The Embedded Blogger begins...

    I thought it might be interesting to keep a record of this year's BCOS production, and motivating (for me) to share it with other people.  So that's what this is.
    I wasn't around for any discussions that were held about what the show should be this year, and I missed the trauma of discovering that our existing MD, Stuart Hubble, was moving on, but came to the show when most members of BCOS did...
    Just a minute, you say, hold your horses, what's BCOS? MD? Stop using acronyms! In case you've stumbled across this blog completely accidentally, then, a word of explanation (or two).
    BCOS is Bicester Choral and Operatic Society, a very diverse group of people who like singing.  We do three 'productions' a year, one of them choral (this year was Bach, St John's Passion), one of them a mix of lighter songs complete with ploughman's supper, and a more conventional 'show'.  Sometimes we do Gilbert and Sullivan, last year was Calamity Jane, and this year's choice is Guys and Dolls, with music by Frank Loesser.  If you don't know the show, you surely know some of the songs: Luck be a Lady Tonight, Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat, Adelaide's Lament - see what I mean? Your foot is probably tapping already. We do have a website: http://www.bcoswesing.org.uk/ which will keep you up to date.  We're also on Facebook and we tweet as BicesterChoral (follow us and then retweet the ticket details!).
    MD is Musical Director; choirs tend to need someone to help organise their singing and tell them when they've gone off-key.  Stuart has been our MD for a number of years, as well as holding down other jobs, and he's finally decided that it's time to move on. However, one of our former MDs, Martin Quinn, has agreed to return for the forthcoming show.
    So, this Wednesday, having done the supper show the previous Saturday and waved goodbye to Stuart, we turned up as usual at the school where we rehearse, full of buzz and chat.  A number of people only do *either* the musical *or* the choral piece, so although there is overlap, plenty of folks haven't seen each other since last November, give or take.
    Eventually, i.e. not at 7.30 on the dot, we settled down for Martin and Ali Marshall, our director, to tell us about the show.  Ali went through the story and occasionally handed over to Martin, who made us do singing.  Sight-singing. 
    For songs in unison, especially if you're half-familiar with the tune, that's not a problem.  Harmonies, that's another matter.  We were described as singing Stockhausen at one point, and the word 'ish' passed Martin's lips more than once!  But it was our first night back for a while (for some of us) so we have been let off.... for now.  Next week, we will be looking at the harmonies in 'Sit Down' by pulling them apart.  It's all right for the basses, there's lots of them and they were described as 'confident'.  Well, you would be in the middle of a group of quite a lot of you!
    Other info we needed to know: the show may be all the way off in November, but actually, when you take into account the summer holidays and the fact that for most of us rehearsal is just two and a half hours a week, that's not very much time.  So if we want to do the show, we have to be committed.  In essence, that means we need to avoid booking holidays except in August, until after the show.  Illness should also be avoided where possible.
    Ali also went through which songs people would need to sing for auditions, which will be (mostly) on 6th July.  Not everyone needs to audition, thank goodness, just those who are going for solo parts.  And for Sarah, Sky, Nathan and Adelaide, there are songs to learn and script to be familiar with for the audition!  So, a lot of learning and behind-the-scenes rehearsal going on in the next two weeks, to which your embedded blogger will probably not be privy.  But I'll do what I can.
     I took lots of notes.  Some of the time when I should have been singing, but mostly not.  I won't reproduce them all here, you'd get bored.  But suffice to say, when Ali and Martin say we'll be singing and acting in New York accents rather than Alabama or (God forbid!) Oxfordshire, they mean it.  The men had to try Luck Be A Lady a couple of times and were still told off for being too cowboy.    I also took some photos, but pretty rubbish ones, so I shall take more next week instead.  For now, I shall leave you to go and watch the DVD - which is apparently rather different from the stage show.  So you'll still need to buy tickets for our show in November.  Which will be awesome. :-)