wild Party Day 9

So today is our day off. Yesterday, everyone brought in their left over easter candy for the cast/crew coffee table, and it was pretty much gone by dinner break. I think we needed the sugar. We worked our butts off, literally and figuratively. We finished the juggernaut-I think. I'm actually not sure. But we did a lot of dancing. Changed some stuff, and fixed other things etc. (wow that was specific). It was a long day. Some of us went to get a bite to eat at a very cute place in Harvard Sq. where Betsy is a server. I learned a lot about what to say and what not to say to a server. Very enlightening. It was nice to spend some time getting to know each other, away from the rehearsal space. What makes everyone who they are, why do they do what they do. Don't know everything, but we're getting to know and everything we know will help us with our onstage relationships. Though we did end the evening trying to talk thru the sequence of Act one. So there's really no escape. lol
Some bad personal news:
On the way home I felt like I couldn't cough the crap off my chords, very odd but not unusual if you have GERD. And then when I woke up this morning, I had no voice. PANIC!!! (this doesn't happen to me-I don't mean because I'm immune, I mean cuz i try to take great care of my voice. When I'm singing, it's like being a professional athlete. I don't smoke and I try not to be around it, I don't drink, I try to sleep enuf, I work out, and I warm up-all the stuff you're supposed to do) I called my ENT (otolaryngologist) and cried hysterically while I waited for him to call me back. Luckily he took me right away. Thank god. He's just the best, Tim Anderson at Lahey. We scoped my throat (a thrilling experience if you've never had it done). It kind of cracks me up. Picture this, you sit forward, you stick out your tongue, the dr. grabs it and holds it out with a piece of gauze, you have a mic clipped to your shirt and you hold a stethoscope to your throat, then he sticks a very long and hard piece of metal into your throat and asks you to relax and sing "E" fairly high in your range. Then they say," there's a bit of tension". (really? lol). It is cool, to see your chords in action. So the good news, there are no nodes-that would be really bad- think Julie Andrews bad, and no vocal hemorrhage-thank god-so I'm grateful-it could have been really really bad. However, I still have very little sound. My chords are very swollen, and vascular. Which means they can't phonate properly. Singing or talking on them would not be a good thing. So, the course of action is-silence. Absolute and total. If I had to sing, then steroids are prescribed but should only be used when there is no other alternative. I'm lucky this happened this week. But it's scary as hell. Without my voice, well, I'm a mime! When I was in college, I had my jaw wired shut and I wasn't able to speak for 6 weeks. Not being able to speak certainly gives you an appreciation for others who can't and for what you have. I remember that people used to speak rather loudly to me as if because I couldn't speak, it meant that I also couldnt' hear. It was interesting to say the least.
So tomorrow, I'll be a mime and I'll dance my tucsh off and I'll wait. xx, Li