Rehearsal schedules are such a pain, aren't they? They are much worse when they are useless. Sunday was our first rehearsal for our big performance. I think that was the last day we sang our song more than 1 time. Lisa, the Chinese girl we sang with picked Madonna's La Isla Bonita as our performance piece. There was brief talk of adding a second Madonna song or perhaps even Shakira (to keep the Latin flavor) but then Andreana had to mention that she knows the words for a well-known Chinese song called Pen Yo or 'Friends'.
Not only do I not know this song, I don't speak Chinese, Apparently that was an oversight. So, it's decided that it will be La Isla and Friends (in Chinese) so we have to find costumes. It is only until we actually arrive at the theatre on Sunday that we realize that this is an all out production…requiring a costume, rehearsals, etc. So, they found these great Spanish-style skirts for us and because we refuse to combine it with either a different Spanish-style tube top or an Asian-style vest, we are left to find our own.
Our next rehearsal is Wednesday. Because Andreana and I both teach, we don't arrive until 4pm and there aren't many other performers there. We then realize that we might be the only performers who are in fact not professionals. The good news was that we didn't rehearse until everyone else was done and gone. We sing our songs maybe 3 times in our silly skirts and are told to add some dancing. I read the Chinese song off the paper and tell myself I will have it memorized in 4 days. We then eat and drink with the owner of the theatre and his associates and call it a day.
Thursday we finally find out what the deal is with the holiday the following week. We had been hearing mixed tales of having to make up classes from the National Day Holiday where we get a week off, but none of the stories agree to when and why these make up days are needed or even that they actually happen. A holiday off from work means no work, right? So, in light of all of this confusion I finally corner the dean and request some answers. Apparently the 1 st, 2nd, and 3rd are the actual National Day holidays but the school gives the students/teachers the whole week off. Because they should technically have class on the 4th and the 5 th, those day's classes must be made up on the Saturday and Sunday before the holiday. The idea of getting up for my 8 am class for 2 extra days isn't great, but what can you do?
Thursday night we have rehearsal again. This time it is a dress rehearsal, which no one bothered to mention to us, and we arrive with everyone else so we get to see what we are working with for the first time. The performance is meant to honor local civil servants who will be receiving awards and to honor ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /> China, for it is her day. Before any rehearsing gets underway, Andreana and I end up posing for roughly a million pictures with a large group of the civil servant men who will be performing. Rehearsal seems more real this time as the whole show is run through. Most everyone else is in their costumes and we are quite blown away by it all. Again they have us go last but there are many people there to watch us. I still haven't learned my Chinese song so I just turn off my microphone and lip-sync. We sing 1 time then go and have dinner and drinks with Lisa after finding shirts for our costumes.
Friday is our last rehearsal before the big show and Andreana and I are not happy with this. First, we are so behind in getting anything done for our school work that it is starting to stress us out. Second, we have no time to breathe as we keep having rehearsal right after teaching and don't get back until after dinnertime. So, we unhappily go to rehearsal at 230 – 30 minutes late. (Lisa's fault, not ours.) Many of the other performers aren't there or are late so Mr. Wang (the head guy) proceeds to yell at everyone for a good 30 minutes. We then sit around for about 2 hours while some of the other groups do their routines multiple times. We are told that we won't be using our previously discussed costumes and that we will instead have to wear our own clothes. They think this will help us feel more comfortable and help us to act more 'sexy'. We are then told to go home. Yes, without singing our song or doing our dancing at all. We had been invited to our students' parties all week for the holiday but were unable to attend due to rehearsals so we declined dinner offers to head back to school. We lucked out and made up 1 of our classes that would have been Sunday that night by watching a movie. Sweet.
Saturday morning we both have to teach 1 class. We were expecting more rehearsal before the performance but instead, we just met up with the other performers, directors, etc for dinner before the show. Thank goodness I thought to bring nice dresses with me to China and thank goodness Andreana is close enough to my size. We wore our dresses to dinner thinking everyone else would be dressed up. Needless to say, we were slightly overdressed. Despite the sold-out tickets, we talked Mr. Wang into getting us tickets for the other foreign teachers so they could come as well. Someone had to video tape it, right? The performance as a whole was pretty cool. There were fireworks, bubbles, tassels, crazy costumes, the whole nine yards really. Sadly, we had to watch it from backstage, but we got a good enough impression of the goings on. We were expecting crazy Chinese-style makeup but it wasn't that bad – they did make us both very pale though.
After the performance, we went to a club with the other foreign teachers, Lisa, and a guy from the performance (along with his sister and her boyfriend). It was pretty unlike anything else we have seen here. To keep things PG, I will just say it would make my San Diego boys quite envious. There was a ton of techno/dance music and we danced until the wee hours of the morning. It was a crazy end to a crazy week.
Pictures are up and available now under 'China: Performance of a Lifetime'. The video of the performance is too big to upload. If anyone knows of a free video editor I can get online, please let me know!
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