Hello Friends!

Here we are on Day 4 already!! I actually had to count it out, because after one day at a summer program, time loses all meaning, and it is impossible to tell what day of the week it is, let alone how long you’ve been there.

So staging is well underway. It’s been fun to get this process started. We’re all coming together with our indiviual roles learned, with our own ideas of characterization and styles of approach, and now we have to make them all mesh. It’s a great lesson in collaboration and being generous and open and receptive to all ideas.

It’s also really fun to work with other people, after being in solitary confinement in practice rooms. We finally get the chance to act with and react off of other people, instead of imagining situations. And that’s exciting! Other peples’s ideas inform my actions, and I (I hope) in turn, inspire my co-singers.

And finally, one of the most fun parts of being at a summer program is the recreational activities we get to do outside of rehearsal. Going out for coffee, beer, supper, or a movie with singers is always a fun time. Last night, a large crew of us met up to go see the new Harry Potter movie together. Poor Byung Yoon (one of our Taminos) was surrounded by mezzo-soprano Sarah Neiman and myself, and we both cried pretty hard. Nothing like bonding over shared tears!! I’m looking forward to all the get-togethers and shindigs yet to come, as well as getting to know my castmates, and the Hoffmann singers better.

O, and one last thing: Kayleigh pointed out that the costume sketches in the picture from my last post were by Victoria Bruer.

Until next time! ~Karianne