BWW Blog: Eliza Porsella - Don't Knock the Scenery!

With less than a month before "Shrek" makes its debut, we have doubled our rehearsal time. We have also had many more morning rehearsals to clean the dances. So far all of the morning rehearsals are for the Duloc performance. The Duloc number is still shaky. Our music teacher also plays the piano faster than the recorded music we rehearse to. Therefore, we are usually late for certain parts.

To make matters worse, with show time arriving so quickly, the teachers are being harder on us than ever before.

"Don't sit in the gap in between the curtain and the stage! The audience might see you!"

"Don't knock into the scenery! It could fall and make a racket! It will disturb the actors and actresses!"

Lots of kids were sitting in a wooden car from a past Grease! Production. Our principal saw the children in the car and said "Don't break that! That's my ride home!"

We blocked the whole second act and reached the end. We did better than we have before this practice. We perform the first act more than the second act. I'm featured more in the first act. I think the show actually looks pretty good except for maybe a few dance numbers. The singers sound good and just about everyone knows their lines.

Our art teacher made an exact replica of the gingerbread man puppet from the original Broadway production. I love that the puppet has half a leg missing. Lord Farquaad cut it off so it is great to have the puppet missing half a leg. I also like that it's a puppet and not a figure. You can make the puppet move and look like it's talking without the puppeteer looking like she is trying to make a doll's mouth move. In the art room, there is a poster board painting reaching from the floor to the ceiling. It is the background for Shrek. I have also seen a picture of a dish running away with a spoon and I have seen a large castle for Lord Farquaad.

I used nerve-racking at the end of practice. I am excited to have yet another tap solo, this one much longer than the other. This Thursday, we will be having our first tap morning rehearsal. I am having so much fun.