Locksley

Image courtesy of Gigapipe

Okay here we go, band numero uno, Locksley is up to the plate. Because of my Pandora listening style, I had only heard one or two of Locksley's hits before truly discovering about this band. Like I had promised, throughout this week I have been listening to Locksley 24/7... okay well close to it, give a performer a break I barely have time for anything!  Anyways, Locksley is today's band, and boy are you in for a treat.

A Change in the Weather

Recently this blog has been about theatre and only theatre. I know, I'm sorry to disappoint those of you if you were looking for the Daily Recollection of Grace's Mishaps and Mayhems, I promise that will come soon. This week is the transitional blur from Bye Bye Birdie into Seussical, so some of the constant stress and anxiety will be lifted off of my minuscule shoulders. Since this will be my first post before all of the Conrad Birdie and Seussical posts flood in (besides my tech week post), I've decided to shake things up a bit. I've decided to make a change to my posts, not a big one, but just make it a wee bit different. It may or may not add blogging anxiety onto my pile of worrisome things, but I am willing to sacrifice my sanity for this blog. You're welcome readers.

My Corner of the Sky

Last time we chatted, I discussed the not so wonderful tech week your young author was experiencing. Guess what? I survived the ten hour Saturday rehearsal! It wasn't bad at all, just lots of stress, fast-paced scenes, and cookies. Oh yes, you heard me, we had loads of cookies backstage. We're not through yet folks, I've still got three more dress-rehearsal-like days to go before the show opens on Thursday. More on that later, I've got foibles and fables to portray, specifically about Pippin.

Image courtesy of
New York Guest

Pippin

Over my excruciatingly tiring weekend I actually had the spare time to see a musical, surprising right? I didn't have many expectations for the musical, truthfully, it was my first time going to see it. Pippin is a popular musical for junior high and high school level performances, it was recently done by my high school only a few years ago too. The story is based off of the stories of Pepin the Short and Charlemagne a little but not much. Imagine a risque, tap-dance filled, sketchy history lesson with lots of musical numbers and you basically have Pippin.

 

The musical breaks the fourth wall from the beginning with three Leading Players inviting the audience to tell their story about a young prince, Pippin, and his journey to find meaning in his life. Pippin decides to tell the king, his father Charlemagne, about his quest. Pippin joins the war against the Visigoths with his idiotic brother, Lewis, only to find that war is not where he belongs. The Leading Players convince him to overthrow his father on the thrown. He murders his father while he is praying, takes over his thrown, and finds yet again that he doesn't belong there either. The Leading Players try to persuade Pippin to be apart of The Finale, he refuses and continues looking for his "corner of the sky".

Image courtesy of StageZine

He falls into despair, literally falling on the floor until a young woman named Catherine and her son Theo take him into their estate. Since everyone in the show is supposedly a player in a troupe, one of the Leading Players is scared by the attraction Catherine actually has for Pippin. At first he's reluctant, but eventually he enjoys being a member of Catherine's family... until the duck dies. All it took was the death of Theo's pet duck to make Pippin run away, realizing that he wasn't meant for this ordinary kind of life.


The Leading Players come back to Pippin, telling him that it is the perfect time for Pippin to complete the most extraordinary thing he can: The Finale. To do the act he has to jump into a box of fire and become one with it. (Sketchy right?) Catherine convinces him not to, to the outrage of the Leading Players. They instantly take away all the magical, wonderful, and beautiful things in Pippin's life including everything colorful onstage. The play ends with Pippin standing in a completely black theatre with Catherine and Theo where he is "trapped, but happy."

Grace's Song of the Weekend: "Magic To Do" from Pippin

Tech Week Madness

Guess what week it is in Gracetopia? No, not Shark Week.

Image courtesy of What Should Theatre Call Me

TECH WEEK 

Into The Woods

As a child, I adored fairy tales like most kids, and I still enjoy some of the morals that they show. I know that fairy tales aren't always realistic though, so this week's post is about the most practical fable, which is an oxymoron in itself. Yay for English and my remarkable abilities to use it.

Image courtesy of Majestic Theatre

Two weekends ago, I was privileged to see Into The Woods featuring one of my closest friends. It was great to witness some of my favorite characters in action once again. For those who haven't seen it, Into The Woods is a combination of fairy tales with a new and pragmatic twist ending. A few of the important fairy tale characters in Into The Woods include:

• Little Red Ridinghood
• Rapunzel
• Jack (and the beanstalk)
• Cinderella
• The Baker and the Baker's Wife 

Into The Woods follows several characters as they venture through the frightening, unforgiving, and fantastical forest. The story begins with the Narrator telling the four wishes of the aforementioned characters; Cinderella wishes to attend the King's festival, Jack wishes that his cow would give milk, Little Red Ridinghood wants to deliver bread to her grandmother, and the Baker and the his wife wish that they could bear a child.

Most of the characters begin their oh so famous journeys while the Baker and the Baker's Wife embark on a journey that is yet to be discovered. After learning that there is a curse of infertility upon the Baker's family set by the Witch, the Baker and his wife set out to find a "cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold" so that they can break the curse. As you can probably assume, getting these objects aren't so simple, it requires the collision of many a fairy tale story.

Everything Hilary, the version definitely matters if you want to see the second act.
Image courtesy of Bare Naked Islam

Now this is where it gets messy. I will warn all theatre-goers, there are different versions!  If you're someone like myself who researches a show before or after going, you'll want to know what version of the show you're seeing. If you go to a junior version of Into The Woods, the original second act is expunged from the script.  If you are planning to go to a three hour show, you're looking for the original version of Into The Woods. Due to this, I can't summarize the second act for those of you who will see the junior version. Spoilers, spoilers everywhere.

On a brighter note,  a film adaptation of Into The Woods hits theaters Christmas... of next year! So you have more than a year to see the original musical! Depending on who you are, having more than a year to wait for something can be a good or a bad thing. Anyways, I made a countdown timer for the Into The Woods' release! So now you can wait in excitement like me!

Grace's Song of the Week: "Your Fault" and "Last Midnight"