Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to travel up to Salt Lake City and perform at a Rural Utah Legislative dinner. There were 5 of us, all BFA's, and Melinda.
We left at 11 in the morning, driving in a mini van, laughing as Melinda told us she "doesn't speak mini van"...so good=]. While we drove, we rehearsed two short group numbers (a mash up from Rent and Down to the River)because those who had invited us wanted us to spontaneously bust out into song "like we do". We had a good laugh about that...people who just think musical theatre kids bust out into beautifully harmonized and synchronized songs...
Anyhow.
We got SLC, and grabbed some lunch at City Creek. Then we went to the capitol building and met up with Dona. She is SUU' liaison who wanted us to "bust out in the capitol like you do". She is a very funny and kind woman, and I greatly enjoyed her company. We sang all over the capitol building...it was so fun. Plus the acoustics were incredible.
We took several little tours and saw different parts of the building and eventually we met up with President Wyatt (President of SUU). We sang for him and talked with him for a little bit. He's a funny guy=]. As he talked with us, he told us about a book he had just finished reading. It's call "Stuffocation". Which is intriguing in and of itself. But it's all about how our society is so focused on stuff. Just buying stuff and having stuff and getting more stuff. That we've stopped enjoying life. The author argued that we should be trying to get experience. That we should be collecting experiences. He also told us that the author states that "memories last longer than dreams" (or something super close to that). Which at first I thought that made zero sense. But then we talked about it in the car and it suddently seemed very profound.
Dreams and wistful. They are places or things that we want and hope to aqquire. But if we don't actually do anything about it, then it simply doesn't matter how big they were. Memories, on the other hand, are the actual fruits of our labors. Memories come about when we are in pursuit of our dreams. We talked about how that applies to the theatre world and important our memories are and how dreams only get you so far...it was a very insightful conversation.
Around 5 ish (after many shenanigans or not speaking mini van)we met up at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with our incredible accompanist Shane Sommers. We each ran through our pieces and talked and laughed and then we waited for all of the important people to arrive.
The Suits came in and eventually everything got started (20 minutes late). Each of us had a solo and then we sang Down to the River as our group number (because we tried the Rent mashup but the space made it hard to hear our notes in that number for some reason). Right as we started, I leaned over to Carly and told her that this reminded me of performing at Amangiri over the summer with those celebrities and CEO's and famous people from other countries who flew in and watched us perform while we ate. She laughed and said "that's true, why am I nervous for this?". We smiled and then, one by one we had each performed and suddenly it was over.
We got to sit and eat afterwards. And the food was divine! Cold. By the time we got to eat. But divine! ;)
We watched a short film called "Back Up The Mountain" that told the story of the building and beginning of SUU and it was really a neat experience. A cheesy film. But watching it sort of instilled in me a greater sense of pride for the school that I am attending. Sure, it's got it's flaws. It has plenty of drawbacks or imperfections. Every school does. But when I really stop to think about, I wouldn't want to be anywhere. SUU really, truly, honestly is a fantastic place to be.
Eventually it was time to leave the world of The Suits and head back to Cedar City.
The drive home was filled with conversations and singing and laughter and sooooo much fog! It was incredibly thick at times, I was a little surprised. But Melinda did fabulously, even for not "speaking mini van" ;).
One thing that I loved about this trip, was that we were the entertainment for this big fancy meeting. Us! Musical Theatre students! That is just so cool to me. Granted, our fabulous dean put a plug in for us to go, but still. How cool is that? To get to go and share our passions with people I don't usually picture enjoying Theatre. It was such a cool experience.
Also, I loved being with Melinda all day. She has such a wealth of knowledge...every time she talks I just want to take notes and memorize everything she says. She told us about her most valuable voice teacher and about how everything she tells us during Musical Theatre is thanks to him. She told us how she worked for USF all through college in some capacity or another, and that during rehearsals she would sit and just fill up journals and journals of notes about everything she learned and observed. She told us how those experiences are how she learned; that those experiences are her most valued education. Honestly it made me want to follow in her footsteps. If I don't get cast this summer, I would love to sit in on rehearsals and just take notes. I would love the opportunity to sit at the feet of these theatrical giants and learn from their craft. I would LOVE to do that. So much so, that I honestly would be ok if I wasn't hired anywhere just so I would have the opportunity to do so.
Overall, this trip was so fun and I was soooo glad that I went. It was definitely an experience that I was happy to acquire; definitely full of memories that I am quite fond of and happy to file away in my brain.
<3: CourtneRae<3
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