Sky’s Musical Corner – Reflection on CHESS

If you have read the performance post on Tuesday you know that CHESS is over and yes I’m still sad. It’s like you fall into a little hole, not knowing what to do with your life besides work. Of course that’s not true, because I read and blog and do other things, but during the days right after the derniere I always feel a bit melancholic.

CHESS was an amazing experience! I enjoyed every minute of it, even though it was exhausting at times, especially the get in week. Read about it HERE.

I fell in love with the music of the musical once more and I still can’t believe I was lucky enough to sing some of them and perform them on stage. It was once again time to learn all these movements and lyrics by heart and it wasn’t a challenge for me at all. I guess you get used to it and I would advise anyone to just sing and go through the song as often as you can and then suddenly it’s there.

Working with the cast has been an absolute pleasure, there are some wonderful people I got to know and rehearsals have been so much fun. Spending time with them backstage and after the show is just fab, I will miss them!

The audience has been great and I loved hearing all the feedback from friends, colleagues, family and people I don’t even know. When you hear thing like “Next sop London” or “it was like a broadway” show it seems surreal, but at the same time we all felt so honoured.

For this production I was responsible for social media, especially Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is not a big thing in Switzerland, unless someone has a blog or does photography. I started posting rehearsal pictures, promoted our website, articles and much more. At one point one of the cast members came up to help me and we created the section HUMANS of CHESS, where we interviewed the cast members and introduced them day after day on Facebook. In between there were the other posts as well. It got to a point, where I got a bit fed up with the whole thing though. Our Chess Facebook site has less like than our theatre group’s facebook site, but the Chess site, got many more views, which was a good sign for me, people didn’t see it that way though. They thing because I have 4000 twitter followers or because they share everything on their Facebook site, people here should do the same. It took me a long time to get that many followers and I’m sorry if I’m not spaming my friends with a cast member everyday. I agree that the feature was a great idea, but it got a bit one-sided towards the end and my other posts were way more successful. All in all, I think this was the hardest part of the production for me, because nobody sees the work you actually do and working with people who have a different opinion is not always easy. All in all I can say that I learned a lot through this experience.

I don’t want to let this spoil the whole thing though. CHESS was such a wonderful production and experience and I wouldn’t want to miss it for the world. 

Sky’s Musical Corner – Backstage during CHESS

Being backstage of a show is always great fun and of course it also was this time.

It all started when we arrived at the theatre, time for make-up and warm-ups. We did our make-up at home, because we live so close to the theatre.

Everyone is getting ready, getting into their costumes and maybe eating something in between. After the warm-up and the sound check it’s soon time for the performance and of course it gets exciting at this point. We are gathered in the wings of the stage, ready to go on to the stage. This time we were able to wait on stage, because the curtains were in. And then there is the moment when the screen lifts and it all starts.

The moments when you’re actually not on stage or so much fun. Being backstage, hanging out with the cast is so funny. I remember a moment during sound of music, where we stood in the wings and actually had a bet going on how long Maria and Captain VonTrapp would kiss, so we always timed it on our phones. It’s moments like this that make the experience of being part of a production like this even more special.

Now, here are my favourite moments of CHESS backstage:

Goofing around on stage before the sound check, with Dani (our Freddy), Lilian (one of our dancers), Jennifer (we started together in the group), Dai (our Anatoly, my mum and some others. It’s the jokes about hair or about other thing that make you feel relaxed.

Being in the wings and backstage means getting to watch the show from there. I tried to see the show from every possible angle, there is so much to see. We sing as well, of course not loud, we just move our lips and over do the acting, I think I know all the songs by heart now. During the rocky songs it’s just great to dance backstage, we always have funny choreographies going on.

Getting changed in the dressing room is actually my least favourite part. First of all, there are too many people in the dressing room and having a microphone makes the changing a bit tricky. We still had some funny moments then. One evening we were talking about teaching and then one ask how many teachers there are in the room, it was actually more then half, we couldn’t stop laughing.

So I love hanging around in the wings or behind the stage, I even got myself some jobs of helping with costume changes. In that way nobody can say I’m not allowed backstage. Everyone seems to have their place behind the stage and it works.

