It's another hot Saturday afternoon, and I'm neither incapacitated and confined to my room or wandering somewhere in Hong Kong. It's a peculiarly refreshing sentiment. I wouldn't mind being out and about today, but at the same time, my knee has re-tightened and hurts pretty badly, so I daresay sticking close to home is probably my best bet.

Thursday started with a meeting, then work in the office, then Aladdin rehearsal (more about that later). Went out after the rehearsal to Wan Chai, and didn't get back till late. Meeting on Friday, then Cantonese class. Went into Tai Po for dinner and bought pants!!! Which is good, since I haven't been able to wear most of the pants I brought with me because they're either too long to wear without heels or too tight around my knee and thus uncomfortable. So I got a pair of grayish slacks and a pair of guys' cargo-ish khakis. They were a bit long, but I tacked up the hem on the inside, so they work. Came home and read some of Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose. I read it a few years ago, remember liking it, and as I'm rereading it, I'm wondering what attracted me to it so much. It's a very odd book. Fell asleep around midnight, only to be woken when my room heated up around 7 in the morning today. Putzed around my room, had lunch, and have been in the office for awhile now, dealing with emails, organizing my schedule, and trying to determine what needs to be done, when, and how. And this brings me to Aladdin.

SO. Thursday was the first dance rehearsal for Aladdin. I have the Aladdin soundtrack, because as we all know, I love the music from the 'classic' animated Disney movies. Shanita and I had been working with the movie version of 'Prince Ali' which we were teaching them. Unfortunately, in the movie version, the Genie does most of the singing and the beat is relatively slow. In the musical version, the chorus does most of the singing and the beat is quite a bit faster. So we had to readjust to the tempo and the fact that they had to sing and dance at the same time. Admittedly, the dance moves are pretty basic, but from previous experience with musicals, singing and dancing simultaneously is quite a trip. Especially for those who haven't done much if any stage work. Further, we had choreographed the dance with the idea that we had most of the stage space, only to find that we had about a third of that space. *eeks* It went well, but it was very slow. And part of that was because of having to reformat and fit the dance to the new guidelines and dimensions. Not to mention blocking which is a huge pain.
Anyway, so that's that. We're going to finish choreographing it this weekend (that song, I mean). I finally got a copy of the script. The movie Aladdin is one of my favorite Disney movies. I can quote huge chunks of it. Sad, I know, but what can I say? As I was reading the script just now, I was struck by several things.

1) There's a lot more songs. They weren't kidding when they said it was a musical, as opposed to a play/movie with songs. Luckily, with the exception of a new song "Why Me?" most of the songs are musical reprises of the big numbers, notably "Arabian Nights" and "Prince Ali".
2) The chorus sings as much if not more than the title characters. This is not a bad thing, particularly if, like me, you have spent your musical theater career in the chorus. It's just quite different from the version with which I was familiar.
3) There's a lot of odd humor in it. Sarcastic asides, little quirks and such that do not appear in the movie.
4) As I read the play, I hear the original cast's voices, most predominantly with the Genie. Again, not a bad thing, just disorienting then to hear it live.
5) It's shorter than I thought it would be.
6) There's no Abu!!! I still haven't gotten over this tragic omission.
7) I love this movie/musical. Reformatted, different, odd, doesn't matter. I'm so psyched to be involved.

On other business related notes, my most recent duties (at least for the month of October) are as follows: Aladdin, Help Desk(possibly in French and English), Arts&Crafts in the primary school, English Ambassadors also in the primary school, workshops on Social English and Have you heard the news, a Spanish class (two different time slots for it I think), dorm activities, and Club IEd. Sounds rather daunting, but each is only a few hours of 'class time' a week...and then all the prep time. :) Nice to be doing stuff though.

Anyway, dare say I should get back to doing all the above things, rather than just writing about them. I'm trying to wrap my mind around this new version of Aladdin and the technique/skill of the chorus, because I think we're in for a rather fast round of choreography in the next month or so, since once November rolls around, I'll be relatively immobile for a week or two at least. And I want to be prepped for my classes. *nods*