Some weeks, we really need to get our heads into the music and repeat the same four words over and over and over and over and over, until someone threatens to set it as KTB's ringtone. This was one of those weeks. Welcome to a technique- and theory-heavy rehearsal here at KTB Music Theatre Chorus!
It's a short song list, but I assure you that the evening felt anything but short, despite the fact that this was a sectional rehearsal week and so most of the choir were able to leave early. When I tell people that we can get very "full on" here at MTC, this week is the sort of thing I mean.
We can go from a rehearsal like last week's sing-through of absolutely everything we currently have in our folders, to a week where even a long-time global favourite like "Singin' in the Rain" ends up feeling like someone's really annoying custom alarm sound left to play out. A week where "let's start from the yona-s" is not helpful in the slightest, and we all become extremely aware of when we didn't quite get the rhythm right from the slightest twitch in Katy's jaw, and automatically flip back to try that page again (and again, and again).
We got into the technical weeds with "Singin' in the Rain", counted beats and yona-s in "Stampede" (The Lion King), and worked through the end section of "Without Love" (Hairspray), all with fierce concentration faces. Three pieces, with plenty of attention to detail to train that muscle memory.
These are the rehearsals that make a concert sound like we're a highly-attuned collective, rather than a group of individuals singing in the kitchen while elbow-deep in the washing up. They're tricky, and they're necessary. Luckily, we're also a very energetic and friendly highly-attuned collective, so there was more than enough laughter and group solidarity to get us all through it and still leave smiling. It wouldn't be our Musical Theatre Chorus if we didn't have (lots of) moments of hilarity, after all.
We've got the track playlist bookmarked. We've got notes scrawled (in pencil) on the music, where needed. We've got this... and a bad, bad case of "those five notes are stuck in my head" that will hopefully clear by our next rehearsal... in March...
Written by Aeryn Isherwood