When I’m not behind the stage, I’m in the kitchen right next to it, where there is coffee and food, especially cookies. Jennifer had to hide them, because they were gone so fast. It’s a great space to talk to people and find out more about them, we talk about anything and it’s great fun.

The sound check is funny, because people sing all kinds of songs, but some of them are just showing off, which is not fun. They think they are the best and they have to share it with everyone. The sound check is not a competition, really!

Being backstage also permits you to really listen to the singing and the orchestra, so you do realise every single mistake and just hope the audience doesn’t hear it.

We had video projects this time, you can’t see everything from the wings, but it’s still very impressive. We even found some mistakes on them. Saturday spelt like this: Sataurday.

In one song I’m the flower girl. I have to quickly throw over a scarf and get my flowers, they always get caught in my scarf somehow though. I swear that during every performance part of the flowers just landed on the floor or in caught in the scarf.

Watching the drunken Russians during Soviet Machine is the funniest thing ever! I always watching someone else every night and the way the act and sing was just hilarious!!!

I could go on here, but then we would be here for a really long time! Let me just say this: the backstage experience of a musical is full of surprises and fun. 

Sky’s Musical Corner – The Performances of CHESS

Friday, September 16, the premiere of CHESS in the theatre of my hometown. I had a lot of friends and family members coming that day and yes I was nervous, but I was even more excited. The premiere was awesome! And actually I wasn’t even that nervous. People ask me that all the time, but as soon as I step on stage it’s all gone and I just enjoy. The opening night went really well, everything worked. Yes, there might have been some small technical things, but all in all. That’s things the audience doesn’t even realise, because they don’t know how it’s supposed to be. My family and friends LOVED the show and it was so fab to hear their feedback. There were also lots of colleagues of our choir in the audience and some of them are not big on musicals, but even they said that it was very professional and almost ready for Broadway. It’s great to hear that, because we all worked so hard. I even had some of my students come see the show. Sadly, they had to leave early and we saw them walking down the stairs during the last song, they really enjoyed it though and that’s the main thing.

The second night always tends to be a bit of a more relaxing show, with the actors not focusing that much, but that wasn’t the case at all. I even think that it was better than the premiere. Some people always seem surprised to see me on stage as well, because they know my mum and they remember me as the shy little girl. Well I’ve grown up, I’m not shy anymore and the stage is like my second home.

On the Sunday we had a different cast for the two women: Florence and Svetlana. It’s also special for use, because we get to see someone else backstage and the atmosphere is also different, not in a negative way ;). It felt that day that we were all a bit tired and didn’t have as much energy on stage. I think the audience didn’t notice, but we did.

So, it was good we had a few days of just nothing in the evening. Yes, I had to work, but I was able to go to bed early.

Then there came Thursday, the day of the private performance. The audience was very different that day. Not that many people and it was a very different ambiance. They still really enjoyed it, the CEO came on stage in the end and you could really feel their excitement then. For us it was more of a dress rehearsal, but it still went really well.

Friday it was finally time again to rock the stage and once again it was fab! I love watching the show from the different angles backstage and then I’m ready to rock Chess. It’s still just a great feeling to perform these songs and the reaction of the audience makes it even better. We had a full house that evening and we got another Standing Ovation (the 5^th already). This time I had my old drama teacher in the audience and he said that he’d never seen something that professional from an amateur group.

I was really excited for the Saturday show, because we had a lot of people come to that one and of course I had coughing fit during one of the songs. The performance still went really well and people absolutely LOVED it, also my music teacher colleague from school, which was so fab to hear. 

Then it was already time for the last show :(. This was very special in several ways. During every songs all that went through our heads, was that we just sang them for the very last time. I had to cry during the last song of the first act (Anthem), but I was backstage. I felt exactly the same during the second act and I really had to stay strong. This performance went really really well and it was definitely a brilliant ending. 

Seven performances later it was time to say goodbye. The performances, and I mean every single one of them have been great. We ended the last one with a fab cast party. It’s not only the singing and performing I have to say goodbye to, but also all these amazing people from the cast. Of course we’ll see each other again, but not that often. We are like a big family now and it’s been great being a part of it. I will miss everything.