WOMAN IN THE SNOW

So I'm back in DC.  Shocker . . . . I had to get my car serviced while I was home for 48 hours.  Seems the miles in my "new" car are creeping up what with all this commuting!


This trip is two-fold.  The first fold is for a rehearsal for the one Christmas concert I am singing. . . the Choral Arts Family Christmas Concert.   This one is light and fun and made for families with kids.   It always centers around a Christmas play, with the second half being full of light-hearted holiday songs complete with the arrival of Santa, Rudolph and Frosty.   Fun to do and conducted by our former Associate Conductor, Joe Holt, who is retired from the Army Band and living in Sarasota where he has his own professional choir now, thank you very much.   Always fun to sing with Joe.  And as an extra bonus I got tickets for Casey, his girlfriend Cortney, and her 6 year old son, Jordan.  I'll be spending time with Jordan for Christmas at Cortney's parents' place at Deep Creek Lake, so I thought it would be fun for them to bring him to the concert.  


So I get a phone call when I was up for my Fantasy Island weekend a few days ago.  It's from the Choral Arts office requesting that I "play a role" in the Christmas play that occurs in the first half of the concert.  I'm guessing they somehow got a hold of my blog from Chautauqua last summer, read the one about my Readers Theater class, and figured they just could not do any better than to cast me in the coveted role of "woman in the snow."   I mean. . .doesn't that just reek of major role?????   The first thing I asked was how many lines I would have.  Because there's just so much time between now and Dec. 17, and I'm a busy girl!   Jeff assured me that there were no lines.   (NO lines?  Maybe they didn't read the blog after all!)  Well, then. . . . . .what does playing this role entail?   Basically. . . . walking out on stage and falling down.   Hmmmmmm.  I resisted the temptation to ask how many other choristers had turned this role down before he called me.  Why make myself miserable?


Here's where it gets hilarious.  Apparently "woman in the snow" falls down because she is homeless and starving.  Well, I am kind of homeless right now, so I don't have to dig too deep for that.   But STARVING?   Okay. . . . actually I am kind of hungry now and again on the Weight Watchers program (down 11 1/2 pounds!).   But really. . . . can I pull off that I'm starving?   Chubby old me???  Will the audience laugh at the notion?  Is this a comedy instead of a tragedy???  Oh screw it. . . .I'll do the part.  Let them laugh!  I'm acting in the Kennedy Center.   Will Jordan be delighted or creeped out to find "woman in the snow" around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning?   It's all too interesting to turn down.   


So last night we rehearsed.  Being "woman in the snow" means there are a few songs I won't sing. . . .because I will be pretending to be prostrate from hunger on the stage.   Basically I lie there while a little girl sees me and decides to forgo her trip to the cathedral to see if the chimes will ring so that she can stay and watch over me.   I don't think she's carrying any food, however.  Her brother has to go to the cathedral alone, but of course, his gift of the small silver piece that his sister gives him before deciding to stay with me, is just the gift that gets the chimes to ring!!!  Which means that I get to jump up and be cured because of the whole Christmas miracle thing.  Actually it will be a miracle if I'm able to jump up from a lying down position on that stage.  And this is the gods' truth. . . when I get back to Afton on Saturday, I'm having George the Trainer help me with how to fall down without breaking anything.  Nobody ever said that Ruth Powell did not fully research and perfect her stage directions!   Take that. . . .Mr. Sanders who never once cast me in a play in high school!!!!


This "acting credit" at the Kennedy Center will be right up there with the credit I have for playing the tuba at the Kennedy Center.  The year that the band teacher at the school where I taught decided to form a teacher band, and I began playing the tuba, the principal and I (she was playing the euphonium) marched right down to the Kennedy Center and took part in Tuba Christmas.  Right along with the military band instrumentalists.  It was a hoot.   So why not acting?


Now the second fold of my reason for being up here is that I'm taking Chad and his friends and Casey to dinner tonight to celebrate the fact that Chad turned 33 yesterday, on Pearl Harbor Day.   He chose Texas Roadhouse for the venue. Somehow I think it might be a challenge to follow Weight Watchers there, so I'm taking it easy in the eating department today until tonight.  Don't want  the starving "woman in the snow" to appear any fatter than she already does!


Singing, acting, and taking my sons to dinner.   This is better than the events of last weekend. . . . by a mile!