holy moly. less than TWO weeks until 27 Revisited! Needless to say, we Gathering Wild-ers are pumped! We kicked off crunch time with a long rehearsal last Monday, our first after a nice long winter break. While in place to start our first run-through of the show, I found myself joking and laughing with my fellow stage-right-starting dancers. All of the sudden, I was struck all by a feeling of genuine joy to back at home--that is, in the studio with Gathering Wild dancers, Jerylann and even Rachel was there! Once acknowledged, joy manifested itself into excitement: the thought of us all embarking on the final leg of this project. What better way to begin the New Year? I sincerely hope that, so far, 2012 has been experienced this way by all of you as well: warm, satisfied, rested and delightfully optimistic.
Ok. Enough with the warm fuzzy. The music began and the world started turning again--very, very quickly as it often does, particularly this close to show time. Since then, it has been constant rehearsing, press releasing, silent auction updating, tweeting, costuming, emailing, music editing, poster distributing...you get the picture.
Actually, things are coming along quite nicely. This week we’ve completed three pieces: Jerylann reworked “Little Wing,” Bubba created a new Cobain piece to ‘Something in the Way” (y’all. It is awesome. So creepy and delicious! Awesome.) and he plugged Kay and Sally into the “Maybe” trio (in the Janis section). Jerylann has also knocked out most of her new Janis quartet to the song “Get It While You Can,” so that song has been stuck in my head all week (fine by me). As usual, Rachel is blowing us away with her incredible artwork; we are all so proud of her and the gorgeous postcards and posters we are privileged to handout.
Speaking of artwork, most of it is available for bidding! Be sure to check out our online silent auction! (http://www.32auctions.com/organizations/2612/auctions/2910) This is our only fundraiser for our upcoming local show and for future traveling performances (New York, Kentucky and Serenby, GA so far). Bidding is now underway! You’ve already missed out on the $50 Brickstore giftcard and a book/giftacard set to Little Shop of Stories, but there’s still a ton of great stuff: yoga and dance class cards (Vista Yoga & Dance 101), cooking and knitting lessons, dinner & tickets to the show (special thanks to the renowned Miller Union for donating a $50 giftcard!), LOTS of restaurant gift cards, brunch at Sweet Melissa's, truffles, greeting cards ...have I mentioned Rachel’s fantastic artwork? Actually, Rachel isn’t our only artist this go round. GW is so very very lucky to benefit from the incredible talent and savvy of Gigi Pedraza. Gigi came to the show in April (her adorable girls dance with Ms. Jerylann at Callanwolde) and was struck by Rachel’s photo portrait of Toya that we have been using for publicity. She asked Rachel for permission to create an oil painting of the composition:
(above) Rachel's poster and (below) Gigi's oil painting
As you can see, the painting is gorgeous and Gigi has since taken on helping us out with publicity and fundraising-which we oh so need. Gigi’s oil painting of Toya, as well as some of her other artwork, can be purchased through the online auction or at the show. I am so thrilled about Gigi and Rachel’s combined artistic talents which will transform the lobby at Fabrefaction, providing audience members with an ambiance of ascension before even stepping into the theater.
Well, in exactly one week from this very moment we’ll be at Fabrefaction for tech rehearsal and I’ve got some volunteers to rally and more emails to send. We hope that you’ll consider sharing the New Year with us (and some of the 27 club!); tickets are available at www.gatheringwild.ticketleap.com. Happy 2012 everyone!
