow the schedule is the same.

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IMO it was a successful first week of rehearsals. Most of this group knows each other very well, and myself and the trumpet (his name's Joel) are the only noobs. The conductor and everyone else seem genuinely pleased with our work, so we've just got to keep it up and it'll get better as time goes on.

Tomorrow I plan to do laundry and have a chill morning before rehearsal.
We have 1-2 more days of rehearsal, and then an open dress rehearsal (= with an audience), and then we begin shows which usually means rehearsal for the band is done. And which also means there should be more time for exploring each city we visit :)

In closing, meet the steamers of My Fair Lady!